The Comforter will be with you

Sermon for Cantate

James 1:16-21  +  John 16:5-15

(sermon preached in Silver City)

Things have changed since we last met here in this place five years ago this October. Some of you were here, others weren’t. Some members were here who are no longer with us for various reasons. Jan was here back then. New members are with us now. The kids have gotten older and bigger. Thankfully, none of the rest of us have. Last time we met here, there was no coronavirus, no businesses shut down for months, no mandate against churches gathering for worship. People have been dying for thousands of years, and tyrannical and demonic agendas have been driven for that long, too. But fear, hatred, and division have certainly increased over the last five years, and the agenda to silence the Gospel, the agenda to turn people inward for salvation, away from our God, away from His Word, has been thriving.

I, for one, would like to have Jesus here, confronting the hateful world for me. I would like to stand back, as the apostles always did in Jesus’ presence, and let Him speak and act. I’d like for Him to speak a word and remove the virus from our society (and all suffering, for that matter). I would like for Him to stand before the governors and governments of this world and put them in their place with His divine power. I would like for Him to expose the lies and the arrogance of the scientists who deny Him as the Creator and who call His Word nonsense. I would like for Jesus to reveal to the world His victory over sin, death, and the devil and make them see the truth and make them confess it.

His disciples wanted the same thing. So when He told them on that Maundy Thursday night before He died that He was leaving and going to the Father—meaning, not just going away to the cross, but to the right hand of God, for good—they were sorrowful. They thought they were losing out because Jesus was going away.

So in the words of our Gospel, Jesus comforts them and corrects that misunderstanding. Because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

The Comforter, of course, is the Holy Spirit. So understand what Jesus is saying. For as much as we would like, I would like, for Jesus to be here in person, doing the work of preaching and teaching and healing and confronting and conquering, while I get to stand back in His shadow and watch, He says it’s better for us that He should be right where He is, at the Father’s right hand, and that we should have with us instead, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

Now, I know we’ve talked about this title “Comforter” before. It’s a big word. It includes comforting, encouraging, imploring, counseling, and in general, helping. The Holy Spirit is the one who has been called to the side of believers by Jesus to do all those things within us, when we need comforting, encouraging, imploring, and counseling.

But the work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus focuses on here has to do with the world: When he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no more; concerning judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

He will convict the world concerning sin. That is, He will prove the world to be guilty concerning sin. Why? Because they do not believe in Jesus. Sin is something we’re all familiar with, from Original Sin that has corrupted our very nature to be selfish and godless, to the actual sins we have committed against God and man, some of which we can count, others of which we’re not even aware of. The Holy Spirit could prove every man, woman, and child guilty concerning sin, and if you stand guilty before the judgment seat of God, then condemnation is the only possible verdict.

But the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, not the Church, not believers in Christ Jesus. Because He has taken the world’s sin on Himself and suffered for it, to redeem us from sin. And it is by believing in Him and being baptized into Him that His death is counted for us and our guilt is washed away. All who are in Christ by faith are safe from condemnation, safe from being convicted or proven guilty before the judgment seat of God. But those who are outside of Christ, that is, the unbelieving world, will be proven guilty by the Holy Spirit.

He will convict the world concerning righteousness. Why? Because I go to my Father and you see me no more. How do you prove someone guilty concerning righteousness because Jesus is ascending into heaven, out of our sight? It’s because of where the world looks for righteousness. Unbelievers look for righteousness in themselves. They think their own deeds and actions are right. Just ask someone who supports and advocates for abortion rights or LGBT rights. They think they’re righteous for supporting the things they do. Ask someone who is responsible for closing down businesses and churches if they think they’re doing what’s right and good. Of course they do! And their self-righteous indignation shows itself if anyone challenges them on such decisions. The sinful nature always thinks it’s right, and shame on God for daring to disagree. Most people find plenty of righteousness inside themselves, and think of themselves as being righteous, good people.

But in God’s sight, righteousness is wrapped up in Christ. He is the righteous One. He determines what’s right and wrong and reveals it in His word. Apart from Him, there is no righteousness, no goodness, no approval from God. But He has now gone to His Father and is out of sight. If you look for righteous anywhere on this earth—the righteousness that God approves, that will stand before God—you won’t find it. So the world remains guilty as it searches for righteousness in its own actions and attitudes, while Christians, who seek God’s approval only in Christ and His righteousness, are safe.

He will convict the world concerning judgment. Why? Because the prince of this world is judged. The world’s judgment is flawed. Unbelievers pretend to judge God. Unbelievers pretend to judge Christians. And they expect to be judged by no one. They expect to get away with any lie they tell or any evil deed they do. But the Holy Spirit will prove them guilty of such bad judgment, because the devil, who is the true prince of this world, is already judged by the true Judge and Ruler over all things. Christians, on the other hand, are safe from the judgment that’s coming on this world, because we have been delivered from the kingdom of this world’s prince and transferred to the kingdom of Christ.

The question is, how will the Holy Spirit do all this convicting? That’s the secret of Pentecost, which we’ll celebrate at the end of this month. He’s going to do it through His Word, spoken and preached by God’s people. For as much as we might like to have Jesus standing in front of us, speaking for us, that is not and has never been God’s plan for the world. His plan has always been to have His people sent out into the world with His Word, with His Law and Gospel, not in just one place at a time, as Jesus conducted His ministry, but throughout the world at every time. And He has not left us on our own. He hasn’t even left us with the job of convicting or of bringing to faith those who have been convicted. He has given His Spirit to us and has put the entire task on His Spirit’s “shoulders,” as it were.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak of himself; but whatever he hears, that he will speak, and he will reveal to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and proclaim it to you. All that the Father has is mine. That is why I said that he will take of what is mine and proclaim it to you.

You see, before the Spirit works in the world to convict the world, He works in us, in Christians. He guides us into knowing and believing the truth. All truth. You think you believe in the God of the Bible and in His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, because you were reasoned into it? Because it makes sense? Because you’re so smart? You know better. We speak the Spirit-inspired words of God, and the Spirit takes over the convincing and the teaching and the guiding through those words. Words that come from the Father Himself, and, therefore, words that also belong to Jesus and are about Jesus. As Jesus says, “He will glorify Me.” Because the things the Spirit says are always from Jesus and about Jesus. That’s why the Christian message is never simply a message of the six-day creation, or about what is or isn’t good moral behavior. It isn’t only about sin and fire and brimstone, either. The Christian message includes those things, because they’re part of the story. But the heart of the story is God’s love for the world in sending His Son to save the world, even though most of the world won’t believe in Him and won’t be saved.

Never let the Gospel of Christ take backseat to any other doctrine of Scripture, or to anything else for that matter. I have to fight back my own sinful or maybe sometimes justified frustrations with what the world is doing around us and with the effects people’s bad and sometimes wicked decisions have on us. Because we still have the Gospel. We still have Christ. And so we also still have His Spirit in us and working in us. We still have His Spirit with us and working through us. We have the comfort of the Comforter, no matter how insane the world around us becomes.

Is that better than having Jesus here with us in Person? It is, because He says it is. It is, for now. It is, until His plans for us and for His Church and for this world are accomplished. Then the time of the Holy Spirit will be fulfilled. Then we will enter the blessed time—the blessed eternity—of living in the presence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May the Spirit preserve us all until that day! Amen.