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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. As Christians who believe in and trust and confess in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which you and I sang glory to in that last verse of that hymn, it’s only Jesus Christ, though, who reveals to us so much about what the Holy Spirit does. And he does so in these 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of the Gospel of St. John.
It’s interesting because the Holy Spirit never speaks in the Scriptures and refers to himself in the first person. I, God. He is always introduced and taught about through Jesus Christ, who defines for us the Spirit’s work. Or, in other portions of Scripture, like in the Epistle reading, he is described in what he’s doing in that beautiful event in Pentecost. But here, in this morning’s text, Jesus reveals His Holy Spirit as a helper or as a comforter. Especially for you and I who do not have Jesus physically present.
You see, that was probably the biggest struggle that the apostles at that time had. Consider it. Their entire three years with Jesus, everything about Jesus’ revelation they had a struggle within themselves with. Why? Because every facet of Jesus’ revelation was given to them through their senses. Not just their hearing, but… but their seeing. And what did they struggle with when he kept telling them about his death and resurrection? They could not grasp that. In fact, if you read the Gospels, you will see many times it is said they did not believe this at that time, but later on they believed these things that were written about him.
In fact, Jesus even said to Thomas, what did he say? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. And that’s y’all. And that’s me. Blessed are we who have not seen and yet have believed. Because our Lord has given us His Holy Spirit, which God has declared to you in this morning’s text that He’s got specific things that He does. He can do anything He wants to. He’s God, that is the Holy Spirit. But God has narrowly given the Holy Spirit specific tasks. And Jesus is very clear in defining them for us in this morning’s text.
He says basically three things about the Holy Spirit’s work. One, he is going to bear witness about me, Jesus said. Bear witness means to tell you all that is about, not the historical data. Satan knows the historical data better than you and I know the historical data. He is talking about revealing to you faith in Him who do not see yet you believe in Him. The second thing that the Holy Spirit does is to guide you into all truth. Those things that you wonder about, those things that you question, you may not ever know the answer, neither will I, but what we do need to know and what the Holy Spirit does work and reveal to you are those things that are clear. That is His job.
And the third thing is to take what is Jesus’ and declare it to you. And what is Jesus’ is His holy forgiveness. And declare it to you, not so that it’s objective fact, but become subjective faith that you believe in that forgiveness, that it is what you stand upon. That’s why he’s called a comforter and a helper.
Now last week you remember Jesus’ prayer in the garden, how he is sending us out into the world, and he says the same thing in this morning’s text. He is sending you out into the world to be witnesses, not to go off into a corner and become an enclave and completely remove ourselves from all of society, but to be thrust into society and be God’s witness to this world. But he also reminds you in sending you out into this world… you will be daily engaged in combat with both the devil and the world and yourself. And get this, without His Holy Spirit, you and I would be completely lost. It is He who continues to reveal to you what Christ has done for you. It is He who continues to reveal to you what He has accomplished for you. That is why you are able to stand up.
Now, Satan has basically two ways of attacking. He does it in all form and fashion. He loves to play on the edge because that’s where he loves to be, on the edge. His one way is to tempt you to despair over your sins, that you’ve made that promise so many times that you will not act that way around your spouse and by golly, before you can say anything, you’ve done it again. Lord, forgive me, I did it again. I don’t know what the deal is. You struggle with that addiction or you struggle with that difficult thing.
Satan loves to torment you to think that you can’t be forgiven for that specific thing. That he only forgives the people who’s got their lives together, not those of us whose lives fall apart. We just keep it hidden from everyone. That’s where he loves to play with you. That’s where he loves to lead you to. So that you despair over his forgiveness. And that is why… one of the main roles of the Holy Spirit in your life is to remind you you’re God’s child.
I claimed you as my child. You didn’t stand up and claim me. I’m your daddy. I’m the one who has nurtured you and brought you up into the faith. And I will not turn my back on mine. You are my beloved. Well, that leaves the other extreme. That’s the extreme where he tempts you to be very confident, bold of your ability as God’s Christian. Basically to be a proud, self-righteous individual. That’s the other extreme he loves to tempt you.
He brings and allows things to happen in your life where things go swimmingly and smoothly and you think, well, it’s because of my righteousness. Or you look, it’s because of my parents, or it’s because of the family into which I was brought, or whatever you and I are being tempted to think. That’s the other extreme that Satan wishes to push you. And the Holy Spirit that God sends through His Son, Jesus Christ, is the one who says to you, you’re just a beggar. You’re just a beggar in this world. And it’s only by grace that you are mine. To crush that pride so that it does not swallow us whole and take us to hell.
Now that seems very dramatic, but the mothers and fathers of these confirmands can validate to their confirmands that that is how Satan works. And y’all have gone through it. And the family members who are here, and you all have gone through and experienced those places where Satan loves to draw you to either one of those sides. But God’s Holy Spirit is called your comforter, your helper, to remind you and draw you back here.
Now it’s interesting because there are many Christians in this world who say that the Holy Spirit does all of this in very flamboyant ways. And they point to that text in Pentecost as that’s a flamboyant way. That was a flamboyant way, but He hasn’t done it that way since. So it’s pretty good and safe to say that that was a one-shot, one-kill way of God doing something. And since then, He chooses to do things in a much more sublime and quiet way.
Do you remember what Jesus said about Satan and the end times? He said that Satan will come doing miraculous signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. So who’s going to be doing all the flamboyant things in this world? It’s not God. Jesus made that very clear. And think about it. It’s all on the outward and outside things. The Holy Spirit is concerned with your heart. And He works from the inside out, not from the outside in. He works from the inside out. He works in spiritual things.
That’s why He said, I will convict the world concerning sin because they do not believe in Me. You know and I know… that there is either belief or unbelief. That’s it. And He makes that clear to you for your comfort, not for your pride, but to bring you confidence in His grace. He wishes to change your heart, and He continually does so. He says, I will convict you concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Right? Because you and I live not by what we see, but by what we believe to be true.
And that righteousness of which He will convict you is what He gives you from Himself. It’s not the righteousness that you lack when you’re in despair over your sin and you think, why would God love me? And it’s not the self-righteousness that you have too much of when you’ve been tempted to be proud and pompous of what God has done in your life. It’s the righteousness that says, I’m God’s child and He loves me not because of me, but in spite of me because of Christ. Right?
I wish you could say to your confirmands that you as mom and daddies have loved them perfectly like Christ has loved you. You haven’t. Just like I haven’t. We were loved as children and we loved our children completely on the source of merit. We’re disappointed in them when they don’t act well and we’re proud of them when they act well. So what are we teaching them? Yes, it’s about merit. It’s okay. Don’t stress out about it, parents. God has a way of working great miracles through His Word where His Holy Spirit works to create faith in love that does not base on merit and does not affirm or reward anything in your life but what Christ has done. That’s the righteousness that He’s given you.
Finally, He says concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. Judged. You’ve been judged. The moment that your baby was baptized at the font, your baby was judged and has been judged ever since as my son or my daughter. That doesn’t change and never will throughout their entire life as it hasn’t in your life. That judgment is what you find confidence in and comfort in. It is what the prodigal son trusted in when he returned to his father, was it not?
And just step back for a moment. Consider this. When Jesus was physically present with the church, care to guess how many people were believers in him? Only a few hundred. Jesus leaves and gives the church His Holy Spirit, working only through these words and sacraments. Guess how the church has grown? In that Pentecost event, several thousand received Jesus Christ. And when you look at how the world has been used by God and rulers and kings and empires, though they may have intended to try to rule the world and try to gain more gold for their king, the gospel message is what got out through them.
That’s why there is Christianity in South America and Central America. It’s why there is Christianity in many parts of Africa, long before any Europeans came in there, because of the trades of the Middle Eastern Christians. Now, the church gets lambasted by the world. Oh, look what you did. You did all that bad thing to those people, enslaving them and so forth. Take the judgment of the world. That’s due us. But God did something in spite of and even used sinful man to get his message out there.
So when someone says, oh, you know, I don’t want to make my child go to church. I want them to choose to as they get older. Don’t even think about that. Do the same thing that those kings did. Send that message out. God will do the rest. And that is what you have done, faithful parents. Thank you. God has done amazing things in their lives and in yours.
And St. Paul made a great statement in Philippians when he said this: I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus, who has given you His Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
