X In the Name of Jesus X
John 14,23-27
Pfingstsonntag 043
The Council of Nicaea, 325
12. June 2011
1. O Holy Spirit, the Mighty Wind of the Church, You spread the gospel ten days after Jesus’ ascension with mighty force and zealous fire. We live in a pluralistic world much like the world experienced by the first Christians, a world of many diverse cultures, languages, and beliefs. In our politically correct 21st century we are tempted to accept many different and contradictory ideals of truth instead of looking to the one, certain Truth found in the Holy Scriptures. As a result, we are tempted to take evangelism and the proclamation of the gospel lightly, for we have been influenced by the satanic deception that all people will be saved, regardless of what they believe, because God, after all, is a loving God who will not condemn anyone. The Bible, however, points out clearly that salvation is found only in Jesus Christ and His suffering on the cross and His resurrection from death and the grave. Your Holy Word shows us today in the Acts of the Apostles that Your Word must be preached in the purity of the law and the gospel whereupon the Spirit creates faith in those who hear such proclamation when and where He pleases. Help us, O Holy Spirit, to be faithful to the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of all who hear and believe it. Amen.
2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to John the Apostle and Evangelist who writes: 23Jesus answered Judas (not Iscariot), „If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me. 25These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.“ This is our text.
3. The Apostle John tells us in his Gospel that on Maundy Thursday Jesus promised that God the Father would soon send the Holy Spirit upon His apostles and disciples. Today is a double festival in the Church: this Sunday is first and foremost the holy feast of Pentecost, and 12. June is the date on which the Church commemorates the writing of the Nicene Creed. Today, therefore, is a theological dove-tailing of two important events in Church history.
4. Today let us contemplate the following theses:
I. Wer ist der Heilige Geist? Who is the Holy Spirit?
II. Was bedeutet der Heilige Geist zu tun? What does the Holy Spirit do? III. Was ist das für die Kirche? What is this for the Church?
I.
5. The Nicene Creed wonderfully describes for us who the Holy Spirit is. In the Creed we confess three (3) attributes of the Holy Spirit. The Creed attributes and confesses that the Holy Spirit is God, the Third Person of the Trinity. We know this from the adjective „Holy“ that is attached to His Name. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is „the Lord“, a title that affirms His Divinity. Finally He is „worshipped and glorified“, and the Scriptures tell us that only the one true God is to be worshipped and glorified.
II.
6. The Creed also attributes that the Holy Spirit is the „Giver of life“. This also is a Divine attribute, but it is more descriptive. Here the Creed testifies that the Spirit who hovered over the face of the deep in Genesis 1 on the first day of creation is the very same Holy Spirit. We see that the Holy Spirit was directly and actively at work during the creation of all that exists. When Yahweh created man, He breathed into man’s nostrils. This breath may very well have been the Holy Spirit. Man is a sculpture of flesh and bone made from the dirt, lifeless and empty until the very Holy Spirit is breathed into him. At that moment, the man takes his first breath and becomes a living, breathing person who is filled with the Holy Spirit dwelling within him. Our soul and spirit are integral parts of our human makeup, and they are what animates and gives life to our body as a result of the Holy Spirit giving life to the first man, Adam.
7. This life-giving breath is not merely physical, but also spiritual in nature (bios and zoe). God’s breath of the Holy Spirit not only caused Adam and all mankind to live, and move, and have his being (Acts 17,28), but the breath of God created eternal life in the man’s lifeless body. God created man and woman to be in perpetual and everlasting fellowship with Him and His angelic host.
8. Eternal life comes by the very word of God. In the Nicene Creed we confess that the Holy Spirit speaks by and through the Prophets. Through His Prophets, the Holy Spirit spoke to His people, calling them to repentance through the law and promising full absolution for their sins through the gospel. In various ways each of the prophets prepared the way for God’s chosen Christ, reassured the people that God would fulfill His promise of salvation history (Heilsgeschichte), and when the fullness of time had arrived the Holy Spirit raised up His greatest and final prophet, John the Baptizer, who proclaimed: »Behold, the Christ is in your midst!« (John 1,29). Just as the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the deep at creation, so He moved upon the virgin womb of Mary and conceived Jesus therein.
9. At His ascension, Jesus promised His apostles and disciples that He would send them this very Holy Spirit. Ten days later at Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent and He arrived in fiery power and glory. On this feast of Pentecost the apostles spoke in foreign languages to those who had travelled up to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh. The Apostle Peter preached the gospel of Christ’s sacrifice for the world’s sin and His resurrection from the dead for our justification. The other apostles and disciples testified to these magnificent deeds of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit worked through the preached gospel that day and converted 3000 Jews to the Christian faith!
III.
10. The Holy Spirit did not withdraw Himself from His Church after that first Pentecost following Christ’s ascension. Throughout the Acts of the Apostles, Luke the Evangelist records how the Holy Spirit dynamically worked through His apostles to create and strengthen faith in the risen Jesus. In the Creed we confess the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. This glorious Church exists by the will of the Holy Spirit and He sustains her to this very day.
11. The Holy Spirit makes His Church one, holy, Christian and apostolic. Christ Jesus only has one Bride – His Church. Although throughout the world the Church is fractured and comprised of many and various denominations, nevertheless the Church is one and ecumenical. There is only one gospel that saves and brings salvation to the world, and only the Church has that pure gospel by the providence of the Holy Spirit. Through the Word and the Sacraments the Church gives the world the precious gospel of Christ crucified. By these very same means of grace the Holy Spirit makes His Church holy and preserves her in this holiness.
12. The Holy Spirit grounds His Church on the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, the Church is Christian and apostolic. The Church’s cornerstone is Christ and her foundation is the apostles and the prophets (Ephesians 2,20). The Church preaches only Christ and thus follows in the footsteps of the apostles who bore witness to His resurrection.
13. The Holy Spirit brings people into His Church through holy Baptism. This is no different from the days following the first Pentecost after Christ’s ascension. After hearing the Apostle Peter’s sermon, the Jews inquired „what now?“, and the apostles responded „Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit“ (Acts 2,38). Beginning with Baptism, the Holy Spirit brings all Christians the resurrection of the dead and eternal life in the world to come.
14. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. He is the Lord and Giver of life. He creates and sustains His Church. The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ precious gift to His Church, to you, and to me. Each Sunday is a mini-Pentecost, for on this day the gospel is proclaimed and people believe and are saved. Yes, today the Holy Spirit is in our midst and working upon us. Amen.
15. Let us pray. O Holy Spirit, Heart-filler and Fire-ignitor of Your Christians, hover over this fallen world and breathe the gospel life into the wicked and unbelievers, so that they, like us, may become one of Your faithful and filled with Your Divine love for the glory of You, the Heavenly Father and the Ascended Son. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
X
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, John © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
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