Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: John 14,23-27. Pentecost

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

John 14,23-27 2915

Pfingstsonntag 043

Esther, Queen. Johanna, Lk 8,3; 24,10.

Menaen, Prophet. Acts 13,1. Vincent of Lerins, France ✠ 450

24. Mai 2015

1. O Holy Spirit, Comforter of sent by the Father, draw near to renew this world and create peace through the fire of Your Divine Love so that we manifest the power of Pentecost each day in Your Church. Amen. (VELKD, Prayer for Pingstsonntag § 1)

2. »Jesus 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. Whoever 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. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But 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. Peace 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.“

3. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be sent to remind the apostles of everything He had taught them. The apostles then wrote these teachings down for the Church in the Gospels and the Epistles.

4. „These new testament Scriptures teach us that the Holy Spirit shall be our Comforter in temptation and our Advocate in the mediation between God and the world. He shall bear witness that Jesus Christ has fulfilled the old testament Scriptures in His crucifixion and resurrection. For through this message the Holy Spirit leads people to saving faith in God“ (Wenz ¶ 20).

5. There is a wealth of teachings in the pages of the Bible from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. There’s history and wisdom, poetry and prose, heroes and villains, virtue and vice, depths of wickedness and heights of righteousness, oppression and redemption, sin and grace, law and gospel in the pages of the Holy Scriptures. Even if we memorized every verse in the Bible, there is no guarantee that we would understand it all and properly interpret it. Just browse Bible commentaries in any bookstore and you will soon discover how many diverse theologians arrive at many different interpretations on particular Bible verses. In Jesus’ day, the scribes and Pharisees could recite any verse in the Bible and offer many applications for it in the lives of people, but they failed to comprehend that the wisdom of Scripture is focused on the Christ. They had Jesus in their midst, spoke with Him and debated the Scriptures with Him, but they could not see that the Scriptures pointed to Him.

6. Therein lies a great promise for each of us, for every congregation and the universal Church. The Holy Spirit wants to enlighten our understanding, so that we not only learn the things of this world, but that we especially comprehend the light that is the Word of God. The Holy Spirit wants to be our Helper, our Comforter and our Physician in all our spiritual needs (Wenz ¶ 22).

7. St. Luke the Evangelist records for us one of the sermons the apostles preached on the first new testament Day of Pentecost: »„Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the Patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that He would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.“ Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles: „Brothers, what shall we do?“ And Peter said to them: „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. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.“ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls« (Acts 2,22-24.29-33.36-39.41).

8. The Holy Spirit reminds each person through the preached Word that humanity is sick. The diagnosis is that every man and woman has a sickness called sin. It is a chronic and terminal condition that afflicts our body, mind and soul. Left untreated, sin will kill a person. The treatment for sin is Jesus. He has cured sin, and sin cannot develop a resistance to Him. Jesus has a 100% success rate for those sick with sinfulness.

9. The Holy Spirit teaches us that the pages of Scripture tell us about our diagnosis and our cure. Whether the Bible is discussing history, reciting poetry recounting the valiant deeds of heroes, the Holy Spirit tells us that all of that is part of Him revealing God the Father’s salvation plan (Heilsgeschichte) for men and women.

10. The Apostle Paul counseled Bishop Timothy: »No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments« (1. Timothy 5,23). Here the apostle recognizes the health benefits of some wine. Jesus also used wine for the institution of the Lord’s Supper so that the Holy Sacrament is also a beneficial prescription for us. Lutheran Reformer and theologian Martin Chemnitz writes: „For this medicine [of Christ’s body and blood] has been prepared and provided for the sick who acknowledge their infirmity and seek counsel and help“ (Chemnitz 131-32). Taken together with Holy Baptism and the Bible, the Holy Spirit gives us three means of grace that promise us God’s forgiveness and loving-kindness. The remedy for sin is the Word and Sacraments which give us Christ, and when we have Christ we have the one who paid sin’s debt and redeemed us back to our Heavenly Father. Where the Word is preached and the Sacraments administered, there is the Holy Spirit and there is God’s mercy and grace for us to receive.

11. In Acts 2, thousands heard the gospel proclaimed and believed in Jesus. They were baptized and received into Christ’s Church. The same happened to each of us. The Holy Spirit has created faith in our hearts, secured it and nurtured it over the years. His tireless work gives us the certainty of our salvation, a certainty that is grounded solidly upon Christ Jesus and supported by the Holy Spirit.

13. The Apostle Paul proclaims: »If God is for us, then who can beagainst us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written: For Your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered [Psalm 44,22]. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord« (Romans 8,31-39). This is the proclamation the Holy Spirit creates understanding in on Pentecost and every day. Amen.

14. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, You send forth Your Spiritso that faith is created and renewed. Draw near, Holy Spirit, to fill the hearts of Your faithful and ignite in us the fire of Your Divine love. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Thursday, May 28, 2015

John 14,23-27. Pentecost

No comments:

Post a Comment