Easter 5 Cantate – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. John 16:5-15 “You Are Guided in Truth”
April 28, 2024 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Send, we humbly ask You, Almighty God, Your Holy Spirit into our hearts, that He may rule and direct us according to Your will; comfort us in all our temptations and afflictions, defend us from all error, and lead us into all truth, that we, being steadfast in the faith, may increase in love, and in all good works, and in the end obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, now and forever. Amen. (The Lutheran Liturgy, companion altar book for The Lutheran Hymnal, p. 123)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 16th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:
[Jesus said:] “But now I am going to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But 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 Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, who you don’t see physically, but He comes to you through the teaching and guidance of His Word, is in, with, and under the bread and wine, and promises that He is with you always, even to the end of the age, dear fellow redeemed:
One of the biggest fears in the world is the fear of being alone. This fear is found in our very creation. The reason it ranks up as one of the biggest is because we were created to not be alone. God created us male and female, that a man would leave his father and mother and unite with his wife. After the creation of the family unit, society is born. You have people come together to worship the Creator. Society is built off of that, you have small government, big government, a local economy, a national economy. We see that we have to work together. Even though we have these building blocks, the fallen world plagues society. Part of the fall is the fear of being alone. One of the biggest ways that we end up alone is because of another fallen feature. We can become alone in the world because of death. The disciples had a fear of being alone as their teacher was talking about leaving them. While Jesus prepares them for His departure, He prepares you, not for His departure, but for the day that you will see Him. He prepares you by guiding you in truth.
Jesus speaks to His disciples with the truth of His Word. He is preparing them as He will leave them twice. As we heard last week, the first time is going to be the hardest even though it will be only a little while. [Jesus said:] “But now I am going to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But 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 Helper will not come to you.” It is hard when we lose someone close to us. This wasn’t just their teacher and mentor; they did believe that Jesus was the Christ. And now He is leaving.
As the sorrow sets in for the disciples, they don’t even know how great their sorrow will be. Jesus is going to be arrested, tried, and executed. He tries to guide the disciples, telling them the truth, that He will not stay dead. And when He leaves the second time to be with His Father, this is also a good thing. The Helper is going to come to them. Their minds were focused on one thing, that they were going to be left alone in a world that did not believe Jesus is the Christ. As the enemies of Jesus are close to putting Him to death. Their little group is against the world.
We also can feel the loneliness of us against the world. The reason we believe we are alone is because we forget about what the Helper is actually doing. Jesus continues, “But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” As the Holy Spirit changes the hearts of the world with the Gospel message, it is this message that points us to the truth. If Jesus saves us, that means we have done something wrong and are in need of saving. The Helper convicts us of our sins. Jesus is not here on earth anymore to tell us, but we do hear and are guided by His message of truth. Do we accept the guidance and the conviction?
When we feel loneliness, the devil is working on us to believe it is true. That God has forsaken us during the tough times. He wants us to believe there is no guidance. When we think that God isn’t guiding us, then we will ignore the conviction of our sins. We can think that we haven’t done anything wrong, maybe the truth is that we do a lot of good things and God is too harsh. Like the Psalmist we can cry out, “For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning” (Psalm 73:14). Being a Christian certainly looks like we are all alone out there. As the devil continues to distract us, he doesn’t want us to hear that the Helper comes not concerning our judgment as he tries to make us believe, but concerning the devil’s judgment. For Jesus to leave means that the devil is defeated, and Jesus saw its beginning when he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).
The ruler of this world was defeated swiftly by the Son of God. For Satan to be defeated, Jesus would have to leave His disciples for the way of the cross. Jesus prepares them, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.” They can’t bear them because of the sorrow in their hearts, but that sorrow will go away. The truth they were guided in comes to fulfillment when their teacher and Lord was crucified on the cross for the sins of the world and rose from the dead in a glorious resurrection. After rising from the dead, He comes to teach them once more with the Spirit to follow.
The things that they were going to learn from the Spirit were not going to be new things, but they were going to clearly see the truth that they were taught by Christ. Parts of His life would fully make sense to them. The Gospel is on display for them as they watched Jesus carry out His mission and this message is brought to them by the Helper after His ascension. After Jesus is gone, He continues to guide and remind them that He is with them until the end of the age.
The Helper, the Spirit, the Comforter, also comes to you. It is because of Him that you hear and believe this message. Jesus has been ascended for a long time, but because of the Holy Spirit, you are not alone for Jesus is with you. Jesus says, “He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.” It is through your Savior that you receive the heavenly gifts from above of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. He took on your sins only to be abandoned. And as it looked like the devil would win and strike the final blow so that he could accuse you and bring you to hell, Jesus died on the cross to secure your redemption. For you to hear this saving message as the Holy Spirit has brought you here to worship at Christ Lutheran. As the Psalmist writes, “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end” (Psalm 73:16-17). You hear how you are justified by Jesus’ death and resurrection, guided in the truth by the Spirit in Word and Sacraments.
You hear how Jesus knows the feeling of being left alone. He knows how hard God’s path can be. He walked it perfectly and yet; He suffered the very pains of hell for you. He was not worried about what the world thought of Him. He did not say, “woe is me.” He takes on your sorrows and restores you. He destroys the works of the devil, and because of His love for you, He gives you eternal life. Life you know for certain that you have because of His name. Life that comes to you because He is risen from the dead, reigns at the right hand of the Father, and has placed it in your heart through the guidance of this truth by the Helper.
The world points out how it doesn’t look like there is any comfort and they are right. You can’t find comfort in the things of this world. As they try to tell you that it is unfair that the Lord convicts you, you know that it is for your good the Holy Spirit points out your sins. “For the Lord disciplines the one he love, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6). As God chastises you, He guides you in the truth of His Word. He guides you back here, where you receive His blessings through the Word and Sacraments. You hear the Spirit puts judgment on your eternal enemy. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection St. John writes, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:1-3). As the dragon has a prison away from the presence of God, it is with the guiding truth of the Spirit that reminds you to be vigilant. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). He lurks and tempts, but he is judged.
Jesus is no longer here on earth and He knows we fail when we are asked to submit ourselves to God. Sin, the world, and the devil will continue to cause us to feel like we are alone. We are guided by the truth of the Word. Jesus has died on the cross for us. He redeems and guides us to worship. We gather together at Christ Lutheran as one body to hear the truth from the Helper and Comforter. Even with Jesus gone, we know that He is still with us as we confess, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26). This is the beautiful truth that is yours. The truth that guides you toward your heavenly home. Knowing this truth and being guided in it continually by the Holy Spirit we can rejoice and “Thank the Lord and sing his praise. Tell everyone what he has done, let all who seek the Lord rejoice and proudly bear his name, He renews his promises and leads his people forth in joy with shouts of thanksgiving. Alleluia! Alleluia!” (CW, p. 36). Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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