The Seventh Sunday After Easter - Exaudi - May 16th, 2010

The Church Season of Easter
The Seventh Sunday of Easter  - Exaudi
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (May 16, 2010)
One Year Series

“When the Helper Comes”

Readings:   
        Ezekiel 36:22-28           
        Psalm 51:1-12       
        1 Peter 4:7-14       
        John 15:26 – 16:4

Sermon Form:    Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 15th chapter of St. John, especially the following verses.

John 15:26-16:4 (ESV)

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. 1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

The Gospel Words we hear today are Jesus’ last words to His disciples before the Passion.  Jesus was giving His disciples a warning and a promise.  Rather Jesus spoke these words to His disciples who were soon to be promoted to Apostles - from 'students' to those who were the "Sent Ones", sent out to bear witness to what they had seen and heard and to spread the Gospel. 

Jesus warns His disciples about the troubles that they will face in their lives.  This is easy for those following Jesus to understand.  The disciples had followed Jesus and they knew what it meant to have Jesus care for them, and shield them from all of the dangers and troubles that might have faced them. He fed them, and taught them, and led them around what was once called the "promised land".  O, they had enemies, and there were all sorts of local issues and political parties, just as there are today.  But, none of the enemies of Jesus had attacked them physically, at least not yet. Jesus gave His disciples a few years of peaceful instruction, as He modeled the faith and showed them how they were to live once He was gone.

 But now they were about to be cast out on their own, more or less - Jesus was going to die and rise again and ascend and leave them to be His witnesses.  He was going to take His visible presence from them though He was not taking His care away from them, but things were going to change, and God knew about it.  In fact, it was all part of God's plan.  Jesus told them, "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.  And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me."(v. 2-3)  That is the hour that is coming.  Jesus had to tell the disciples that all this was coming because they were likely to be tempted with the idea that just because they worked for the Savior everything was going to go smoothly.  Jesus did prepare the way before them, but not by removing obstacles like the hatred and violence of the world. 

We are not witnesses, as were the Apostles.  We have never seen Jesus.  Yet we are confessors.  We confess what we have heard and believed, in fact we confess that each Sunday, whether in one of the Creeds or like today  by singing the Benedictus.  We speak what God has spoken to us through His Word.  We confess with the Church what those original witnesses bore witness of - and to.  We confess that Jesus is the true Son of God, come down in human form and having taken on human nature on our behalf.  We confess that Jesus kept the whole will and law of God, where all mankind has failed, and having earned and rightly deserved eternal life, has suffered and died in our place, and for our sins, and on our behalf.  We confess that His death on the cross is ours, taken for us to meet the justice of God against our sins. 

We also confess that God raised Jesus from the dead, because those first witnesses saw it, and spoke with the risen Jesus.  We confess that His resurrection shows us that the death of Jesus has been accepted in our place and for our sins, and that it was sufficient, so that now we are forgiven and we stand in the good will and favor of God.  We confess that there is nothing for us to do to earn our salvation - Jesus did it all - and that we fail to qualify to even start to work out our salvation, because we are sin-filled, and sin-corrupted, and fall short of the glory of God before we can even start.  We also confess that even our coming to faith is not possible for us by our own wisdom or will-power, but God must call us to faith and cause us to believe, and that He does so by the preaching of the Gospel. 

And even though we confess our faith in Christ, this world will reject us, and try to marginalize us, and drive the church into obscurity.  That is why Jesus warned us.  The Hour that is coming.  There will be those in the world who will be convinced that they are serving "truth" and "all that is reasonable" and that they are fighting "superstition".  The point is, they will persecute and trouble those that confess the truth of the Gospel, all the while thinking that they are the good guys and on the side of the angels.  That is the hour that is coming.

But do not despair.  We have the helper, the One that Jesus promised - the Holy Spirit.  Jesus wants us to know that when we come upon pains and all our sorrows and troubles, that it is to be expected.  Nothing is out of order - except the unbelief of those who have and will persecute us.  Suffering is part of the confession.  We share in Christ's righteousness, so we also share in His suffering. 

Yet since we are Christ's, we should remember that He is coming, and, as Peter put in our Epistle lesson today, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:12-14)

When the pain comes, or when people turn on you for speaking about the wonderful good news of Jesus, or pain, or when so called friends or even your family turn away from you, you will be tempted to be confused, and wonder why these things are happening.  Jesus warned the Disciples, and through their warning He warns us - it is the Hour that is coming.  Expect it.  Of course knowing that pain is coming doesn't change the pain, but it does explains it - and it is for your strengthening and comfort that Jesus tells us about it. And that comfort ultimately overcomes all our pain whether physical or mental, and it is the knowledge that Christ’s Incarnation, His life, His death, His resurrection has overcome your pain.  And the Father and the Son Jesus Christ have sent the Holy Spirit to convey and bear witness to the message Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the devil.  And the Good News of Christ, which you hear by the Holy Spirit, tells you that you too are given Christ’s victory which is eternal life.  Amen.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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