The Church Season of Easter
The Seventh
Sunday of Easter - Exaudi
Our Savior
Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (May 20, 2012)
One Year Series
Readings: Ezekiel 36:22-28
Psalm 51:1-12
1 Peter 4:7-14
John 15:26 – 16:4
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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.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen
indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
Today is the Sunday between the Ascension and Pentecost.
It marks the period of time between Jesus removing His visible presence from
among His disciples, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is as if it is that time in a race when the
starter is crying out, "on your mark . . . get set . . ." and he says
"Go!" or fires the starter's pistol, or whatever it is that begins
the race.
The Gospel is perfect for this day. It records the words
of Jesus during His last great conversation with the disciples before the
Passion. This is a warning and a promise, and none of it was spoken to us,
directly, but to His disciples who were soon to be promoted to Apostles - from
'students' to those who were to bear witness to what they had seen and heard
and to spread the Gospel.
Jesus warns the disciples about troubles that they will
face. Jesus warns them "that [they] may be kept from
stumbling." It is easy to understand this. They have followed
Jesus. He has cared for them, and shielded them from all of the dangers and
troubles that might have happened to them. They probably did not understand or
even see His love care of Jesus for them, but nothing happened to them. He fed
them, and taught them, and led them around the whole of what was once called
the "promised land".
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. 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 was warning all disciples were going to become
targets of hostility. And though we are not witnesses, as were the Apostles..
We are confessors. We confess what we have heard and believed. We speak what
God has spoken to us through His Word. 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, for our sins, on our behalf. We confess that His death on
the cross is ours, taken for us to meet the justice of God over and against our
sins. We confess what those first witnesses bore witness to.
But works righteousness, and decision theology, which deny
the very possibility of forgiveness in either Sacrament, or of the real
presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper, these
doctrines are unbiblical, and unChristian. They paint a picture of God and of
Christ which is unlike our Savior, and they hide the comfort of Christ and the
hope of salvation from many that believe them. And some Christians think they
need gimmicks. They think that the next program is going to make things happen
that only God can make happen! As Jesus said, "they have not known the
Father, or Me."
These people will reject us, and try to marginalize us,
and when they have the power, they will try to drive us out of the church. That
is what Jesus' warnings mean for you and me. That is the Hour that is coming.
They will do such things with the complete conviction that they are right, and
that they are serving God and God's truth. Of course some will not count God in
the picture - they 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 who
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 and indeed is
an hour which is almost here!
But do not despair. We have the helper, the One that Jesus
promised - the Holy Spirit. Jesus warns us of the reality of the coming
hostility of the world to our confession, through the warning to the disciples
of the hostility of the world to their witness. It still applies by extension,
because our confession is their witness. "But these things I have spoken to you,
that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them."
Jesus wants us to know that when we come upon these pains
and sorrows and troubles, that it is to be expected. As Peter wrote in His
first epistle, letter chapter 4, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the
fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some
strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the
sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His
glory, you may rejoice with exultation."
When the pain comes, and people turn on you, and when speaking
about the wonderful good news of Jesus gets you into trouble, or pain, or your
friends and even your family turn away from you, you will be tempted to be
confused, and wonder why some strange thing is happening. Jesus warned the
Disciples, and through their warning He warns us - it is the Hour that is
coming. Expect it. Knowing that pain is coming doesn't change the pain, but it
explains it - and it is for your strengthening and comfort that Jesus tells us
about it.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen
indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
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