TITLE: “The Holy Spirit Gives you Jesus”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this holy day of Pentecost is from the Gospel lesson from John chapter 14 as follows: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

This morning’s Kenosha News (June 3, 2001) has a front-page article about a decision of the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA. Yesterday they met and decided to continue to endorse and approve of same-sex unions, where a homosexual couple that have agreed to live together for life would have a service something like a wedding service. Now, I don’t want to talk about the homosexuality question here. I bring this up because of how they understood the working of the Holy Spirit. In the article it says that they voted to ask God’s blessings on these same-sex unions, but that they also affirmed congregations who did not endorse these same-sex unions, because they were under the “guiding of the Spirit” in making their decision.

So sadly for this Lutheran church body, two groups could come to opposing positions and feel very strongly about them, but somehow they can both be “guided by the Spirit” to make this decision. A little confusing? You bet it is! And yet that is exactly how so many churches misunderstand and misplace the work of the Holy Spirit. If I decide something, then the Holy Spirit must be guiding me.

According to the Holy Scriptures, that is not how the Holy Spirit guides God’s people. We are looking at Jesus’ wonderful words to His disciples on the night when He was betrayed. He is about to leave them, and He doesn’t want them to be afraid. So Jesus preaches to them and tells that that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, will come and lead them into all truth.

But what is really amazing about this is that when the Holy Spirit comes, what does He do? He causes the disciples to remember everything Jesus said and taught while He was with them. The Holy Spirit didn’t teach them anything new at all! He opened their hearts to the hearing of God’s Word, so that when they heard the Word of Christ, they would understand that these words were from God. In other words, the Holy Spirit gives them and us the lens to reading the Scriptures.

If anyone loves me, Jesus says, He will keep my Word . Now what does that mean, to keep His Word? It means that if you love God, you are shaped by what God has to say to you. That word keep means to guard, to treasure and hold close. These words of Christ are the greatest treasure in your life. Take eat, this is my body; take drink, this is my blood for the forgiveness of sins. Think of those words! When you hear those words, and eat His body and blood, the Holy Spirit brings to your remembrance everything Jesus said and did for your salvation.

This is why in the Church Year Pentecost isn’t actually the beginning of a new season; it is the culmination of another. Pentecost is the completion of Easter. The two go hand in hand. Easter would mean nothing to you without Pentecost, and Pentecost receives its content and power from Jesus’ resurrection on Easter. The two go together. For remember, the work of the Holy Spirit is to teach you all things. All things about what? The Holy Spirit comes to teach you all things concerning Christ and His work of salvation for you.

But we by nature are not satisfied with this work. I don’t want to know about Jesus, I want to get to the important stuff! In our Wednesday night Bible class this last week, we were talking about what people mean when they say they want a practical church. For most people, when they say that they mean they want sermons that teach them how to live, or how to have a better marriage, or how to get their kids to behave, or whatever else may trouble them. But is that finally practical? That may be practical from the world’s point of view, but it is not practical from the Holy Spirit’s point of view. The Holy Spirit comes to you through the Word of God not to give you simple how-to advice. You can get that advice from the magazine rack at the grocery store. No, the Holy Spirit comes to you to give you Jesus Himself. And that is as practical as it gets. In the explanation to baptism, the catechism tells us that when we are baptized we receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. That may not get you a new car, but those things are more practical than anything else in all the world.

So what is the result of this work of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit comes to teach you all things about Christ, and because of that work of the Holy Spirit, given through the Word of God, you have the peace of God. Hear again the words from our text:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

The peace of the Lord be with you always. Amen. You hear these words right before receiving Christ’s body and blood every Sunday. Jesus fulfills what He promises. He gives you His peace. He gives you Himself. And with Him comes everything He won for you at the cross and in the tomb. When you were baptized, all of His work on the cross became yours, so that now there is peace between you and God.

That’s why we pray Come Holy Ghost God and Lord. That is what the gift of the Holy Spirit is. The gift of the Holy Spirit is none other than Christ Himself, and everything He has to give to you. The Peace of Christ is that peace which comes from having your sins forgiven.

The trouble is that this peace isn’t the same as the peace of the world, is it? The peace of the world revolves around no war. It centers on having a good house and family, or having the right stuff to surround you. That kind of peace is the peace of sitting in your easy chair Sunday afternoon and taking a nap. Certainly this is a blessing from God, but it is nothing, absolutely nothing compared to the wondrous gift that God gives you in His Son, Jesus Christ.

When I make hospital visits and shut-in calls, I am often struck by the security and certainty that God gives to his older children. There is one in particular I am thinking of where every time I go to see this person, they teach me something about faith and trust in God’s Word. Humanly speaking, he has very little to speak of. His health is poor, his eyesight and hearing isn’t so good anymore, and things just don’t work like they used to work. But it doesn’t matter. Our Lord comes to Him again and again though Word and Sacrament, and gives this man peace. In the eyes of the world, it makes no sense at all. But it’s not about the world. It’s about what our Lord Jesus Christ gives through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the flesh to give you the greatest gift of all time. He came to give you Himself. And He delivers that gift time and time again through the power of the Holy Spirit. Whenever you hear God’s Word preached and taught in its truth and purity, whenever the waters of Baptism wash over someone’s head, whenever that word of absolution is put into the ear of a sinner, and whenever you take His body and blood for life, that is the Holy Spirit at work. He does it for you. He does it for all eternity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.