Easter 5 2020 Cantate

John 16:5-15

May 10, 2020

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

This morning in our Gospel reading we take a step backward from last week’s reading in John 16.  Here in this section of John, we hear Jesus’ words promising the Holy Spirit to His disciples and the role of the Spirit in the lives of God’s people.  The disciples have journeyed and stayed with Jesus up to this point.  They will soon abandon Him during the most severe trial of His passion. But they will soon be gathered, forgiven, strengthened, and commissioned after the resurrection. Christ will preserve them after Pentecost and their reception of the Holy Spirit enables them to proclaim the gospel and face trials similar to the ones that Jesus Himself faced. 

Jesus forgives their unfaithfulness, and His own perfect obedience and faithfulness to the Father will be imputed, given, to them through faith. In light of this grace that forgives, restores, and strengthens, the Spirit will of truth will guide God’s people according to God’s Word, glorifying Jesus, but also that the Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment. 

You stand convicted by the Holy Spirit today.  You already confessed at the beginning of the Service today the truth of this, from 1 John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”  You, who are truly sinners, don’t want to be considered sinners. You feel sin as a burden. You want to do better and even though it accuses and condemns you, you love God’s Law. You see in it what is truly good and beautiful and true.   And what you are led to see by the Holy Spirit is also righteousness, not your own, but the perfect righteousness of Jesus.  “But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

A Christian, you must believe in two things at the same time. You must believe the law which accuses you and calls you “sinner.” You must also believe and trust in the gospel which comforts you and calls you “saint” on account of Christ.

The devil will try to tell you that the sins which you commit every day will cause God to stop loving you, and therefore you are not a saint. The devil is a liar and he is the master of half-truths. He will tell you that the Holy Spirit does not dwell where there are habitual sins and you have got them. He will tell you that the Bible teaches that Christians progress and grow in their sanctification and you are growing in sins, getting worse.  Yes, you are a sinner, you sin daily and in many and various ways, this is most certainly true.   But the love of God toward you is stronger than the sinfulness that clings to you. Although you are sinners, God is your Father who has made His Son, the Lord Jesus, your Brother, that you might live in His Spirit. 

Jesus says, “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. 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.”

The Holy Spirit gives away the Kingdom to sinners. He glorifies the Son in the crucifixion, where He is lifted up before the world. There upon the cross, Jesus has earned the forgiveness of your sins, He has earned your sainthood, He has earned you a place in His eternal kingdom.  And then He sends His Spirit to you to deliver what belongs to Jesus and declare it to you. 

Sinner and saint. That is what you are on this side of eternal glory. As a sinner, the Holy Spirit convicts your misbelief and sin.  As a saint, sin does not rule over you any longer and the Holy Spirit has called you out of your sinful life to the life of Christ.  If you fall into sin, you will rise again by grace. You live by God’s grace, and grace alone.  By grace, in His Word and Sacrament, you receive God’s mercy. Without the Holy Spirit you can’t do this. But through the Word and by the means of the blessed waters of your Baptism, the Holy Spirit delivers Jesus, so that you might live in Him.