Sermon on Minneapolis 16.05.2010

May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God, our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each and every one of us at this service occasion and always.

Let us join in opening our services with prayer and thanksgiving. Dear Heavenly Father, Holy, Almighty, Gracious God, we humbly draw an eye unto you in prayer asking for your presence and blessing at our services. We ask that you would divide onto us those morsels of grace which our hungering and thirsting souls long for. Father, reveal unto us your good and gracious will and refresh us with your grace. Amen.

I shall read for our mutual study from the Gospel of John, starting in the 15th chapter, the end portion, last two verses of the 15th chapter, and the first four verses of the 16th chapter, the following holy words of God.

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. And he also shall bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things have I told you that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said unto you not at the beginning because I was with you. Amen.

This time in the church calendar is a time where we celebrate the ten days between the ascension of our Lord into heaven and then the shedding of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. And Luke records how after Jesus ascended into heaven, when the followers were left there gazing, two men appeared unto them and told them, "Why stand ye here staring up into heaven? The same Jesus shall return in like manner." And then Luke records how they returned to Jerusalem, glorifying and praising God, and were continually in the temple.

And so their joy at seeing their Savior arise and hearing his teaching and his confirmation of his return through the angels filled their hearts with that joy that only a child of God can have. When God gives of his Spirit, he gives to each child, to every one of you, brothers and sisters, that portion, that measure that you need for your walk in life, for your days, for your children, for your little ones, your grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, so that we can make known from generation to generation the love of God and how wonderful things he has done in our lives when he has blessed each of us with the forgiveness of sins.

It is truly such a great blessing that it goes beyond that which we ourselves are able to actually measure or comprehend because, of course, we are too earthly. And our feet are truly stuck in the mud. Even though our hearts are in heaven, we travel here, carrying this twofold portion we can't get rid of, of course, the old portion. It is with us every day of our lives unto the end when God takes us from here.

So the disciples, the followers of Jesus, their joy is that joy which each child of God experiences when we can be assured again that your sins are forgiven in the name and blood of Jesus. Thus, God assures over and over each one of his children of the power of the gospel, of the power of the resurrection victory of Christ, and how we can all partake in that power and thus defeat the enemy.

The enemy is such a vigilant adversary that he certainly knows where we are weak and he attacks where we are weak. He looks for those times when we are failing, when we are tried and tempted and knows how to sow attack to cause us to fall. But we have the best of assurance that God will keep us as his children and he will be our father, our God, and that we can be his people.

He lowered this new Jerusalem in which we live, down from heaven as John describes in Revelation. A new Jerusalem prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And that is where we can dwell. And God says, "I will be your God, and you will be my people."

So great is that blessing, so wonderful, that calling, that you can partake of, that this is that which God gives to his own. But this text comes from that portion of Jesus' farewell speech to his own before he was crucified. He was preparing them for his departure, preparing them for this, that he would be crucified and go away. He would certainly rise again from the dead. But nevertheless, as he noted later on, when he told them again that he has to go away, he said, and sorrow has filled your hearts.

He knew what was in the hearts of his own. He knew how they would be tried and tempted in the days to come. But he also knew that it was necessary that he suffer and die for the sins of the whole world so that he could take all of his own to glory.

He says later on in his chapter, which we didn't read, that it is expedient that I go away. It is necessary. It is good. It is right. Because then the Holy Ghost would come, the third person of the Godhead to be in his own.

It is still today, as it always has been, that this office of the Holy Spirit, in the New Testament congregation, where God shed his spirit on all the disciples, where it came with such a visible form that they spoke with tongues in many different languages so that all who heard, no matter where they were from, understood how the disciples glorified, magnified the wondrous works of God.

And then at the sermon of Peter, close to 3,000 people repented. And so began the spreading of the gospel throughout the known world of that time.

That the Spirit would do exactly as Jesus here says. He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

And so when the Spirit reproves of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, it has two effects. The same effects that the words that Jesus had. They either heal or they offend. If they can heal, sin is washed away. And one, such a one, becomes joined to the congregation of God as a child of God to participate in that fellowship.

Fellowship of the Holy Spirit in the congregation of God is not left as an orphan but becomes fully empowered. A joint heir, as the scripture says, of Christ, a brother or a sister of Christ.

It is such a marvelous power you have, dear brothers and sisters, that when you preach the forgiveness of sins, the gates of hell clang shut and the portals of heaven open. It is amazing that God gives such power to his own.

But that is the order of his grace. God did not take the keys to heaven when Jesus arose, but he left them with his own. As Jesus very expressly and very because he even physically wanted to demonstrate to his own when he breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins they remit, they are remitted. They are forgiven unto them. And whosoever sins you retain, they are retained."

In other words, if it's not forgiven here on earth, neither here on earth, neither is it forgiven in heaven. God does not say, first of all, in heaven I will forgive and then tell you on earth to forgive. God calls, gathers, sanctifies, in other words, makes one holy, purified, here on earth in his congregation, through the work of his congregation, where the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead is.

And then those names are blotted out of the book of life. Those sins are blotted out of the book of life. And beside that name is written, no sin, a child of God.

So wonderful it is to be judged here in time with grace, truth, and forgiveness, and not have to face such an eternal judgment where one would have to hear, "Depart from me, ye accursed, into everlasting condemnation."

Jesus says that the Spirit which he gives to his own is the Spirit of Truth. And I've often, over the years, marveled, and continues to be a marvel how the mind of man cannot comprehend the work of the Spirit of God. It is foolishness and it is strange.

But so it also is for such a one who has fallen into a false spirit. During the battles up to the last heresy, one of my cousins, I had that discussion and his justification for anything before Pentecost was that, "Well, they didn't have the Holy Spirit yet, because Pentecost was not come, the Holy Spirit was not shed."

It's amazing to think that even though the Spirit of God has effected in his chosen, his own, from the first human pair up until this day, that third person of the Godhead has always been with those whom God has called and has never left this world.

But Pentecost demonstrated the beginning of the march of the gospel of the New Testament congregation, creation. And that is the purpose of God in showing his own, in showing us the power of his Spirit.

The children of God, the disciples of Jesus, had difficulty comprehending how God would work. They didn't know how it would happen. They didn't know how God would cause the gospel to move. But God showed them and he taught them.

God had to teach Peter, as we heard through our brother this morning, three times with that linen and those animals which were, according to the laws of Moses, unclean and not to be eaten. And then Peter realized when he was called to go to the house of Cornelius, that this is the work of God.

And when God desires to bring the gospel to someone, it is his work and not the work of man. We, as children of God, as people here on this earth, do not know whom God will call into his congregation to be sanctified by the preaching of the gospel. And it's fortunate we don't know.

That is something that God has reserved to his power, to his knowledge, to his selection. But God tells us, demonstrates us, sometimes has to teach us, when the gospel needs to be brought.

So how is it, dear brothers and sisters? Jesus here notes that you shall be witnesses of me. And so we are, we are witnesses of the Lord Jesus, those who testify of the good things that he has done in our lives.

But it's often the case that we are poor witnesses. We don't often get our mouths open to speak of those things which God has done in our lives. Isn't it so, dear brothers and sisters, that more often than not, the testimony of faith that you give to those around you in the world comes from the righteousness of life.

And the apostle notes that those around you in the world think it's strange that you don't join with them. They actually just run with them in that same measure, fulfilling the measure of sin as they are doing. And then they recognize that you follow a different master, a different Lord.

And so we are in this world. We are not separated from the world, we are in the world. And it's good and it's important, it's God's will that we are in the world, that we are not of the world. He has called us out of the world to be his own, separated us, separated you, dear brothers and sisters, to be his own, to be his child, to own the peace of salvation.

Jesus also notes in these words, in these chapters, that the world has hated him. And so the children of God have also had to experience. Being a child of God is not always easy.

We have that wonderful portion that it is a time when we are protected. And the laws of our land give us freedom of religion. We can worship as we wish. It has not always been so.

Many, many hundreds and thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of believers in those first few centuries of the New Testament congregation gave up their lives through martyrdom because they confessed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We rejoice and thank our God that such is not the case today. We do not know if such a time will not, could perhaps someday return. That is in the hands of God and not in the hands of man.

Satan knows that he has but little time and he is in a great hurry to prevent anyone from attaining the glory of heaven from which he was thrown out.

So it is that it is a battle and we as members of this battling congregation have to admit that we need the power of God and the power of the Spirit of God in order to be successful, for we are too weak and too sinful and too corrupt to ever be able to make it on our own.

But God knew that and Christ knew that in coming to suffer and die and agreeing with the Father that he would come to suffer and die on our behalf because it was his great joy and his love to be with the sons of men as the psalmist captures.

And that is why he came and suffered and died so that he could take us to the glory of heaven.

The prophet Joel notes that it is in this last time when the Spirit is shed upon all flesh. And young men shall dream dreams and let's read it.

"Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

And your old men shall see visions. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also upon the servants, upon the handmaids in old days will I pour out my Spirit."

Such a pouring out is that which happened at Pentecost and that which still happens today when God gives to each of his children that power of the Spirit to be as high priest of God and Christ as Peter describes it, part of the royal priesthood.

And John records that blessed and holy is he who has partaken of the first resurrection from the dead, of which you dear brothers and sisters are. Over such second death shall have no power. In other words, there is no fear anymore of condemnation because you are already here, are believing, are child of God and heaven's way is open before you.

Albeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you.

All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you.

Such is that which God gives to his own, dear brothers and sisters.

In some senses it should be an easy task to serve the congregation of God. What is it that God asks a servant to do? Simply to be obedient, to take the gift that God has given him, to open the doors of his treasures and divide onto his children.

Well, if only we actually had so much faith that we could simply accept the will of God.

It is in a soul that is sinful children of God, whether we are serving the congregation Sunday school or day circle or even serving each other, our little families at home, we find ourselves to be weak, lacking in words and often having difficulty being able to express that which is in our hearts of the goodness and the grace that God has shed upon us.

But it makes no difference in whatever way God has called us, he has promised to bless. He blesses you, dear brothers and sisters, every day with his gospel. He blesses you with the forgiveness of all of your sins. He blesses his children from morning till evening and he does give us that which we need so that we are able to believe.

In our children and our grandchildren, all of the little ones in this congregation can believe and endeavor to stay on this way which takes us once to the glory of heaven.

So good are the things that he has promised us that he will take care and bring us there.

And Jesus says, "I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

Lift up your hearts, your brothers and sisters, and believe that even your last doubts and all your sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and blood unto peace, freedom, and joy.

I also ask for my own soul and heart, came to serve, tempted, tried, and sinful. Can I believe my sins are forgiven? So I desire to believe together with you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.