Pentecost Eve
Jn
14:15-21
5/23/15
It is said that “if it has not been
for the second Martin, the first Martin would have been lost.” The “first
Martin” is someone with whom you are very familiar – Martin Luther. You may not know the “second Martin” – Martin
Chemnitz. However his work was crucial
in preserving and advancing the confession of the Gospel and biblical truth
that Martin Luther began.
Without seeking to do so, Martin
Luther began the Reformation in 1517.
Over the course of the next thirty years he worked to reform the
Church. After the response that the Augsburg
Confession of 1530 received, Luther and the confessors realized that the established
church of their day was not going to reform.
They were not going to give up beliefs and practices that were based in
ecclesiastical tradition, but were contrary to Scripture. Because this was so, during the later years
of his life Luther attended to the task of putting in place a church that would
be able to continue to confess the Gospel – a church that would come to bear
the name Lutheran.
Obviously, Martin Luther was the
giant of the early Lutheran church. While he was alive his presence helped to
guide the Lutherans through various questions about doctrine. However, Luther died in 1546. The next year,
the Lutherans suffered a disastrous military defeat at the hands of the Holy
Roman Emperor Charles V. What followed
was a period of turmoil as the Lutherans tried to feel their way through life
under a power that promoted the Roman understanding of what it was to be
catholic. It was a time when a number of theological questions that had been
simmering erupted as different groups attempted to claim Luther’s legacy.
Martin Chemnitz was a Lutheran
theologian who during the second half of the sixteenth century labored
tirelessly to get Lutherans to work through these questions. A brilliant scholar, he sought to be faithful
to the Scriptures and to confess the doctrine that Luther had taught. Working with other Lutheran theologians who
had the same goal he helped to lead a process that eventually produced the
Formula of Concord – a work in which he was a major author. After thousands of Lutheran pastors signed
the 1577 Formula of Concord, it was collected together along with other texts
such as the Small and Large Catechisms and the Augsburg Confession to form the
Book of Concord of 1580. If it had not
been for the second Martin, Martin Chemnitz, it is very likely that the
Lutheran teaching of the first Martin, Martin Luther, would have been lost.
While recognizing that all the
persons of the Holy Trinity are equally God, Jesus describes something similar
in the Gospel of John. In the Gospel
lesson for Pentecost Eve Jesus says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will
give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know
him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
Jesus promises to send another
Helper, the Spirit of truth. It is not
that Jesus’ work is somehow insufficient.
Rather it will be the Spirit’s job to take Jesus’ saving work and extend
it to others. The Spirit will help the
disciples to understand who Jesus is and what he has done, and will help the
disciples to remember what Jesus said.
Jesus says just after our text, “These things I have spoken to you while
I am still with you. 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 that
I have said to you.”
Jesus promises in the next chapter
that the presence of the Spirit will enable the disciples to bear witness to
Jesus. He says, “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. And you also will bear
witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
Our Lord says that the Holy Spirit
will enable this witness. And the witness will be all about Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ and
so he does not call attention to himself.
Instead, he points to Jesus. Our
Lord will say in chapter sixteen, “I still have many things to say to you, but
you cannot bear them now. 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.”
In this portion of John’s Gospel,
Jesus makes it very clear that events must happen in this way. Our Lord says that he is about to depart. He
is about to return to the Father, just as the Father had sent him into the
world in the incarnation in the first place. Jesus would soon complete the
mission for which he, the Son of God, had become flesh. He would sacrifice himself as the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world. He
would be lifted up on the cross so that whoever believes in him may have
eternal life. And he would rise from the
dead, for as Jesus had said: “For this reason the Father loves me, because I
lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I
lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have
authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
The departure of Jesus is something
that would sadden the disciples. Yet Jesus says, “But now I am going to him who
sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have
said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell
you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away,
the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
On this Pentecost Eve we begin the
celebration of the Feast of Pentecost.
We rejoice in the fact that Jesus kept his word. He did send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,
upon his Church. And the Spirit has done
exactly what Jesus said. He called to
remembrance in the disciples what Jesus had said. He took what belonged to Jesus and made it
known. He enabled the disciples to bear
witness about Jesus.
That witness took place in the
preaching and teaching of the apostles as they spread the Gospel in the
Mediterranean world. But it didn’t stop
there. Indeed it continues on now through the inspired apostolic word. As John says in this Gospel, “Now Jesus did
many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in
this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
What happened at Pentecost can be
viewed from several different angles.
Tonight I want to focus on the Spirit borne witness to Jesus that
continues on through the inspired, apostolic word. Jesus said it was better for us that he
depart so that he would send the Helper, the Holy Spirit. We now meet Jesus through his Spirit inspired
word. And this word is not only the audible word that is heard as it is read
and preached. It is also the visible
word of the sacraments as Jesus gives us his saving word through the located
means of water, and bread and wine.
Pentecost leads us to ask how we are
receiving the Spirit’s witness. It
prompts us to consider whether we are despising preaching and God’s word, or
whether we are holding it sacred and gladly hearing and learning it. We like to set the bar pretty low in our
evaluation of gladly hearing and learning it.
Look around tonight if you need evidence of that. You could have done the same thing last
Thursday when it was the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. If the reading and preaching of God’s Word
doesn’t take place on Sunday, well, then it doesn’t really count; no big deal
if you are not there.
I am struck by how this contrasts
with places in Africa where people will travel great distances and endure
hardship in order to take advantage of any opportunity to hear the word
proclaimed and to receive the Sacrament.
Of course, you are here
tonight, and so in one sense I am preaching to the choir. Yet this example leads us to ponder other
places where we set the bar very low.
Many of us spend far more time watching sports or doing hobbies than we
spend in worship, Bible study and devotional reading of Scripture. We spend far more time thinking about matters
of leisure than we do pondering God’s word.
Pentecost leads us to confront this
fact and to confess it. In that same
Spirit inspired word we find assurance of forgiveness in Christ. And through the work of the Spirit we also
find the desire and motivation to make changes.
Pentecost leads us to see that in his word Jesus gives us something that
required him to ascend and send forth the Spirit. Stop and think about that. Jesus said that if he didn’t go away, the
Spirit would not come to us – the Spirit who called Jesus’ words to the
apostles’ remembrance; the Spirit who bears witness about Jesus; the Spirit who
takes what belongs to Jesus and makes it known to us in the inspired word. Yet
Jesus has ascended into heaven in order to make this work of the Spirit
possible. It is a work that we receive
through the Scriptures – through God’s Word.
When we put it in those terms, we realize that this is a blessing we
want to receive.
On this Pentecost Eve we rejoice in
the knowledge that Jesus sent forth the Spirit to empower the Church’s Gospel
witness in the world. And especially, we
give thanks that the outpouring of the Spirit on the believers in Jerusalem has
given to us the word of Scripture through which the Spirit gives Jesus and his
salvation to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment