Easter
5
Jn
16:5-15
4/28/24
Timothy,
Matthew and Abigail will be coming home from college in two weeks. We have been looking forward to this because
we know that the occasions to have all of the family at home for an extended
period of time are rapidly coming to an end.
This time next year, Timothy will be preparing to graduate and receive
his commission as an officer in the U.S. Army.
And of course, when that happens he will be assigned to his first post
and there won’t be any more summers at home.
We
knew that Timothy would be gone for part of the summer at Advanced Camp – the
ROTC evaluation that takes place at Ft. Knox.
However, we were surprised to learn that because of two other Army
opportunities, Timothy is basically going to be gone for the whole summer. He will be at home for two weeks, and then we
won’t see him the rest of the summer.
This
has brought home the realization that Timothy really will be leaving soon. He
will start his own life and we won’t see him very often. There is a sadness that accompanies this
because we enjoy Timothy and like to have him at home. On the other hand, we recognize that this is
a good thing. It’s the way life is
supposed to work. After all, we don’t
want him living in our basement when he is thirty.
In
our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus says that he is leaving. He is returning to the Father. This is something that brings sadness to the
disciples. However, our Lord shares that
it is actually a good thing. His
departure means that he will send the Helper – the Holy Spirit.
Our
text is found in the same portion of John’s Gospel as we heard last week. Jesus and his disciples are making their way
to the Garden of Gethsemane on the evening of Maundy Thursday. Our Lord shares words with the disciples that
they really can’t understand yet. He
talks about what is going to happen in the future.
In
the verse just before our text Jesus said, “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.” Jesus talks about the
future so that when those events happen, the disciples will remember that he
told them it would be that way. He
hadn’t said these things in the past, but now a great change was about to
occur.
Jesus
said, “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.” Our Lord announced that he was leaving – he
was returning to the Father. This fact
filled the disciples with sorrow. After all, they didn’t want their Lord to
leave them.
Yet Jesus said that while this made them sad, it was
actually a good thing. He said, “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.”
Our Lord said it was necessary for him to depart so that
the Helper – the Spirit – could come to them.
We do not receive an explanation about why this is the case. We learn that this is simply the way God’s
saving work unfolds. Earlier in the
Gospel Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of
his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Then John tells us, “Now this
he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to
receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus
was not yet glorified.”
In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ glorification is his death,
resurrection, and ascension. Jesus
revealed his glory during his ministry.
After Jesus turned water into wine John tells us, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus
did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples
believed in him.”
All of
Jesus’ miracles point to the cross. They point to the work by which he would be
glorified. During Holy Week Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to
be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls
into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Jesus died on
the cross to free us from sin. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a
slave to sin.” We were slaves to
sin. It held us in its power as we were
cut off from God and under his judgment.
Yet God sent his Son into the world
in order take our sin and receive the judgement against it in our place. John’s Gospel says: “For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not
believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of
the only Son of God.”
However, Jesus’
glorification did not end at the cross.
John tells us about his entrance to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, “His disciples did not understand these
things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered
that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.”
Jesus’
glorification continued as he rose from the dead. During Eastertide we
celebrate the fact that our Lord defeated death in his resurrection. Jesus 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.”
Jesus took it up again on Easter as he was then present with his
disciples, demonstrating to them that he had risen has he had said.
But we learn in our text that this
was not the end of Jesus’ glorification.
Instead, it continued as our Lord returned to the Father in the
ascension. In the next chapter Jesus says, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you
gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the
glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. John begins his Gospel by saying about the
Son, “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things
were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” God sent his Son into the world to save
us. John tells us, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.”
Now, as the One who is still true
God and true man, Jesus has returned to the Father. He has been glorified. And he has done this in order to send the
Helper. His saving work continues in our
midst through the Spirit.
Earlier in this section of the
Gospel Jesus said, “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.”
The Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He speaks God’s truth. And so Jesus says in our text: “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” Jesus says the Spirit convicts the world concerning sin, “because they do not believe in me.” Our world is a sinful place. It believes it can do whatever it wants. What it refuses to do is to believe in Jesus Christ. One of the latest surveys indicates that 28% of American adults are “nones” – they have no religious affiliation and only vague beliefs about God if they believe in a god. The Spirit convicts this because to reject Jesus is to remain under God’s judgment.
Jesus says that the Spirit convicts the world “concerning
righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer.” Jesus Christ has completed his saving work in
his resurrection and ascension and those who refuse him are condemned for his
righteousness that they are rejecting.
And our Lord says, “concerning judgment, because the ruler
of this world is judged.” By his
death and resurrection, Jesus Christ has defeated the devil. He said at beginning of Holy Week, “Now is the judgment of this world; now
will the ruler of this world be cast out.” The devil has been defeated. All who reject Jesus Christ remain under the
devil’s power and will share in his judgment.
The Spirit convicts the world. But the Spirit guides Christ’s believers into
truth. Jesus says in our text, “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. All that the Father has is
mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to
you.”
The Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus and makes it known
to us. The Spirit guides us into all
truth because he gives us faith in Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the
life. The Spirit’s goal is always to
point us to Jesus’s death and resurrection – to make this known to us – because
through Jesus we have forgiveness and eternal life.
In this same section of the Gospel Jesus said, “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.” The Spirit sent by Jesus from the Father
bears witness about Christ. And we now
hear that witness from the apostles. The
apostles were with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry. They saw his miracles. They saw his death. And then they were
transformed by Jesus’ resurrection.
The Spirit has worked through the apostles to give us the
witness about Jesus. Our Lord says, “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.” The witness of John this morning is the
witness worked by the Spirit. It is the
Helper taking what belongs to Jesus and making it known to us in order to give
us forgiveness and life.
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