Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter - Jn 16:5-15

 

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.