Pentecost
Jn
14:23-31
7/8/25
In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with
you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to
you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
Jesus speaks of giving peace to his disciples – and to us. But many of the
things that he says in this portion of the Gospel – his “farewell discourse”
that he spoke to the disciples on the evening of Maundy Thursday – seem instead
to be disturbing.
Jesus tells them that they will not see him for a little while, and
that they will mourn. He says, “A little
while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you
will see me.” When they don’t understand what he is talking about, our Lord
says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the
world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into
joy.” This time when they don’t see
Jesus will be one of sorrow. Yet Jesus says that it will last only a “little
while,” and adds, “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again,
and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
While there will be this “little while” of sorrow, Jesus has also
told them something that seems even more disturbing: He has said that he is
going away, and returning to the Father.
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.”
Our Lord announces that he will be returning to the Father. He says
that this is in fact a good thing for the disciples. He explains, “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.” Jesus explains that
only by ascending and returning to the Father, can he send forth the Holy
Spirit.
Christ states in our text that his departure should actually be a
source of joy. He says, “You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I
will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am
going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”
This statement by Jesus seems very puzzling. After all, we have
learned at the beginning of the Gospel that the Son is truly God. The first verses of the Gospel say, “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 any thing made that was made.”
We learn that the Word – the Son – is God and was active in making
all things. 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.”
In Jesus Christ we meet the incarnate Son of God – the One who is true
God and true man.
Jesus affirms that he is God. He tells the Jews, “Truly, truly, I
say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” He said, “I and the Father are
one.” Jesus will pray to the Father in
the next chapter, “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.”
So then why does Jesus say, “If you loved me, you would have
rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater
than I”? The answer to this question is to be found in our text when Jesus
says, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is
coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded
me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”
Jesus Christ was in the world to do what the Father had commanded. During
Holy Week Jesus said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save
me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this
hour.” Then he added, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the
ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the
earth, will draw all people to myself.”
The Father was greater than Jesus as he was speaking, not because
he is greater in his being. Instead, the
Father was greater because at that time Jesus was not making full use of his
power and might. Instead, he was
carrying out the saving will of the Father by which the devil has been
overcome. He had humbled himself, and would allow himself to be arrested and crucified. Jesus told Nicodemus, “And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humbled himself in order to be the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He walked the way of service
and suffering, because we are people who avoid these very things. We put
ourselves before God and our neighbor in order to avoid limitations on looking
out for that unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. In thought, word, and deed we
are people who sin. As we confessed at the beginning of the service using words
from 1 John: “If we say we have not sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is
not in us.”
Jesus offered himself on the cross as the sacrifice that won
forgiveness for us. He was, as John says in his first epistle, “the
propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the
whole world.” The Father was greater than the Son as he humbled himself to the
point of death … even death on a cross. Our Lord said, “For I have come
down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who
sent me.”
However, the will of the Father did not end in death. Instead, it was his will to give life through
the Son. As Jesus had said, the disciples did not see him for the “little
while” of three days when he was buried in the tomb. But then they saw him
again when God raised him from the dead. The risen Lord appeared in the midst
of the locked room on the evening of Easter and said, “Peace be with you.” He
demonstrated that now through faith in Christ there is forgiveness of sins and
eternal life. Death cannot separate us from God, and the grave is not the end
for our body because as Jesus said, “For this is the will of my Father, that
everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have
eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Now, the risen Lord has ascended to the Father. No longer can the
Father be described as greater than the Son. Instead, the Lord Jesus has been
exalted and exercises all rule and authority. And we see this in the event that
we are celebrating today, the Feast of Pentecost.
Jesus says in our text, “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
says that when he is ascended, the Father will send forth the Helper – the Holy
Spirit. A little later, Jesus says that he will send the Helper as he
declares, “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.”
Jesus says in our text, “And now I have told you before it
takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.” Jesus Christ
rose from the dead on Easter. He
ascended into heaven. And then, as we heard in our Second Reading, on the day
of Pentecost he poured forth the Holy Spirit.
Peter declared, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all
are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and
having received from the Father the promise of the Holy
Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”
Christ has sent the Spirit from the Father. And now the Spirit is
the One who brings the saving work of Christ to us. It is the Spirit who gives
us the apostolic witness about the Lord Jesus. 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 bears witness – a witness that is received through the
apostles. Christ says in our text this morning, “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.” It is
the Spirit who uses the inspired words of the Gospel to make known Christ and
his saving work to us. Jesus said, “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.”
The Gospel of John tells us, “For he whom God has sent utters
the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.” The ascended
Lord has given us the Spirit, and through him we have life. Fallen man brings
forth more fallen man. Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The life giving
Spirit sent forth by Christ has given us life. Through the work of the Spirit
we have been born again – we have been born of water and the Spirit in baptism.
This work of the Spirit takes place in us because we are living in
the Last Days that have begun in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Peter says, “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: ‘And in the
last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my
Spirit on all flesh.”
The Old Testament prophets described how God would pour out his Spirit. Isaiah compared this to water as he said, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” Jesus used similar language when he cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Then John explains, “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.”
Jesus has been glorified. And on
Pentecost he gave the Spirit. Now, we are the children of God because the
Spirit has given us life. The Spirit has
created faith in Christ, and sustains this faith. And the Spirit enables us to
live in faith. Jesus says in our text, “If
anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we
will come to him and make our home with him.” We keep our Lord’s word as by the power of
the Spirit we continue to believe in him, and love our neighbor as Jesus has
loved us.
The Son of God, Jesus Christ, carried out the Father’s will by
humbling himself in death on the cross to free us from sin. On the third day
God raised him from the dead, as he began the life that is ours. The risen and
ascended Lord poured forth the Spirit on Pentecost to give us this new life in
which we are the forgiven children of God. The Spirit creates and sustains
faith in Christ, and enables us to share Christ’s love with others as we look
towards the day when God will raise us from the dead through the Spirit of
Christ.
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