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This Week's Sermon The Day of Pentecost 27 May 2007 "Finding God" John 14:23-31 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

In an information age, such as ours is, it would be unusual not to find contradictory opinions on a lot of subjects, including the Christian faith. Many voices proclaim all kinds of messages, each one claiming to be true, but contradictory "truths" cannot be. By definition, truth must be one. Truth cannot contradict itself or it is not truth. Instead, there are lots of counterfeits in our world, that is, statements which look like the real thing but aren't. Christians are particularly vulnerable to these counterfeits because Satan, who is the father of lies [John 8.44], keeps issuing new counterfeits to take in unsuspecting people.

Did you ever spend a $20 bill and the cashier took out a little marking pen and made a mark on the bill? That was to check whether or not it was genuine. Everyone who receives counterfeit money soon learns that his money is worthless. It doesn't matter if you received it unknowingly, it's worthless. If you received counterfeit money after you purchased something, your change is worthless. You can't claim that you received it in good faith because the counterfeit money never had any value. Believing sincerely that it had value gets you nowhere.

Counterfeits undermine the truth. In fact, counterfeit truth is made up of big lies, not little ones. Who counterfeits $1 bills, or even $5 bills? No one that I have ever heard of. No, the counterfeiter goes for the bigger bills in common circulation, like twenties, fifties, one hundreds. These are less likely to be noticed.

So it is with the lies of Satan. He goes for the truth in common circulation. How does the Christian tell truth from error? How does he know if what someone says is true or counterfeit? That's where the Holy Spirit comes in. Christians need the comfort that they believe the truth of God, that they have the unvarnished Word of the Triune God and not some satanic counterfeit because his eternal life is at stake.

First of all, we need to know whose Word it is that we are hearing. Jesus makes clear his connection with the Father. The words that Jesus speaks are the Father's words. To hear Jesus is to hear God the Father himself. Jesus said that he spoke nothing that was not given him by his Father. When you have Christ, then you have the true God. If not, then you have a god, but he is not the true God. He is a counterfeit.

Today is the Day of Pentecost, and many denominations will focus primarily on the experience of the Holy Spirit, whatever they mean by that. Yet, much of that focus will not be on Jesus Christ, but rather on human experience. I visited a website for one of the Pentecostal denominations and found expressions such as, "Expect the miraculous," "that God will act in our lives." In other words, Pentecost to them is supposed to be an event where Christians are always triumphant and never suffer any hardships or disease. In fact, one denomination claims that Pentecost means that truly believing persons will definitely be cured of their diseases and maladies. If a person isn't cured, then they say that he or she simply didn't have faith. Such persons are left in despair and often end up turning their backs on Christ altogether. Perhaps you know of people who have much bitterness and anger in their lives because they had fallen prey to the counterfeits of Satan.

The Holy Spirit takes what belongs to Christ and declares it to us. One must not separate the three Persons of the Trinity. You need to know that when you hear one Person, you hear the entire Holy Trinity. God cannot be divided. Perhaps one of the most beautiful depictions of the unity of the Trinity is on my pectoral cross. The Father holds the arms of the crucified Christ and from the very side of Christ comes a dove, the Holy Spirit. The three Persons of the Holy Trinity act in concert. There is one truth, not three.

Jesus promised that after he ascended, the Holy Spirit would take what belongs to him and proclaim it to the world. Earlier Jesus had promised,

"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." (John 14:16-17, ESV)

"And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language." (Acts 2:6, ESV)

On Pentecost everything is reversed! The remedy for sin must be proclaimed to the world. Pentecost is the remedy for Babel. The good news of what Christ accomplished in his death and resurrection must be proclaimed. More accurately, our Lord said it this way:

"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:46-49, ESV)

You must learn from this Holy Gospel how and where you are to look for the Holy Spirit, and the Father and the Son as well. You are not to look above the clouds but in the place where Christ himself directs you to look when he says, "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." (John 14:26, ESV) The Holy Spirit is sent to Christians by the Father and the Son. He is here on earth, where Christ's Church is. We must understand that he is where he has promised to be, namely, within the Church, in Word and Sacraments. We must prize Word and Sacrament far above anything else, far above our own experiences, because that is where Christ has promised the Holy Spirit will be. Luther said:

These we must esteem highly and praise, believing that the Holy Spirit is present wherever they are present; and that whoever receives them certainly receives also the Holy Spirit, who works through these means, enlightens the heart, creates the knowledge of Christ or faith, and in this way makes sinners pure and holy. This is our comfort and our trust, that with good reason we may glory and confidently say: "We are holy. We are members of a holy fraternity in Wittenberg, in Rome, in Jerusalem, and wherever holy Baptism and the Gospel are. And we do not regard one another otherwise than as saints of God. Even though we are still sinners and many failings always remain in our flesh and blood, He covers up our sins and impurities. Thus we are accounted entirely pure and holy before God, as long as we cling to Christ and His Baptism and rely on His blood."¹

The Holy Spirit does not teach us anything but Christ. He does not preach or teach himself, but only Christ because only Christ has earned our atonement through his suffering and death. Thus, anything that elevates the Holy Spirit over Christ is counterfeit, it is not the truth of God. It is a lie. The Holy Spirit's office is to teach Christians the word of Christ and to bring it to mind, to cause us to remember Christ's words.

I am continually amazed at the number of people who believe that God is angry with them, especially those within walls of Christendom. I am distressed how they preach a hell-fire and brimstone continually and hold up a salvation that must somehow be earned either by adding one's own efforts to it or by doing something for God, as though God needed our efforts to get things done! You have no reason to be at odds with God. He has given his Church his best gifts in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion, the Office of the Keys, and the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit [Luther. Ibid. 179]. Some people are afraid of God and actually hate him because they fear his condemnation, that he really wants to cast them into hell forever. But that is a lie. Jesus did not become one of us to cast you into hell. He came to redeem you, to rescue you. He gives only good gifts. Why would someone believe that there is poison and death in the holy chalice? Here he gives you wholesome, living food! He gives you his true body and blood for the assurance that he has indeed taken all your sins upon himself and carried them away into his grave where they are left, where they can no longer accuse you. That is the peace about which Jesus speaks here when he 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." (John 14:27, ESV)

Where, then, do you find God and this peace? Do you have to run to the cross to find it? That sounds right, but it isn't. What about going to Jerusalem? Not there, either. Do you find it in bringing all to your remembrance, by thinking about it? No. Christ has left his peace in no other place than in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion, and in the Office of the Ministry, because these are the means of grace, the place where you receive his forgiveness, which is the heart of the New Testament. If God wanted to do you harm, would he have given such exceedingly precious gifts as Word and Sacrament?

Satan will give our world peace, believe it or not, but it will be a peace that is completely divorced from faith in the Holy Trinity. But this, finally, is no peace but eternal death and suffering with him. But our Lord Jesus Christ gives true peace with God through his blood. He puts you on good terms with his heavenly Father.

You will find God only where God has promised to be, namely in his Word and Sacraments. Here God the Holy Spirit works and brings his gifts, here and nowhere else. It is where Christ has told us to find him, in these humble means. You have Word and Sacrament! You have the whole Christ, the whole Father, and the whole Holy Spirit. And when there is trouble, as there certainly will be because the devil seeks to have you, you will have peace because you have Christ, and when you have Christ, you have God-all of Him!

¹Luther, M. (1999, c1961). Vol. 24: Luther's works, vol. 24 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 14-16 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (24:171). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.