[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon THE SEVENTH SUNDAY of EASTER 24 May 2009 "Send Us the Spirit of Truth" John 17:11b-19 LSB Series B Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

Last week our Family Catechetical time had the First Petition of the Our Father. We pray, "Hallowed be Thy name," and Luther explains:

God's name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also.
How is God's name kept holy?
God's name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God's Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

God's name was first given to you in Holy Baptism when water was applied "In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." When Jesus prays that you be kept in his name, he prays that you will be preserved in your Baptism, that you always listen to his Word as the only truth in a world filled with lies. All of this is summarized in this phrase from our Collect of the Day: "Send Us the Spirit of Truth."

Jesus has given you his Word, his name, his mark-the sign of the holy cross. Because you have Christ's name on you, the world hates you because you do not belong to it. This is the picture of those who are enemies of all that belongs to Christ. How we see this played out in every age, ours included.

You are not of this world although you live in it. That means that you do not accept the world's standards because you accept what God sets down in his Word. Without question, there are those who hate the Word of God. For example, when God's Word condemns homosexuality you can be sure that the hatred of the homosexual lobby will find a target in those who really believe God's Word. Carrie Prejean, the young woman who is Miss California-USA, has been ruthlessly attacked for defending the marriage between a man and a woman at the Miss USA pageant. Even though one must admit that she has made some mistakes leading up to this, she nevertheless named herself a Christian and supported Christian teaching on this question. By doing so, she brought herself into the crosshairs of those who hate genuine Christianity and all it stands for. There is toleration among them for everything but genuine Christianity.

No Christian should be surprised. Jesus tells us quite plainly that the world hates us because of him. So it is that our Lord Jesus Christ prays for us! Think of it. Christ prays for you as you face the enmity and hostility of the old evil foe. He prays, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth." The truth is perhaps the most precious commodity in this world, more precious than all the oil upon which our society depends, more precious than all the gold in Ft. Knox, more precious than all the diamonds which adorn our bodies. Without the truth of God we have only the lies of Satan.

Few seem to have much regard for the truth. Pilate didn't seem to regard it very highly when he asked, "What is truth?" [John 18.38], and not much has changed in our world since. The truth will be upheld as long as people can use it to their advantage, but when the truth no longer gives advantage, then it is readily given up. We call that expediency. It is convenient for one's purposes until it no longer serves those purposes.

One of my favorite movie scenes [I'm sounding like former Vicar Hans Fiene!] is that courtroom scene in A Few Good Men, when the prosecutor, played by Tom Cruise, demands an answer of Colonel Jessep [Jack Nicholson], the commander of the Marine base at Guantanamo Bay.

Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessep: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
A Few Good Men written by Aaron Sorkin

Our world is in the grip of the father of lies. That's what Jesus calls Satan when he accused the Pharisees who challenged him:

"You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:44, ESV)

Lies kill. Hermann Sasse once wrote:

"The lie is the death of man, his temporal and his eternal death . . . Where man can no longer bear the truth, he cannot live without the lie." [Union and Confession. Office of the President The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. 1997. P. 1]

We have a predisposition to listen to the lies of Satan, just as our first parents did in Eden. They fell into sin and all their progeny have lived in this sin ever since. We have listened to counterfeit words, words that sound good but are worthless. We call it false doctrine. We hear lots of those words these days. A blogger from the Get Religion blog recently had an opportunity to attend a press conference with Tom Hanks, the star of the new movie Angels and Demons. He asked producer Ron Howard and Hanks what they think "makes good Catholics good and the bad Catholics bad" because the movie is generally regarded as an anti-Catholic movie. I was surprised to hear that Hanks actually goes to church-his family history includes Catholicism, Mormonism, Church of the Nazarene, and some years as a non-denominational evangelical. He attends services with his wife, who is Greek Orthodox. Hanks said, "I ponder the mystery," meaning "the mystery" that unites all mankind. Tmatt [the blogger] was dying to ask a follow-up question but was never given the chance. He wrote in his blog:

"Mysteries? As in sacramental and doctrinal mysteries? Do you see the question? Hanks kept using that big word-mystery-to describe his spiritual quest." tmatt concludes, "Still, I wanted to ask: Was he saying that he ponders the 'mystery' or the 'Mystery'?" ["Get Religion" 15 May 2009. Getreligion.org]

In other words, is it Christ that he contemplates or just the inscrutability of life in general? My guess is that it isn't Christ whom he contemplates because he said he meditates on why bad things happen to good people and vice-versa. He thinks it's "the grand unifying theory of all mankind." [Ibid]

It does make a difference what one believes! Believe the wrong thing and you are pretty much doomed, but when one believes the truth as it is found in Christ Jesus, then eternal life is enjoyed. This truth is not fluid, changing from age to age. The truth will always be. Many today would simply like the truth to be variable so that they can fit it in with their worldview. But God's Word allows no such thing.

Some will hide behind the idea that "it's all a matter of interpretation," as though God the Holy Spirit was unable to speak intelligibly or definitively. That leaves the determination of the truth up to man, and man will always reshape God into his own image. "My god would never punish people who break the commandments. My god is a god of love." Of course he is because you've shaped him into your own image. You like it both ways. No sin, no punishment, no accountability, except to yourself, and you are easy to manipulate. That's the kind of god most people want, someone like themselves. That's the definition of idolatry! Satan will tolerate your believing-as long as you believe the wrong thing. That is the spirit of error. The world indeed hates Christ because it is in conflict with his words and does not accept his teaching.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." (John 5:24, ESV)

Do you hear those words? Only in Christ is there life. There is life in no other. All others are death, eternal death. Either Christ himself is the Truth or he is a poached egg. There's no middle ground. Listen again to the Apostle John in our Epistle:

"Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:10-12, ESV)

So our Lord Jesus prays for his Church, for you, that you will be kept in the truth. Actually, the word Jesus used is "sanctify." "Sanctify them in the truth." We are made holy through his Word, the Word spoken in the Scriptures, in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. These are words which convey and distribute the holiness of Christ to sinners. The ancient Church father, John Chrysostom paraphrases:

"Make them holy by the gift of the Spirit and right doctrines." [Ancient Christian Commentary, NT IVb, p. 252]

Right doctrines. The Truth. Christ. To that end Jesus prays that his Father in heaven would keep us in his Word, his Name. He prays not that we be taken out of this world, but that we would be kept safe in it. Our collect reflects it well by praying, "but send us the Spirit of truth whom You promised from the Father. . ."

So it is that the Father and the Son have sent the Holy Spirit, whose arrival on Pentecost we will celebrate in one week. That marks the end of the festival season of the liturgical year and the beginning of the second half, a season named Pentecost. We could say that it is the "season of the Holy Spirit," where the Spirit takes what belongs to Christ and distributes it to us in Word and Sacrament. That's keeping us in Christ's name as we have his words placed again in our ears and his true body and blood placed in our mouths. That's keeping us in the truth, sanctifying us by means of Christ's word. By these means our Lord's prayer for us is fulfilled over and over again.