Sermon Tone Analysis

When I was in school as a kid I seem to remember one chant from the cheerleaders during a football game:

“We’ve got spirit, yes we do; we’ve got spirit, how ‘bout you!”

Always a fun chant and one that is easy to remember.

Sometimes people seem to think the Christian life is about revving people up to give them assurance that “they have spirit;” or, more specifically, the Holy Spirit.

In today’s modern society a major error is leading people away from faith to focus upon experience; and many church leaders have fallen into this trap.

Liturgical Setting

Jesus Reveals Himself by the Holy Spirit Through the Word.

Today it’s common to hear people say something like, “I’m spiritual but not religious.”

At the same time, instead of asking how much they should know about God, people seem to be more interested in how they may experience God.

As I noted last week on our observance of the Ascension of our Lord, many think that when that happen Jesus left us.

Many live by the motto, “When the cat’s away the mice will play,” thinking that Jesus isn’t among us so we are free to do as we please.

On the contrary,

When the Holy Spirit was sent on the Day of Pentecost, Jewish people of a variety of languages heard “the mighty works of God” in their own (Epistle, ).

It was as if “the whole earth” once again “had one language and the same words” as before the Lord confused the languages for their sin (Old Testament Reading, ).

The office of the Holy Spirit, according to the words of Jesus in our Gospel, is to bring to remembrance all and only what Jesus has ever spoken.

The Holy Spirit gives us understanding of the words of Jesus.

On this Day of Pentecost, we praise God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who continues to bring the words of Jesus to us, and in doing so grants us consolation.

The Collect expresses the liturgical setting well, as it prays: “O God, on this day You once taught the hearts of Your faithful people by sending them the light of Your Holy Spirit.

Grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation.”

Jesus Is Continuing His Earthly Ministry Today

Through the Ministry of the Word

by the Holy Spirit

Today it is common to hear people say something like, “I’m spiritual but not religious.”

Then again, instead of asking how much they should know about God, people seem to be more interested in how they may experience God.

As I noted last week on our observance of the Ascension of our Lord, many think that when that happen Jesus left us.

On the contrary,

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day our Lord give the Holy Spirit to the Church.

So, we are going to unpack, just a little, the person and work of the Holy Spirit by talking about how (1).

The Holy Spirit is absolute, (2).

Not a feeling, (3).

But is our Comfort.

You see, despite the noise heard elsewhere,

Jesus’ Earthy Ministry Continues Through the Ministry of the Word By the Holy Spirit.

So, this morning we are going to unpack this a bit by talking about how (1).

The Holy Spirit is an absolute, (2).

Not a feeling, (3).

But a Comfort.

You see, despite the noise heard elsewhere

ntroduction: Our friends and neighbors may say, “I’m spiritual but not religious.”

More people ask today how they may experience God in their own lives rather than how much they should know about God.

Americans are looking for a deeper and immediate personal feeling of God within them.

If they have it, the important question is settled; the rest are details.

As we live in such a religious culture, quite often we are confused as to what the Holy Spirit does and gives.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus clarifies for us concerning the office and work of the Holy Spirit.

Even as the World Is Suggesting

a Wide Range of Options for Spirituality,

Jesus Reveals the True Office of the Holy Spirit: Comforter!

Without his works we have no consolation and peace!

tells us what follows the coming of the Spirit.

Peter preached on behalf of the Twelve, led people to repentance, taught the words of the Lord further, baptized them all, and distributed the Lord’s body and blood.

Jesus is the Lord of the Church, as the Holy Spirit brings to remembrance all and only what Jesus has ever taught and spoken.

Again, Luther:

Relevant Context

As the Church hears the event of Pentecost from , she focuses her attention on , where Jesus teaches the office and work of the Holy Spirit.

This is quite helpful because Pentecost is not an isolated event but belongs to the wholeness of the Lord’s achievement as well as his delivery of our salvation.

Jesus said in our text: “Now I have told you before it takes place” (v 29).

Jesus foresaw not only his Passion and resurrection but also the sending of the Holy Spirit.

After Jesus accomplished our forgiveness on Calvary, he prepared the way of the distribution of that forgiveness by mandating preaching, Baptism, Absolution, the Lord’s Supper, as well as the office that serves them.

Jesus then ascended to heaven.

It was not to remove himself from the people on earth.

On the contrary, it was to continue the earthly ministry he had begun () by using the apostolic ministry.

The Ascension of the Lord is the presupposition of Pentecost, because the ascended Lord is the one who sent his Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

Textual Notes

Vv 23–24: Our text begins where Jesus answers the question by Judas (not Iscariot) in the previous verse: why he reveals himself to the disciples but not to the world.

Jesus explains that he manifests himself to those who keep his words and love him.

According to Jesus, to keep his words is to love him, and to love him is to keep his words (14:15, 21; 15:10; cf.

8:51; 17:6; ; ; , ).

To keep his words also means that Jesus’ words always come first.

Once we change or improve them, we only weaken his doctrine.

It indicates that we do not love him.

The use of tērein reminds us of Jesus’ mandating words of the Office of the Holy Ministry in .

Rather than moral obedience, tērein speaks of keeping and treasuring, not missing anything of his words.

A reference to the dwelling of the Father and the Son not only refers back to the beginning of (v 2), but also evokes rich Old Testament precedence of the tabernacle and temple as Yahweh’s dwelling place (; ; ; ; ; ; Zech 2:14; cf. ; ; ; ).

That Yahweh dwelt among his people through the Divine Service of the tabernacle and temple according to his mandate brings to mind Jesus now dwelling among us through the Divine Service of the New Testament Church—again, according to his mandate and institution of the Means of Grace.

In the Church, the Father and the Son dwell among the people, walk among them, and serve them as their living God.

Those who keep Jesus’ words and love him are not only safeguarded from future wrath, the devil, and all adversity, but also they daily receive his care for them here on earth in both body and soul.

At the end of v 24, Jesus reminds that the word his disciples hear is not his but the Father’s who sent him (7:16; 8:26; 12:49).

Thus, Jesus already alludes to the Holy Spirit of whom he will speak in the next verse (cf.

3:34; 6:63).

V 26: Here, Jesus teaches concerning the office of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not presented as “motion created in things” (), an impersonal being, or a mere power, but the one called alongside to help, an Advocate, Defender, Comforter, and Counselor (paraklētos).

While Jesus later speaks of the Holy Spirit as the one who bears witness to him (15:26) and glorifies him (16:14), here he explains that the Spirit’s office is to bring to our remembrance all Jesus has spoken.

John records that until the Spirit was given, the apostles did not understand what Jesus had spoken and done (2:22; 20:9, 22).

Dr. Luther connects this verse to the confession of the Church in his sermons on John in 1537 (AE 24:167–77).

“I believe in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Christian Church,” so we confess in the Creed, because the Church is the place where the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance all that Jesus has spoken.

In doing so, the Holy Spirit dwells in and continuously sanctifies the Church through Word and Sacrament.

If you yourself were holy, then you would not need the Holy Spirit at all; but since we are sinful and unclean in ourselves, the Holy Spirit must perform his work in us. . . .

“I am not holy through myself but through Christ’s blood, with which I have been sprinkled, yes, washed in Baptism, and also through His Gospel, which is spoken over me daily.”

(AE 24:169)

“He (the Holy Spirit) baptized me; He proclaimed the Gospel of Christ to me; and He awakened my heart to believe.

Baptism is not of my making; nor is the Gospel; nor is faith.

He gave these to me.

For the fingers that baptized me are not those of a man; they are the fingers of the Holy Spirit.

And the preacher’s mouth and the words that I heard are not his; they are the words and message of the Holy Spirit.

By these outward means He works faith within me and thus He makes me holy.”

Therefore just as we should not deny that we are baptized and are Christians, so we should not deny or doubt that we are holy.

(AE 24:170)

In this way, Luther encourages the baptized to look for the Holy Spirit at the place he is found, “not up above the clouds” but “down here on earth,” where “the Word and the sacraments” are going on (AE 24:171).

V 27: Jesus is departing from the disciples and leaves his peace as his legacy.

What he gives is not silver or gold, social status or worldly success, but peace, his peace (16:33; 20:19–21; ; ; ).

The peace of which Jesus speaks has nothing to do with the absence of warfare.

Precisely in the context of the daily battle of the Christians both from without (the devil, the world) and within (sinful flesh), Jesus leaves his peace.