060606 Winkel

John 16:12-15

(Wait on the Spirit)

June 11, 2006

          Consider what it must have been like (If we were there): Jesus, our close friend, companion, advocate, teacher, leader and brother with increasing frequency talks about death—His death! At first, we just blow it off and don’t pay much attention to what He is saying. We all know that He has an easy road to David’s throne. Who could hate a person like Jesus? Death just doesn’t fit into our understanding; or into our hope of future glory for Israel. And therein is the difficulty—our difficulty, not Jesus’. Just like the first disciples, you and I lack the spiritual connection that fully understands God. Jesus, the man, we get. He walks and talks and breaths, eats and sleeps just like us. What else is there to know? That, however, is the question that reveals our ignorance and disconnect with respect to God. Even the information Jesus is giving us now just doesn’t quite sink in. Our humanity is standing in the way of our comprehension and it will continue to stand in the way until we are released from this body of death.

          In this context, Jesus’ words about the Holy Spirit don’t even begin to phase us. After all, everybody knows about God’s Spirit, right? It’s that feeling, that sense of connectedness with God, right!? … Wrong! Our senses can and do lie. That’s why Adam and Eve didn’t get it, even in their perfect estate in the new creation. Job’s friends didn’t get it! Job, himself, didn’t get it! Not even the prophets of Old fully understood it. The human senses sometimes get in the way of the Spirit. And here in this text we learn that Jesus’ close disciples don’t get it, and neither do we. What is it we all don’t get? We don’t get the connectedness of God’s Spirit with God the Son and God the Father. We don’t understand the unity of God, yet the separateness of person. If we did, we would immediately understand all of Jesus’ words. And this is why: He speaks only the truth that He hears from His Father. He leads His people into a new connectedness, a New Israel. He speaks of things to come so His people (God’s people) do not fall away. In all that He thinks, and says, and does, He glorifies His Father. It has to be that way, because all that is His Father’s, is His. There is no disconnect between them, not even the slightest difference that would make one superior to the other. But, who can bear to handle those words? Who can hear this man say things like:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:53-58, ESV NT Rev. Int.)

Hard words, aren’t they? Yet we of the faith tend to think that everyone should understand it, if it is God’s Word. The truth is that some cannot understand even the simple words because they must be made known by God’s Spirit. And some people simply do not possess God’s Holy Spirit. Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit continues to teach so that people can and do get it.

There is much that Jesus taught His followers. But not all continued to hear and to follow. The words were just too difficult for some: "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him." (John 6:66, ESV NT Rev. Int.) Even so, Jesus has many things to reveal to the understanding of His beloved creatures on Earth. But, to reveal too much too fast would be overwhelming to human existence. Even in its simplicity it might cause some to fall away because the words are so difficult for our humanity. So even though Jesus has well instructed His disciples, their understanding still needs enlightenment. And so does ours.

          God Himself though, sees to it that we all are guided into all truth. We need only to hear it. And that is precisely what happens to all to whom God’s Spirit is given. It is actually just like having Jesus with us all the time. He, the Spirit, hears the words of God clearly and without flaw. So when He speaks He speaks only God’s truth—God’s Word. That is His only authority. And He wields that authority in declaratory form through the written Word that has already been given to us through the message of the prophets and apostles. But, we still are dull of hearing and slow to understand all that God revealed. Even so, the Spirit of truth is at work to guide us into all the truth. He does so, because there is not even the slightest disconnect between Him and Jesus, just as there is no disconnect between Jesus and His Father. They, the three, are one God.

          It bothers me that I still don’t get it. I still don’t understand the full uniqueness of this God, and how to properly teach and preach of Him. Look at the banner behind you over the doors to the narthex. Read those words with me, will you please? … We at Trinity have worked hard to recover the former glory of this congregation. In doing so, we have acted much in accord with our human nature, and not given enough thought to those words. How sad! We have spent much time and effort in study, in discussion, in prayer, and in reciting that mantra, “Lord! What would you have us do now?” But, how many of you think you actually know what God wants us to do now? Are any of us able to give a specific answer? Consider this: we might not be able to give an answer because it is not our place to bring glory of any kind to ourselves. Instead, it is our place to give glory to God, because it is God who guides and directs and teaches and informs and helps us. It is in God that we all live and move and have our being. It is in God that we ourselves are glorified. This is all in accord with what Jesus taught when He walked and talked with His people here on Earth. And these are the words—the truths of God that the Holy Spirit still reveals to us even today.

          So, the words Jesus speaks in this text find application for us still today. The Spirit of truth is still at work just as God is at work. It is simply not possible to separate the word from the work any more than it is possible to separate God from the three persons. The word of God always serves to honor God just as the Spirit of God always seeks to honor Jesus. The written Word receives its honor in our worship because it guides our worship. Are we doing it right? God only knows. We simply trust that He will keep us steadfast in true faith through that Word which we also strive to teach and preach. The work of the Holy Spirit is to make that Word known to us so that we might know the One True God! He makes the truth known to us so that we stay connected with God. How can we be so sure? Are there books written about these things so that we might know what God would have us do now? NO! The only book written that speaks God’s will, work, and way clearly is the book containing the words of the prophets and apostles. Through the written word, the Spirit of truth speaks, declaring God’s truth to us. Through the written word, all that belongs to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is declared to us in truth. The absolutely astounding effect is this: Through the word, the Holy Spirit connects and keeps us connected to God so that His righteousness, His honor, His glory is made to be our righteousness, our honor, and our glory, all praise be to God!

The point I am wanting to make is this: Our hope comes from God who communicates it to us by way of His Spirit working through His Word and Sacraments. It is just that simple.

This is why I say “Wait on the Spirit.” The Spirit brings us into all truth by the truth. We are assured of this because there is absolutely no difference in what the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit say and do. The Father is not just the Creator; the Son is not just the Redeemer; the Holy Spirit is not just the Sanctifier.

All three persons work together to create and recreate.

All three persons work together to redeem and make us safe.

All three persons work together to sanctify us and make us a holy people.

All three together are working to make us complete in God.

And, all three together will complete the task. All praise be to God. Amen.