All Truth
ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS
RISEN! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The Holy Spirit is
a big deal. Flip through the channels on your TV, and you'll see all kinds of
Holy Spirit stuff supposedly going on. But these words and phrases are often as
misunderstood as the Holy Spirit Himself. If you listen carefully to the Holy
Gospel readings in these Sundays of the Easter Season, you will hear our Lord
Jesus speaking Words that will teach us the truth about the Holy Spirit. For
Jesus teaches exactly this: the Holy Spirit is doing His job not when you hear
about the Spirit, but when you hear Christ preached and the forgiveness of sins
delivered. Jesus says, “[The Spirit] will
not speak from Himself, but whatsoever He hears He will speak.” The Holy
Spirit does not do fancy tricks to make you shake or fall on the ground or
speak in gibberish. The Holy Spirit directs you to Jesus by the preaching of
the Word, and through that Word and the Sacraments of the Church He delivers
Christ's forgiveness to you. The more you hear of Christ crucified and risen and
delivered in the Means of Grace, the more you can be sure the Holy Spirit is at
work. On the other hand, the more you hear about the Spirit, the more you can
be sure that the Spirit is not preaching.
Jesus said, “When that one comes, the Spirit of truth,
He will lead you into all truth.” What is the Truth? The Truth is Jesus who
is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Truth is that God does not count your
sins against you but counts instead for you the righteousness of His Son, Jesus
Christ. This He does through the Word and in the Water and at the Supper. This
is all laid out for us in Holy Scripture. Speaking through the apostles and
prophets who wrote the Bible, the Spirit speaks and testifies of the truth,
which is this: in Christ, God is reconciling the world to Himself. Many people
say that no one church has all of the truth. They say, “We're all on the same
path to God.” But be wary of such thinking! The Spirit has been sent by Jesus
to lead us into all truth. Never think that the Word of God is insufficient. It
would be easy to think so in our day and age when everyone claims to have a
piece of the truth, when everyone claims to be spiritual but not necessarily
religious. But what does Jesus say? “The
Spirit will lead us into all truth.” You have the Word of God which rescues
you from your sins, delivers Jesus to you, and through which the Holy Spirit
leads you into all truth. Let there be no doubt that the Bible is all you need
to know the will of God, that is, your salvation in Christ.
Jesus goes on to
say, “The Spirit will glorify Me because
He will take of what is Mine and announce it to you.” The Holy Spirit glorifies
Jesus by delivering Christ’s gifts to you. Jesus is not glorified if the Spirit
preaches about the Spirit. If the Spirit just promotes the Spirit, then He has
not carried out His work. Jesus is glorified when what He has done is given to you.
Jesus, the Son of God, has come in the flesh to carry the sins of the world and
to die for them. Christ has conquered your sin and death. By suffering on the
cross, Jesus declares your salvation is finished. By rising from the dead, the
Lord confirms that your sins have been paid for and your salvation is won. It
is Christ who owns the victory over sin and death. And it is the Spirit who
teaches this to you through the testimony of the apostles who wrote down what
they saw and heard. All that the Father has belongs to Jesus, and all that belongs
to Jesus is given to you by the Spirit in the Word and Sacraments. Where
Baptism is preached, where Absolution is spoken, where Christ crucified is
preached and the Supper of our Lord's body and blood are given, there you may
be sure that the Spirit of Truth has led you into all Truth by delivering to
you all that belongs to Christ.
Jesus promises to
send the Holy Spirit. And Jesus sends Him—not for the Spirit’s sake, but for yours,
that you might receive from Him all the gifts of forgiveness, life, and
salvation that Christ won for you. The Holy Spirit points you to Christ. The
Holy Spirit teaches you to live in your baptism, to confess your sins and to
eat and drink the flesh and blood of Jesus. The Holy Spirit teaches you not to
glorify yourself but to humbly serve your neighbor. And that same Spirit waits
until that Last Day to give you that one last gift of Christ: the resurrection
of your flesh from the dead. From birth to death to rising again, it is the
Spirit of Truth who leads you into all truth by bringing you to Christ and
keeping you in Christ forever. ALLELUIA!
CHRIST IS RISEN! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! In the name of the Father
and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God
which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
always. Amen.
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