How the Holy Spirit Comes to Us

On the day before His crucifixion, Jesus points to Pentecost and how He lives with people today

[This sermon was prepared to be given for worship with the people of Faith Lutheran Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the occasion of the installation of Pastor David Hill on June 8. The worship corresponds with Pentecost Sunday.]

John 14:23-31
The words Jesus speaks to us this morning are part of what He said to the apostles in the upper room on the night of His betrayal and arrest. Though Jesus is speaking here just before His suffering, crucifixion, and death, they point us to the happy events we celebrate today, Pentecost and the installation of Pastor David Hill as the shepherd of Faith Lutheran Church.

Everything Jesus says today comes in response to a question posed by the other Judas. Judas is confused by something Jesus has just said” “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.” (John 14:19) For Judas, Jesus’ words sounded like a foreign language. So Judas asks, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (John 14:22) How, in other words, is it that believers in Christ’s body, the Church, are able to see Jesus and know His presence? And how is it that others in the world can’t or won’t see Him?

Jesus says: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)

Here Jesus tells us first, what it means to love Him. When we love Jesus, we keep His Word. Keeping Jesus’ Word does not refer to perfectly obeying God’s commandments. One look at the Ten Commandments shows us that we’re complete failures at that. For example, every day, we fail to honor God as God, instead worshiping idols like security, acceptance, personal vindication, money, and so on. And in thought, word, or deed, we violate all of God’s other commands–from taking God’s name in vain to coveting what others own–every day. Like the apostle Paul, we can say, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do [the right thing] I want, but I do the very thing I hate [sin].” (Romans 7:15)

Fortunately, keeping Jesus’ Word does not mean obeying the Law. God remembers that we are dust, fallen sinners incapable of perfect obedience to His will. He sent sinless Jesus to the cross to receive the condemnation for sin that we deserve, death, so that we in turn could receive what we could never earn, Jesus’ own righteousness, His innocence, for all eternity. As the Bible tells us, “For our sake [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

The word translated as keep is, in the Greek in which John wrote his book, not obey, but guard, hold onto, or, better yet, cling to. The people who love Jesus are those who cling to His Word. The Word that Jesus speaks to us over and over again, and offers up His body on the cross to give us, is the Gospel, the good news. This gospel is what Jesus was talkin about when He said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) And, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26) And, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

Of course, the Gospel Word that Jesus speaks to us is more than the audible words He spoke with His mouth. According to the Bible, Jesus is the Word, God the Son. He is the Word of grace, love, and order that God the Father spoke to chaos and God the Spirit then made the cosmos. He is the Word Whose presence brought the Kingdom of God into our fallen, sin-riddled world. John writes of Jesus from his personal knowledge: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace [charity upon charity, saving forgiveness upon saving forgiveness]...the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:14, 16-17)

When people love Jesus by clinging to His promises of forgiveness and everlasting life, God the Father and God the Son will take up residence in their lives. God lives in the lives of those who cling to–or believe in–Jesus and His Gospel. What a promise!

Now, think about the twelve to whom Jesus first spoke these words of promise. Judas Iscariot betrayed Him. Simon Peter denied Him. The other ten scattered when Jesus got arrested. A few hours after Jesus spoke, none of them had any thought of clinging to Jesus or His Word. And these were the people Jesus intended to send into the world with His Gospel Word!

None of this came as a surprise to Jesus, of course. But He gives the twelve another promise. It’s this: “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 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 14:25-26)

“Because you’re ordinary sinners prone to forgetting to cling to My Word,” Jesus is saying, “I’m going to give you the Holy Spirit.” Why did the twelve need the Spirit? Why do we? This is why: The Holy Spirit is the preacher Who proclaims the Gospel to us. It was the Holy Spirit Who, as Jesus promised in our lesson, brought to the remembrance of the apostles all that Jesus said and did so that they could share the Gospel with us on the pages of Scripture. And it is the Holy Spirit Who gives us the ears to hear and the power to believe in Jesus and so, know that our sins are forgiven and we have life with God.

How does God the Holy Spirit do all of this? It’s very simple. He sends you a preacher, someone to come alongside you to give you the Word that in Jesus Christ, all your sins are forgiven. Someone who will tell you that in Jesus Christ, God’s eternal kingdom has come to you and Christ is here to give you the gift of repentance–the gift of a mind, heart, and will turned away from sin and death and turned to Jesus for forgiveness and life–and the gift of faith in Christ, because it is by faith in Christ and only Christ that we are covered in Jesus’ righteousness and made fit for life with God that never ends.

The Bible tells us that because we all receive the Holy Spirit at our baptism, all Christians are called to be preachers of the Gospel in our own ways. Parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, friends: We are all sent by the Holy Spirit to remind others that they can cling to Jesus for life with God.

But the Holy Spirit also sends particular preachers we call pastors, ministers of Word and Sacrament, to His Church to preach the Gospel Word to us. Pastors are to share this Word in their preaching and teaching, in their administration of the Sacraments, their visiting, their servant leadership. Sisters and brothers in Christ, the Holy Spirit has sent Pastor David Hill to proclaim God’s Word to you, the very Word I’m called to proclaim to right now, both the Law that condemns your sin and points you to your need of a Savior and the Gospel that assures you that through His death and resurrection, Christ has done everything necessary to free you from sin, death, and condemnation and that even now, Christ gives you life with God. In Christ, you are totally forgiven. There’s nothing you can do or must do that Jesus hasn’t already done on the cross or at the empty tomb to be made right with God. Christ has done it all already…for you. In Jesus the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy has come to pass: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God…[your] warfare is ended…[your] iniquity is pardoned…” (Isaiah 40:1-2)

Pastor Hill comes alongside you not only to preach this good news to you, but also to preach this good news with you as together in Finneytown, Cincinnati, and beyond. Thanks be to God the Holy Spirit for the partnership in the Gospel He is today forging between Faith Lutheran Church and its pastor! May the Holy Spirit guide you in your life together. Amen