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Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States

Monday, June 05, 2006

Pentecost 06/02/06 Text: John 15:26-27 and 16b-15 Title: Stand out of the Way

Pentecost
06/02/06
Text: John 15:26-27 and 16b-15
Title: Stand out of the Way

Almighty God, we give thanks to you today for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, where we find the righteousness and peace which the world cannot give. As we now meditate on Your Word, help us to see the truth of that Word so that we will be bold in our witness to those who do not know of Jesus and his saving work. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen
Usually the text preached on Pentecost Sunday is Acts 2:1-21, our Epistle reading for this morning. It is a wonderful text, for it tells us about the power of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Christian Church.
It is a great text, but a hard one for us to see the connection to our lives today. As far as we know the Holy Spirit doesn’t work that way anymore, but we still need to relate it to our lives, for that is why God had it recorded
The Gospel lesson for today will help us to better understand the Acts reading so let’s look at it. We are going to start with verse 26 of Chapter 15, the first verse of our Gospel reading for today. We see that Jesus is talking to his disciples as he tells them, “When the counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.
The first thing we notice is that the Holy Spirit is called a counselor, some translations might say comforter, but counselor is a much better translation. Now this is not your ordinary run of the mill counselor that helps you out when you are having problems in life. The Greek word that is translated as counselor in our text has the meaning of someone that speaks in one’s place. It was usually used in the sense of a lawyer speaking for a person on trial. But who does he speak for? We will see who in just a little bit.
The second thing that we see is that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father. Nothing can come from God the Father that is not perfect in all it is. In other words, the Holy Spirit can only speak of what is true, he has no choice. So what ever the Holy Spirit says about Jesus has to be true.
The last half of verse 4 gives us a clue as to the purpose behind the Holy Spirit coming on Pentecost. Think about this for a moment. Jesus while living on this earth being true God and true man willingly set aside his Godhood while he was on earth. He had to do it for him to live as a true human. If he used his Godhood he could not have lived as one of us and his death would have been meaningless.
Jesus, by not using his Godhood limited himself to one place and time. He was born, he traveled in a limited area, and then he died. It is true that he did come out of that grave alive, but even then he chose to still be human, although now a glorified human, free of time and place. What Jesus is saying is that the Holy Spirit who is not confined to one place or time is going to take his place when he ascends to heaven.
Look at verse seven through 11 of our text. Here you find some powerful statements about the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had done what he came to earth to do. Now it is time for the third person of the Godhood to replace him so that the work of the Gospel message can go on.
I think the best way to think about these verses is to realize that the job description of the Holy Spirit has changed. He does not just give faith, but now represents Jesus, who had willingly bound himself to a certain time and place. The reason for the change is that the Holy Spirit is free of those self-imposed constraints, Jesus had put on himself. He is not limited to time and place.
What have we learned so far about the work of the Holy Spirit? First we learned that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father. Second, we learned that that the Holy Spirit speaks for Jesus. Third, we learned that he tells the truth about Jesus. And fourth, we learned that the Holy Spirit is not bound by time and place.
That is a lot for the Holy Spirit to do, but as we continue in our journey through the text we see that the Holy Spirit even does more. Jesus tells us in our text that the Holy Spirit exposes the guilt of the world. The word, “world” as used here refers to unbelievers. He does this by speaking the truth about Jesus.
The guilt that the Holy Spirit exposes is not the guilt of not keeping the Law given by Moses, but the guilt that comes from not believing in Jesus as one’s personal Savior. Understanding the guilt he exposes helps us to understand the type of righteousness that the Holy Spirit also convicts the world of.
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of righteousness, because the world only thinks of righteousness as being earthly righteousness, such as being a good person and such. The Holy Spirit convicts the world by showing them that the only righteousness that stands up before God is the righteousness given to them by Jesus. The proof of that righteousness that Jesus gave the world is that he ascended into heaven to be with God the Father. He would not have done that, if he had not accomplished the task he was given by God the Father to do.
The Holy Spirit convicts those in the world of judgment because the world thinks of judgment as being what happens in the court, or what happens, say, when a sex offender who is fleeing from the cops crashes his car into a tree and gets killed. Now you have to admit, you thought that was justice, didn’t you? That is the justice of the world, but not the justice of Jesus. The judgment that the Holy Spirit is talking about is the condemnation of Satan and his co-horts. That is the only judgment that counts, for in that condemnation we are set free.
Jesus closes his talk with his disciples by telling them once again that all the Counselor will say is true, since it comes from him and God the Father.
So what does all this mean for us? How does it help us understand the work of the Holy Spirit, or the reason Acts was written? Well, let’s see. First just like the disciples that day, we are not alone. The Holy Spirit is here among us because he is not limited to time and place.
Second just like the disciples started speaking languages that were not their own, the same thing happens when we speak God’s Words. Oh, we are talking alright, but the Holy Spirit is speaking a spiritual language, one that is quite different from our language. He is speaking on behalf of Jesus. It is the same as if Jesus is talking to whoever we are talking to. He is pronouncing guilt where sin abounds. He is pronouncing righteousness, where there is no righteousness. He is pronouncing judgment where there is no hope.
Third, it means that we are to proclaim only Jesus, for when we proclaim ourselves; what we or our congregation is doing, we are proclaiming the wrong thing. What I mean by that is that we are not to proclaim our friendliness, for you can join a civic club and get that. We are not to proclaim our choirs, or music programs for a person can go almost anywhere and get great music. We are not to even proclaim our mission work in the community and the world, for there are thousands of charities that a person can donate to.
We are not to proclaim those things, but only Jesus crucified. Now that doesn’t mean that we are not to strive to have great music, fellowship, mission and social programs, or that we are not to tell others about them. It means that we are not to put them above Jesus. All the things we do are the result of Jesus love for us and our response to him for that love.
Are we there? A good way to look at who we are as a congregation is to look at what we talk about as we come together on Sunday morning, or any other time, for that matter. Is our conversation focused on Jesus and what he wants us to do, or is it focused on everything but Jesus?
We know for sure that Jesus ascended to heaven. We know for sure that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to take his place. We know for sure that the Holy Spirit speaks the words of Jesus and not our words. We know for sure that our congregation always has to keep Jesus first in what we proclaim.
We know those things, so now the obvious question comes up. What is that we the people of Saint John going to do with that sure knowledge? Are we going to go on as usual, as so many other churches do, or are we going to let the Holy Spirit work through us as Jesus wants us to do?
The Outreach Board has asked us to join together and invite 50 unchurched people to worship with us during the 26 week season of Pentecost.
Is it going to be easy? I doubt it, but let me give you a clue as to how to recognize when the time is right for you to tell someone about Jesus. You will be scared, you will want to turn tail and run. You will want to keep your mouth shut, or not hand someone a cross, or do any of the others things that you know you should do as a follower of Jesus.
That is right, that is how you will know. Sound strange doesn’t it, but that is how Satan will try to stop you. It has to be Satan, for the Holy Spirit would never stop you from inviting someone to church, telling someone about Jesus, or handing someone a cross.
He would never do that, for Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to help you, not hinder you. He is waiting on you so that he can testify about the truth of Jesus. Think you can’t do it? That’s Satan using your sinful flesh. Cast him aside for he has no power over you. And when you have done that just use the same words Phillip said to Nathanael as he told him, “Come and see.” and then let the Holy Spirit do his work. Amen.