210523 Sermon for Pentecost, May 23, 2021

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There are three great festivals that the Christian church celebrates every year: Christmas, Easter, and today’s festival of Pentecost. During these festivals we often learn and speak about the significance of them. Therefore, with Christmas, we learn how very changed the universe has become by the Son of God being joined to our human race and born of the Virgin Mary. By this union of God and man in Jesus Christ we have been intertwined with God.

At Easter we consider the way that Jesus achieved atonement and justification for all people, for all sinners. He suffered and died on the cross on Good Friday. He rose from the dead on Easter. Because of him all who believe in him will overcome sin and death and rise again to new life.

So what about Pentecost? Before we speak about its significance for us, perhaps we better briefly speak about what happened. Whereas most people can tell you what Christmas and Easter are about, they get a little hazy with the events of Pentecost. The timeline goes like this: On Easter Sunday Jesus rose from the dead. He appeared to his disciples on many occasions, in rather unusual ways. For example, he didn’t seem to walk down the street or go from one place to another like a normal human being. He appeared to his disciples in a room where all the doors and windows were locked. He appeared to two disciples on the road, but they didn’t immediately recognize him. For forty days Jesus did this. Then he ascended into heaven.

Fifty days after Easter Sunday is when the events happened that we heard about in Acts. The disciples and many Jews from around the world were gathered in Jerusalem for the Old Testament feast of weeks. While they were all gathered together there was a strange blowing of wind, tongues of flame, the ability to speak in other languages, and Peter testified that the only Savior of the world was the one whom these Jews had crucified about seven weeks prior. Peter told them that although they had crucified the Lord of Glory, they and their children should believe in him, be baptized, and be saved. And so it was that 3,000 were baptized that day. Thereafter they continued to gather to hear God’s Word, to pray, to eat together, and grow in grace.

These are the events of Pentecost. What is the significance of this festival? There are two things that are especially important. First, we learn more about the Holy Spirit. Second, we learn more about the Christian Church. We’ll begin with the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is a festival that is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the word “spirit” we might just think of an energy or a force. That’s not altogether wrong, because most certainly the Holy Spirit works within a person. But this “spirit” is not just an energy. He is true God—just as much God as the Father or the Son is.

With the three persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is not talked about as much. The Bible has much more to say about the Father and the Son. The prayers we pray in Church are most often addressed to the Father, sometimes addressed to Jesus, much less so to the Holy Spirit. Our chief hymn today is unusual in the way that it is a prayer to the Holy Spirit: “Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord.” The vast majority of our hymns are not addressed to the Holy Spirit.

This is not an accident. It is not dishonoring the Holy Spirit. It is a recognition of the Holy Spirit’s proper work. On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit manifests himself in the rushing wind, the ability to speak in tongues, and the divided flames of fire. But of whom does the apostle Peter speak, when he stands up to address the crowd? He does not speak to them so much about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit causes the apostle Peter to speak about Jesus. He urges the people to call on the Name that is above every name so that they too may be saved. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit’s choosing, some of them believe, are baptized, and saved. Others remain in their unbelief. The Holy Spirit saves. The way he does it is by creating faith in Jesus with his almighty power.

This brings us to our second point today: At Pentecost we learn more about the Christian Church. The Christian Church is the Holy Spirit’s own creation. The Christian Church consists of all those individuals who believe that Jesus is their Savior from the devil, death, and hell. By the preaching of God’s Word the Holy Spirit creates this faith in Christ. This is the only way that anybody can be a Christian. Being a member of a congregation does not make a person a Christian. There are no works that a person can perform in order to become a Christian. The only way that someone can be a Christian is by God’s action, the Holy Spirit’s action, in announcing God’s grace in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit creates Christians by preaching, by baptizing, and by the giving of Jesus’s body and blood in the Sacrament.

Notice that as a Christian congregation these are the very things that we do. I suppose that the sky’s the limit for what a congregation could do. I suppose a congregation could teach math, be an amusement park, cure cancer, or bring about world peace. These are not what Jesus has given to us. Frankly, even curing cancer or bringing about world peace are not important enough. Something more important happens with the preaching of Christ the crucified, with baptism, and with the Lord’s Supper. The Holy Spirit works in these things by his almighty power to make sinners trust in Jesus. Thereby the devil is defeated with all his lies. Hell is shut. Heaven is opened. And people are made into children of God, with Jesus as their brother. There is nothing higher or more important than this!—not even curing cancer or world peace.

Now at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you might be thinking, “He’s drunk”—or something along those lines. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. How can water or bread and wine do such great things? How can a humble, little building, with such ordinary people, have the Holy Spirit in it? Not everybody was converted on Pentecost either—as you heard in our reading from Acts.

But it doesn’t really matter what people think. What is important is God’s action. The Holy Spirit who was at work at Pentecost and who saved those people, is the same Holy Spirit who is at work today among us. Through the preaching of Christ he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the Holy Christian Church on earth and keeps us together with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. Things of cosmic importance happen here. The devil is renounced, the one true God is embraced, sinners are given the true body and blood of their Savior for the forgiveness of their sins. The Holy Spirit is to be praised for doing this work to you and among us as a congregation.

We began today by speaking about the relevance of the three great Christian festivals. Christmas is important because God becomes one of us, so that we could become children of God through him. Easter is important because this is the way that sinners are redeemed and set free from the Law that would otherwise require our death and drag us down into hell. Pentecost is also very relevant and important. In Pentecost you see how the Holy Spirit distributes Christ’s salvation, and how it is received by the Holy Spirit’s power in those whom he has chosen to receive his grace. The Holy Spirit continues to do this work today among us. “Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord, with all your graces now outpoured. On each believer’s mind and heart; Your fervent love to them impart. Alleluia, alleluia!”

210516 Sermon on Ezekiel 36:22-28

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King David was an exceptionally keen observer of mankind. There is nobody else who even comes close understanding the way that people are, except, perhaps, the apostle Paul. But I’m quite sure that even Paul learned what he knew from David’s psalms. So I’d like to begin today with some of David’s thinking concerning man.

The psalm I’d like to look at is Psalm 36. The Hebrew wording is a bit obscure for the very first verse of this psalm, so it gets translated in different ways. I prefer the older translations where the psalm begins this way: “My heart showeth me the wickedness of the ungodly.” The source for David’s knowledge of wickedness is none other than his own heart. So what does he learn about wickedness in that heart of his?

Answer: There is no fear of God before his eyes. The lack of the fear of God is the only way that we can make sense of sin at all. If we feared God we would be too frightened to do anything against his commandments. It’s when the cat’s away that the mice will play. The thought of punishment for what we do wrong is mysteriously absent from our minds. That’s why we are willing to break God’s commandments. We do not fear him. We’ll get away with whatever we want to do.

David continues: “He flatters himself in his own eyes until his abominable sin be found out.” Despite our lack of fear, despite our sins, we go about most our days feeling like we’re not too bad of people. Sure, we sin. We’re disappointed with ourselves. But it’s not that big of a deal. We’re all in this together, and if I compare myself to others, I’m probably doing a better job than they are.

This train of thought will keep chugging along for who knows how long. There’s only one way to make it stop: “He flatters himself in his own eyes until his abominable sin be found out.” When what we have done in secret, when what we’ve done that we don’t want anybody else to know about, finally comes out—to others or to ourselves—then our self-flattery collapses. It takes a heavy dose of reality, an unmistakable sign of badness, to make us stop flattering ourselves. But this is rare. We get so good at lying to ourselves that we can become impervious to the truth.

David continues: “The words of his mouth are unrighteous and full of deceit. He quits being wise and doing what is good. He plots harm on his bed. He puts himself on an evil path. He does not hate what is evil.” We lie to ourselves. We lie to others. We know what we are supposed to do, and we don’t do it. All the while we flatter ourselves in our own eyes.

At this point there is an abrupt shift to a totally new topic. He looks in a new direction. David sings: “Lord, your mercy reaches to the heavens; your faithfulness, to the skies. Your righteousness stands as strong as the mountains. Your judgments are like the great deep. You save both man and beast, O Lord. How precious is your mercy, O God! The children of Adam find refuge under the shadow of your wings.”

At the beginning of this Psalm David is looking in here: “My heart showeth me the wickedness of the ungodly. There is no fear of God before his eyes.” Then he looks to his God and he says, “Lord, your mercy reaches unto the heavens, and your faithfulness unto the clouds.” In here is wickedness and deceit. In him is mercy, faithfulness, righteousness, and judgment.

This is not surprising. We are talking about two very different things, are we not? We are one way. God is another. We all know this. But when it comes to salvation, we necessarily are putting mankind and God together. What is the bridge that we need to build between us and God, between us and our justification?

The answer is that there is none. It’s like it is in David’s psalm. First he describes man. Then he speaks of God’s mercy. There is an abrupt shift. There is no conjunction, no link. The only way that we are saved is by God’s action, by God’s mercy, quit apart from ourselves. There’s nothing that can be done with man to make him truly better or more loveable. That’s like trying to polish a turd. Nothing can come of that except more and more filth.

The reason why I have brought this up using Psalm 36 is because we see the same thing in our Old Testament reading. Ezekiel was a prophet while the leaders of Judah were being held captive in Babylon, the temple back in Jerusalem was destroyed, and this people of God appeared to have no future and no hope. The reason why the people were in this terrible position was because they had been flattering themselves in their own eyes, and even their abominable sins couldn’t make them second guess themselves. God then punished them until they had nothing left.

This is the background to our reading this morning. Then this is what the Lord God says, “I am about to act, O house of Israel, not for your sake, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you have gone. I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I reveal myself as holy in front of their eyes through you. I will take you from among the nations. I will gather you from all the lands, and I will bring you to your own soil. I will sprinkle purifying water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurity and from all your filthy idols. Then I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and will cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will carefully observe my ordinances. Then you will live in the land I gave your fathers. You will be my people, and I will be your God.”

I’d like you to notice why God acts the way that he does. He’s quite emphatic about it. He’s going to act because of his holy name. He is not going to act because the house of Israel had learned their lesson and reformed themselves. If the Israelites were responsible for doing anything, it was to profane God’s holy name among the Gentiles. To profane something is the opposite of consecrating something. It is the opposite of it being holy and divine. The people of Israel had treated God’s name as though it were nothing. Instead they had relied on their military, diplomacy, and economy. Along these lines they flattered themselves in their own eyes. They thought nothing of God’s name. When they were conquered by outsiders, everyone else also thought that this God of theirs must not be very good. Nobody was satisfied with God’s holy name at that time—neither the people of God nor the Gentiles.

So God says to these people, I’m going to act. I’m not going to act because you are good. I’m not going to act because you have reformed yourselves. I’m not going to act because you’ve been trying harder. Then, when he reveals his plan, it turns out to be the most gracious thing a person could imagine. “Your mercy, O Lord, reaches unto the heavens, and your faithfulness unto the clouds.” God was going to bring them back to their own land and make of them a nation again. This meant that God was going to give them back their stuff. But these blessings that have to do with this body and life are nothing compared to the other things he would do for them.

He was going to sprinkle purifying water on them. He was going to cleanse them from their filthy idolatry. He was going to give them a new heart and put a new spirit in them. He was going to take out that nasty, self-flattering heart of theirs, and give them a heart of flesh. He would give them his own Holy Spirit, so that they would walk in God’s statutes and obey his commandments. He would be their God, and they would be his people.

Here we have a description of something that is hardly less than heaven itself. There is no gift that God can give us that is better or higher than the forgiveness of sins followed by our sanctification. This is literally what will happen with the resurrection from the dead and the life everlasting. Our stupid, cold hearts are going to be renewed in love. All things will be made new. But none of this came about because of mankind making a new beginning or turning over a new leaf. It solely happens by God’s grace, and even in spite of man’s actions getting in the way.

That God’s grace works in this way is very important for you to see for at least two reasons. First of all it is important so that you take God at his Word towards you and you are not waiting around to try to make yourself good enough. God causes his Word to be brought to you. He has caused it to be brought to you, if nowhere else, already in your baptism. That baptism works the forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it. So believe it. Who cares if you are a turd? Who cares if you are soiled with sin? Where does God say that he will save those who save themselves? Nowhere! It’s quite the opposite, in fact. If we want to talk about the way you are, then we’re going to have to go by the descriptions that David and Paul have. Those are not very flattering depictions. The only one who can save and does save is God, and he does it through his promises in Christ.

The second reason why it is important to see how you are saved solely by God’s grace and despite yourself, is so that you can better understand your emotions as you live your Christian life. Those who believe in Christ do not lose their self-flattering Old Adam. He remains in place just as much as he ever did, but in Christians he must contend against the Holy Spirit who is to rule over him. When we become Christians it is inevitable that our self-flattery will continue. It will just put on a different dress. We’ll look at ourselves and say, “My, what progress you are making! Just look at yourself! You used to do this sin and that sin, and now look at you!” Or, perhaps what is more to the point: “Just look at how much better you are than everyone around you! They must not be as good of Christians as you are! Oh, if only everyone could pray like you, avoid sin like you, discipline themselves like you do!”

This kind of thinking is poison. It is an attempt to try to find something in here that makes me acceptable to the one up there, but there is only One who can do that. But here’s the thing—and it’s a really important lesson to learn—we like flattering ourselves in our own eyes, even, and especially, as Christians. We like feeling like we are on the way up. We like feeling like we are getting stronger and stronger, holier and holier. We like believing that since we have done so much polishing we aren’t a turd anymore.

And so when some abominable sin comes along that cuts our self-flattery short, that is very, very depressing. It feels terrible. We feel as though we must not be Christian anymore. Amazingly, the Gospel isn’t very attractive in such a state of mind. We preferred the old Gospel when we were feeling good about ourselves, and now when we feel terrible about ourselves, it doesn’t have that old zip and joy.

This, however, is a very subtle trick of the devil and our Old Adam. Christ does not lose his power to save when we are feeling bad about ourselves. In fact, we quite possibly might be in a better spot when we don’t want to look at ourselves and polish ourselves because we don’t like what we see there. Then we might look to our beautiful Savior. God does not wait around for us to take the first step or reform ourselves. He isn’t waiting for us to feel good about ourselves and the religious choices that we have made. He acts because of his own holy name, which we have profaned.

And so it may very well be that we do not feel forgiven or holy or strong or what-have-you. The Holy Spirit’s comfort is different from the world’s comfort. You can read what Luther has to say about that on the back of your bulletin later. The Holy Spirit’s comfort is such that when we are weak, then we are strong. It is not when we are gushing all over ourselves about how wonderful we are and how much progress we have made that we are strong. That’s what the world always thinks. Rather, it is when we are weak and He is strong, that is when we have no other choice than to rely on God’s grace. And blessed are you if you rely on God’s grace—even when you do not feel like it. You will find that he (as opposed to us) does all things well.

210509 Sermon on John 16:23-33 (Easter 6) May 9, 2021

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210502 Sermon on John 16:5-15 (Easter 5) May 2, 2021

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The psalmist says, “For you, O Lord, are the most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.” Again, it says, “The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory is higher than the heavens.” In one of our songs in the liturgy we sing something similar: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth! Heaven and earth are full of your glory!” God is glorious. The Christ is glorious.

The apostles had thought on Holy Week that this glory had only just begun for Jesus, and therefore also for them, his friends. Holy week was a good week for Jesus until that terrible night when he was betrayed. He had ridden into Jerusalem with palms and praises. He had routed his enemies who tried to slip him up with trick questions. So when Jesus tells them on the night that he was betrayed how he was going away from them, sorrow filled their hearts. The believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the one God had promised from the beginning. This Christ is supposed to be king. How can there be this talk of him going away? A kingdom was going to need to be built. How could it be built without a king?

This is the concern that Jesus is addressing in our Gospel reading today. He was going to go away. He wasn’t going to remain with them in the same way that he had before. He was going to die, be resurrected, and ascend to the right hand of God the Father. But he was not going to leave them as orphans. He was going to send the Holy Spirit, whom he calls the Counselor or the Helper. Surprisingly, they will be better off when Jesus goes away, because if he did not go away the Holy Spirit would not come to them. But if he goes away he will send the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit would lead them into all the truth.

Jesus told the apostles that he had many things that he would like to say to them, but they could not yet bear what he had to say. This is because the disciples were still stuck in the notion that Jesus was going to create an earthly kingdom. They thought that he would be like King David. He would kick out the Romans and make all the Gentile nations pay tribute. They, as his friends, would be given high positions in the government. A new and glorious day was dawning. It was morning again in Jerusalem. Blow the trumpets; raise an army! Let’s get this glory show on the road.

But this was not how Jesus would have it go. This is not how it did go. No armies, no purple robes, no parades of goosesteppers. Without these things we can’t help but think that the whole enterprise was downgraded. It went from being a great kingdom to be a merely spiritual kingdom, which, to many minds, sounds like a pretend kingdom. Meanwhile, what happens to these apostles? According to tradition Peter is crucified upside down. Andrew is crucified on an X shaped cross. Thomas is skinned alive. Paul is beheaded. What kind of kingdom is this? It hardly appears to be even an imaginary kingdom.

But appearances can be deceiving. That which is seen is temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. What is given to the apostles, and therefore also to the Christian Church even down to our own times, is not a step down from a physical kingdom, nor is it something imaginary. It is such a kingdom that triumphs over all enemies.

Psalm 2 is a very important prophecy about Christ’s kingdom. In this psalm it says, “Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples grumble in vain? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers join together against the Lord and against his Christ. They say, ‘Let us tear off their chains and throw off their ropes from us.’ But the one who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. He speaks to them in his anger and in his wrath he terrifies them. He says, ‘I have installed my King on Zion, on my holy mountain.’” The kingdom of Christ is such that the greatest nations cannot do anything against it. The Lord laughs at them when they try to resist him.

In Daniel chapter 2 there is a prophesy about Christ’s kingdom that uses picture language. The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, receives a vision of a proud and glorious statue. It represents the greatest civilizations that have existed on this planet. Even such a proud civilization as our own might be thrown into the mix. Our civilization believes it can conquer the universe, bend the laws of physics, and defeat death if only it believes in itself and never gives up. But this glorious statue that Nebuchadnezzar sees has clay feet. And there is a stone that is not cut with human hands that struck the magnificent statue and it all came down in a heap.

That stone is Jesus Christ, who became incarnate in the womb of the virgin Mary, not by the will of man, but by the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus’s kingdom is such that it is an everlasting kingdom. No matter how conceited mankind might get in his belief in his own power, the Kingdom of Christ is greater.

By his Gospel and by his Sacraments, Jesus makes people into children of God. By the Spirit and by the water we are born again. Being baptized into Christ we are crucified together with Christ and raised together with Christ. Just as Jesus will never die again, so also we will never truly die. Jesus has defeated death. Whatever powers and authorities there might be in heaven or on earth, they will all be put under Jesus’s feet. These are things that the mightiest of empires that have existed on this earth cannot even dream of accomplishing.

So you must not think that Christ’s kingdom is an imaginary kingdom. It is more real than the things we can see and taste and touch, because one day these things will be brought to an end. Christ will be king, world without end. And the authority that Jesus gives to those who confess his saving Name is also tremendous.

Jesus gives to his Christians what he calls the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Those keys open and close heaven and hell. What greater power could any king or president or emperor ever dream of? And yet this power is given to even the poorest, weakest, humblest Christian. When a Christian speaks God’s Word to someone, that Word accomplishes what it says. If it says that the unrepentant cannot enter the kingdom of God, then that is how it will be. If it says that whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, then that is what is brought about. There is nobody on earth—no matter how rich or powerful a person might be—who is outside the jurisdiction of Christ’s kingdom. The humbles Christian may speak to the kings of the earth, and sooner or later they will come cringing to him.

Of course, now, in the hour of darkness, the high and mighty will not see this. They will not imagine that the Word that is spoken to them is God’s Word. They will think it is merely a man-made word. They will not think that it has any authority. They will smirk, bemusedly, at a Christian who makes such exalted claims.

Think of how Pontius Pilate treated Jesus. Pilate asked Jesus, “So you are a king are you?” Mm hmm. Jesus told him quite plainly and rightly—we are not in the business of lying, after all—that his kingdom was not of this world. If his kingdom was of this world he would command his angels who would fight for him, but his kingdom is not of this world. And I’m sure Pilate said, “Mm hmm.”

Eventually Pilate put a sign on Jesus’s cross that said, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” He meant that sign to be a sneering, sarcastic sign. It was intended to say, “Look at this stupid, deluded man. He thinks he’s a king.” But in actual fact that sign spoke the truth. There on that cross was not just the king of the Jews, but the king of heaven and earth. Holy, holy, holy, heaven and earth are full of his glory. He died for sin. He was raised for our justification. He ascended in triumph. He sits at the right hand of God the Father, reigning and ruling in his Kingdom on earth by the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of his Sacraments. And he will come again with power and great glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will have no end.

So do not think that Christ’s Kingdom, wherein he reigns and rules by means of words, is somehow less powerful or less real than a kingdom that is ruled by guns or even nuclear bombs. The Lord, who sits in the heavens, laughs. He holds them in derision. Jesus speaks the truth when he says to his disciples, “It is to your advantage that I go away.” It is to their advantage because Jesus sends the Holy Spirit.

And let’s say a little something about the work that the Holy Spirit does according to Jesus’s words. He says the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. Foolish men, women, and children think they have a pretty good handle on what sin is, what righteousness is, and what judgment is. This is especially true of the high and mighty. They think they know these things quite well. In fact, they think they know these things so well that they can’t help but scowl at Jesus’s explanations of these words.

Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in him. “Well, I don’t know how much of a sin that is! I think I could come up with some juicier ones than that!” Our reason imagines that so long as we don’t murder, rape, or steal, we must be a jolly good fellow. God, however, does not look at these outward things. He looks at the heart. And there he sees how man truly is. He hates. He’s lazy, He’s a slave to his passions. And on top of all that he’s proud of it all to boot! There is only one way to be saved from this horror show that exists in every single one of our hearts—and that’s by faith in Christ.

Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning righteousness because he goes to the Father and we will see him no longer. If our reason doesn’t care for Jesus’s definition of sin, it only gets worse with his definition of righteousness. What on earth does Jesus’s going to the Father have to do with righteousness at all or with the righteousness of any one of us?

Here Jesus speaks in parables so that the truth may be hidden from those to whom it has not been given. Jesus going to the Father includes all that he has done for the salvation of the world. Included in these words are Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus did not do these things for himself or for his own righteousness. He had no need of such things. But we do. The only way that any descendant of Adam and Eve can be righteous is through Jesus’s righteousness that is offered to all and received by faith. We see him no longer. We hold to him by faith.

Finally the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Judgment has to do with knowing what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. Here too the world has a pretty good idea of what is right and wrong, good and bad, thank you very much. What is right and good to them certainly doesn’t include listening to a crazy preacher talk about an imaginary kingdom for twenty minutes, and then eating a wafer and taking a sip of wine. They know of better ways to spend their time. They’d rather watch sports, or watch TV, or sleep. But they know not what they do. Their judgment is way off. They don’t know what’s what.

Here’s what’s what: The ruler of this world, the devil, has been judged. The one who has judged him and condemned him is the Lord Jesus Christ. The story line for our existence is not the progressive march of civilization. What is good is our God, what is bad is the devil. What is wise is God’s Word. What is foolish is believing in idols.

With these words Jesus tells us the work of the Holy Spirit. It is wonderful to me that he hides these things from the wise and prudent and reveals them to babes. The world believes that it is invincible and eternal with its wisdom, power, and might. That is not surprising, really, if you only consider how we think of ourselves. We all think that we are quite something. We all think that the world would be a whole lot better place if everyone would just see how smart we are and agree with everything we think.

But it is different with those who have been convicted by the Holy Spirit. They know their sin. They know the only One who is righteous. They know that they’d better stick with him if there is to be any goodness whatsoever. The work of the Holy Spirit is glorious. He works miracles as he breaks our stupid pride. Such is the work of Christ’s kingdom.

“You, O Lord, are the most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.” “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth! Heaven and earth are full of your glory!” Amen.