Sermon manuscript:
The greatest possibilities exist wherever the Word of God is
heard. The Word of God has the ability to bring about righteousness where there
is otherwise only sin. It can bring life where there is only otherwise death.
It teaches us who we are and who God isWe may learn what is truly good and holy
and God-pleasing for our lives—the way that we should live. The truths of God’s
Word are not just for this life, but carry on into eternal life. These are the
most important things anyone could want to know.
There’s one more thing worth mentioning about God’s Word
especially on this day of Pentecost. The Word of God is the way that the Holy
Spirit works. Don’t look for the Holy Spirit apart from the Word of God. The
Holy Spirit does not work in us apart from the Word of God. But in the Word of
God the Holy Spirit is our paraklete.
Paraklete is the Greek word that Jesus uses to describe the
Holy Spirit. This Greek word can be accurately translated with many different
English words. The translation we heard this morning used the word “counselor.”
This would be akin to being a lawyer. Lawyers are called counselors. Lawyers
represent and speak for their clients. Most importantly, lawyers are on the
side of their clients. Another word that gets across the meaning of paraklete
is “advocate.” An advocate is on your side. Older translations opted for the
word “comforter.” Someone on your side speaks words of comfort. The main thing
with the word paraklete is that the Holy Spirit sidles up to you. Let’s say
you’re walking down the street. He sidles up to you and walks right along with
you. And he is your friend. He’s on your side. He helps. He speaks for you.
The Word of God is rich and full of all kinds of blessings.
It teaches wisdom and the way of salvation. But to my mind the greatest of all
the things that God does through the Word of God is the giving of the
paraklete, the Holy Spirit, who is himself God. This friend, this comforter,
sidles up to you to bring you a message of victory and peace. God is for you in
our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not dependent upon you in even the tiniest little
bit. This is an objective, real, and universally applicable message: God is for
you.
This message is completely and entirely dependent upon the
facts of God’s saving work. God so loved the world that he gave his eternally
begotten Son. God redeemed sinners through his Son, who became man in the womb
of the virgin Mary. God did all that he did in Jesus for the benefit of
sinners. Although sinners are hateful and disgusting, enemies of God, and
seemingly irredeemable, Jesus suffered in their place, and there was not a
single sin which was not redeemed by this great God-man, Jesus Christ. Although
he is God, the crushing weight of our sin killed him. God did all of this
because he is on our side. Jesus is the first-fruits of those who rise from the
dead. Through his death and resurrection we are purified to live new lives
together with God.
The Holy Spirit, the paraklete, sidles up to those who hear
the Word of God and testifies to you that this is for you. God has done this
all for you. God is on your side. You might want to object: “But what about
this or that? What about all the sins I’ve committed?” Your salvation is not
dependent upon you. Your sins are not more powerful than God. God’s power and
grace are such that they be like an ocean and your sins are but a spark. Do you
suppose that the ocean is able to put out a spark? Rest assured. Although your
sins are awful, disgusting, and embarrassing, they are no match for Jesus’s
blood.
So the work of the Holy Spirit is much better than that of a
lawyer, a counselor, an advocate. Lawyers and advocates are great. They are on
your side, and they fight for you. But there is no guarantee whatsoever that
they are going to be able to win for you. Despite the best of intentions and
the hardest work they lose cases all the time. This is not how it is with the
Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit in the Word of God announces God’s completed
salvation in Jesus Christ and says that it is for you. The verdict has already
been rendered by God. You just might not know it yet or believe it fully. The
verdict is that you are not guilty because Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin
for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
This is what makes the sending of the Holy Spirit such a
monumental event. The Holy Spirit announces what has already been done and
accomplished. How different the message would be if only the possibility of salvation were announced:
“If you play your cards right, if you don’t screw it up, then you have a good
shot at winning.”
That would offer hope and despair to exactly the wrong
people. It would offer some hope to those who are wrong about their own
goodness and righteousness, but it would exclude hope for anyone who is honest
about themselves. Those who know the truth, those who know their sinful
condition, would have to believe that they are going to lose. They haven’t
played their cards right.
The Gospel, however, announces that everyone wins. All have
been forgiven by what Jesus has done. Therefore God will live in those who
believe in Jesus, and we will live in God. We have been reconciled to him.
But what about those who do not believe? One of the reasons
why folks don’t see Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit as being that
great is because so many people don’t believe. Our reason thinks that the way
the story should go is that Jesus works our salvation, then the Holy Spirit
should make everyone who hears the Gospel be saved. That, however, is not how
things go. Some believe. Some don’t. Some believe, are baptized, and saved.
Some do not believe and are condemned. Why do some believe and some don’t? Why
is this one saved, but that one is condemned?
This is the kind of question that is getting very close to
God’s majesty, which is far above us. Does a toddler need to understand the
whys and how-comes of its parents? What would even this world come to if adults
were constricted in their actions by what was understandable to toddlers? How,
then, can God be constricted in his actions by what is understandable or acceptable
to us? Toddlers might think that they are geniuses. Does that, in fact, make
them geniuses? We might think that we know the difference between good and
evil. We might think we know how God should act and what he should do, but is
this actually the case? Do we know better than God?
Indeed, thinking you are wiser than God’s Word is the reason
why people do not believe. They are blinded by the god of this age, the devil,
who is an exceedingly proud spirit. Unbelievers, following the lead of their
master, are so proud of their wisdom and reasoning that if anything should ever
contradict their reasoning, then it has to go. If they can’t understand
anything and everything about God and his will, then that must be some kind of
myth or fable.
What matters, however, is not what I think is true, or what
you think is true. We could both be mistaken. What matters is what is actually
true. The truth of things is true totally independent of what I or you might
think.
For example, let’s say I have a 100 dollar bill. It’s
perfectly authentic and legal tender. But for some reason I don’t believe that
it is true. Since I don’t believe that it is true, I flush it down the toilet. That
100 dollar bill used to be mine. It was completely authentic and true. It would
have bought whatever I would have wanted to buy with it. However, since I
didn’t believe that it was true, it came to be of no use to me.
Now did my unbelief change the nature of the 100 dollar
bill? Did my unbelief make the 100 dollar bill cease to be a 100 dollar bill?
No. The 100 dollar bill continued to be as authentic and true as it ever was as
it passed through the sewer pipes. However, my unbelief made that 100 dollar
bill to be of no use to me.
Let’s use another example, this one from the Bible. God
commanded Noah to build an ark in order to escape his waters of judgment upon
the overwhelming sin of the earth. Noah and his family had God’s promise. God
said the ark would work. It would carry them through and save them. But let’s
suppose that one of those 8 individuals came to believe that the ark was
worthless. The ark wouldn’t save them. So they jump off the ark and perish in
the water. Now whose fault would that be? Is that the ark’s fault? Did it
become somehow less salvific? No. The ark remained what it always was—God’s
salvation.
So it is with God’s salvation in Christ. God has completely
and fully saved and forgiven all people through the wonderfully rich and
effective blood of his own Son. God’s grace and power is such that it is like
an ocean, whereas the sin of the entire world is but a spark. God completely
and totally triumphed over sin, death, and the devil so that the objective proclamation
of reconciliation with God and eternal life in heaven may be made by the Holy
Spirit. This proclamation is authentic and true.
Nobody’s belief or unbelief can change what God has done.
However, a person’s unbelief makes it so that this objectively true salvation
is flushed down the toilet so to speak, or a person jumps off the ark into the
waters of damnation. Why does a person do that? Because they believed lies. Who
is the great liar? That liar and murderer, the devil, who particularly
specializes in spiritual things.
So how do we thwart the devil? This is a very important and
practical question. The devil is our enemy. How can we not be taken in by his
lies? The answer is by believing that the parakelet, the Comforter, speaks the objective
truth about the forgiveness Jesus worked for all people. We must set aside our
proud, toddler-ish thoughts, and believe that God knows what he is doing when
he announces our salvation in Jesus Christ. Let God be true and every man a
liar. Trust God more than you even trust yourself.
It is an astounding thing that you have been given the
message of God’s sure and certain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. It
is astounding that the Holy Spirit sidles up to you and testifies that this is
yours. Though you are a sinner, you are not a sinner. Though you are mortal,
you are immortal. Though you are God’s enemy, you are God’s beloved child.
There is no doubt or chance in your salvation because God has done it all for
you. This is a message that is of cosmic importance. It lasts eternally. No
greater message could ever be given to any person.
But how easily despised and disbelieved this message can be
too. So it goes. A countless multitude lived at the time of Noah, but only
eight souls in all were saved. Abraham pleaded for Sodom to be saved for the
sake of 50, then 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10. If ten could be found
who believed, then Sodom and Gomorrah would have been saved. But only Lot and
his daughters were saved. Jesus says that at the end of the world it will be
like it was at the time of Noah and at the time of Sodom. People will be busy.
They will be buying and selling, eating and drinking, making memories, but
caring nothing for God and his Word. If this doesn’t accurately describe the
times that we are living in, then I don’t know what could.
That is why it is important that you do not despise God’s
proclamation of salvation or put God to the test. God has done this for you. It
is true, even though none of us toddlers can completely understand it. Although
our salvation is so profound that no one can completely understand it—not even
the angels—nevertheless, even children and handicapped people can grasp it. The
simplest and least clever people can understand that Jesus is their Savior.
The spreading abroad of the Gospel that began at Pentecost
and continues to this very day is wonderful. Do not be taken in by thoughts of
your own cleverness or by demanding that everything is supposed to go how you
think it should. What a wonderful thing it is that you have been baptized. What
a wonderful thing it is to eat Christ’s body and drink his blood. What a true
and objective salvation is given to you by these things! Be at peace. It is for
you.
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