THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

June 4, 2017

Pastor Bernt P. Tweit

Old Testament Lesson; Joel 2:28-29

Epistle Lesson; Acts 2:1-21

Sermon Text; John 16:5-11

The Word of God we focus on for today is taken from John chapter 16, looking at verses 5 through 11. Jesus said:

But now I am going away to Him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' Yet because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me, about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me, about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”

This is God's Word.

On one hand, it is odd we are looking at this section of scripture for Pentecost. But on the other hand, it is not, because Jesus is pointing us to the work of the Holy Spirit. I want you to place yourself in the context. Jesus is speaking to His disciples on Maundy Thursday evening, in the upper room, in the city of Jerusalem. So, place yourself in that upper room. Jesus has washed your feet. Jesus has predicted who is going to betray Him (that would be Judas). Jesus has predicted who is going to deny Him (that would be Peter). And, Jesus has shared very comforting words, words you know full well, when He said,

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God.

Trust also in me.

In my Father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

I am going there to prepare a place for you.

And, if I go, and prepare a place for you,

I will come back,

and take you to be with me,

that you also may be where I am.”

Jesus was preparing the disciples for His departure. But, He was also telling them Help was coming. It is like a soldier who is with his comrades, and they are under heavy attack. One of the soldiers decides to leave all of his comrades behind, so he can go, and get help. The people remaining are filled with sorrow and hope. Sorrow or grief that their buddy is leaving, but hope he is going to be coming back, with help.

The disciples were under attack. We are under attack. But, as Jesus leaves, He didn’t leave them alone. He provides Help. What Jesus wants the disciples to know, and what Jesus wants us to know is that the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit is worth far more than the physical presence of Jesus. And so, Jesus wouldn't be physically with the disciples. He is not physically with us. But, the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, in God's Word, and Sacrament, is worth more than even the presence of Jesus, Himself.

And so, Jesus' words today are to do two things.

       -They are to bring comfort, comfort immediately to the disciples. Also, to bring comfort to us.

       -Secondly, these words were to prepare the disciples for ministry, and The Great Commission of making disciples of all nations. These words also prepare us to do the same thing.

Let's look at our text for today. I am going to encourage you to follow along, because I am going to go verse, by verse. If you have a pen, I encourage you to circle a few things, as we go through. Here is what Jesus said,

“But now I am going away to Him who sent me...”

There, Jesus is simply saying He is returning to God, the Father, who sent Him. At Christmas time, we usually hear this passage from the book of Galatians,

“When the fullness of time had come,

God sent His Son.”

Well, now the work that Jesus came to do was complete, and He was returning to the Father, who had sent Him.

He goes on to say,

“...and not one of you asks me,

'Where are you going?'

Yet because I have told you these things,

sorrow has filled your heart.”

When you need to say, “Good bye”, is it harder for you to be the one who is leaving, or is it harder to be the one who is left behind?
Every year I have been here at Holy Cross, I have seen this, when it is the day the kids go to Camp Indianhead. On one hand, there are some kids who are filled with sorrow. They are the ones leaving. Why are they filled with sorrow? They aren't going to be with Mom and Dad for a week.

On the other hand, though, I have seen Mom and Dad filled with sorrow, because “Hah, my child is not going to be with me for this week. How is it going to go for them?”

Is it easier for you to be the one leaving, or to be the one remaining? Jesus was leaving. It wasn't hard for Him to say, “Good bye”, because He knew the work of salvation was going to be complete. But, sorrow was filling the hearts of the disciples, because they had sat at the feet of Jesus for the last three years. They were filled with grief, because He was leaving. But, here again Jesus was saying, “It is important that I go so that the Counselor can come.”

Now, today I am not focusing very much on the person of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that:

the Holy Spirit is God.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity

of the Triune God.

It is our text for today, that really has us focus on the work of the Holy Spirit.

What is it the Holy Spirit does? Jesus goes on to say this in verse seven,

“Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth:

It is good for you that I go away.

For if I do not go away, the Counselor (that is the Holy Spirit)

will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send Him to you.”

Again, Jesus has done everything that is necessary for our salvation. He did that through:

       -the perfect life He lived for us,

       -the death He died on the cross, and

       -His glorious resurrection.

Forty-three days after Jesus spoke these words, He was going to be ascending into Heaven. There would only be a ten day break or absence, because fifty-three days after Jesus spoke these words, it would be Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit would come.

And now, Jesus tells us the threefold work of the Holy Spirit, when in verse eight He says,

“When He (the Holy Spirit) comes,

He will convict the world about sin,

about righteousness,

and about judgment...”

As you see that verb 'convict', you might say, “Well, this just doesn't make much sense.” We understand Jesus 'convicts' us of sin. I understand that. But, how does Jesus 'convict' us of righteousness, and judgment?

Here is where we have to look at a secondary definition for the word, 'convict', or an archaic way of looking at the word 'convict'. Think in terms of the verb 'convince'. If you would look up 'convict' in the dictionary, it would say, 'to expose', 'to refute', 'to cross examine for the purpose of convincing an opponent, especially used of legal proceedings'.

So, I am going to replace the word 'convict' with 'convince', throughout the rest of my sermon. The Holy Spirit 'convinces' us about sin, and about righteousness, and about judgment.

Now, go to verse nine. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, the three goals the Holy Spirit has.

The Holy Spirit 'convinces' us “about sin,

because they do not believe in me;”

Now, you might be saying to yourself, “Wait a minute. Pastor Tweit, I thought you told me the work of the Holy Spirit is to bring us to faith to believe in Jesus, as our Savior.”

That is right. That is the primary work of the Holy Spirit. But when the Holy Spirit 'convinces' us about sin, it is talking about the secondary work of the Holy Spirit. Or, I am going to go so far as to say “the alien work of the Holy Spirit”. Here is what Isaiah says about “the alien work of the Holy Spirit”.

“The Holy Spirit does His work,

His strange work

to perform His tasks,

His alien task.”

What is that “alien task”? When Martin Luther died in 1546, the Lutheran Church was getting threatened with being torn apart. The leaders of the church knew they needed to come up with written documents on what the Lutherans stand on based on what God's Word says, when they came to talking about the Holy Spirit, in the Lutheran Confessions in the Formula of Concord.

“Therefore the Holy Spirit must not only comfort, but through the Office of the Law, must also 'convince' (there is that word 'convince') the world of sin. Even in The New Testament, the Holy Spirit must perform what the prophet Isaiah called this strange work, or this alien task, until He comes to His own work, that is to comfort, and to preach about grace.”

And so, this alien task, or this foreign work of the Holy Spirit is to 'convince' us about sin. The Holy Spirit does that through The Law.

       -The Law shows us our sins.

       -The Law tells us what to do, and

       -what not to do.

And so, the Holy Spirit does that in revealing our sin in us.

There was once a young lady, who earlier in her life did not believe in Jesus, as her Savior. But, through the work of the Holy Spirit, she came to faith to believe in Jesus, as her Savior. At her church she was visiting with some members. She was telling them, “I was a sinner, before I came to faith, to believe in Jesus as my Savior.”

She went on to say, “After I came to faith to believe in Jesus, as my Savior, I am still a sinner.”

So, somebody asked her, “What is the difference between being a sinner before you believe in Jesus, and being a sinner after you believe in Jesus?”

Here is what she said (and this is interesting). She said, “Before I came to faith, I was a sinner who was running after sin. I was running toward sin. But, now that I believe in Jesus, as my Savior, I am a sinner who desires to run away from sin.”

That is the difference between faith, and unbelief. That is the alien work, first of all, of the Holy Spirit to 'convince' us about sin.

But, now we look at the primary work of the Holy Spirit. This is verse ten.

The Holy Spirit convinces people

“about righteousness,

because I am going to the Father

and you will no longer see me;”.

Here is the primary work of the Holy Spirit - to 'convince' us about righteousness.

But, I do need to say this, first. For those who don't believe in Jesus, as their Savior, what they really are telling God is, “I can earn salvation by myself. I can earn salvation through my own righteousness.”

Well, God sets the bar pretty high, doesn't He? Jesus said,

“Be perfect,

as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”

But, here is the comforting thing the Holy Spirit reveals to you, and to me.

The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus.

Through Word, and Sacrament, the Holy Spirit reminds us of what Jesus, our Savior has done for us. We don't need to be saved by our own righteousness, because Jesus provides the righteousness we need. As The New Testament says,

“God made Him who had no sin

to be sin for us

so that in Him, (in Jesus),

we might become the righteousness of God.”

And wow, how awesome, and comforting it is to know Jesus gives His righteousness to you and me, and the Holy Spirit 'convinces' us about the righteousness Jesus has given to us.

Lastly, the third work of the Holy Spirit is verse eleven.

The Holy Spirit convinces people,

convinces us

“about judgment,

because the ruler of this world

has been condemned.”

When unbelievers are judged, they will be condemned. But, when believers are judged, they will receive life. They will receive eternal life in Heaven. It is all because of the work of the Holy Spirit in 'convincing' us about sin, righteousness, and judgment.

So now that we are people who have been convinced about sin, righteousness, and judgment, what kind of life is it that we want to live? As I shared with the youth, this morning, we want to live a spirit filled life. We want to live a spirit led life.

I am going to conclude this morning, by using this illustration to talk about it. I know a man who is in his fifties. (None of us know who this man is.) He loves to run, and is training for a marathon. He said he feels total freedom, when he is running. So, he watches what he eats. He gets up early in the morning to run, and to train for a marathon.

But, here is how he runs. He runs with a person on his left, and he runs with a person on his right.

It is not that he runs that way because he doesn't have courage. Rather, I would say he is filled with great courage, extraordinary courage. The reason I say that is because the runner I am talking about is blind. He can't see. But, he runs with people beside him, who are holding on to shoe laces. Each one of them is holding a shoe lace, and he is holding the other end of the shoe lace. He is running in cadence step for step, with the people on his right, and on his left.

That takes a lot of trust, doesn't it, to be a runner who is being led by other people? But, if there is a tug to the left, he goes to the left. If there is a tug to the right, he goes to the right. He is a runner who is filled with trust, with those who he is running with.

Dear friends in Christ, you and I are that 'runner'. It is the Holy Spirit who is on either side of us. The Holy Spirit has 'convinced' us about sin, righteousness, and judgment. We are now filled with the Holy Spirit, and He is the One who is leading us. Just as that blind runner, training for the marathon, trusts those he is running with, may we also be a people who trust where the Holy Spirit is leading us.

Where is the Holy Spirit leading us? He is leading us to 'The Finish Line' of everlasting life, with Him in Heaven.

Amen