Fifth Sunday of Easter April 24, 2016
5th Sunday of Easter (Cantate)
John 16:5-15
April 24, 2016
“Comforted Convict”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today Jesus teaches us about the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, or the Helper as our text translates it. Also Jesus calls Him the Spirit of Truth. Here’s the key today: The Holy Spirit comforts you—He helps you—by convicting you of the truth. The truth of your sin and the truth of your salvation in Jesus.
The truth is comforting. It’s comforting and helpful to know the truth. Like, for instance, when you’re feeling sick and you know something’s not right with your body. What do you want to know? The truth. You just want to know what’s going on. Even if it’s something not very good. There’s a lot of comfort in just knowing what’s wrong, knowing the truth, so that you can start to deal with it.
Husbands and wives often are tempted to hide the truth from each other because they think it will be better and easier for their spouse. But it’s not. It makes things worse. The truth is comforting. A spouse usually knows something is wrong anyway. To know the truth is better. And more comforting. And then you can work together. The same thing is true with friends and family and neighbors and all people. Knowing the truth is comforting.
We just want to know what the problem is. We just want to know what happened. We just want to know what was really said. We just want to know what’s really possible and what’s not. We just want the truth. Because the truth is comforting.
Now then, let me tell you that on the flip side, there’s NO comfort in lies. Lies do not help or comfort us at all. They deceive us, hurt us, and mislead us. And there are a number of lies that get floated around a whole lot today that are really harmful to people.
One example of a common lie that we tell ourselves and the world pushes around all the time is this: “That all people deep down are good people.” It sounds really good and it makes us all feel really good about ourselves. Except it’s not true. And that ends up hurting all of us. We are not all deep, down good people. We are all deep, down sinful. There is definitely one sense that it’s true that we’re all good and valuable because we’re all created by God. Yes, that’s true and that’s helpful and comforting.
But it’s not true that we’re all good. From the moment we’re conceived, even though we’re created by God and good in that sense, we immediately inherit the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve and our hearts are filled with sin. Our hearts are filled with selfishness and narcissism and greed and envy and hatred and all kinds of other evils. Thankfully most of us are restrained early on so that those sins don’t get out of control. But that doesn’t mean we’re good. It’s not helpful or comforting to always being telling people that they’re good people if they know deep, down in their heart that something is wrong with them. We know something is actually wrong. It’s called sin. And it’s comforting to know the truth of it.
Another lie that is told often is that we can do anything that we set our mind to if we work hard enough for it. It sounds really good except that it’s not true at all. Can I live forever if I set my mind to it and work hard enough for it? No, I can’t. I will still die like everyone else has from the beginning of the world. Except Jesus, of course.
Can I keep my hair from turning gray or white or from falling out in places if I set my mind to it? No, I can’t. You can disguise it and there are plenty of people to sell you products that they swear will work. But it’s not going to happen. Can I grow wings and fly around everywhere so I don’t have to walk or run or drive a car? No, I can’t. The truth is—there are actually some things you just can’t do. It’s better to know that truth. Sure, we want to all be motivated to accomplish things and make the world better—but we need to know the difference between what can be done and what can’t be done.
Another big lie is similar but a little different—that you can be whoever you want to be. Except that we can’t. I can’t be a cow if I want to be a cow. I can’t be a seven year old child if I want to be a seven year old child. I can’t be a 7’2” NBA basketball center if I want to be a 7’2” center. I can’t be African or Asian or French descent if I want to be. I’m just not. This lie will not help me or comfort me at all.
Now this lie is a really big one right now in our country. I can’t be a woman if I am born a man. That’s a lie. I can’t be a man if I’m born a woman. It’s not comforting or helpful to anyone to keep perpetuating that lie and telling people that they can be any gender or sex that they want to be. Some things are just true and unchangeable. The sooner that we learn that truth is the sooner that we can start to deal with the truth. The whole trouble right now that we’re having over who can use which bathroom is really just clouding a much deeper issue—and that’s who can be a man and who can be a woman. And the truth is—you can’t just pick one.
Lies don’t help or comfort. That’s why Jesus sends His Spirit out to convict us of the truth. Jesus tells His disciples in our Gospel reading that it is to our advantage if He goes away and dies and rises and ascends into heaven—because then He sends His Spirit to us to show us the truth.
Now I want to explain these three truths that the Spirit shows us. However, first let’s briefly talk about this word “convict”. In Greek, the word there is to prove something is true or prove someone he is wrong or false. Or the best one I read is, “To show something for what it is.” Convict has to do with showing someone the truth. A convict is someone whose guilt was shown to be true beyond a reasonable doubt. To convict someone can mean different things like actually declaring them guilty or it can be just really inspiring someone with the truth.
So here comes the Holy Spirit to convict us. What does that mean? He shows us the truth. He shows us for what we are. He comes to convict the world concerning sin. The whole world. Everyone has sin. We’re not all good, righteous people by nature who just go astray sometimes. No, we’re all sinners who do not believe in God or trust Him as we should. It’s not just that we do bad things either. Yes, we do but it’s much more than that. We don’t believe in God. We don’t trust Him. Instead, we make our own gods and we want to think we can do whatever we want and think whatever we want and be whatever we want. This is not right or good or comforting or helpful. It’s wrong.
You will not be comforted or helped at all by trying to act like you don’t have sin or acting like you can deal with it on your own. You will be comforted only confessing the truth of it. Not denying it or covering it up or trying to make up for it. Confessing it. Saying, “I’m guilty.” “I’m a convict.” “I’m a sinner.”
Now then comes the Holy Spirit again to convict you. This time to convict you of what’s right. To convict you of how to be made right. And that means showing you Jesus. You are comforted and helped, not by being told how you can fix everything in your life, but by believing in Jesus Christ who has already fixed it. Jesus doesn’t give you a bunch of big fancy lies to make you feel better. He comes in His Word and Sacrament and says, “I have done everything that you cannot do. I have died and risen. I have ascended into heaven to fill all things. I am with you always. And I forgive your sins through Holy Baptism and Holy Communion and Holy Absolution.” And we are comforted because it’s the truth.
And, finally, the last thing Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of is judgment. This will be on the Last Day. The devil has already been judged and defeated. And on the Last Day Jesus will raise all the dead and give the devil his due. The Holy Spirit teaches us this truth so that we will not be confused by the work of the devil in the world. We know his judgment is coming and we know that Christ will be the victory. We’re not fooled or deceived by all the evil and violence that are rampant in our world. Because we know Jesus is coming again and we know that the devil will not win.
It’s comforting to know the truth. You remember Jonah from the Old Testament? God told him to go to those wicked people in Nineveh and tell them the truth. To tell them they there wicked and God was going to punish them very soon. Jonah didn’t want to go over there. But in the end—when Jonah finally just told them the truth—they repented and they were comforted and helped. It sounds a bit crazy, right? Those folks in Nineveh were probably livin’ it up. It was probably like Las Vegas over there in Nineveh. But what they needed more than anything was just the truth—the truth that they were wicked and that God would forgive their sin.
Or do you remember good ol’ Zacchaeus? There was another guy who was livin’ it up. He was rich, we’re told in the Scripture. He probably had everything he wanted just like we all dream about today. Except he was short. And something, he knew, was terribly wrong in his life. And one day Jesus comes by and he can’t see Him because he’s too short. So he climbs up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wants to see. And what happens? Zacchaeus is convicted of the truth. And it comforts and helps him. He sees what a sinner he has been and how he has hurt people and so he gave half of all that he had to the poor and restored four times what he has defrauded people. The truth of his sin and the truth of Jesus’ salvation was his comfort and help.
Friends in Christ, we won’t lie to each other and say we can be anything we want and do anything we want and have anything we want. That doesn’t comfort or help anyone. Rather, you know very well the truth. You see it every day in your own life. The truth is that you and I are weak and full of sin. And the Holy Spirit convicts us again today that what is right in this world is Jesus Christ our Savior. He makes us right through the forgiveness of sins. He comforts us with the truth of our salvation so that we rejoice like the people of Nineveh and like the tax collector Zacchaeus.
The truth is that you are forgiven and loved by Jesus your Savior. The song we heard in Isaiah this morning is our song, “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
In Jesus’ name. Amen.