Easter 5 May 10, 2020 The Sunday Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
Easter 5
John 16:5-15
May 10, 2020
“He Will Guide You Into All the Truth”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesus says, “When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” That’s a big and bold statement. Especially today when it seems hard to know if anything is true. All the truth! Do you see what Jesus is saying there about the disciples and about you and me? He gives us His Holy Spirit so that we know what’s true. And not just what is true, but we know all the truth! See, by a true definition of terms, you’re a “know-it-all”. In a good way. You know all the truth.
Now what does that actually mean? Let’s say someone came to visit El Paso and you said, “I’ll give you a tour and show you all the town.” What would you mean by that? Would you show them every single house on every single block and every room in every house and introduce them to every single resident and take a look at every individual blade of grass and take them out East of town and take a walk around the waste pond? Or would you probably show them the highlights of the town? The parks, the downtown, the schools, the churches, and so forth.
Now that’s what Jesus means. He doesn’t mean that you and I will know all the truth exhaustively. We’re not going to know every single little thing Jesus knows. Our brains would explode into a million tiny little pieces. No, it’s not that you’ll know every single little truth of the world but you know the big picture truth. You know the highlights. You know the whole truth of who God is and what the world is and who you are and who everyone else is and who Jesus is.
And lest you think that’s not all that important, I would make a special case and a special plea to you right now. This is one of thee most important things that God gives to people like us living right now in America in the year 2020. I think this Gospel reading is tailor made for Christians living on May 10, 2020 in the United States of America. Because what major problem do we have in America 2020? What major issue swirls around us like tornado winds where we feel like we’re just being spun around and around and we can’t grab onto anything to steady ourselves? What’s the issue?
Here it is: We don’t know what we can really know to be true. Who can you trust anymore?
We have no foundation of truth anymore. It’s absolutely appalling that you can turn on two different news shows talking about the exact same information and hear completely opposite stories. Not just different takes on it. No. Completely opposite takes. How does that happen? It’s appalling that you can read two articles about Coronavirus where ones tells you everything the government is doing is wrong and another tells you everything your government is doing is right. And these aren’t fringe news outlets here. Because, of course, there’s always been people on the fringes to spread crazy stories. But no, this is everywhere. This is truly what happens when you lose any foundation for truth. Anything goes. You can literally spread whatever misinformation you want and pass it off as truth.
So do you get a feel for what I mean here? We need these words from Jesus. We need Him to tell us with certainty, “Hey, My children, living in America 2020, I have My Holy Spirit here for you who will lead you and guide you with My Word into all the truth.” All of it, friends! He will take what is mine and declare it to you.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, take notice. Do you find it hard to know what you can believe anymore to be true? Do you find it discouraging that we don’t seem to have a solid basis for telling truth from fiction? Do you feel overwhelmed by our world of information overload when half of it is just manipulation and marketing? Then sit at Jesus’ feet right now. Sit at the feet of a news source that is absolutely, 100% trustworthy. In fact, He’s the only One who can say that. He is THEE way and THEE truth and THEE life. Sit at the feet of Someone who would never, ever lie to you. Who, in fact, cannot lie because of His character.
Today God’s Word gives us four truths about Himself, the world, and us. These are the big ones. And they’re not self-obvious. These aren’t things that everybody knows. They are things that you know because you have the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. #1. You know God exists and He is good. #2. You know we are chock full of sin. #3. You know Jesus died to make us righteous again. #4. You know Jesus has defeated the devil and his evil and he calls you to live then in goodness and not in evil.
These are the four truths. Don’t make the mistake of thinking everyone knows them already. No, they don’t. You cannot know all four of these things unless you have the Holy Spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit does. Jesus says, “When [the Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” The Holy Spirit has to do this. Otherwise you won’t know.
I want to give you some examples to drive this point home. There are things in this world you would NEVER know if they weren’t told to you. For instance, if you had cancer you would never know that unless a doctor told you who could do tests and see inside your body. You would see symptoms, of course. But you wouldn’t know. And those who have had cancer hardly ever see the actual cancer, right? They just see the symptoms of the cancer and they trust the word of the doctor. So we also see the world God has made and see the symptoms of our sin and we see the death and resurrection of Jesus and the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion and the new life of believers—and we trust His Word. We haven’t seen God Himself or seen our righteousness—but God’s Word and Spirit tell us it’s all true.
On this Mother’s Day we have another example of something we think everybody knows but they really don’t. We tend to think it’s obvious that people should love and honor their mothers and we think, “Everybody knows that.” But no, everybody doesn’t know that! We must be told. There have been and are many places in the world where mothers aren’t honored. We just think everyone knows that because we have grown up in a nation which is predominantly Christian and therefore we know the 4th Commandment, “Honor your father and mother.” Now, of course, the law is written in our hearts so deep down everyone knows to some small degree that they should respect their mother. But only a true Christian fully understands why we should honor our mother. Only a true Christian fully understands that the love of our Mom is a direct reflection of the love of God. Don’t think everybody knows that. They don’t.
And don’t think everybody knows these four truths because they don’t. Only through the Holy Spirit will you know and understand that God is there and He’s good, that we are completely lost in sin, that Jesus makes us righteous in His blood, and that we have power over evil. This is marvelous truth that you’ve been given.
First of all, there is a God and He is good. No, everyone doesn’t know this. You need God’s Word to tell you this. On the one hand, yes, everyone should know there’s a god. Because how else can you explain this marvelously complex world that we live in? Scripture plainly says that there’s no excuse for saying there isn’t any god at all (Romans 1). Everyone should see from Creation and our conscience that God is there. However, that doesn’t mean everyone will know God is good.
In fact, many people specifically think, “If there is a god then he must be a jerk.” Take this Coronavirus, for example. Many would say, “Why would a good God allow a virus like this and allow such suffering for so many people?” And without the Holy Spirit, this is what we will always do. We will always blame everything on God. That’s exactly what James is describing in the Epistle today. James knew they were blaming their sins and the evil of the world on God (James 1:13-15). They were saying, “God is tempting me.” It’s God’s fault. But James say, “No, do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above.” No, God isn’t the author evil. God doesn’t like to see people suffer. It’s our sin and the devil that cause the evil and suffering. God uses that evil and suffering, like the Coronavirus, to work good in us like repentance and faith and love and compassion.
Now to the second truth. We are the problem, not God. We have sinned against God’s goodness. Jesus says that when He sends the Holy Spirit to you, the Holy Spirit must convict you of your sin. Now again you might make the mistake of thinking this is obvious to everyone. No, it’s not. What’s obvious to everyone is that nobody’s perfect. I was just telling my kids the other day that I used to have a T-shirt growing up that had a cow on it with the cow’s udder in the front instead of the back and it said, “Nobody’s perfect.” Yes, everyone knows that. But that’s a far cry from realizing that our entire hearts are corrupted by sin and that we’re enemies of God. No, not everyone knows that.
This, I think, has finally hit home with me after reading our Lutheran Confessions enough times. I always thought that everyone could easily see that people are sinners. I thought this should be obvious to everyone, no matter who you are. Everyone should be able to see this glaring problem—that we’re sinners. But like I said, our Lutheran Confessions are abundantly clear that the only way anyone truly believes this is by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God revealing it to us. The Spirit MUST convict us. It’s literally like the Holy Spirit must put us on trial in God’s court of law and He must bring out all the evidence. “Look here, you. You think you’re a good person. You know you’re not perfect but at the same time you think you’re not far off from perfect. But you’re the opposite. Your heart is black. Full of sin. Full of jealousy, coveting, pride and anger. You have no true fear of God and you don’t believe in Him.” There’s the flat out truth. And it’s not as obvious as you think. If you truly confessed with your heart this morning that you’re a poor, miserable sinners and that you’ve deserved God’s punishment—then you have the Holy Spirit. He has shown you this truth.
Third, then, comes the best truth concerning Jesus Christ, the One who makes us right again. Here again we still might make the mistake of thinking this is obvious to everyone. We still might make the mistake of thinking, “Oh, yeah, Jesus died on the cross. Everybody knows that.” But no, they absolutely don’t. Most people know the word Jesus and maybe even have a vague idea of what he said and did. But very few truly know Him. Very few truly know that He was without sin—perfect—and the Son of God. Very few truly know that He took the entire sin of the world, and your entire sin, to the cross and paid the punishment for it. Very few know that when you believe in Jesus Christ you receive His perfect righteousness.
Again—this is something our America 2020 is dying to hear. They want to be right. Everyone wants to be right. We want the world to be right. We want people to be right. We want sin to be made right. And God has done all of that in Jesus Christ. We have a world dying to know something so true and so glorious as this—that Jesus Christ makes sinners righteous—and this truth is ours and ours to tell. We know the truth.
Finally, there’s one more truth that gives great strength and hope to you and me Christians. Jesus says the Spirit will convict us concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. The devil is judged! His power has been stripped. He’s been plundered of his ammunition. He can’t condemn you or kill you. So you, Christian, have been given a new life in Christ and have been called to push evil aside and make the world better through good works.
Again, I can’t stress enough how important this truth is in America 2020. People are lost in the world. Confused. Thinking there’s no truth, no purpose to anything, no meaning to life. They don’t know what they’re even doing here. But God says, “I have an incredibly important purpose for you.” I have called you to run over the devil, trample him under your feet, and work to bring goodness and beauty and truth back into the world.
Take, again, this very real situation right now of the Coronavirus. Many people have no idea what to do with it. How to make sense of it. What are we supposed to be doing during this pandemic? But God’s truth is so clear. You are called to fight this evil pandemic with good. God wants you to. He hates viruses and death even more than you hate them. And He wants you to work to bring goodness and love and compassion and healing and hope and peace to your families, your church family, your neighbors, to any one and every one.
Don’t think everyone knows that. They don’t. That’s why we’ve got a whole world that knows nothing to do during this pandemic except complain. And complain and complain and complain. But we know the truth. God is good. We are sinners. He calls us in Christ to repentance, faith, and righteousness. And He calls us to a new life and good works. Praise God for the truth. All the truth! In Jesus’ name. Amen.