“MEMORY ISSUES”
The Day of Pentecost
May 15, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
“The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He
will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I
have said to you.”
John 14:26 (ESV)
Pentecost, which has become one of the three great feasts of the
Christian year, originally was not a specifically Christian
observance. Before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles
took place, the Jews were already celebrating Pentecost, as is clear
from the opening words of today’s Second Reading: “When the day of
Pentecost arrived . . . “ (Acts 2:1). Clearly, “the day of Pentecost”
(Acts 2:1) was already in existence when the miracle of tongues took
place. The name “Pentecost” means “fiftieth.” It was the fiftieth
day after the Passover--the day on which the Jews celebrated the
earliest harvest of the year. Later the festival was transformed into
the Jewish celebration of the giving of God’s Law, and for us
Christians, this festival was transformed yet again into the
celebration of the giving of the Holy Spirit.
In today’s Gospel the Lord Jesus speaks to His disciples about the
giving of the Spirit before the fact--before His suffering, death, and
resurrection. On the night of His betrayal and arrest He gave His
“farewell discourse,” as some Biblical scholars call it, in which He
prepared His frightened and confused disciples for what lie ahead for
them. “Let not your hearts be troubled,” He assured them. “Believe
in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If
it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for
you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3).
In the text before us Jesus assures His disciples (and us) that He
will send His Holy Spirit, who will take care of His Church during the
interim between His ascension into heaven and His glorious return in
judgment at the end of time. He cites two particular ways in which
“the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in [His] name”
will provide for the needs of His Church.
In speaking about the Holy Spirit who is to come, Jesus first of all
tells His disciples: “He will teach you all things.” The word
“disciple” literally means “learner.” The disciple of Jesus Christ is
forever a learner. We never reach a point in this life where we know
it all. One of the sad realities in our particular church-body is
that most of our people do not engage in any kind of corporate study
of God’s Word after they have completed their confirmation
instruction. And I suspect that the same is true of most other
Christian denominations as well. The truth is that there is always
more for us to learn about the Lord Jesus and His saving Gospel--more
that equips us for living in this world as disciples of Christ and for
sharing with others the Good News of His grace. It is the Holy Spirit
who does this teaching but He doesn’t do it by osmosis; He does it
through the Word of God. The Lord’s promise is that where the Word of
God is, there is the Spirit, working in and through that Word to
impart to those who are engaged in it everything that they need to
know in order to live as Christ’s people in the world.
It is the Spirit who “teach[es us] all things” because the truth is
not something that we discover; it is something that is given to us by
the Spirit of God through the Word. What we discover, by the Spirit’s
guidance, is the meaning and the significance of the truth that He
teaches us. Because we are earthbound and tainted with sin, we cannot
fully comprehend the truth of God. Earlier in this chapter of the
Fourth Gospel Jesus says of the Spirit that “the world cannot receive
[Him], because it neither sees Him nor knows Him” (John 14:17). But,
by the grace of God, Jesus is also able to tell His followers: “But
you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17).
Previously Jesus had promised great blessings for those who are in His
Word: “If you abide in My Word,” He said, “you are truly My
disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you
free” (John 8:31, 32). There are great blessings to be gained by
being in the Word.
Speaking of the Spirit, the Lord Jesus also tells the disciples: “He
will . . . bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” It
is important that we know and remember what Jesus did and taught. We
do indeed have the ability and even the responsibility to think for
ourselves, but our thoughts and ideas must always be tested against
the words of Jesus. Our intellect, as well as our emotions, are
tainted with sin because of the fall. We were created in the perfect
image of God in the beginning but sin has changed all of that. That
image of God has virtually been lost, but for believers in Christ the
Holy Spirit is day by day restoring that image of God in us. This
process is called sanctification and it begins when a person receives
faith (either through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism or through that
person’s hearing of the Gospel) and it continues throughout life in
this world until it finally reaches its completion at death. But, in
the meantime, what we must always remember is that, while our
thoughts, ideas, and feelings may be right or may be wrong, the Word
of Christ is always right. It serves as the standard by which we
judge any and all “new” thoughts and ideas that may come to us. It is
the Spirit of God who does this for us through the Word and He does it
for our own benefit and protection.
In His guiding of us the Holy Spirit never brings attention to
Himself but always focuses our attention on the Christ who lived,
suffered and died, and rose again to accomplish our salvation and to
assure us that we are the forgiven and beloved children of God. He
brings to our remembrance everything that Jesus did and taught because
the Gospel of Christ is complete and perfect. If we remember the
Gospel and take it to heart we will be defended against the
temptations and false teachings with which the devil surrounds us in
this world in his ongoing and relentless attempt to destroy our faith
and thereby deprive us of the blessings of salvation that our Savior
has gained for us by the shedding of His own blood. What I said
before about testing our thoughts and ideas against the Word of Christ
applies here as well. John writes in his first letter: “Beloved, do
not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are
from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By
this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that
does not confess Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:1-3). It’s been
said that the best way to spot a counterfeit of anything is to be very
familiar with the real thing. The Spirit who brings to our
remembrance the Gospel of Christ guards us against falsehood by
embedding the truth of the Gospel in our thought and memory.
The result of everything that the Spirit does in us and for us is
stated by Jesus in the verse that follows our text: “Peace I leave
with you,” He says, “My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives
do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them
be afraid” (John 14:27). The peace with God that Jesus has purchased
for us by shedding His own innocent blood to make atonement for our
sin will sustain and comfort us in the face of everything that we face
in life and will dispel our confusion so that we may know and proclaim
the Good News that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”
(1 Timothy 1:15).
Amen.
May the God who has so graciously poured out His Holy Spirit upon His
Church cause you to use the power of that Spirit in the service of
your Savior. To this end may He preserve you in His grace and bring
your faith to completion in heaven. He who calls you is faithful, and
He will do it. Amen.