Lenten Midweek V
April 5, 2017
“Dear Christians,
One and All Rejoice: In Trouble He Will Comfort You”[1]
Text: John 16:1-33; LSB 556:9-10
“In the world you will have tribulation”
(John 16:33; ESV). It’s a promise. It’s a fact.
Jesus tells you ahead of time, so it will not take you by surprise. This is simply the reality for Christians in
a world hostile to Christ. Martin Luther
writes, the “holy Christian people are externally recognized by the holy possession
of the sacred cross. They must endure
every kind of misfortune and persecution, all kinds of trials and evil from the
devil, the world, and the flesh (as the Lord’s Prayer indicates) by inward
sadness, timidity, fear, outward poverty, contempt, illness, and weakness, in order
to become like their head, Christ. And
the only reason they must suffer is that they steadfastly adhere to Christ and
God’s word, enduring this for the sake of Christ” (AE 41:164-65). So you have our Lord’s Word for it: In this
life there will be suffering, trouble, tribulation. The disciple is not above his Master. The members of the body suffer with the Head. “Indeed,
the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to
God” (v. 2). Think Islamic
terrorism. Think secularist
persecution. Think liberal Christianity
which has sold its soul to gain the world’s favor.
Yet,
the Lord does not leave us to suffer on our own. He promises that as He completes His saving
work on our behalf, His death, His resurrection, His ascension into heaven… He
will send the Helper, the Holy Spirit.
Again, the translation “Helper” only gets at one aspect of the Greek
word here, “Paraclete.” It is sometimes
translated “comforter,” “counselor,” or “advocate.” In truth, it is all of the above and so much
more. The Paraclete is One you call to
your side in the time of trouble. And what
will He do for you in that trouble? He
will guide you into all the truth (v. 13).
He will declare to you the things of Jesus (v. 14). He will always preach Jesus. He will always preach Christ crucified. He will apply Christ crucified to you in
every situation. He will do so through
the Word and the Holy Sacraments. Luther
writes, “Here Christ makes the Holy Spirit a Preacher. He does so to prevent one from gaping toward heaven
in search of Him, as the fluttering spirits and enthusiasts do, and from
divorcing Him from the oral Word of the ministry. One should know and learn that He will be in
and with the Word, and that it will guide us into all truth, in order that we
may believe it, use it as a weapon, be preserved by it against all the lies and
deceptions of the devil, and prevail in all trials and temptations…. The Holy
Spirit wants this truth which He is to impress into our hearts to be so firmly
fixed that reason and all one’s own thoughts and feelings are relegated to the
background. He wants us to adhere solely
to the Word and to regard it as the only truth.
And through this Word alone He governs the Christian Church to the end”
(AE 24:362).
The
Word! The Word! The Word!
That is where you are to flee in the day of tribulation. Because there the Spirit is, the Paraclete,
with His help and comfort and counsel, guiding you into all truth, and
declaring to you the things of Jesus. By
the Spirit, in the Word, Jesus Himself comes to you, speaks to you, feeds
you. When you need God, you find Him in
the Word. There He has attached Himself,
so that you always know where He is for
you. In every trouble, you need the
Word of the living God, in which the Spirit works, bringing you Jesus and His
salvation, reconciling you to the Father.
Oh,
it is powerful, this Word. It always
does what it says. God said, “Let there
be…” and there was. By His Word, God
created the heavens and the earth, and by His Word, He sustains them. By His Word, God sent plagues upon Egypt, so
that Pharaoh let His people go. By His
Word, God dried up the Red Sea so that His people crossed on dry ground. God’s Word never returns to Him empty. It always accomplishes that for which He
sends it (Is. 55:11). Like a hammer to a
rock, it breaks the stony hearts of sinners in pieces, and creates in them new
hearts, clean hearts, hearts of faith in Christ. By God’s Word, Holy Baptism is not plain
water, but the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word so
that it washes away your sins and makes you God’s own child. By God’s Word, your sins are forgiven. By God’s Word, you have new life. By God’s Word, bread and wine are the very
body and blood of Jesus, given into your
mouth for the forgiveness of your sins, eternal life, and salvation. “For the word of God is living
and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul
and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and
intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). The
Word of God kills you and makes you alive.
The Word of God saves you.
Now
this Word is the Word of Jesus, who is the incarnate Word of the Father. The Spirit has been called “the shy Person of
the Holy Trinity,” because He doesn’t talk much about Himself. He is always pointing us to Jesus, who reconciles
us to the Father. This is a very Trinitarian
action. The Spirit is the Preacher of
Jesus who makes us children of Our Father who art in heaven. As the Spirit works in the Word, He brings us
Jesus, who reveals His Father to us as our
Father. And this is why you need the
Word in every time of trouble. Because by
the Word, the Spirit applies Jesus to you very specifically for your very
specific troubles, as one who has been redeemed by the death and resurrection
of Christ and is therefore a child of God.
Are you having troubles at work? Look
to the Scriptures and see how Jesus faithfully bore suffering and tribulation
and injustice, doing the will of the Father and bearing it all in love for His
persecutors. Has your marriage
encountered challenges? Look to the Scriptures
and see how Jesus loved His holy Bride, the Church, and gave Himself up for her…
to death!... that He might cleanse her and present her spotless to Himself. Are you afflicted with depression or
illness? Look to the Scriptures and see how
Jesus sweat drops of blood in the Garden, commending Himself to the Father’s
will and trusting that, despite all appearances, that will is good. Are you dying?
You are. Look to the Scriptures
and see how Jesus’ death for your sins takes the teeth out of your own death;
how, as one who has died with Christ and been raised with Him in Baptism, you
will never really die. You will be with
Jesus in Paradise, and He will raise you from the dead.
There
is nothing in this fallen creation, nothing your enemies, the devil, the world,
your own sinful flesh, can throw at you that can separate you from the love of
God in Christ (Rom. 8:38-39). The Word
of God says so, and the Word is powerful to make it so. What Jesus has done, what He has taught,
guide all your life and teaching. In
this way, His Kingdom’s work is wrought, and honored in the preaching (LSB 556:10). His Kingdom comes. His will is done on earth as it is in
heaven. The Word! The Word!
The Word! The Spirit, the
Paraclete, comes in the Word. And the
Word is Christ crucified, Christ risen from the dead, for you. Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice! In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] The theme and structure of
this sermon are from John T. Pless, “Dear Christians, One and All Rejoice,”
Lenten Preaching Seminar 2010, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN.
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