The Gift of the Spirit to teach us all

The address for today, for the festival of Pentecost, is based on today’s Gospel reading.

Let us Pray. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ for asking the Father to send us another Counselor, the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of truth who points us to all things you have taught us. Let the Holy Spirit purify us and recreate us with a newborn faith in you. AMEN

Brothers and Sisters, in light of the Acts 2 reading which we have just touched on with the children, that is the coming of the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost festival, I thought it would be helpful to piece together how we got to the point of the Holy Spirit being poured out. And why we need the Holy Spirit in the first place? To help answer these two questions and piece it all together, lets go back to our Gospel reading for today from John and focus on a few key verses: {Jesus Speaking}

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth……… [Later in the John 14] And the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:16-17a, 26)

Friends, there is some vital context to these words from Jesus. Jesus is approaching his death, has already celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples. If we look at the events leading up to this promise from Jesus of the Holy Spirit we have.

• Jesus washing his disciples feet (John 13:1-17)
• Jesus predicting his betrayal (John 13:18-30)
• Jesus predicting Peter’s denial (John 13:31-38)
• Jesus comforting his disciples (John 14:1-4)
• Jesus telling them ‘I am the way, and the truth and the life’ (John 14:5-14)

Can you imagine being one of the disciples? What an emotional rollercoaster? Service! Betrayal! Denial! Comfort! Teaching! And that is just the beginning! Now Jesus tells them:

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor/Advocate to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth.

Now we have a promise! A promise of a gift! The gift of another Advocate- the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit. Someone who is called to one’s aid, someone who is summoned. Someone who is called to help us, an aid, an assistant…. This is what Jesus is promising both the disciples and us here.

The Father will give us the gift of the Holy Spirit which Jesus has asked the Father to give. And this gift, this Spirit of truth, will be with us forever! A constant source of strength which will never leave us. So why do we need the Holy Spirit?

Don’t we already have God the Father? Don’t we already have God the Son? Yes we do. But the work of the Holy Spirit is different and complements God the Father and God the Son.

But the Advocate the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)

Will teach you all things! Will remind you of everything I have said to you! That is the work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. To teach us all things and remind us of everything that God the Son- Jesus Christ our Lord has taught us. This is why the Holy Spirit is so important in your life, in my life, in the person’s life who is sitting next to you or in front or behind you.

Martin Luther picks up the importance of the Holy Spirit teaching us all things in the Third Article of the Creed explanation: (Lets read a small portion of this together off the screen.)

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in true faith.

The Holy Spirit Calls you to the Gospel-  Reminds you and teaches you about what Jesus Christ has done for you by his suffering and death on the cross.

The Holy Spirit enlightens you with His gifts- again, the Holy Spirit is instructing and informing you of the Good News, just as Jesus said the Holy Spirit would in today’s text. The Holy Spirit sanctifies- purifies you, cleans you, makes you holy in God the Fathers eyes. The Holy Spirit keeps you true in faith- keeps pointing you back to the true Gospel message and true Good news.

So what happens when we ignore or resist the Holy Spirit? We go back to living in our default nature of being spiritually blind… spiritually dead. The first part of the Third Article explanation, explains it in the simplest possible way:

I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ

Without the Holy Spirit I am spiritually dead. Without the Holy Spirit, you are spiritually dead. Without the Holy Spirit, we would all be spiritually dead. Instead of being called by the Gospel, we would be called by ourselves. Called by our own Spirit. And there are times when all of us here do resist the Holy Spirit, where we trust in ourselves instead of the Triune God.

When do you listen to yourself and attempt to get your own way instead of listening to the Spirit? Maybe the Spirit is telling you to change direction in your calling or you service of the church? Maybe the Holy Spirit has a different plan for the church here at St Pauls Glenelg, would we want to listen? Maybe the Holy Spirit is telling you to reconcile with someone you have a broken relationship with, but you are too proud to admit your faults, so you follow your own thoughts instead.

Brothers and Sisters, any resisting, any ignoring of what the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the aid, the Counselor is telling you…. is a rejection of God the Father. And that is breaking the very first commandment. In the battle between our nature sinner and saint, we let our original nature have its way. We become acutely aware that we are unclean and unworthy in God’s sight… So as we established earlier, we need the gift of the Holy Spirit- the Advocate who is the Spirit of truth and will be with us forever.

For the disciples they received the gift of the Holy Spirit after Jesus had risen, the Spirit which Jesus promises in today’s text.

And Jesus breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22)

At Pentecost, the people present received the same all important Spirit when tongues of fire came down and rested on each one of them. People from different nations, different heritage, much like what our flags today represent- people here also from a wide range of heritages. So how do we receive the Holy Spirit? How do we keep on receiving the Holy Spirit? I don’t think many of us have an experience like the Pentecost festival described in Acts.

Friends, we first received the Holy Spirit in our own baptism. When the unclean spirit departed from you, and made way for the Holy Spirit. When you were baptised into God family, ‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’, you received the Spirit.

God’s Word gifts us the Holy Spirit which shows and teaches us God’s love by washing us clean from sin and giving us new life. And we don’t just receive the Holy Spirit in baptism. God the Father keeps on giving you the Holy Spirit to strengthen you, and purify you through his Word, through the important meal of Holy Communion- where you are forgiven of all your sins. The Holy Spirit teaches us that  we are righteous and clean and worthy…….just as Jesus taught us.

When we look back at John’s Gospel text for today, it carefully and powerfully points us to the Holy Spirit and the work it will do in our lives. It also tells us the importance of this Advocate and Counselor in helping point to Jesus Christ who leads us to salvation.

I would like to conclude with the final section of Luther’s Third article explanation which we can read together:

On the Last Day He [Holy Spirit] will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.

What a gift we have from God the Father…. The gift of the Holy Spirit who teaches us all things!

Let us Pray. Dear Lord Jesus, we pray to you for the Advocate that you promised, the holy Spirit who can teach us all we need to learn. Let Him paint your picture for us so that we stay faithful in you. AMEN

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