John 16.5-15
Easter 4, May 22, 2011

✠ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

From the earliest days of our childhood, we were taught the importance of telling the truth. We learned the saying, “Honesty is the best policy.” And that’s what we desire from others. We complain when our elected leaders stretch the truth or when spouses and friends and co-workers lie to us. But if we’re completely honest with ourselves, we’ll have to admit that the truth is something we’re not always entirely comfortable with. For while we’ll agree and even tell others that the truth will set you free, in reality we find it easier to fudge the truth, to spin and re-shape it to our advantage, and to tweak it here or there. That’s really where we try to find our freedom–not in complete and honest truth-telling, but in telling our version of the truth, the truth as we want others to see it, the truth according to the way we think it ought to be.

In all our dancing around and reconstructing of the truth, what we forget is that truth ultimately is not a series of facts or a virtuous concept. Truth ultimately is a person–the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn’t Jesus say, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life”? And if He is Truth in the flesh, then He is the sum and substance of all that is true and good. And if He is the Truth, then to tinker with the truth is to tinker with our Lord Jesus. And so when we bend the truth and tell it to our advantage, then we are offending not just our values but our Lord; and we are recalibrating not just our moral compass but our faith; and we are playing games not just with the facts but with our Savior.

He who is the Truth incarnate, our Lord Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “When I depart and you see Me no longer, then I will send You the Helper. And He will help you to know and confess the Truth. For He is the Spirit of Truth. When He has come, He will guide you into all truth.”

And how does the Holy Spirit do that? He does so first of all by helping us to see the truth about ourselves. He helps us to overcome our blind spots. For instance, we’ve all been hearing about this foolish prediction from a certain reverend and his followers that the return of Christ and the so-called rapture and the Judgment was to occur today/yesterday. We know it’s foolish to make that prediction because Jesus Himself said, “No one knows the day or the hour.” It’s easy to poke fun at crazy groups like this one and their false dispensationalist teaching.

But on the other hand, if no one know the day or the hour, isn’t it true that Christ’s return could be today? Are you watching for that day, eager for that day? Is that what you’re living for, to be with and behold your Redeemer? Or would the return of Jesus put a crimp in your plans and your dreams? Or what about this: What if people would anticipate, what if there would be continuous conversation and buzz about Jesus’ coming under bread and wine in the sacrament every divine service? Wouldn’t that be something.

That’s what the Scriptures mean when they say that the Spirit of truth “will convict the world of sin.” It’s so easy for us to see other people’s problems and so hard to see our own–or if we do see problems with ourselves, we tend to obsess on the wrong things. And so the Spirit must hold up the mirror of the Law in front of us so that we confront reality–that our old nature really doesn’t desire the freedom from sin that Christ brings. We don’t want to let go of our old ways and our worldly loves. Our old Adam hates the truth of Christ that makes us truly free. And so the first preaching of the Spirit is that we all must repent.

However, our Lord Jesus, does not send His Spirit only to convict us. For the Spirit of our Lord Jesus comes not to lead us to despair, but to lead us into all truth. And so the Holy Spirit’s real preaching is about Christ, who is all Truth. The Spirit’s ultimate work is to empty us of ourselves so that He might then preach into our hearts the truth of Jesus and fill us with His righteousness.

That is the second part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Having convicted and brought us to repentance, He then pardons and saves us by giving us the righteousness of Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father. That is what the Holy Spirit is all about. Jesus said that the Spirit will “take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” That is the Holy Spirit’s job, not to point to Himself or glorify Himself but to point to Jesus and glorify Him, to take the gifts of life and salvation that Jesus won for you and dish them out to you. Just as the Son of God was sent to reveal the Father, so now the Holy Spirit is sent to reveal the Son, and in that way to bring you back into fellowship with God, the Blessed Holy Trinity.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will convince the world of righteousness “because I go to the Father and you see Me no more.” Jesus is our righteousness. But since we can’t see Him and won’t see Him until the Last Day, the Holy Spirit preaches Christ and His righteousness into us through the Gospel, so that you may be led into all truth. This, by the way, is perhaps the worst flaw among those who have been engaging in all this rapture talk–Christ and His cross, the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins really has very little to do with anything that they’re saying. It’s all about numbers and multiplication and dispensations and such.

But St. Paul declares in Romans 1, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ . . . For in it the righteousness of God is revealed.” Through the words of the Gospel, the Spirit reveals and gives to you Jesus’ righteousness. The truth about you now in Jesus is that you are right with God, fully and completely. This is how the Helper, the Comforter comforts you. All of your sins, regardless of how many and great, are canceled, forgiven, covered, and not reckoned to your account because we believe in Christ who made full atonement for them on the cross. Whoever has such faith, even though it be weak, is declared righteous before God apart from works and merits, solely through faith in Christ. Your righteousness is not based on the uncertainties of your own doing but on the certainty of Christ’s doing. It doesn’t come from within but through faith in Christ from outside. And therefore it is sure and true. The Lord God blesses you and deals graciously with you simply because He is merciful in Christ and abounding in steadfast love. It is written, “Having been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Cling to that message of the Holy Spirit with all your heart.

For there is one who hates the truth, who is the father of lies and all false teaching, the devil. He is the author of foolish predictions about the return of Christ that cause the world to scoff at Christians and Christian teaching. And above all, he will do his level best to get you to doubt what Christ has done for you, or to make you disbelieve that Christ’s righteousness is really yours. And so the third and final part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to proclaim the judgment of the devil. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will convince the world of judgment, for the ruler of this world is judged. The Spirit of Truth unmasks the devil and exposes him for the liar that he is. Through the Word, the Holy Spirit convinces and persuades us to believe that Satan, who rules this world with his distortion and deceptions–he who is the enemy of the truth of Christ is judged; the deed is done. The devil’s deadly reign is over, finished on Good Friday, destroyed Easter morning. And so even though Satan may rage and fume and spew his infernal lies, he can harm us none. The victory is won–given to you in your baptism, confirmed and strengthened in you as you receive the risen body and blood of Jesus who came to destroy the devil’s work.

In Christ we have Him who is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So then, don’t dance around the Truth. Instead, dance with Him. And don’t fear the Truth. Instead, live with Him. And don’t run from the Truth. Instead, walk in His footsteps. Embrace Him who is the Truth and love Him; for in Christ the Lord’s anger has been turned away from you. God is your salvation. Trust in Him and be not afraid. For the Lord God is your strength and your song, and He has become your salvation.

✠ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(The introduction and conclusion were adapted from a sermon by the Rev. John Fenton)