Easter 5 Cantate

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft Is 12:1–6; Jas 1:16–21; Jn 16:5–15; Ps 66:1–8; antiphon: v. 5   –     5/3/26

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please open your hymnals to page 323 and look at the section “The Third Article”. What is the Third Article? “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.”

What does this mean? “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 the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise up me and all the dead and will give eternal life to me and to all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.”

The traditional doctrine for Easter 5, Cantate Sunday, is naturally the work of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, much of modern American Christianity is poorly taught concerning the Holy Spirit, and this is due to, among other things, the false teachings of the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches. What is the real work and sign of the Holy Spirit? What does it mean in Acts when we read passages like Acts 8:17 which says, St. Peter and St. John laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Or 19:6 when St. Paul is among the Ephesian congregation of 12 men And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. Or 4:8, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke. The temptation is to take the second passage I just quoted and make it about these mystical, magical gifts. But that is not the case. What is it that Jesus Himself says of the work of the Holy Spirit? First, He says that the Holy Spirit is our Helper—the word could mean also Comforter or Counselor. Second, He says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgement. And Third, He says that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth Who will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. And in doing this the Holy Spirit is going to glorify Jesus and deliver to the Apostles what He received from Christ, and what is that? The Word of the Gospel.

The gifts are not the point today, so I will deal with them briefly and return to the work of the Holy Spirit. These gifts which God gave the Apostles served the purpose of supporting the work of the Apostles, pastors, and missionaries. The gift of tongues, for instance, was not a special language between God and man, but rather real, human language which was not previously known to the speaker. The Holy Spirit imbued the man with knowledge of a new language so that he could speak God’s Word to the native speakers of that language. For prophecy, we have the example of the Holy Spirit showing the immediate future to some men of the Early Church so that the Christians could prepare for coming calamities, like famine and the destruction of Jerusalem. Healing we see numerous times in the Early Church but always used to show nonbelievers that God was with these men and thus their preaching of Christ was to be believed. We see this in the preaching and miracles recorded in Acts. Consider St. Peter speaking to the Jews in chapter 5 where he says, And we are witnesses to these things, that is, the death and resurrection of Christ, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. (32) The counsel of the Jews did not have the Holy Spirit, of course, because they denied Christ, even after seeing His miracles and the miracles done by the Apostles. Now, once the Bible was written the prevalence of the gifts dropped off significantly, we also have no real evidence of anyone receiving them apart from the Apostles and the first generation of pastors and missionaries after the Apostles. The likely reason behind the effective disappearance of tongues, prophecy, healing and the like is that God’s Word was now written, the witness of the Apostles concerning the Christ was now complete and available to the whole world.

Now, to return to the work of the Holy Spirit. We will look primarily at the last of the three which Jesus mentions, though they all work together. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the Apostles so that they would be equipped to proclaim Christ crucified to the lost and to comfort and guide the flock of God. Why is it that we have the four Gospels? Why is it that we have the Epistles? Because the Holy Spirit worked through these men, the Apostles and others, so that they would remember all that Christ had taught the Apostles and record what was necessary for the Church on earth to have. Jesus did and said far more than the Gospels contain, as St. John clearly admits, but the Holy Spirit in His wisdom knew that what we have contained in the Bible is sufficient for teaching and believing in Christ.

The Holy Spirit’s work through the Word of God is not limited merely to reminding these men of what Christ said, but also working faith in the hearts of men through the proclamation of that Word. Thus St. Paul explains in the tenth chapter of Romans, first, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” (9–11) … For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? (13–15) St. Paul has laid out in reverse order how God brings the lost into His Church, how the Holy Spirit works faith in the heart and saves sinners. First, the Holy Spirit uses the church to train and select men similarly to how we see St. Paul train men to go out into the world to preach. Then the Holy Spirit places the Word of God on the tongues of these men, takes that Word which they preach, puts it into the ears of the hearers, from the ears He moves it to the heart, and there instills faith in them. In that moment He brings them to call upon the name of Jesus and so be saved.

What about when St. Paul says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved? That is the last step in the Holy Spirit’s process, bringing the sinner who has heard and believed to confess publicly that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that is, confess to his or her friends and neighbors that Christ crucified alone saves from sins. It is not the act of saying, “I believe in Jesus”, which makes to a Christian, you must already be a Christian to be able to say that truthfully as St. Paul shows us in 1 Corinthians 12:3: Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. The confession is rather the first act of faith, the first work which the Holy Spirit works within each one of us. Consider what our own Confessions say of the work of the Holy Spirit: “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 the true faith.”

Consider also what Jesus promises in Matthew 10: So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven (32–33). What does this mean? He is not saying that you must first speak audibly that you believe in Him, otherwise you cannot be saved, but rather Jesus is speaking about your life in the public. If you are ashamed of being a Christian openly, then Jesus will be ashamed of you. If the same sort of persecution the Early Church faced comes to us also, then many Christians will be brought before judges and told, either you deny Christ, say Jesus is accursed, or we will destroy your life and perhaps take your life. In such a circumstance especially the Holy Spirit will come to your aid as your helper. By myself I haven’t the courage to face the blade or the fire or the gun, I would surely crumble before such a threat; but the Holy Spirit is with me, He will sustain me in the faith, place the Word of Christ on my lips that I may confess Him in peace or in danger, and strengthen me and you for whatever trial or death awaits.

How do I know this? Because, of the 12 Apostles and St. Paul, only St. John did not die a martyr’s death. The Holy Spirit aided each of these men so that when they were put to the question, when they were tortured, when their heads were placed on the chopping block or bodies hung on the stake or cross, they continued to confess that Jesus is Lord, and only in Him is there forgiveness of sins. They died in full confidence that they would be raised to new life. St. John did not face death, but he faced torture and solitude, and the Holy Spirit every day reminded him of the promises of God. There are also many martyrs recorded by the Church whom the Holy Spirit was with during their persecution, Stephen, James, Polycarp, Justin, Vincent, Perpetua, Felicitas, Sebastian, and many many more whose names we will not know until we meet them in heaven: they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death (Rev 12:11). They stood strong before fire and blade because the Holy Spirit was with them, so you who have received the Holy Spirit in Baptism can likewise face such persecution without fear of falling.

The devil himself wants us to misunderstand the Holy Spirit, to base our belief that He is with us on feelings, on the appearance of magical things. But the Holy Spirit is, as it were, a shy fellow, he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. Jesus said, He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. The Father and the Son sent us the Holy Spirit, not so that we could speak in tongues, see the future, or perform miraculous healing, but that we would have a Comforter in the fallen, sinful world, One who would remind us daily of God’s Word and promises, One who would convict us of our sins so that we would repent and be reconciled to God in Christ. The Holy Spirit points us to Christ crucified, for only in the Son of God can we be saved from our sins, only in Him do we have victory over death and the devil. Any spirit or anything that points away from Christ, which would make us place our trust in someone or something other than Christ is not the Holy Spirit or His work but the devil’s. Thus St. John warns us, 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 (1 Jn 4:1). The devil is a crafty villain. Therefore, in faith remember your baptism, read the Word of God, receive the Lord’s Supper, and with that Word and gift the Holy Spirit will sanctify you and keep you in the true faith, opening to you the Word and will of God, and He will sustain you to the final day. Amen.