Pentecost

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft Gen 11:1–9; Acts 2:1–21; Jn 14:23–31; Ps 143; antiphon: v. 11   –     5/24/26

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

Back a few weeks to the Gospel reading of the fifth Sunday of Easter, Jesus said, But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. He has Ascended into heaven, and so the final gift of the Ascension has come upon the Church while she, and we in her, awaits the return of Christ.

Martin Luther explains, “The meaning of the words ‘if I do not go away’ … ‘If I do not die and give up this physical life and existence, nothing will be accomplished. You will remain what you are now; and everything will continue in the old condition, as it was in the past and still is—the Jews under the Law of Moses, the heathen in their blindness, all under sin and death, without the possibility of deliverance and salvation. Consequently, Scripture would not be fulfilled; I would have come in vain, and what you and the holy fathers believed and hoped would not be realized. But if I go, die, and accomplish what God in His counsel has decreed to accomplish through Me, then the Holy Spirit will come to you, work in you, and instill such courage in you that you will be My officials and corulers, will turn the whole world topsy-turvy, will abolish the Law of Judaism, will destroy pagan idolatry, and … will rebuke all the world and change it. And your doctrine will endure and prevail forever, even though it will annoy the devil and the world. That is the treasure and the glory which My going away brings.” (AE 24:335)

Now, the promise of corulership belongs to the Apostles only, so far as we can tell, be the remainder of the benefits of the gift of the Holy Spirit are ours. I have already told you much of what the Holy Spirit does, that He reminded the Apostles of all the Christ said, and thus through them recorded the Bible for our sakes. That He works through the preaching of Christ crucified to instill faith in the hearers. He is the one who brings the lost through the doors of the Church, using us as His instruments. He further uses Gods Word to convict our consciences concerning our sins, so that when we have done wrong, when we have failed to keep Christ’s Word, broken any of the Ten Commandments, the Holy Spirit shows us our sin and leads us to repentance, and then comforts us with the forgiveness of our sins freely won for us on the cross by Christ, and delivered to us through the the words of Absolution. He likewise reminds us that we are baptized, and since we are baptized we know that means God has placed His name upon our foreheads and our hearts, marking us as His own children, marking us as those who have been washed clean of sins in that water of Baptism. The Holy Spirit also impels us to desire the Lord’s Supper, reminding us that as Christ Himself said on the night in which He was betrayed that in this Supper the Body and Blood of God are given for us to eat and drink in the Bread and Wine for the forgiveness of our sins, that as we partake of Christ we receive what is His, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation. All these the Holy Spirit works daily to bring to our minds when we hear the Word of God read or preached and He does this so that we will have peace and joy in the midst of the fallen world.

Christ is visibly absent from us as He prepares a Home, though He has promised always to be with us, in our hearts, in the waters of Baptism, in His Supper, in the Word preached and words of Absolution. Yet the world around us is steeped in sin, and our own fleshly hearts desire nothing but the pleasures of the world. It is not easy task to keep the Ten Commandments perfectly, to love our neighbors as ourselves let alone love God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength. The world, our daily lives and work, the devil and those people who are his, and even our own bodies are set against us living righteously. It is far easier to give in to the world, to let the eye wander over what it should not see, to let the mind desire what is not ours, to let the thoughts curse someone whom we dislike, to let the hands lie idol, to fill the belly to bursting, to let the tongue speak foulness and our fingers hide the gossip of our mouths. These are easy since they go the way of the world, of all other people. These are easy since they are the natural work of our flesh. These are easy since the devil and his demons are always urging us to do them. And yet when temptation comes, we have the last gift of Christ’s Ascension, the last help He bequeathed to us before He left: The Holy Spirit who dwells in each Christian. So Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Christ has told us, Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me (Jn 14:21). … If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. Yet of my own power I cannot keep His commandments or word or even love Him. My sinful nature will not permit me. I hear the command of God, Do this! And I cannot do it. The will to do it is there, as many of you understand, for you have had this same struggle, but the ability to do it is not. St. Paul himself endured this rebellion of the flesh: For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me (Rom 7:14–20).

However, what would the Holy Spirit say to me? He would remind me of St. Paul’s comforting words in Romans 6:4: We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Christ has been the death of sin for me, so that daily I may be reminded that in Baptism Christ drowned the Old Adam, the old sinner within me, and with the help of the Holy Spirit raises the New Adam, the new man in Christ to live before God in righteousness and purity for ever (cf. SC IV), joyfully doing the works which God has prepared for me to do beforehand (Eph 2:10).

The Holy Spirit came and placed upon my lips the call upon the name of the Lord, He long ago placed in my heart faith in Christ crucified for me a sinner, “He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers” (SC II, 3), and it is He Who then equips my mind, my eyes, my hands, my tongue, and my heart to do good, to keep Christ’s Word, to Love Jesus, my Lord and my God, with all my heart, and to love my neighbor as myself. He does this, again, through God’s Word: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16–17). So when I feel the compulsion of my conscience, that is the work of the Holy Spirit urging me and equipping me to good works.

We now enter the part of the year which historically is called the time of the Church. We have rejoiced that the Child proclaimed of old to Adam and Eve, promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and foretold by the prophets has come. We have heard of His circumcision, the first blood shed on our behalf and the first completing of the Law. We have heard of His baptism, purifying the waters for us. We have fasted in the wilderness with Him during Lent, repenting of our sins in dust and ashes. We have rejoiced in His coming to Holy Zion. We have mourned during His trial and death. We have sung hallelujah at His resurrection. And we have wondered at His ascension. Now the Apostles in our place do not see Jesus, but He has sent us His Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us during His short absence. But what is Jesus doing for us?

Already I have told you that He has taken up His power and authority now as both God and Man and thus we need fear no calamity or unruly nation. Jesus has also promised you, I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live (23–24). This means He will come again for you, and though your body may die, yet in Christ you shall be made alive again, your body restored and made perfect. But this is not the end of the promise for you. Jesus said earlier in this chapter, Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know…. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (1–4, 6). When Jesus speaks of many rooms or many mansions, He uses the same word as the one translated “home” in the first verse of our reading, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. God ultimately desires to dwell with us. Once upon a time, God walked with man in the Garden, but man rebelled, so God has done all things that He might reconcile man again to Himself and so make us fit to dwell with Him again. That is what all the preceding year has told us, that God became Man that man might be saved from his sins and made holy. This Christ has accomplished for you. And now while the preparation of our home with God is underway, He has sent God the Holy Spirit to you to guide you into all God pleasing works and to sustain you in the faith until that final day. Amen.

Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen