These Things They will Do

 John 15:26-16:4

"When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me, and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

"These things I have spoken to you, that you may be kept from stumbling.  They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.  And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me.  But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you."

Sermon for Exaudi Sunday                                           05/17/26

These Things They Will Do

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Today is the Sunday between the Ascension and Pentecost.  It marks the period of time between Jesus removing His visible presence from among His disciples, and the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  In my mind, I liken this to that time in a race when the starter is crying out, "on your mark . . . get set . . ." just before he fires the starter's pistol to begin the race.

The Gospel is perfect for this day.  It records the words of Jesus during His last great discourse with the disciples before the Passion.  This is a warning and a promise, and none of it was spoken to us, directly, but to His disciples who were soon to be promoted to Apostles - from ‘students' to those who were the "Sent Ones", sent out to bear witness to what they had seen and heard and to spread the Gospel.  Our task this morning is to take these words, aimed squarely at the disciples, and see what they actually teach us.  Our theme is "These Things They Will Do".

Jesus warns the disciples about troubles that they will face.  He says that He warns them "that [they] may be kept from stumbling."  It is easy to understand this.  They have followed Jesus.  He has cared for them, and shielded them from all of the dangers and troubles that might have happened to them.  They may not have understood or even seen the providential care of Jesus for His disciples, but nothing happened to them.  He fed them and led them around the whole of the once "promised land".  They had enemies, and there were all sorts of local issues and parties, just as there are today in the middle east - just different parties, but the same old hatreds and animosities.  The disciples never seemed to have been confronted by them.  None of the enemies of Jesus attacked them physically - or seemed to have any success in shaping public opinion against them.  Jesus simply gave them a few years of peaceful instruction, as He modeled the faith and showed them how they were to live once He was gone -- without telling them in advance that this was what He was doing.

But now they were about to be cast out on their own - Jesus was going to die and rise again and ascend and leave them to be His witnesses.  He was going to take His visible presence from them, and withdraw the providential care that gave them such peaceful times with Jesus.  He was not taking His care away from them, but things were going to change, and God knew about it.  In fact, it is all part of God's plan.  Jesus told them, "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.  And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me."

This meant that they were going to become targets of hostility for those Jews – the ones who were supposed to be God's people – who did not believe.  That part applies to us too.  The specifics that Jesus spoke of really only fit the first Christians.  I have never been cast out of a synagogue, nor would it bother me if I were.  I don't believe the stuff they teach in their synagogues anyhow, and I have no emotional attachment to them, either.  The disciples did.  The first Christians all - or nearly all - came from the synagogues.  Being thrown out of the synagogue was almost like ending life as they knew it.  It was extremely painful, and came with broken relationships, lost friendships, and hostility from those who should have been, and once were, friends.

You may have sampled some of that community gossip.  Those who were called fellow members of the congregations, suddenly became hostile to us, unwilling to take the time to come to worship, and seemed to want nothing more to do with us.  And the reason for our sorrow is pretty much the same as the reason for the hostility of the synagogue toward the disciples - "And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me."  It was doctrine.  They did not believe what we believed, and they rejected both us and our faith.

Jesus had to tell the disciples that this was coming because they were likely to be tempted with the idea that just because they worked for the Savior, things were going to go smoothly (as they had up to this point), and God would pave the way before them.  He would, of course, prepare the way before them, but not by removing obstacles like the hatred and violence of the world.  That remains - and in fact, that is a tool in the arsenal of God for getting the world's attention, and demonstrating His power, and our weakness, and making converts in the most unexpected of ways.  The early church even had the proverb, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church."  Their patient endurance, with so little evident power, made many sit up and take notice, people who only understood the unbridled use of power and who could not comprehend what might lie behind patience and forgiveness and stubborn goodness such as they witnessed in the Apostles.

We are not witnesses.  We never saw Jesus.  We are confessors.  We confess what we have heard and believed.  We speak what God has spoken to us through His Word and through His called speakers - preachers.  We confess with the Church what those original witnesses bore witness of - and to.  We confess that Jesus is the true Son of God, come down in human form and having taken on human nature on our behalf.  We confess that Jesus kept the whole will and law of God, where all mankind has failed, and having earned and rightly deserved eternal life, has suffered and died in our place, and for our sins, and on our behalf.  His death on the cross is ours, taken for us to meet the justice of God against our sins.  That is what those first witnesses bore witness to.

Then we also confess that God raised Jesus from the dead, because those first witnesses saw it, and spoke with the risen Jesus.  We confess that His resurrection shows us that the death of Jesus has been accepted in our place and for our sins, and that it was sufficient, so that now we are forgiven and we stand in the good will and favor of God (we call that "grace").  We confess that there is nothing for us to do to earn our salvation - Jesus did it all - and that we fail to qualify to even start to work out our salvation, because we are sin-filled, and sin-corrupted, and fall short of the glory of God before we can even start.  We also confess that even our coming to faith is not possible for us by our own wisdom or will-power, but God must call us to faith and cause us to believe, and that He does so by the preaching of the Gospel.

It is those things, human weakness and corruption, and divine power and grace, that cause those who should be our brothers in the faith to respond to us with hostility and rejection.  Some of them want to be able to earn and deserve something of their salvation for themselves - and the idea that they cannot insults them and infuriates them.  Others want to claim that at least they chose the right path, they "decided for Jesus", and the doctrine of divine monergism - that God alone works faith in us against our nature and beyond our abilities - causes hostility in their hearts towards us.  The Law of God strikes hard and enrages us.  Most of the Protestants we know cannot accept a God they cannot understand, so the Sacraments, and the durability of the incarnation - that Jesus is always and everywhere fully and truly human even now, with His body and human nature still with Him wherever He goes - is unreasonable to them, and our stubborn confession of those truths makes them angry.

No matter which way we turn, we face the hostility of those who call themselves Christians, but do not believe what we believe.  They have another Gospel, and believe in another Jesus.  Please understand that I am not saying that those of other denominations are not Christians.  I cannot look into their hearts and judge that.  I can only look at the Gospel they proclaim, and say that it is not the same Gospel which we confess.  Individuals in these other bodies may  - and some surely do - believe exactly what we believe about Jesus and salvation, just as we have all encountered Lutherans who are not Lutheran - who do not hold to what we teach and confess, and believe something entirely different, but still call themselves "Lutheran".

But the doctrines of works righteousness, and the doctrines of decision theology, and the doctrines which place Christ in heaven, as to His human nature, and deny the very possibility of forgiveness in either Sacrament, or of the real presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper - these doctrines are unbiblical, and unchristian.  They paint a picture of God and of Christ which is unlike our Savior, and they hide the comfort of Christ and the hope of salvation from many that believe them.  As Jesus said, "they have not known the Father, or Me."  

And they will reject us, and try to marginalize us, and often when they have the power, they will try to drive us out of the church.  They will do so with the complete conviction that they are right, and that they are serving God and God's truth.  Of course some will not count God in the picture - they will be convinced that they are serving "truth" and "all that is reasonable" and that they are fighting "superstition"

We have the Helper, that Jesus promised - the Holy Spirit.  And Jesus warns us of the truth of the hostility of the world to our confession, through the warning to the disciples of the hostility of the world to their witness.  It still applies by extension.  "But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them."

Jesus wanted them to know that when they came upon these pains and sorrows and troubles, that it was to be expected.  Nothing was out of order.  Suffering is part of the confession.  We share in Christ's righteousness, so we also share in His suffering.  Ours has no redemptive quality, but it does carry some power, by the will of God, in confession, and speaking to the mind and hearts of the unbelieving world.  And since we are Christ's, we should know that this is coming, and, as Peter put it in His first epistle, chapter 4, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation."

When the pain comes, and people turn on you, and speaking the wonderful good news of Jesus gets you into trouble, or your friends and even your family turn away from you, you may be tempted to be confused, and wonder why this is happening.  Jesus warned the Disciples, and through their warning He warns us - it is coming.  Expect it.

  Knowing that pain is coming doesn't change the pain, but it explains it - and it is for your strengthening and comfort that Jesus tells us about it.  These things they will do.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

Therefore, Pray!

John 16:23-28

"Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name.  Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.  These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will speak no more to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.  In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.  I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again, and going to the Father."

Sermon for Rogate Sunday                                                             05/10/26

Therefore, Pray!

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

There are few Bible passages that have caused the kind of confusion that our Gospel lesson has.  Jesus speaks to His disciples about prayer, and what He says sounds to some ears as if Jesus is giving us the authority to use God like a catalog - you phone in your request and, shazam!, there it is, delivered right to your door.  That isn't exactly what Jesus is saying.  It is, however, about prayer, and about our relationship with God the Father.  Jesus does promise to answer to every prayer, so our theme, this morning, is what the text finally says to us - Therefore, pray!

Part of the problem with under-standing the text is the translation we use.  It says, "If you ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you."  All of the translations tend to sound the same - some use the word "Whatsoever" instead of "anything", but it tends to come across in the English as a broad guarantee that we can get anything and everything from God simply by asking.

And we can!  The fact that I have to point that out is part of what makes this so difficult to understand for so many people.  But Jesus was not promising that we will get everything we can conceivably pray for.  That is where the language barrier still stands in our way sometimes.  Jesus was not promising that anything we asked would automatically be given as much as He was promising that every prayer would be answered, that God the Father was listening to our prayers, and wanted to hear our prayers, and that we could count on God the Father just as we have counted on Jesus Himself.  Jesus was also actually subordinating Himself to the Father.

Remember that Jesus was speaking to His disciples.  We are the recipients of the promises, but we were not the original audience.  Those disciples were accustomed to Jesus, in the flesh.  This text comes in the middle of Jesus warning them that He was going away, and they would not see Him, and their hearts would know sorrow on account of that.  These disciples were accustomed to asking things of their Master - and receiving something in response.  They were not accustomed to asking for motorized toys, or even candy bars, but when they asked Jesus a question, He answered.  When they wanted to eat, they got to eat - now and again they ate miraculously.

Jesus was telling them that when He was gone from among them, they were going to have the same relationship with the Father that they had with Jesus.  They would not be praying to Jesus, but to God, and He would deal with them just as they might expect Jesus would.  He would answer.  Whatever it was that they needed, God the Father would provide.  Jesus even made the point that He wasn't going to have to intercede with the Father for them, in order to get what they needed, but the Father Himself would listen and answer their prayers because He loved them!

He loved them because they believed.  In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.  Jesus takes His place behind the Father - we call that the subordination of the Son to the Father - and God the Father deals with us, just as lovingly and just as intimately as Jesus did with His inner circle of disciples.  He loves us because we love Jesus and believe God's Word about Jesus.  Praying in Jesus name doesn't here mean just stapling the name onto our prayer, but praying to God on account of Jesus 

– because we know what He did 

– and because we know why He did it 

– and because we know what it means for us and our relationship with the Father.  

– It is, in other words, a prayer which flows from a heart of faith.

Jesus tells us these things for our comfort and our peace of mind.  Life is not going to be comfortable at all times, and we will be tempted to despair.  Jesus tells us of the Father's love for us so that we will be able to approach any situation with faith in Him.  More than just comfort, Jesus says He wants us to know this that our joy may be full.  Our joy is filled up by trusting what we know, and by making use of what He teaches us.

What we know is the Gospel.  We know the reality of sin.  We know how frequently we go our own way, and feel as if we can handle life without considering Jesus.  The verses just preceding our text talk about how the disciples will have sorrow, but the world will have joy, but then our sorrow will be turned to joy.  Jesus uses the image of a woman in labor; the pain before, the joy afterwards.  That is how the gospel works in us and for us.

While we live in this world, we have the joy of the Gospel, but the sorrow of the hatred of the world, and the sorrow of our own sinful flesh longing and lusting for sin.  We have the sorrow of guilt and of the knowledge of our sins.  The world has no problem with sin.  It rejoices in sin.  The world loves to lead us to sin for it understands on a primal level that sin separates from God.

Of course, when I speak of the world as a sentient being, I am not referring to grass and trees, but to the society of men under the guidance of the "ruler of this world," as Jesus described the devil.  Men have consciousness and intelligence, and so does the leader of all those who live without Christ.  He leads and plans, and so do those who follow him.  That's where persecutions come from.  We have been safe from persecutions, in this country, at least open and overt persecutions, but that time is coming to an end.  

I read this past week or so, an on-Line  column about the senseless and growing violent hatred towards Christians in this country - coming from the Main Stream Media, certain politicians, and the intellectual elites.  There was a report about the Biden administration deliberately targeting Christians: "The Biden DOJ aggressively targeted and harassed Christians, privately called them "CULTISTS" and sought out HARSH prison sentences for peaceful protest." It is growing.  Strong language and virulent aspersions are aimed with increasing frequency and energy at just-plain-old-fashioned Christians.  We are called ignorant, demented, backwards, dangerous.  Our intelligence is impugned in speeches and in print.  We are accused of doing things we don't do, of trying to commandeer the country and force our values on the world.  We are likened to Hitler, accused of being insane, and pictured as an enemy that must be eradicated - and this by people who don't think that Islamic terrorism is really a big problem in the world.  

Jesus said the world would hate us.

Those who spew such hate language at us are "the world" of which I speak.  They have effectively removed historic Christianity from the public square in our culture, and they want to silence anyone that might bring a Christian perspective into the arena of politics or government policy or education.  Think of Assassination attempts against President Trump ands the successful assassination of Charlie Kirk.  They have likened the humble confession of the Christian faith - or Christian-based morality - to terrorism.  They make the lives of God's people difficult and bitter, as in, the disappearance of religious symbols from the streets and buildings of our towns, and hearing our current president castigated for speaking about being a Christian and viewing his responsibilities as president from a Christian faith perspective.

The sorrow we know now is the sorrow of the cross.  It includes our sins, and the sins of those around us, and the displeasure of the world - even that part of the world that calls itself our friends, our family, or, sometimes, fellow Christians.  The joy the world knows is the joy of seeing the influence of Christian thought and morality diminish.

It is in the face of these pains and pressures that Jesus reminds us that we are not alone, nor are we bereft of any help.  Just as He would stand up for His disciples and speak against the hostility of the world toward them, and give them peace, and provide for them - so will our heavenly Father do for us.  He gives us the promise that God will listen to us and answer any and every prayer.  "If you shall ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in My name.  That is, He will listen to every prayer, and answer it just as Jesus would - not necessarily giving us every single thing we might think to include in a prayer, as though He were an on-line catalog service, but guiding us, blessing us, protecting us, and providing for our needs, and helping us in every trouble and in every circumstance.

Our joy now is that we are never alone, and never without resources.  We have God standing here, ready to hear, eager to answer, promising help and supply in every need.  He promises all of that to us because He loves us.  He loves us particularly because we love Jesus, we believe in Him and hold to Him and serve Him and call ourselves by His name, and stand with Him for blessing, or for the abuse and hatred of the world.

And how could we do anything other?  We are filled with Him.  We are in Christ and Christ is in us, and we stand in the world as Christ, with His holiness and with His glory, 

– and with His power.  We have His Word.  We eat His body and drink His blood.  We love with His love, and we suffer the hatred of the world for Him.  And the heavenly Father loves us and desires to help us stand faithfully in Him and in His love.

Of course, our joy will finally be made complete on the great day of the Lord, when He shall bring us to Himself, body and soul reunited and outfitted for eternity.  And He gives us this privilege and power of prayer so that we may stand firm, and may finally taste that ultimate joy.  And knowing the truth of all of these things, our theme this morning is, Therefore, Pray!

Use this gift of God and call upon Him in every need, and never doubt that God desires your prayers, and He will listen, and He will answer with everything you need, and all that will be of blessing for you.  After all, it part of your birthright and inheritance as the child of God in Jesus Christ.  It is comfort when you need it.  It is power when you need that.  It is the source of wisdom and a fountain of strength and protection from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in a world stacked against you.

Therefore, pray.  Pray often.  Pray with confidence.  Never give up on prayer.  Take advantage of the love of God for you - because that is precisely what He wants you to do.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

The Helper

 John 16:5-15

"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.  But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.  And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

"I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you."

Sermon for Cantate 5/03/26

The Helper

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

One of television's most interesting devices is what we call a flashback.  In the middle of the story you can jump back to an earlier episode and explain the meaning of the present situation.  That is not a new idea.  The lectionary has been doing it for thousands of years.  Our Gospel lesson is something akin to a flashback.  It takes us from after the resurrection and on the way to Pentecost back to just before the crucifixion so Jesus can explain what is coming up in very near future, in terms of our Gospel lectionary progression.  As we approach the celebration of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the official start of the Christian Church, Jesus tells us that He is going to give His Spirit, whom He calls "the Helper", and describes His work and the meaning of the gift.  Our theme, this morning, is "The Helper".

Contrary to the ordinary expectations of men and women, Jesus explains that His departure from His disciples is actually a good thing.  They will gain much more than they will lose.  It was hard to see that from a human perspective.  All they could imagine is that their master is going to be going away.  Jesus explained that He will send the Helper to them, which will be a great advantage and blessing.  If you read these words casually, you might not find the blessings Jesus is speaking of.  You need to read them carefully, and apply the words to the situation.

For example, Jesus tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit – the Helper – will be making everything work.  Jesus says that He, when He comes, will accomplish all the things Jesus names.  What isn't so obvious is that Jesus is talking about the work He is leaving His disciples to do.  The Spirit is the One who will make it happen.  That is how He is "the Helper".  He makes whatever they are doing effective and accomplishes the mission Jesus sets before them.

And what is that Mission?  "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment."  That is the Mission.  The first thing we see is that the scope of the mission is the entire world, and that is what the Helper will enable them to reach – the world.  What the disciples are charged with is a mission to the entire world, and every man, woman, and child in the world is included in their message.  The Spirit will convict the world, that is, the Spirit will work faith and give the message power.

First, He will convict the world of sin.  Jesus then went on to say that the world will be convicted of unbelief: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.  That is the chief sin, not to believe in Jesus.  All other sins flow out of the failure to believe that Jesus is God and to trust in Him.  Now that Jesus has paid the cost of sin, the only thing that stands to convict anyone is unbelief.  And we all stand convicted of unbelief before Christ.  Aside from the aid of the Spirit, not even Christians would believe.  Our natural state is unbelief.

The history of the church demonstrates this truth.  Time after time, the church wanders from the simple and pure Gospel.  We would expect the world around us to reject Christ and the faith, and they do, but the most aggressive attacks come from within the church.  There are those who simply cannot accept the incarnation.  ‘God could not do that, or if He could, He would not!'  They reject the atonement.  ‘It is too little,' or ‘it is too much,' or ‘it is too violent,' or ‘it is unreasonable to demand the bloody death of His Son for the sins of others.' Over and over, so-called teachers have led the way to unbelief and irreligion, showing how clearly all men are convicted of the sin of unbelief prior to the work of the Helper.

The world has no appreciation for the reality of this sin.  It is all the same to the world if you believe in God or not – or which deity you choose.  The world is worried about those "sins" that mess up their dealings - murder, or adultery, or theft.  They don't always condemn or punish those evils, but they feel them and see them.  This sin, unbelief, they do not feel or see or care about.  They do not know that this sin is the foundation and food for the evil of the world.  This is the sin in which a man says "I am God".  "I come first."  "Whatever I want at whatever price, I claim it!"  And we all stand convicted.

Then the Helper convicts the world of righteousness.  That is the proper work of the Spirit, proclaiming the Gospel through the agency of the messengers sent by Christ, and bringing men to faith.   But the righteousness of which the world is to be convicted is not its own, worked by the hands of men.  It is that alien righteousness of the grace of God, imputing Christ's complete righteousness to men that believe.  You can hear this in the way Jesus describes it: and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me.  Now who would describe righteousness like this?  Only Jesus.  

He describes it this way because it is not our righteousness but His that He speaks about.  It is the only righteousness that avails before God for salvation, but it is totally His work and not ours.  It must be accounted to us and given to us – and it is.  That is the work of the Spirit.  Luther often said that this is the reason the Holy Spirit is called Holy, because He makes us holy.  These words show us clearly that Christ is not speaking here of outward, secular righteousness, which is important and necessary for this life, which Moses or judges and philosophers teach in their books, and which man has the ability to practice.  This righteousness is of an entirely different sort - it is the sort of righteousness for which God looks, the righteousness of the heart and soul, cleansed of sins and humble before God.

This is why the world hates this righteousness - this Gospel - because it is not something they can accomplish or establish or even sense and feel.  There is no personal credit or glory in it.  It is all Christ.  That is why He speaks about the world being convicted because He goes to the Father.  The world has no use for it if it is not serving their felt needs or egos.  This righteousness, however, is completely concealed, not only from the world but also from the saints.  It is not a thought, a word, or a work or a feeling in ourselves, as the preachers fantasize about grace when they teach that it is something poured into our hearts – or something that we sense.  No, it is entirely outside and above us; it is Christ's going to the Father, that is, His suffering, resurrection, and ascension.  Christ placed this righteousness outside the sphere of our senses; we cannot see and feel it. The only way it can be grasped is by clinging to the Word preached about Him, which tells us that He Himself is our Righteousness.  Even for believers, it is received only by faith, and perceived only by hearing the Word of it, and that with the aid – the conviction – of the Helper.

Finally, the Helper will convict the world concerning Judgment.  Jesus said, and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.  We naturally think of earthly judgment, laws broken, crimes committed, and guilt established and punished.  But Jesus is speaking here of the work of the Helper which places all human righteousness in the scales of justice and condemns all of it.  Here we are presented with the work of the church in preaching and teaching the truth, both Law and Gospel, rightly divided.  We proclaim the freedom of the Gospel from the regulations of the law, and this silences and condemns the "ruler of this world", the devil, with all of his guilt-mongering and fear. 

The devil is the father of lies, and so any false doctrine stands judged by the clear preaching of the Word of God.  It is not important to this convicting work of the Helper that the world around us recognize that judgment today.  It will recognize it and confess it as true and correct in the end, but today it is enough that we know that it is true.  The Helper convicts the world by contradicting the wisdom and judgment of the world with the forgiveness of sins and by changing the hearts of men.  The world looks at the outside and makes its judgment.  God bestows His grace, and changes the spirit of men and women with a new righteousness which is true and pure and saves you.  The world judges falsely and condemns and persecutes the people of God, and so it is judged in turn, and condemned along with its evil ruler.

All the while, we stand by watching as the Helper does all of these things.  We hear the Words of the Absolution, and believe by the power of the Spirit, and we are forgiven.  We hear the Words of Institution, and believe by the power of the Spirit, and we receive holy food.  We are not idle, for we are the messengers sent to preach, but the work and its success belongs to the Spirit.  He takes what Christ has earned, and pours it out on us in Word and Sacrament.  As Jesus said in our text, "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you."  He brings all glory to the Father by glorifying Christ in everything so that we know and believe, and are comforted here, and are rescued for eternity.

Our Gospel for Cantate Sunday prepares us to celebrate Pentecost, and to find the true blessing of Christ's Ascension.  Christ needed to go away from us to the Father in order to send the Spirit to help us, and teach us this divine understanding of sin, and righteousness, and to know that the judgment has come already, on Good Friday, when the ruler of this world was judged, and our sins were punished, and we were redeemed and set free from death into everlasting life.  The Helper had to do it because, by ourselves, we could not believe.  We need help, and so He sent us the Helper.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)