Sermons 2025

Text: John 14:23-31
Theme: Word of the HS

Outline:
1.    HS?
2.    What does He do? Brings to remembrance
a.    Creates and Sustains faith
3.    Your Work?

Sermon:

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

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Holy Gospel according to Saint John the Fourteenth chapter verses twenty-three through thirty-one.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Have you ever felt really sleepy? So sleepy that you can’t keep your eyes open? You just want to close them and not open them for a really long time? That can be how we feel when it comes to the great task that God has given us to do of spreading His Word to all the world. We can feel like we have no energy but what happens today in our lesson? The Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples and they are given power from on high. They, and we, do the work God has given us to do, not by our own power but by the Power of the Holy Spirit. How does the Holy Spirit continue to give us His power today? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    HS

Who exactly is the Holy Spirit? Many people in the world today misunderstand who the Holy Spirit is. They think that He’s an inactive something that you can just call upon when you need it, like the Force from Star Wars. It’s just always around you. If you can just tap into it then you have unlimited power. Whenever you need help you can draw upon the Spirit, He will help you. Then, you can just put Him back until you need help again. Others misunderstand because they think that the Holy Spirit does not exist. They think that He is indeed a Spirit or a Ghost with no form or substance to Him whatsoever. Others misunderstand because they think that the Spirit gives you a jumpstart, the same as you might jumpstart a dead car battery, and you then need to do the rest.

These common misconceptions are wrong. The Holy Spirit has a form and substance. He is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. As our Lord says, the Holy Spirit takes what belongs to the Son and gives it to the disciples. That is something that only God can do. The Holy Spirit is not an inactive force that we can draw on whenever we need Him. Rather, He is living and active within Creation. We might consider Genesis chapter one where the Holy Spiri is hovering and brooding over the waters like a protective bird over its nest, making sure that the young are well tended to and everything is going according to plan. The Holy Spirit does not merely give you a jumpstart and leave you to do the rest. Rather, He is with you forever, every single moment of your life giving you strength and peace.
 

   The Holy Spirit gives us a strength and peace that we cannot get on our own. We know well how weak and frail we are. We seem to have no peace in this sinful world. We are tossed by the wind and waves of the world. We go from one sinful thought and action to another. All the while thinking ‘Maybe this time will be different’, ‘Maybe finally I will achieve something good.’ ‘Maybe this time I can finally overcome sin and temptation on my own.’ How is that working out for you? On our own, we can-do no-good thing. Under our own power, we see how powerless we really are. We become anxious and fearful, wondering how we can ever have peace and strength.

2.    What does He do?

Thanks be to God that He does give us of His Holy Spirit and takes not His presence away from us. By His work, we have peace and strength in the midst of a sin-filled world. As the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, we can overcome sin, stand firm against the pressures of the world, and resist the temptation of Sin. Not by our own power but because of the work of the Holy Spirit. How does this happen?  Our text for today tells us. Our Lord says, 

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and dbring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” 

The Holy Spirit gives us strength and peace. Because the Holy Spirit never points to Himself. He always focuses and points to Jesus Christ and what He has done for our salvation. Because of the Son, we have peace and strength. We have Peace with God, having been reconciled to Him by the blood of Jesus. We have strength, because He leaves in us. The Holy Spirit teaches by creating faith in us that we may cling to Christ’s work. Through this faith, the Holy Spirit sanctifies us. He makes us holy, here and now. 

How does this great transformation happen? How does the Spirit make us holy? As Luther writes in the Large Catechism “Sanctifying is nothing else than bringing us to Christ to receive this good, to which we could not attain of ourselves.” (Source: https://bookofconcord.org/large-catechism/apostles-creed/#lc-ii-0039 ) and “Just as the Son obtains dominion, whereby He wins us, through His birth, death, resurrection, etc., so also the Holy Ghost effects our sanctification by the following parts, namely, by the communion of saints or the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting; that is, He first leads us into His holy congregation, and places us in the bosom of the Church, whereby He preaches to us and brings us to Christ. (Source: https://bookofconcord.org/large-catechism/apostles-creed/#lc-ii-0037 ) 

God always works through means. The Father works through the means of His Word at Creation. The Son works through the means of the incarnation. The means by which the Holy Spirit works to make us holy are what we call the marks of the Church. Here, within the community of believers gathered around His Word and Sacraments, the Spirit makes you holy. He says, “Hey, here is everything Jesus has done in His Word. Here is His very Gospel in a visible and tangible way in the Sacraments, water and the Word to make you a beloved child. Bread and wine with the Word to give you Jesus’ true body and true blood for you to forgive your sins. Listen! Hear the voice of your Pastor as “in the stead and by the command of Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.” Here you are forgiven of all of your sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. Here God places His very name upon you, makes you His beloved child, creates saving faith in you, and constantly strengthens you to do the work that Christ has given you to do.

3.    What Work do you do?

You have the Spirit living within you. He strengthens you to do His good work. What is that work? Firstly, the Spirit creates faith in you. You trust in the Son and what Jesus has done for you. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead, you have peace no matter what happens in this world. Jesus has already destroyed the power of sin, death, and the devil in your lives. There is nothing to fear, worry, or be anxious about. God Himself is with you and strengthening you. Secondly, that faith and trust shows itself in your thoughts, words, and actions. In the midst of this sin-filled world, you are little Christs to those around you. You use your thoughts, words, and actions to give God the glory rather than using it to indulge your sinful lusts or give into the pressures of the world, or the temptations of the devil. 

Thanks be to God that He sends us the Comforter and the Helper. May He continue to give us of His Holy Spirt that we may always walk in His ways for the glory of His name.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts, and minds, in Christ Jesus. Amen.