He Is Still Being Sent To Us

He Is Still Being Sent To Us

²³ Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.

²⁵ “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. ²⁶ But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

²⁷ “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful. ²⁸ You have heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. ²⁹ I have told you now before it happens so that when it does happen you may believe. ³⁰ I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me. ³¹ On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.

“Get up; let’s leave this place.
^{John 14:23-31}

This is the Word of the Lord. Sanctify us, O Lord, by Thy Truth. Thy Word is Truth. Amen.

If He has come…the Spirit sent from the Father… has He come to us?

Some may say no. Not the Lutheran church…as it has little if any life…and if it once had some…if He was here at one time…

… it’s not so much now…or He has left entirely.

No…of course He has….come….and remains!

Simply… if you don’t have the Spirit of Christ… you are not a Christian.

And in the waters of Baptism He has come to each of us…individually… and He still does…He still is always coming to us…He must!

It is not though that we possess Him…

…and He also is not a one-time hand-out like what you got at your baby shower either…

He also does not ride along, like some bumper stickers say that God is their co-pilot. If He is not the pilot, the captain of our souls, then well, we don’t have Him…

Who is He?

He is the Lord and giver of Life. Our life. We don’t have life…any life without Him…

But We don’t possess Him…no.

He rather envelopes us…The Word…The Water…The Spirit…

Which remains…He remains…the Water remains…

…and if we ever dry-out…dry-off…we are no longer alive…no longer have life in His Name.

But how do we know that we have the Spirit…still?

How do we know if we have not already become dried out…dead…like a pile of whitened bones in the desert, that portrayed the Old Testament Church, that Ezekiel saw in his vision?

Like so many claim Lutherans are?

Are you worried about that?

Good, that means that there is still hope!

It means that His breeze has stirred even the dry leaves in your heart. That He has added a bit of His breath on that smoldering wick of a lamp, in there…that should be brighter…but still flickers….

And Jesus promised to not put out a smoldering wick.

He will throw out a lamp that has no oil left—one that has gone out—in the end…and close the door tight….

But not…not the one that is still concerned about where they stand with Him…looking to Him to replenish the oil…

Now, the Spirit, even though like the wind, coming and going, from unknown to unknown…

STILL comes to sinners…

And this by His Word…and His presence in that Word that is in His Holy Things…

You see this is what the Holy Spirit does. This is His breath breathing down your necks—that caused this concern in us…that worry… that concern over whether He is still here with us…with you.

You see, this is His first task…to convict the world of sin—to convict us of our sin.

Or do we think that Truth is negotiable? It is either right or wrong. And what does it—what does He say?

What happened in the Book of Acts? Peter told them that it was them (and we must include ourselves)—it was them, who crucified Jesus.

Okay, but before then? Peter had to be restored from His sin, right? Was Peter dried up? Maybe close…

So, a washing had to take place, by Jesus’ Words.

Then Peter, being filled with the Spirit—filled with the right Words…Peter preached…and the people…yes, the church of God…heard that they just allowed…that Peter had allowed too… the death of the Lord of Glory…their Messiah…

So…they awaited their doom, didn’t they? Where was the lighting bolt?

Well, a different fire came down…the breath of God has come—they heard and saw this. Yes, He has!

The Spirit of Truth has spoken…through His Word of Scripture that Peter gave as a synopsis of…starting from the very beginning…from Moses to that very day.

And they were cut to the heart!

Oh, NO! How could THEY then be saved? I mean, they killed their savior. Who would want them? Who would want you and I?

Yes, because we are no different. Many of us, in so many things—even small things…and this is the devil’s trick, as it is little bit… by little bit—little sin by little sin…and our light gets dimmer and dimmer…we get dryer and dryer…

Yawn…a little sleeping in…turning a blind eye…here… and then there….

Then we begin to stop up our ears more and more…we close our eyes…longer and longer…we ignore…we pass the blame….

We also begin to want Jesus to go away and leave us alone.

We agree with what we here… that He can’t want us now, can He? Not after all this time away…doing what we have been doing…?

But then The Spirit blows like a mighty rushing wind—it has to be…strong for some of us…to move the rock of our hearts…the slowness and thickness of our sleepy minds…

The hammer comes down. The alarm is sounded. The terror is opened before us. We are shaken. We look and see where we really are…

On a precipice. We feel naked. Alone. Ashamed. As we too are on the brink of giving approval of all those who want Christ removed from our midst….

But God does not leave us…still. The Holy Spirit works on us…and so we all of a sudden feel hungry….

How long has it been, we ask?

Something is…has been missing…for a while now…a hole in our being is felt…

Like Luther in that desert called the Holy Roman Empire…that was far from Holy.

He speaks. Those sweet refreshing Words.

Yes, and like the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision…those bones become living beings again…all by preaching…the very breath of God…the Word of God…The Gospel…the very power unto Salvation…

Then you hear. Now you hear.

Then He fills…fills you and I, with Himself again. The water…the washing…of the Word…He shows us Jesus. He gives us Jesus. He adds His oxygen to that smoldering lump inside…and oil is renewed in our lamps…

We are fed and our thirst is quenched…by His own flesh and blood…nourishment added to our dying bodies to make them alive again…

Yes, all this by the breath of the Spirit…in Words….His Words…containing Him…the all powerful Spirit of Jesus…

When has it ever been anything else?

This that created all things…that sustains all things…who declared what is not, to be…yes, even dead beings like you and I….by the very Lord of Life, Himself…

Declared Alive!

Alive, like He is. Forever speaking whatsoever Jesus said…which was what the Father said to say…written down in His Book, heard, sung, read…this…and in this…He is sent…to us.

Why? St. Paul tells us why: “…that you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. ¹⁶ Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. [ESV]

That is why the Spirit is being sent…still…right now…

So that we abide in Him and He in us…and confess His name once again…

…and again…

…remaining in Him…in His Word…to attain the full measure of Him…in all Truth…He is Truth…He is the Truth…His Word is Him…and He is the Word…God…three in One…The Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit…Here to remain with us…and this World without end. Amen.

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