May the
words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight,
O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
Let us
pray! God of Heaven and earth, You sent
Your Son Jesus Christ to set we captives free from our sin. But we need You to now send Your Holy Spirit
to make known our sins and remind us of Jesus righteousness won for us on the
Cross of Calvary. Enable us to embrace
Your Holy Spirit and understand this is part of the needed plan of salvation
and the Holy Spirit now makes You known to us daily and continuously reminds us
of Your love for all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning. AMEN.
In one
sense we are in no mans land this morning.
Just as we are between the seasons with Winter and the snow fall of this
past week and Spring with the warm temperatures this weekend. We are also in between two great festivals in
the middle of the church year. Easter
has come and gone and Pentecost is on the horizon. Just as if we are travelling to Colby, Hays
or Manhattan on I-70 early in the morning and the sun is rising in the East, we
are at a point in the church year that looks forward to the completion of the
festival portion of the church year and the beginning of the season after
Pentecost which is also known as the Season After Trinity.
But this
morning our Gospel lesson speaks to us of what is needed in order to make known
the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. Just
as when we travel we need to know where we are headed in order to get there as
well as what roads and highways we will take, Jesus is telling the disciples
what will occur and what the path is going to be for them and for us today. In a nutshell this is Jesus message to His disciples
and for us today. “Jesus needs to go so
the Holy Spirit could come and make known our sin and Jesus righteousness and
to guide us in how to Glorify God.” Let
me repeat it a little bit slower so we can clearly understand the path that we
will follow this morning. “Jesus needs to
go so the Holy Spirit could come and make known our sin and Jesus righteousness
and to guide us in how to Glorify God.”
Jesus
will have accomplished His mission and tasks of living among the people here on
earth, healing them of their earthly maladies and going to the cross and dying
for our sins. Jesus has completed the
plan of salvation. Jesus has completed
what He was supposed to do here on earth.
Just as those who have served in the military on a tour of duty or even
those of us remember being at school and being called to the old chalk board
and now the ‘dry erase board’ to complete a math problem or fill in a blank on
a sentence, once the task was completed we return to our seat. Jesus in the same way is to return to the
Father in heaven after having completed the salvation of all of mankind. Jesus actually needs to return to the Father
in heaven.
Because
if Jesus does not return, then the Third person of the Holy Trinity cannot come
and complete His part in the plan of salvation.
If Jesus does not return to the Father, the Holy Spirit will not
come. The Holy Spirit has to come here
among us. If we think about the
Apostle’s Creed that we will confess in a few minutes, the Father has the role
as Creator, the Son has the role as Redeemer and the Holy Spirit has a role,
the Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier or the one that keeps us in the one true
faith.
Simply
the role of the Holy Spirit is three fold, the Holy Spirit is to make known our
sin, point out Jesus Christ righteousness for all mankind and to guide us how
to Glorify God. Without the Holy Spirit
we would be like a tractor without a farmer driving it down the road, like a
basketball that sits at center court waiting to be bounced and even an organ that
has a place of honor in a church without someone to play the music for the
prelude, liturgy or hymns. Without the
Holy Spirit, the plan of salvation is incomplete for all of mankind after Jesus
ascends into heaven.
We need
the Holy Spirit to make our sins known. This
doesn’t sound good to our holier than thou ears, but we need to have the Holy
Spirit reveal the parts of our lives that are the dirtiest, darkest and most
detestable parts of us. Those secrets
that nobody knows about that we need not just reminded of them, but exposed. Whether it is how we treated our spouse when
nobody was looking or could see us, whether it is how we treat our kids when
they have done something wrong, or how we sit back in the pew and expect the
young people to do all the work of the church and just give the excuse that I
have served my time. The Holy Spirit
comes after Jesus has ascended to convict us of our sins, root them out and
remind us that we are not worthy, we are sinful creatures in thought, word and
deed.
Once we
embrace our sinfulness the Holy Spirit can then enable us to embrace the truth
that Jesus Christ came into this world for each of us. Jesus came to die for our sins, the ones we
clearly remember and the ones we do not remember. Jesus came in order to offer us forgiveness
and the Holy Spirit’s job is to remind us of Jesus righteousness. We cannot save ourselves. If we believe that we can save ourselves, we
mock God and therefore believe we do not need Jesus Christ and His innocent
death on Calvary. This is farthest from
the truth. We need Jesus Christ life,
death and resurrection because we cannot purchase or buy our way out of any of
our sins. Our lives are full of sins and
the Holy Spirit is called to not only point out our sins, but point us directly
to our Savior and His righteousness for all of mankind.
When we
understand Jesus righteousness for all of mankind and embrace His calling of
and for us and how the Holy Spirit as Luther says, “calls, gathers and
enlightens us”, we then can enter into a new relationship. This relationship is meant for the Holy
Spirit to guide us in how to glorify God.
When we glorify God it is not only attending Sunday services regularly,
not using bad language, treating someone kindly face to face and even when they
are not present, giving money to the projects and programs of the church or
community. It is living out the Gospel
message in our daily lives in community with one another. When we come to glorify God on Sunday the
church is like a gas station. We come to
get filled up with the Word of God and sent to do the Work of God in community
with one another. The Holy Spirit calls
us to use our gifts, talents, treasures and all that we have to give God the
glory. Whether it is helping someone
cross the street, holding the door for someone when they have their hands full,
reaching out with a hug of support when someone we know has received bad news
or is in need of a hug. We can glorify
God everyday whether in church, school, on the tractor, in the place of
business, on the phone, in Wal-Mart, driving along the interstate or even
cutting their lawn or trimming their hedges or giving them a ride to school,
work or even to church or visiting them when we get off of work.
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