C, Pentecost - Romans 8:14-17, John 14:12-18 "The Holy Adoption of Orphans"

Romans 8:14–17 (ESV) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

John 14:12–18 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.  If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” 

What is the function of the Holy Spirit? 

Or put another way, why do we need the Holy Spirit to be Christian; one who is a confessor of sins, a believer of our Heavenly Father’s forgiveness, a confessor of our Father’s forgiveness, and a forgiver of those who sin against us?

In the Nicene Creed we say we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. 

The Holy Spirit gives us life as God’s children.  What is that?  Jesus says without the Holy Spirit we would be orphans, we would not receive him when he comes to us in his Word, nor would we receive him at his second coming. 

Without the Holy Spirit we would have no faith in God, without the Holy Spirit we would only have faith in ourselves, our fallen human spirit.  You and I wouldn’t know God the Father or God the Son, nor would you want honest truthful fellowship with them or anyone else.

The Holy Spirit gives us faith and with faith filled hearts, he walks with us as the Spirit of truth.  On receiving the Holy Spirit, he enlightens us to the reality of our human self.  You and I know that without the Holy Spirit we have no understanding, like the disciples did until Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on them and opened their minds to the Word of God.

It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to continually gather you and me, feed us with faith when we receive God’s gifts, and makes us holy in Jesus Christ so we don’t gravitate back to the untruths of the narrowness of ourselves.

In Romans eight Paul tells us we have received the Spirit of adoption as sons.  You and I are orphans until the Holy Spirit gives us the hearts of faith, so we call on God with holy fear rather than a fear that leads us back into slavery.

A fear that leads back into slavery is a fear that hinders us from freely confessing our sins.  A fear of slavery hinders us from believing Jesus’ word when he tells us we will do greater works than the works he did, now that he is with his Father in heaven.  Where does this fear come from?

Before we were Sons of God, we were sons and daughters of men.  This meant at our very best we may have lived morally decent lives.  But this very best, this knowledge of good, made us self-righteous, and it hinders us from trusting in God. 

Why would we need to trust in God if our good is good enough?  But it’s not good enough for God because it treats him with contempt as we desire to climb up to God through our effort of greater good, just as the builders of Babel were attempting to do.

Desire is also at the heart of our very worst as we live as sons and daughters of men.  Burning desire for pleasure can usually be found at the root of criminal activity, tribulations, and the fracturing of communities.  In fact, desire never seems all that bad until the deed is done and the guilt kicks in.  It’s been the same ever since Adam and Eve desired the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

However, the Holy Spirit was sent from the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, just ten days after he, ascended into heaven.  This fulfilled what God’s Son promised.   This is the promise of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit works to place faith in us, which welcomes all that God does for us in our day to day lives, and also allows the deposit of eternal life to be placed in us.

This is the seal of God’s adoption that makes us, God’s own, and God, our Father.  The Holy Spirit continually testifies to our human spirit that you and I are Sons of God.  Our Sonship is a gift to us from the Son of God.  Jesus Christ, came as one of us, he came as the Son of Man, giving up his privilege as the Son of God, doing what all other sons and daughters of man could not do.

The Holy Spirit continues to reveal this to you and me in God’s Word.  The Son of Man lived the life you and I could not live.  He died in your place.  He literally gave his life for your life.  Now we, who were sons and daughters of men, are Sons of God.  This is God’s holy adoption of orphans. 

Sons and daughters of men are orphaned through sin, through birth and deed.  Sons of God are adopted because of the Son of Man, through his birth to Mary, his deeds, and his death on the cross.  We now do greater works than Jesus by confessing our sin to God the Father.

We now have more to fear if we do not confess our sins to God and forgive others their sins. 

When we reject confessing our sins and forgiving others, we resist the Holy Spirit. 

When we refuse to confess and forgive, we hinder the greater works Jesus said we would do, now that he is with the Father.  We impede his crucifixion and resurrection for us. 

When we put a stop to confessing our sin and forgiving others, we orphan ourselves, and return once again to not trust God as our Heavenly Father. 

When we don’t confess and forgive, our inability to love becomes real. 

We move dangerously close to sinning against the Holy Spirit.

But, as sons of God the Father, we can love others as God has loved us, as we live and move and have our being in Jesus Christ, the love of God. 

The work of God’s love is done in us by the Holy Spirit.  Yes!  It does cause us pain and suffering. 

Confessing sin and forgiving others causes death of the old Adam in us.  The human spirit is exposed in all its weakness.  This is not an easy thing to do.

This is why we need the Holy Spirit to work these things within us, and as he does, he bears witness in us, and through us, that we are heir of salvation with Jesus Christ.

One last thing the Holy Spirit does in each of us.  He allows us to cry out “Abba Father” to our Heavenly Father. 

Practically speaking doing this testifies to our children a number of things. 

We teach our kids about our weakness.  We teach then to grow up trusting is him and not us as mothers and fathers. 

So, they do not become despondent because they cannot live up to our expectations.  Or so, they don’t become conceited and reject God because of our fallen hypocrisy.

As Sons of God, we teach our children to allow the Holy Spirit to make them Sons of God.  Sons and daughters of men can never be grandchildren of God. 

Rather, as the Holy Spirit leads us as Sons of God, confessing and forgiving, he makes an example of us to our sons and daughters, so they too allow the Holy Spirit to seal them in their adoption as Sons of God, and as our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen. 

C, Easter 5 - John 13:31-35 "Love that Glorifies God"

John 13:31–35 (ESV)  When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.  If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.  Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus had just washed the feet of his disciples and revealed Judas as the betrayer.  The text before us today follows these events ending with the statement, “And it was night.” (John 13:30b ESV)

It was as dark as it could be.  Here, Jesus knows all will now take place according to the will of his Father.  He knew exactly what Judas would do.  He knew the mob would come when he was praying.  He knew what the Sanhedrin would accuse him of.  He knew what Pilate and Herod would say.  He knew what the Roman soldiers would do to him at the cross.  He knew Peter and all the disciples would be scattered.  He knew his death and descent into hell was forthcoming.

Knowing all of this he says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” (John 13:31 ESV)

In the darkest of times, Jesus announces that he and God the Father are glorified.  How are Jesus and the Father glorified?

Firstly, the sheer magnificence of this act of salvation is beginning to unfold.  Every Old Testament event prior to this one and every microbe of creation has been waiting patiently for this salvific event to occur.  This event will far supersede Noah’s salvation through the flood, or Israel’s rescue from the Egyptians through the Red Sea.

From the incarnation of God in the womb of Mary, the Son of God was born in the flesh of sinful humanity, was plunged in the Jordan by John the Baptist to fulfill all righteousness.   From there he walked in human weakness for forty days in the wilderness, tempted, but yet without sin.  Why? Because of the magnificent event that awaited him on the cross.

Secondly, the glory of God, concealed behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies, in the temple, was about to be brought out into the open for all to witness.  After three hours of darkness, all witnessed Jesus yield up his spirit as the curtain ripped in the temple.  After three hours of night in the middle of the day, the glory of God was released, and light shone on one who had kept the law perfectly, innocently, without self-interest, without a hidden agenda.

Knowledge of good and evil, was put right in the goodness of the guiltless Son of God, as he bore the evil of humanity on a tree, which would give humanity back its life.

Not only had all creation been waiting for this glory of God to shine, not only was Jesus born to fulfil the law and die under the law to release us from the law.  But now, thirdly, Jesus, gives us this glory to share with each other.    

However, these days are dark.  In fact, Jesus says many will be deceived in these dark days.  Many people, both pastors and parishioners, will be carried away from God, through doubt and deception as the darkness swirls all around us.

Just as it did in Jesus’ day, as he awaited the return of Judas with his accusers, we are called to trust Jesus in the same way in which he trusted his Father. 

Like Jesus we have knowledge of what will happen.  He tells us beforehand in his Word and sends the Holy Spirit to work endurance and perseverance within us as we share in his suffering.  We now turn our backs on a knowledge of good and evil and look to the knowledge of Jesus Christ found on the tree of life.

As we share Jesus’ weakness of being human, the Holy Spirit will work the faith required to show us evil in this world is sabotaged by the cross, as forecast in the Word of God. 

Because of Jesus’ victory on the cross, we can daily return to our baptism and in repentance wash ourselves of all partial and presumptuous sins, thinking we have to fix, only what God can fix.

It’s quite easy for us to fall into the trap thinking we need to fight God’s battles.  However, the truth is, rather than fight, we are called to stand and suffer as Christ suffered.

We are like, James and John, who after witnessing the rejection of a Samaritan town, were rebuked by Jesus after they asked, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” (Luke 9:54 ESV) 

Jesus does not need us to be his crusaders.  We have two thousand years of evidence where working for the greater knowledge of good, not only usurps the Holy Spirit, but actually champions the accusatory work of the evil one.

Returning to the text for today, instead of calling together a posse of zealous fighters, as the night darkened at his impending arrest, Jesus teaches, and he prays.  But he begins with a new commandment which is the text before us.

Knowing all that would occur he says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” 

He called them to love as he loved.  To serve as he had just served them in all humility washing their feet, even Judas Iscariot’s feet!

However, like Peter, we are just as lacking in our perception of what truly pleases God.  When push comes to shove, our pious works are short lived and not what God wants.  Our piety leads to cutting off the ears of those who need to hear the Gospel, leaving only Jesus to restore them.  And after we do this, like Peter, all our piety goes out the window as we end up denying Christ and fleeing.

Two thousand years, since Jesus gave this new commandment, Peter flees, and we too with him.  Yet Jesus saw this on the night when he was betrayed and even right now as we realise our own self-righteousness and guilt, Jesus’ words are just as true as they were then, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.

God has been calling us to love one another as he has loved us for two-thousand years.  And yet we still struggle to know what love is. 

God struggles with us, to love us.  He also struggles within, so we love others the way Jesus has loved us.  We resist God the Holy Spirit when we exchange the work of the Holy Spirit with the presumptuous work of the human spirit, the old Adam.

Even with the best of intentions, when we desire to do God’s work, it’s not what God desires and he rebukes Satan within us, just as he had to with Peter.  Nevertheless, God is glorified, and so is Jesus, as he does this work of the cross within each of us. 

So how do we glorify God?  Especially when any glimmer of his light in these darkened times will alert the world, and the enforcers of its powers and principals bringing suffering and tribulation down upon us?

We love one another as Jesus has loved us!  We allow the Holy Spirit to work the good confession of Jesus Christ within us.  

This is the confession to the world that we are sinners being forgiven.  Not confessing in pride that we sin!  But that despite our sinful nature and the sin that bleeds from it, we have freedom to confess it.  This is, in fact, the greater works Jesus teaches we will do, in John fourteen verse twelve, which are greater than his works.

As truly confessional people, confessing sin, but also confessing his forgiveness of our sin, and our trust in that forgiveness, the Holy Spirit will bring others to seek that same forgiveness.  As we share the forgiveness with which God has forgiven us, then we will be truly loving others as God loves us.

This justifies Jesus’ death!  This justifies God’s magnificent plan of salvation in Jesus Christ.  This also justifies the work of the Holy Spirit and his being sent to us from the Father and the Son, to bring us in faith to the Father and the Son. 

Loving others as God loves us, we confess our sin to create freedom for others to confess and receive forgiveness.  And as we do, the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified.  Amen.