C, Third Sunday of Advent - Luke 3:8a, 16 "Joyful Repentance"

Luke 3:8a, 16 (ESV) John the Baptist said, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”.

What is it that separates a Christian from all other people?  Is it sin?  By sin I include everything that threatens to dilute or weaken God’s holiness.  No!  We Christians are no less sinners than those who are not Christian.  Hopefully for us, though, we have knowledge of our sinful nature and the sin that comes from it.  In fact, if a Christian, does not believe they’re a sinner, they actually add sin to sin in their unbelief. 

We’re all warned, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”  (1 John 1:8–10 ESV)

If a person can be free of sin, then why aren’t they free of decay and death? 

From the moment we’re born, our existence decays day by day through death.

So, if sin isn’t what separates a Christian from others, is it that we are good?  Are all Christians good people free of evil?  This really is no different to the question of sin. 

If a Christian holds the view that to be a Christian one should be good, then all Christians should be good!  We know this not to be true. 

Are you one who makes judgements through your own knowledge of good and evil, rather than a right judgement made through a knowledge of Jesus Christ?  Why do we judge some as good, and some as evil?  We do so because we’re sinners!  We like to put aside right judgement, in God’s Word, and become the authority of good and evil, standing in the place of God, standing over his Word, sinning against the First Commandment. 

The Lutheran understanding of a believer or Christian, sees in God’s Word, we’re one hundred percent saint, and one hundred percent sinner, (simul iustus et peccator).  That is, “at the same time righteous and a sinner”.  This was rediscovered by Martin Luther who as a monk was seeking and failing to justify himself before God.  Rightly, he knew his love or good was never good enough in God’s eyes!

The joy Luther learnt, through the Holy Spirit showing him, in God’s Word, that although he failed to love God perfectly, God already loved him perfectly.  He was made right and holy in the work of Christ at the cross and the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in his earthly existence.  Luther discovered he didn’t have to work his own righteousness.

But it’s not even a matter of being good.  Believers surpass goodness by being made holy, despite being sinners.  The holiness of God covers one’s sinful nature and its deeds in baptism.  As a result, the baptismal life is one of being continually led by the Holy Spirit, into the holiness of Jesus Christ, out of the sinful condition of our human nature. 

As we pray and learn in the Lord’s Prayer, we trust Jesus’ Word and deed, as the Holy Spirit delivers us from evil, leads us out of temptation, wills us to forgive others while he works the forgiveness of sin within us.  We live in peace existing on the daily bread God gives for our physical and spiritual needs according to his earthly and heavenly will, so we seek his kingdom and glorify his holy name.  The Lord’s Prayer actually teaches us how the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, moves us from evil to God’s holiness, through repentance.

The human desire to not repent, to not believe one’s forgiveness, to not forgive, to resist being led from temptation, to remain in evil are the very deeds Paul talks about in Romans chapter seven.  He does not give into sin, by saying, “all sin, I sin, so I’ll keep on sinning!”  That would be resisting the Holy Spirit’s work within, who seeks to daily return the sinner to the holiness of Jesus’ blood spilt on the cross.  

Rather he says, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:15–20 ESV)

Our Lutheran understanding of being a saint and a sinner, stands out as pure Gospel against other beliefs.  Such as, once one is baptised, the act of baptism saves, so the person can do whatever they like.  Or baptism is the decision of the person and once baptised, the decider has to work to keep their salvation.  Both of these strip the Holy Spirit of his power and dilute the necessity of Jesus’ work at the cross.

But the Lutheran understanding, is pure Gospel, because baptism is the work of God, and one’s Christian life is a work of God that we allow to continue within.  After baptism, when others fall into sinful deeds, or when the Holy Spirit chooses to reveal their deeds as sin, they have a crisis of faith.  “Am I really a Christian?”, they worry!  And others who observe their sin, are quick to hand them over as lost sinners unless they work their way back into the observer’s “good books” in their “good time”.

When a Lutheran falls into sin.  Yes! The Holy Spirit gives one a hatred of the sinful deeds and shows the sinner the Law. And the Law’s holy perfection rightly causes fear!  

But in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit also shows us Jesus Christ on the cross in our place.  He shows us the love of God.  Our revealed deeds of sin, testifies to the truth of God’s Word, that human nature is sinful. 

So, others see deeds of sin and immediately pass judgement that a person is condemned by their sinful nature because their decision for Christ and baptism appears contrary.  However, you and I understand our sinful deeds show our sinful human nature.  This is the very reason why we need God’s work in Holy Baptism, and every day after it, in the work of the Holy Spirit, to make us holy before a perfectly holy God.

So, the thing to truly set a Christian apart from all other people on earth, is a believer although a sinner, has freedom through Christ to come into God’s presence to joyfully repent of sins.  Covered in Christ, we don’t dilute God’s holiness, with our sinful humanness of being human.

Sin can see a person flee God or seek to stand before him in self-justification or through one’s works.  Both of which, make God’s love out to be a lie. 

But in the freedom to repent, we joyfully rush to the foot of the cross and pour our sins out in confession, repentance.  We throw ourselves completely at the mercy of God trusting our confession is not just a good work, but a mega-work worked by the Holy Spirit, now that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.

Jesus says, “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.”  (John 14:12–14 ESV)

God has forgiven us as repentant sinners! God forgives us now as repentant sinners! And God promises to forgive repentant sinners! 

Our sins are horrible, and they cause us hurt and death. They caused Christ to come and suffer and die for us, too.  But the willing confession of our sin, glorifies God, in the salvation Jesus brings us through the cross.  Our confession is a joyful “Amen” and “Yes” to God’s good works for us and in us.  God the Father’s and Son’s good works are glorified by the Holy Spirit’s good works within you, when you repent and confess your sin. This is the salvation event that sees your existence in death be transformed into life, even today in this existence of death!  But these days of death will give way to the light of eternal life!

At the resurrection, when Christ returns, the salvation event will finish.  Beforehand, any who make judgements, about who’s good or bad, are susceptible of falling under one’s own judgement, before God. 

So, joyfully I say, joyfully repent, sinners!   

God is patient where we are not.   Like an onion, God works with sinners during this earthly existence, to peel back the layers of sin in all of us.  So, there’s always something for which we need to repent. When earthly death comes, or Jesus returns, only then will God’s patience end. 

So, before this comes, joyfully I say, joyfully repent!  

John the Baptist prepared those at the Jordan with a baptism of repentance for the coming of Christ.  Now that we have been baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit moves us to continue in repentance through the hearing of God’s Word.  In God’s Word the Holy Spirit peels back the layers of death in our existence, so we can repent and be revived in the life of  Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself says to his church, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:5 ESV)

Again, he says, “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.” (Revelation 3:3 ESV)

And a third time, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:19 ESV)

Therefore, seek God’s will in his Word!  Allow the Holy Spirit to show you your sin and keep you holy!   

Joyfully I say, joyfully repent, for Jesus’ sake, Amen!

A, Easter 6 - John 14:12-21 "The Spirit of Truth"

John 14:12–14, 15-21 (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.  Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.  Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

For the best part of two thousand years, the church has struggled to understand what the love is,  into which God calls us.  And, to know the Holy Spirit and his function in our lives, in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. 

Love has been misunderstood, and the Holy Spirit has been buried, time and time again, as one looks back through the history of the Christian Church.  This should not surprise us, as the forces of evil confront us and seek to suppress what love truly is and what the Holy Spirit seeks to do for us.

It also might surprise you that Luther’s battle in the Reformation centred on the misunderstanding of love which stood at the heart of the mistaken function of justification and righteousness before God.

Because righteousness and justification were being wrongly centred on what the individual did before God, the Holy Spirit was then the forgotten third member of the Trinity.  But more on that in a moment.

Firstly, love; how does one love God?  How can you love God?  The gospel reading begins with Jesus saying, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Then ends, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.  And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”  (John 14:15, 21 ESV)

This call to love, seems like a riddle.  The Israelites and Jews could not keep the commandments which are summed up in loving God, with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul, and with all one’s mind, and loving one’s neighbour as oneself.  (Matt 22:37-39, Deut 6:5, Lev 19:18b)

In fact, this is the reason for Jesus coming!  He came to love God and love humanity because under the Law the Jews couldn’t.  He found the Jews and the rest of humanity debased, and rebased us, by doing what we could not do, he perfectly pleased God by keeping the Law, and made atonement for humanity by dying for our sin.  He did not sin, yet he suffered to save us from our sin.

Despite this, the church struggled to stand under this love, to understand this love, and many throughout history and still today think the order of salvation is that Jesus died and now we must obey with self-focused good works.  They forget, “we are his (God’s) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)

The love to which God is calling us is a love that always comes down in creative, and re-creative power.  It finds the unlovable, and those incapable of love, and loves them.  This love is a receptive love, and it has to find us because, like the Jews, we cannot love God or our neighbour as ourselves!

So now we return to the third member of the Trinity.  God sends the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, because he knows without him, Jesus’ death and resurrection, would have just faded into history, and been forgotten, and so would our opportunity to ever love God.

Yet having sent the Holy Spirit, the church struggles to receive and submit to the Holy Spirit, even though he is the only reason, generation after generation remember Jesus in the first place! 

Instead of recognising we are recipients of God’s love, generation after generation, have sought to climb up to God, through the “greater good” and love him.  This type of ego-centred love crept into the early church through Greek thinking.  From that, the grace of God is turned about so it becomes a man-made method of salvation.  Jesus came and did the right thing, and now through his example, we too must do the right thing, and climb up to God.  However, this only returns a person to a law that one cannot perfect.

Jesus names the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth”.  The Greek biblical word for truth is “that which is not hidden”.  The Holy Spirit is he who reveals, he is God who unhides and opens our eyes and ears to the reality of God the Father and God the Son.  He also puts in plain sight who and what we are before God, as sinner, and as saint.

One may have claimed ignorance before Jesus ascended and sent the Holy Spirit.  In Acts seventeen Paul proclaims to the Greek thinkers of Athens, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,  because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30–31 ESV)

In other words, Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, gives one the opportunity to be returned to Jesus’ righteousness and victory over death, from self-designated good works.  These are the works one does to earn their righteousness before God.  Or works that fail when seeking to climb up to God and love with a love that desecrates his holiness. 

This does not please God because it’s not in accord with his plan of salvation, and once seeking entry into God’s presence through partial goodness, Jesus’ death and resurrection is treated with contempt.

Added to this, once goodness is elevated to holiness, then love becomes presumptuous, conceited, and full of vain glory.  The Holy Spirit is no longer allowed to uncover the truth.  There is no longer need for God’s love in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, and the Spirit’s call to repentance.

But what pleases God is when we turn from our own efforts and trust in him:  in the resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit, who gives faith and gathers us in faith. 

God is pleased and glorified when we daily drown our human spirit, with its knowledge of good and evil, and trust in Jesus Christ, having been given a knowledge of him by the Spirit of Truth, as he wills us, and returns us, time and time again, to hear God’s Word.

Finally, I draw your attention to the verses just prior to the Gospel reading for today.  Jesus proclaims  something quite peculiar.

He says, in John fourteen verses twelve to fourteen, “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.”  (John 14:12–14 ESV)

So, the believer does the works of Jesus because he goes to the Father and the Holy Spirit comes to uncover Christ within.  We pray as Jesus prayed for others, we help others as Jesus helped others, we bear our cross as Jesus bore his cross.  And we do so only because the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father, and God the Son to bring us to the Father and the Son.

But this is not all!  Jesus says, “whoever believes, does greater works than him because he is going to the Father”.  What are these greater works?  In Greek, these are mega works.  How can we do greater works than Jesus?  It seems incorrect, but Jesus said it, so it’s not!  What are these mega works?

One might ask themselves what Jesus did, which we could not do?  The answer is to be perfect and holy in a God pleasing way.  But in addition to this he suffered and died to atone for our sin, even though he did not sin.

Jesus doing no sin is the hint!  The greater work that Jesus could not do, because he was without sin is to confess sin and ask for forgiveness.  We certainly need the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to confess and ask for forgiveness!  This is because it costs our human spirit its pride, to allow the Holy Spirit to uncover the truth of our sin, which reveals us as debased and unholy before God.

Confession and seeking forgiveness are so counter cultural to human nature.  Every child since Adam hides sin rather than confesses it.  Since the beginning, the devil has been making us guilty because of our sin, telling us our sin is too great for God to forgive.  Or he tells us our sin is not really that bad and to ignore what God says in his Word about sin.

Yet, the beauty of the resurrection is that despite the debased nature of every human being, we now have access to God, without fear of desecrating his holiness, or being annihilated by his holiness.  The Holy Spirit may allow us to feel guilt, but only so we rush to the cross in confession asking for forgiveness.

This work is a mega work of God the Holy Spirit in us, as it demonstrates faith in God, when we are led to turn from ourselves, to do the works God has prepared in advance for us to do. 

In addition to this, it also justifies God sending his Son to the cross, it justifies Jesus’ suffering and death for our sin, it justifies the work of the Holy Spirit, leading Jesus in servanthood as the Son of Man.  It also glorifies the Holy Spirit in raising Jesus from death and raising us daily, so we can die to self and live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and in the peace of God our Father.

Having been forgiven, we love God in sincere appreciation for what he did and continues to do.  So much so, the Holy Spirit makes us bold enough in our death of self, to risk ridicule and loss of name in proclaiming to others our sin and why God has forgiven us.   Amen.