A very present help in times of trouble

Sermon for Cantate – Easter 4

James 1:16-21  +  John 16:5-15

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. When those times of trouble come, when you’re facing hard times, when you have challenges confronting you—things you have to deal with, knowing you don’t have the strength to face it on your own, it sure is nice to have someone to help, someone who is knowledgeable, capable, someone you can count on, someone who is on your side and by your side. Well, that’s exactly the kind of help Jesus promises in today’s Gospel, a very present help in the times of trouble ahead, the help of the Helper, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit.

But wasn’t Jesus Himself the greatest Helper His disciples had ever known? He was! Certainly! In fact, He came to do what no other helper could ever do: He came to earth to be righteous where everyone else had sinned. He came to earth to pay for the sins of mankind, to give His life on the cross, to reconcile sinners to God, to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil. The devil was strong, but Jesus was stronger. And within three days of speaking the words of our Gospel, He would prove just how strong He was by rising from the dead.

But soon afterward, He would leave this earth. And that prospect terrified Jesus’ disciples and made them very sad. Now I am going to the one who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Sorrow, because they didn’t understand that Jesus was about to die, rise again, and ascend into heaven, nor did they understand how they could face the troubles of the future without Him. On top of that, Jesus had given them the task of building His Church, and they knew they were not up to the task.

But He assured them, It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. This is of those striking statements of Jesus, if you stop to think about it, that, somehow, it’s better for Jesus’ apostles, better for Christians, better for the world, for Jesus not to be here—not to be here in the same was He was here during His earthly life. When Jesus comes again to stand on the earth, then mankind’s time of grace will be over and the judgment will take place. But so much work had to be done between the time of Jesus’ ascension and His coming again, and here in our Gospel He promised His apostles that, although He would be gone (in a sense), they wouldn’t be left alone to face the world or to carry on His ministry of reconciliation. They would have a “Helper,” sent to them by the ascended Lord Christ. What the world needs during this time of the New Testament is the help of the Holy Spirit.

The word for “Helper” is a big word. It means someone who is called to your side to be on your side, to stand up for you, to advocate for you, to encourage you, to comfort you, to guide you. All of that is included in the word “Helper,” and the Helper is identified by Jesus a few verses later as the “Spirit of truth.”

We’ll be talking more about the Holy Spirit in the coming weeks. People have all sorts of wrong ideas about what the Holy Spirit does and how He does it. It’s important to listen to how Jesus describes the help that the Helper will give.

And when he comes, he will convict the world regarding sin, and regarding righteousness, and regarding judgment. Regarding sin, because they do not believe in me; regarding righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no more; regarding judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

You see, the Holy Spirit isn’t a feeling you get in your heart or a “presence” that moves through a room. According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit is a preacher, a preacher who preaches through the preaching of men. Jesus says that one of the primary tasks of the Holy Spirit is to “convict” the world, that is, to rebuke the unbelieving world, to show that they are wrong about certain things.

First, that the unbelieving world is wrong about sin, in all sorts of ways. People think they aren’t sinners at all in God’s sight, or that their sins aren’t so bad. People commonly call things “sins” that aren’t sins, while they promote things that are most certainly sins in God’s judgment. And even if people recognize their sins, they turn in the wrong direction for help. But the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Christian Church, shows the world that they’re wrong. They are sinners, and the only way to have one’s sins washed away is through faith in Jesus.

Second, the Holy Spirit shows unbelievers that they’re wrong about righteousness. People think they’re righteous. Listen to any abortion supporter, or trans supporter, or climate change advocate, or illegal immigration proponent, any socialist or communist, and their allies in the media. If you listen to them, they are the righteous ones in the world. They are the good people, while Christians are the evil ones who need to be silenced. But the One enthroned in heaven laughs at them. There was one truly Righteous One who walked the earth. He walks it no longer. He’s ascended into heaven. He is the one of whom the Father approves, together with those who are joined to Him by faith. Jesus laughs at them, and the Spirit rebukes them.

Third, the Holy Spirit shows unbelievers that they’re wrong about judgment. The world thinks it gets to judge God, gets to judge Jesus, gets to judge Christians. And yes, for a time, the powerful people of the world seem to be successful. They prosper in their wicked schemes, while Christians suffer. But it’s temporary. The Holy Spirit shows that the ruler or the prince of this world stands judged already. And all who are on his side will share in his condemnation.

So the Holy Spirit rebukes or convicts the world. That doesn’t mean all unbelievers will be convinced that Jesus was right all along! No, it just means that the Holy Spirit will be working through the preaching of the apostles and the witness of the Church as we preach repentance, as we preach condemnation for those who remain in unbelief and the forgiveness of sins to all who believe and are baptized. It’s always the Holy Spirit working through the word, speaking to the hearts of men through the ears of men, both to unbelievers and to believers. As Jesus says through John in the book of Revelation, “He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches!”

But how could the apostles preach when they were so confused about so many things? That, too, would be remedied by the help of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told His apostles: I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

Truth. That which agrees with reality. There is no such thing as “my truth” or “your truth.” There is only truth. Truth is steady, firm, stable, real. Let God be true but every man a liar. The Spirit of truth helps God’s people by guiding us into all truth.

Now, Jesus doesn’t promise that the Spirit of truth will convince the world of the truth. The farther away from God people get, the more they lose their grasp on the simplest truths. But the Helper will guide you into all truth, Jesus says. That applies first and directly to the apostles themselves. They were the first to receive the gift of the Spirit, to understand the truth of the Gospel, and to codify the truth revealed by God in the words of the New Testament Scriptures, even as the same Holy Spirit revealed God’s truth in the words of the Old Testament Scriptures, so that the whole truth has the firm and steadfast witness of God in writing forever, so that no man can come along and claim that his teachings are the truth. Your Word is truth, Jesus would pray just one chapter after our Gospel. The Roman Church likes to put the Church above the Bible, because, supposedly, the Church sat in judgment over God’s Word and told Christians what was God’s Word and what wasn’t. But that’s backwards. The apostles spoke and then wrote the truth revealed to them by the Holy Spirit, and then the same Spirit simply guided Christians then, even as He continues to guide us now, to recognize which writings genuinely came from the apostles and which ones didn’t. He guided and still guides Christians to distinguish apostolic truth from falsehood and from fables concocted without the Spirit’s guidance, always with one singular focus: to glorify Jesus. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and proclaim it to you.

We’ll have more to say about the work of the Holy Spirit, but for today, let it be enough to know that you’re not alone in times of trouble, in this time of tribulation as you make your way through this life with your eyes focused on the life to come. You’re not on your own to figure out the truth, or to understand the Gospel, or even believe the Gospel. The Holy Spirit will be sent to help, has been sent to help: to be by your side and on your side, to stand up for you, to advocate for you, to encourage you, to comfort you, and to guide you, not apart from the Word of God, but through the Word of God, so that you can speak with conviction the words of the Psalm: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. Amen.