A harvest of life through the Holy Spirit

Posted on May 19, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of the Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13  +  John 14:23-31

Pentecost was originally a sacred harvest festival, one of the mandated feasts of the Old Testament. Seven weeks after the firstfruits of the harvest were gathered, after the first sheaf of a farmer’s wheat crop was offered to the Lord, the Feast of Weeks was to take place, a feast for giving thanks to the Lord for the full harvest that had been brought in—a harvest that had been guaranteed 50 days earlier by the appearance of the firstfruits in the field.

You all know what happened on Easter Sunday. This is what St. Paul says about it in 1 Corinthians 15: But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Christ, the firstfruits from the dead, rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. And seven weeks later, it was time to celebrate the harvest of what He had accomplished, the harvest of the rest of the Church through the work of the Holy Spirit, a harvest of life that goes on and on until the end of the age.

Jesus had told His apostles to stay in Jerusalem until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so they did. They waited, not knowing exactly how or when the Spirit would come. The events of today’s Epistle reading explain how it happened. There were three signs of His coming.

The first was the sound of a mighty, rushing wind. Unlike Jesus, who came as a man, whom everyone could see with their eyes and touch with their hands and hear with their ears, the Spirit is different. “Spirit,” as you may recall, means “breath” or “wind.” Jesus had once said to Nicodemus, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Since the Spirit doesn’t interact with us as a human being does, His presence can’t be recognized except through outward signs, much like the wind itself can’t be recognized except by the sound it makes and by the things it blows around. So the Holy Spirit used the sound of a mighty, rushing wind to signal His mighty presence among the believers in Jesus.

The second sign was the appearance of tongues as of fire, resting upon each of Jesus’ disciples. Years earlier, John the Baptist had promised that the Christ would baptize His disciples “with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” This was it. Not the kind of fire that burns or devours. But the kind of fire that spreads. And that fire would spread through tongues, that is, through the speaking, the preaching of the Word of God. As God had said through the prophet Jeremiah, Is not My word like a fire?

The third sign was the sudden ability of the disciples to speak in other tongues, in other languages, in the very languages of the Jews and Jewish converts who were born in other countries, but who were living in Jerusalem at that time. As we learn later, from Paul’s epistles, this wasn’t an ability to actually communicate in those languages, like when you learn a new language. It was, instead, the outpouring of God’s praises in someone else’s language. The speakers didn’t even understand what they were saying. And the point of this sign is obvious: God, in the Old Testament, had focused His attention on the Hebrew-speaking Israelites. He had given them His Word, His covenant, and His promises. The Gentiles were ignored, largely, and allowed to go on living in their wickedness and false beliefs, outside of God’s kingdom. But that would be the case no longer. No longer was God’s attention focused on the Hebrew-speaking Jews living in Jerusalem. Now God was turning to all nations, to bring everyone everywhere into the New Testament in Jesus’ blood, the covenant of the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ crucified and risen from the dead. This marked the beginning of the fulfillment of Jesus’ parable of the Great Supper, where, after the invited guests, representing the unbelieving Jews, had refused the master’s invitation, He sent out His messengers to gather people “from the highways and the hedges,” Jews and Gentiles, with no respect to anyone’s nationality, or skin color, or bloodline, or language.

The purpose of the signs was very simple: First, to notify the believers themselves that Jesus was, right at that moment, keeping His promise to send them the gift of the Holy Spirit. Second, to attract the crowds in Jerusalem to this gathering of the Christians in Jerusalem, to make them curious and desirous of an explanation. And, third, to confirm that God was indeed with these Christians, that the Gospel they preached was from God.

And so, aided by the Holy Spirit, the apostle Peter preached his Pentecost sermon, which I’d like to read for you in full.

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem…heed my words…This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.’

This, Peter says, is the fulfillment of that prophecy from the Book of Joel, that in these “last days,” God would pour out His Holy Spirit on His servants, indicating that these Christians, these believers in Jesus, were the servants of God. And you notice the references in Joel’s prophecy to Jesus’ own prophecies regarding the last days, that there would be wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth, the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood, which Jesus explains as signs of His imminent return. In other words, the whole New Testament period is being prophesied by Joel, beginning with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and lasting until Jesus comes again. This whole age is the age of the Holy Spirit, the age of the harvest of life, when the gift of salvation is being offered to all.

The next verse from Joel’s prophecy, which Peter didn’t need to add at that time but which I think the world today needs to take into account, goes on: For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the LORD has said, Among the remnant whom the LORD calls. In Mount Zion, in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, Joel prophesied. But how? What’s the connection to Zion and Jerusalem? It’s not what modern Evangelicals teach, that the city of Jerusalem is and will always remain significant in God’s plan of salvation. No, the connection is clearly to that very outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, where deliverance from sin, death, and the devil was indeed proclaimed, through faith in Jesus Christ. From there the Gospel went forth into the rest of the world. So, again, it isn’t about the city of Jerusalem. It’s all about the Gospel. It’s all about Jesus.

All Israel was invited, but not all Israel was to receive the Lord’s Spirit or participate in the kingdom of God from that point forward. Only those who believed the apostles’ preaching, who repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, and were baptized in His name for the forgiveness of sins.

I’d like to continue with more of Peter’s sermon. Listen carefully to how he preached to the people of Israel that day:

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it… This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear…Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men, brothers, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

And that’s the summary of the whole Gospel. Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, repent! Repent of all your rebellions against God, of all your failings, of all your breaking of His commandments, and of the prideful trust in your own works to save you, and believe instead in the Lord Jesus who was crucified as the atoning sacrifice for the world’s sins but has now been raised from the dead and reigns at the Father’s right hand. Be baptized in the name of Jesus, the Christ whom God the Father sent, and believe that that baptism in Jesus’ name is for the forgiveness of sins, that God, whom you have offended with your sins, has punished His Son for them, and is now offering to wash them all away and to claim you as His child and to bring you into His kingdom. And know that, as a baptized child of God, you will never again be alone. But, as Jesus promised in today’s Gospel, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make a home with him. The Father, the Son, and, as Peter promises, also the Holy Spirit will make a home with you. God will give you the gift of His Holy Spirit.

That isn’t a promise that you’ll speak in tongues. It’s a promise that the Holy Spirit will dwell side by side with your spirit, to preserve you in the faith, to guide you in understanding God’s Word and in applying it to your life, to urge you constantly to live a life of obedience and love, to fill you will courage, comfort, joy, and peace. Not the world’s idea of peace, where you don’t have any problems or conflicts in your life. But Jesus’ version of peace, where you can face any problem and any conflict because you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and you are on good terms with the One who is in charge of the universe and of the future.

So praise God today for the Day of Pentecost. Praise and thank Him for including you in His great harvest of life. And make every effort to walk each day in the peace that Jesus has given you, and in the faith and love that the Holy Spirit has worked in you and will continue to work in you. Amen.

 

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Soon Babylon will pay

Posted on May 15, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Easter 6

Isaiah 47:1-15

Isaiah 47 is all about the fall of Babylon. Which is striking, when you think about it, because, when Isaiah wrote these words, Babylon hadn’t yet become a world power, much less had they done anything to the people and city of Jerusalem. And yet, before Babylon even rose to power, Isaiah prophesies her downfall.

“Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called Tender and delicate.”

The Lord speaks to Babylon as He sometimes speaks to Jerusalem, as the virgin daughter of the king, a noble and prestigious position. And just as King David’s virgin daughter Tamar, once tender and delicate and clothed in a many-colored robe, went away and sat in ashes and mourning after she was violated by her brother Amnon, so God tells Babylon that she will soon be violated, too, and would end up sitting on the ground, in the dust, when the city of Babylon fell to her coming invaders, the Medes and Persians.

Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, Take off the skirt, Uncover the thigh, Pass through the rivers. Your nakedness shall be uncovered, Yes, your shame will be seen; I will take vengeance, And I will spare no one.”

The enemy of God’s people would be reduced from the status of virgin daughter of the king to that of a slave, living in shame and disgrace. And it would be the Lord’s doing, His vengeance on those who dared to oppress His people.

Our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, is the Holy One of Israel.

When these things happen to Babylon, Israel will rejoice in God her Savior and will boast about her God, her Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. What a change, what a great improvement from their former idolatry and rebellion against the LORD of hosts! His punishment of them in Babylon will accomplish its purpose, to wake them up from their shameful idolatry and wickedness, so that they could again acknowledge the goodness and mercy of the Lord.

“Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; For you shall no longer be called The Lady of Kingdoms. I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, And given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily. And you said, ‘I shall be a lady forever,’ So that you did not take these things to heart, Nor remember the latter end of them.

The Lord explains to the Babylonians beforehand that it was He who would allow them to defeat His people, who would enable them and permit them to destroy Jerusalem and take them captive. He was justly angry with them for their wickedness and rebellion. But that didn’t give the Babylonians the right to treat the Israelites poorly in their captivity. We aren’t told the specifics about the abuses that took place against the Jews in Babylon, but clearly they were not treated well. The Babylonians didn’t think they’d ever have to answer to anyone for how they treated God’s people. But they were wrong.

“Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, Who dwell securely, Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, Nor shall I know the loss of children’;

Notice how God describes the Babylonians. Given to pleasures. Dwelling securely in their wickedness. Fooling themselves into thinking that no one could ever defeat them, including God Himself, could ever overthrow them from their elite position. Doesn’t it sound just like the powerful people of the world today, the people of our own country?

But these two things shall come to you In a moment, in one day: The loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness Because of the multitude of your sorceries, For the great abundance of your enchantments.

Destruction is coming on the proud enemies of God. Total, utter destruction. And here the Lord adds another component of their wickedness: Their “sorceries and enchantments.” You see, they believed in the supernatural. They acknowledged that there were forces in the universe beyond human ability. But seeking supernatural help or advice anywhere but from God alone is one of those things that will eventually bring down God’s wrath full force on the practitioners of sorcery or witchcraft.

“For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, ‘No one sees me’; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

Again, does this sound familiar? You have trusted in your wickedness. Whether it’s sorcery or sexual promiscuity, whether it’s climate activism or abortion activism, or evolutionary propaganda, there is an elitist condescension toward Christians in the world. The unbelievers boast of their wisdom and their knowledge. But the same thing is true today of our culture and of most cultures of the world as was true of the Babylonians: “Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you.”

Therefore evil shall come upon you; You shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; You will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, Which you shall not know.

The divine Judge pronounces sentence on the oppressor of His people. Evil. Trouble. Desolation. It would come upon them unexpectedly, and that’s just what happened in 537 BC, when King Belshazzar was indulging in his sinful feast, and the writing appeared on the wall. Daniel told him what it meant, that Babylon was about to fall. And that same night, King Belshazzar was slain, and the Medes and Persians overthrew the city of Babylon.

“Stand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth— Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail. You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, And the monthly prognosticators Stand up and save you From what shall come upon you.

The Lord taunts the Babylonians, who had trusted in their sorcery and astrology, much like the prophet Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. The lesson for all of them was the same: it’s foolish to trust in false gods. When the Lord decides to act, either to deliver His people or to destroy His enemies, no one can stand against Him.

Behold, they shall be as stubble, The fire shall burn them; They shall not deliver themselves From the power of the flame; It shall not be a coal to be warmed by, Nor a fire to sit before! Thus shall they be to you With whom you have labored, Your merchants from your youth; They shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you.

Thus the Lord finishes His pronouncement of judgment on the Babylonians. The whole chapter was a harsh, unrelenting rebuke of those who would mistreat His chosen people in the future, with no hope of salvation for them whatsoever.

As you know, the Book of Revelation contains very similar language, against Babylon. John says this about Babylon: In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire. John proclaims the fall of Babylon, though no longer the literal Babylon that lies along the River Euphrates, but the figurative “Babylon” of this New Testament period. That Babylon is represented, first, by Rome as it led the way in the early persecutions against the Christian Church, and then also by Rome as the seat of the papacy which so terribly oppressed the Christian Church with its false teachings and tyrannical abuses. And now it has come to represent every enemy of Christians, especially the governments of the world, and every false-teaching anti-Christian institution in the world, that oppresses, persecutes, and mistreats the true children of God, all while claiming to be wise and knowledgeable, noble and prestigious, and unable to be toppled by anyone, including God.

But the dire prophecy of Isaiah 47, combined with the Book of Revelation, paints a very different picture for the enemies of Christ. Just as literal Babylon fell with a great fall, suddenly and with overwhelming destruction, so, too, every human institution that opposes Christ and His Church will fall, by God’s own design and doing.

Until then, let us live humbly, trusting in the Lord’s promise to come and save us at just the right time. And let us love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us, as Jesus instructed us to do. But let’s not do it believing that the world may, at some time, cease to be our enemy. Some who are enemies now will surely be converted into friends before the end. But Babylon itself won’t be converted. And Babylon won’t fall, until it does, when the Lord Jesus comes for judgment, and His angels proclaim the glad tidings, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen! She will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.” Amen.

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The testimony about Jesus and its consequences

Posted on May 12, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Exaudi – the Sunday after Ascension

1 Peter 4:7-11  +  John 15:26-16:4

For forty days the Paschal candle was lit during our services here, until it was extinguished this past Thursday when we celebrated Jesus’ ascension into heaven. As I said after the service, it seems a little strange, not having it lit anymore. Imagine how Jesus’ disciples felt during those strange ten days between Jesus’ Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It was a strange time of limbo, a time for those 120 Christians to do little else but pray and wait.

The eleven apostles didn’t know how long they’d have to wait, but they knew, more or less, what they were waiting for. They were waiting for the Helper, for the Holy Spirit to come to them. They were waiting for what Jesus’ promised: for the testimony of the Holy Spirit—the testimony about Jesus!—and for the beginning of their testimony, too, and for the terrible consequences of it that Jesus referred to in today’s Gospel. That testimony now belongs to us, to the Church that’s built upon it and that still holds it out to the world. That means that the consequences of the testimony also belong to us. But so does the help of the Helper.

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit after His ascension. He would send Him “from the Father,” because that’s how it works in the Holy Trinity. The Spirit proceeds from the Father, but also from the Son, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, in the sense that the Son is responsible for sending Him into the world from the Father. The Spirit’s work is to testify. But this is important: Notice what the content of His testimony is: “He will testify about Me.” The Spirit’s testimony is about Jesus. He tells what He has seen and heard about Jesus, and, as a Person of the Holy Trinity, the Spirit knows Jesus perfectly. He testified about Jesus throughout the Old Testament and throughout the New. When He spoke by the prophets in the Old Testament, the focus was always on the coming Christ. Now it’s on the Christ who has come. Any supposed testimony of the Holy Spirit that doesn’t focus on Jesus, or that doesn’t tell the truth about Jesus, isn’t coming from the Holy Spirit, but from an unholy spirit.

How would the Spirit of truth testify about Jesus? He would do it in three ways. First, through signs and wonders and various miracles, starting with the miracles of the Day of Pentecost which we’ll consider next week. It was about Jesus, because those signs were always connected to the apostles’ preaching about Jesus, the message that He was the promised Christ, that He suffered for our sins, that He was raised to life for our justification, that He has ascended on high and reigns over all things at the Father’s right hand, that He will return one day for judgment. This outward testimony of the Spirit was important as the apostles began to spread the Gospel throughout the world. But it was temporary; that testimony has been given. It’s done.

There is another testimony of the Spirit, in the hearts of the apostles, enabling them to teach (and to write!) about Jesus correctly. He guided them into all truth, as Jesus said He would. He emboldened them to preach the Gospel of Jesus with new-found courage and conviction—just as He had done, by the way, with the Old Testament prophets, as Peter writes: the Spirit of Christ who was in [the prophets] testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

Then there is the testimony of the Spirit in the hearts of the hearers of the Gospel as He works through the preaching of the Word, enabling the hearers to believe and understand the Gospel of Jesus. As Paul writes, No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. And again, The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, enabling us to cry out to God as our dear Father. You can be confident that, whenever the Gospel is preached, the Spirit is there with His divine testimony, working to convict, to convince, to comfort, and to strengthen our faith in Jesus.

But the Spirit doesn’t testify alone. It’s always connected with that preaching. Jesus goes on in our Gospel, And you also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. These words aren’t spoken to all people. They’re spoken to the apostles who were “with Jesus from the beginning.” Theirs is the eyewitness testimony, the testimony on which the Church is founded, together with that of the Old Testament prophets. And, just like the Old Testament prophets, the apostles recorded for us the very words that the Holy Spirit gave them and has faithfully preserved for us in the holy Bible.

You and I cannot offer such testimony. We were not eyewitnesses to everything Jesus said and did, or to His death, or to His resurrection. We can testify to the faith that each of us has in that testimony. We can and should tell the world that we have been convinced that the apostles’ testimony is true, and that Jesus is risen and reigning and returning. But when we invite people to church, when we invite people to know the Lord Jesus, we’re not inviting them to come and hear our testimony. We’re inviting them to come and hear the testimony of the Holy Spirit, through the testimony of the apostles (and prophets), through the Church that has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief Cornerstone.

The testifying that the apostles would do was essential. Without it, there would be no Christian Church. But their testifying would not be without consequences. And Jesus wasn’t about to hide those consequences from them.

They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming, when whoever kills you will think he is rendering service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father nor Me.

If the Holy Spirit was testifying about Christ in the Old Testament, and if He would continue that testimony in the New Testament era, then you see that the Old Testament Church is really the same Church as the New Testament Church. But, as Jesus predicts here, most of the Jewish people would reject Him and His apostles after Him, proving that they never really knew God the Father rightly, that their version of the Jewish religion was a sham. And they would keep up the sham. They would keep their synagogues. They would hold onto customs and rituals and traditions of the Old Testament. But their Christ-less religion would not tolerate the preachers whom Christ sent out. The synagogues should have naturally turned into Christian churches when the Spirit and the apostles testified there, but instead, the Christ-less Jews would excommunicate the Christian Jews from the synagogues. And they would go further than that. They would persecute and execute the apostles and many who believed the testimony of the apostles, thinking they were serving God as they did it. But they weren’t serving God, Jesus says. They have not known the Father nor Me.

Now, you and I can’t be put out of the synagogues. We didn’t grow up attending one like the apostles did. (Like Jesus Himself did!) But the testimony about Jesus that we believe, the testimony about Jesus that we confess in the world, still draws hatred from Jews and Gentiles alike.

I recently read about a Christian pastor in a foreign country (somewhere in Asia, I think) who requires people to answer a set of questions prior to being baptized. The first question on the list was, “Are you willing to be put to death for being baptized as a Christian?” Another question: “Are you willing to be mocked and ridiculed in the marketplace for being a Christian?” Another: “Are you willing to lose your job for the sake of Christ?” Another question: “Are you ready to be disowned by your father?” I want you to really think about those questions, and your answer to them. Because, over the centuries, Christians have had to face some or all of these consequences for their testimony about Christ. It’s not unexpected. It shouldn’t be unexpected. Remember that I told you beforehand, Jesus says. And when it happens, we shouldn’t be like the student protesters this week who went on a hunger strike…and then complained about how unfair it is that they’re hungry. No, when it happens, before it happens, before you spend another day calling yourself a Christian, you should know what it is you’ve signed up for (or will sign up for).

Who would testify about Jesus, knowing that consequences like these will follow? Only those who believe that Jesus rose from the dead and lives and reigns forever at the Father’s right hand. Only those who believe that heaven is our home and that even death can’t rob us of our eternal life with Christ our Savior, who suffered the same things for us, that we might be saved from sin and death. Only those who know that the consequences of not testifying about Jesus are far worse than the consequences of testifying about Him. Because if we don’t testify, who will? And if no one does, who can be saved?

It’s a lot to ask, a lot to expect. If only we had a Helper to guide us, to strengthen us, to comfort us through it all, to testify along with us and to shore up our testimony? Ah, but we do. The Helper has come, and He is still here. And next week we’ll celebrate the day of His coming. May the Helper, the Spirit of truth, grant you all the help you need, to believe in the testimony about the Lord Jesus and to confess Him before the world, no matter what the earthly consequences may be. Amen.

 

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The tasks ahead for Christ and His Church

Posted on May 9, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Ascension of our Lord

Acts 1:1-11  +  Mark 16:14-20

Between Mark’s Gospel and Luke’s account in the book of Acts, we get a pretty well-rounded picture of the time Jesus spent on and off with His disciples after He rose from the dead. Mark condenses it all into a single account, as if it all happened at once. But Luke makes it clear that the various things happened over the course of 40 days, between Resurrection Sunday and Ascension Thursday, as Jesus instructed His disciples about the tasks that Christians would be carrying out after His departure, during this time between His Ascension and His coming again. But if we pull together other sayings of Jesus, and of St. Paul in his Epistles, we see an outline of the tasks ahead, not only for the Church, but for Christ Himself after His ascension.

After Jesus had convinced the eleven apostles on Easter Sunday (and the week after) that He had truly risen from the dead, He immediately began giving them instructions for the tasks that awaited them in the days ahead, following His Ascension. One of those instructions, which applied only to the apostles and believers at that time, was this: To not depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, “which,” he said, “you have heard from me. For John baptized with water; but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Now, this was, by far, the easiest task Christians would have to do: simply wait. Wait to be “baptized” with the Holy Spirit. Why did Jesus call it a baptism? Not to replace water baptism, since, before His ascension, He Himself had instituted water Baptism and connected a promise of salvation to it: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And it wasn’t to institute a “second baptism” that all Christians are to undergo. No, this would be a special gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit, given on the Day of Pentecost, ten days after the Ascension, a gift that would “bathe” them, be “poured out” on them, which is what the word “baptize” really means. But once the Spirit was poured out on the Church, from that time forward, water Baptism included the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is what St. Peter promised to the crowds on Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized…and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This is why Baptism is called the “washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,” and why the baptized are said to be “born of water and the Spirit.” We’ll say more about that two Sundays from now.

At that point, the apostles still didn’t understand the tasks Jesus was leaving to them, or the tasks He would be doing. Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? His answer is important. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has established by his own authority. It’s not for you to know the timing of God’s plans for the future. Imagine, if the apostles had known it would be some 2,000 years or more before Christ would return. They weren’t supposed to know at that time that earthly Israel would never have the kingdom restored to it, how the nation of Israel was going to keep rejecting the Gospel of Christ, for the most part, and would therefore fade into irrelevance. They weren’t supposed to know that yet, because it would have hindered their preaching to Israel. They weren’t supposed to understand fully how the kingdom of heaven was actually going to incorporate Jews and Gentiles into a new and spiritual Israel, which is the Holy Christian Church. They weren’t supposed to know how God would turn disasters into blessings, or persecutions into growth for the Church. They understood these things eventually, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, but not yet. It wasn’t their task to know those plans or to plan for those things. It’s not for us to know the timing of God’s plans, either, or to figure out the methods the Lord will use to direct the events of the earth for the building of His Church. That isn’t your task.

It was their task, as apostles, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, to be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. It was their task, and it’s still the Church’s task, to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, to teach all nations to observe everything Christ has commanded you, to “do this,” to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, “in remembrance” of Him. It is every Christian’s task to “watch and pray,” to be “sanctified in love,” to “lead holy lives,” to be “imitators of God, as dearly loved children.” It is your task, as Paul writes to the Thessalonians, to “wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

All those tasks have been given by Christ to His Church to carry out during this time between His Ascension and His coming at the end of the age, all with the presence, strength, and guidance that His Holy Spirit will continue to provide. And it’s more than enough to keep us busy until Christ comes, whether it’s very, very soon, or whether it’s not during our earthly lifetime.

But He will come. He promised it, and so did the angel on the day of Christ’s Ascension. After Jesus was lifted up into the sky and hidden from the apostles’ sight, two men, two angels, in white clothing stood by them. And they said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

What does it mean that Jesus was “lifted up” and “hidden from their sight”? It means that Christ, the Head of the Church, would no longer dwell visibly with His Church, which is His body. And yet, the Head hasn’t been severed from the body, as if the Church were now decapitated. He remains the Head, firmly attached to His body, only invisibly. He is by no means far away. On the contrary, St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, He is the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And, God gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

But what are some of the tasks ahead for Christ, our Head? Well, they’re all summarized by the phrase, “seated at the right hand of God.” As Mark writes, So, then, after the Lord had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. As we just heard from St. Paul, that’s not a “place” or “location” where Christ is enclosed, far away from us. It’s a position of power and authority as Christ “fills all things.” Paul says in Ephesians, God raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet.

And what does He do with that power and authority? His first task was to pour out the gift with which He had promised to “baptize” His apostles. As Peter said, Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.

What else does Scripture tell us about Christ’s tasks at God’s right hand? St. Paul comforts the Romans with this truth: It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. That means that all who repent of their sins and look to Christ for forgiveness and deliverance from God’s righteous judgment have an Advocate before the Father at all times and never need to fear, as long as they keep looking to Christ in faith.

Jesus Himself had told His disciples earlier about one of His tasks after His ascension: In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. Even now, Christ Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Father, is fulfilling this promise, seeing to it that you are guarded and guided through this life, seeing to it that you have everything you need to persevere in the faith, including access to the Means of Grace, to Word and Sacrament, so that you reach the mansions of heaven, as long as you use those means and don’t despise them.

In order to provide you with the Means of Grace so that you safely reach that place He’s preparing for you in heaven, the ascended Lord Christ also carries out another task. Paul writes, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men…He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The existence of pastors is no accident, and no human design. The ministry exists in the Church because Christ gives it from the right hand of God as His tool and instrument for creating and strengthening faith. As Peter says, God has exalted Christ to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins, so that, even though the ministry is carried out by men and the Church is built and nourished and preserved through the ministry of men, Jesus could rightfully say, on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. He even confirmed the preaching of the original ministers He had sent by empowering them to perform miraculous signs, as you heard at the end of the Gospel: They went forth and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them, confirming the word with the accompanying signs.

Finally, the ascended Christ carries out another task in which we can take great comfort. Psalm 110 says, The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” And Paul adds in 1 Cor., For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. Do you see the enemies gathering against the Church of Christ? They’re everywhere. The devil rages. The world grows fiercer and fiercer. It’s as Isaiah prophesied:       Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. But at the right hand of God sits the ascended Lord Christ, who invisibly wages war against His enemies, so that, although they devise evil and carry out wicked plans, it must all serve for the good of those who love Him, until He conquers every enemy at His glorious return.

So truly you have nothing to worry about, nothing to fear. Your Savior reigns at the right hand of God, faithfully carrying out His tasks. So instead of worrying, instead of trying to figure everything out, just go about your own God-given tasks and wait just a little while longer. When all the tasks are finished, Christ will come again, and the reckoning will begin, and those who are still found as living stones in His holy Church will finally see the Head of the Church, to whom you’ve been united through faith all this time. And the Church and her Head will live together as Bride and Groom, happily ever after. It’s a true story. Believe it! And rejoice! Amen.

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Pray to the Father, because He loves you!

Posted on May 5, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Rogate – Easter 5

James 1:22-27  +  John 16:23-30

The National Day of Prayer came and went again this week in our country. You probably didn’t even notice, and that’s okay. The president is required each year to sign a proclamation, calling upon the citizens of the United States to pray for our country. But, who can pray? Whose prayers are acceptable to God, and whose prayers are an abomination to Him? Jesus answers those questions in today’s Gospel, for this Sunday that is historically called “Rogate Sunday” which means “Pray!” or “Ask!” Because the Church didn’t need any human Congress (or king or president) to pass a law telling us to pray. We have the only encouragement we need, coming directly from the Lord Jesus. Let’s reflect on His words in today’s Gospel.

First He mentions a different kind of asking: In that day, you will not ask me anything. “That day,” if you look back a few verses, is referring to the joyful day that begins with His resurrection from the dead and continues until the end of the world. During this time, Jesus says to His disciples, “You won’t ask Me anything.” What does He mean?

First, remember that Jesus’ disciples had been asking Him many things already on this Maundy Thursday evening, starting with Peter’s objection, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Then, “Lord, who is it who will betray You? Where are You going? Why can I not follow You now? How can we know the way to where You’re going? How is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” And then there was the question they wanted to ask, but they were too ashamed to keep asking questions. “What is this He says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what He’s saying.” Question after question. Because they understood so little of what He was saying to them.

Many things Jesus said to His disciples on that night were rather cryptic. As He says here in our text, I have spoken these things to you figuratively. He was intentionally not saying things plainly, because things still had to play out in a certain way over the next few days. But after His resurrection from the dead, and especially after the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, they wouldn’t be so confused anymore. They wouldn’t have to keep asking Jesus about the things He had said. The Spirit would teach them, and then they, through their preaching and writing, would teach us! It’s through the Holy Spirit that Jesus kept His promise to His disciples, The time is coming, however, when I will no longer speak to you figuratively, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. They wouldn’t be asking Him questions anymore. First, because, after His ascension, Jesus wouldn’t be there with them in the room anymore, as He had been until this time. But that’s okay. He would tell them about the Father, even after His ascension, through the teaching that the Holy Spirit would do.

But there’s another kind of asking that Jesus wants them—and us!—to do. Truly, truly I tell you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Ask!, Jesus says. Pray! Ask the Father for things. And do it “in My name,” Jesus says. And He will give it to you. That’s a promise. But everything hinges on what it means to ask “in Jesus’ name.”

It doesn’t mean tacking on the words “in Jesus’ name” to the end of our prayers. “Father, I ask You for $1 million, in Jesus’ name.” Don’t expect to receive $1 million. In fact, don’t pray that way at all, because it’s a lie. You can’t ask for money in Jesus’ name. Why not? Because it’s not something Jesus taught you to pray for, nor is it something for which Jesus Himself ever prayed. To ask in Jesus’ name means to ask as if Jesus were the one asking the Father for it. You’ve heard the acronym, WWJD? “What would Jesus do?” Here it’s WWJAF. What would Jesus ask for?

You don’t have to guess. You just have to know Jesus from the Gospels. And from all of Scripture, for that matter, especially the Psalms. You have to know how He prayed, what His will is, how He has taught God’s people to pray all along. And how did Jesus pray? With perfect, childlike trust in His heavenly Father, trusting in His goodness, trusting Him to hear, trusting Him to care, and trusting in His wisdom to do what was best.

Knowing the Lord’s Prayer helps you to pray in Jesus’ name, because He’s the one who taught us how to pray. When Christians pray the Lord’s Prayer, we’re always praying in Jesus’ name, which means we have Jesus’ promise that the Father will grant our petitions.

When we pray for any of the things God has promised in His Word, for the things He’s told us He wants us to have, we’re praying in Jesus’ name. And when we pray for things that God hasn’t told us He wants us to have, for example, when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that the Father would take that cup of suffering away from Him, we add, together with Jesus, “yet not my will, but Your will be done.” And so we are praying then, too, in Jesus’ name.

But a very important part of praying in Jesus’ name is knowing and trusting in Jesus as the One who came forth from the Father to be our Savior, as the one who is true God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. An atheist can’t ask for anything in Jesus’ name, just as no non-Christians can pray for anything in Jesus’ name. Their prayers are unacceptable to God the Father, who is well-pleased in His beloved Son and who is filled with righteous anger toward those who reject His beloved Son.

What’s even worse than trying to approach the Father apart from Jesus is when a person who has no faith in Jesus attempts to pray to God, using the name of Jesus as a disguise for his own wickedness. So, for example, when the current president of the United States, who, by his own words and actions, has proven himself to be an unbeliever, claims to know the Lord, He is taking the Lord’s name in vain. When he quotes from Holy Scripture, as he did this week again in proclaiming the National Day of Prayer, when he speaks of his Christian faith, he is breaking the Second Commandment and committing the sin of blasphemy and the sin of deception. Yes, those are strong words, strong accusations. But the current president (and, to be frank, the vast majority of those in his political party, along with a sizable number of people in the other political parties as well), openly opposes the Lord Jesus Christ and His teachings, even as he tries to deceive people into viewing him as a Christian. But the Father sees the truth. He sees their impenitence, their unbelief, and their hardened hearts. And He shuts His ears to anything they ask of Him.

On the other hand, to those who believe in Jesus, this is what He says: In that day you will ask in my name. I am not telling you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you. See what Jesus is saying here! You shouldn’t think of God the Father as a distant being out there in the universe. Nor should you think of Him as an angry Judge, or as someone who’s so busy He doesn’t have time for you. He is an angry Judge toward sinners who remain in their sin and impenitence. But to you who have loved and believed in Jesus, whom the Father sent to save you from your sins, the Father is not angry, or distant, or unapproachable. On the contrary, Jesus reveals this amazing reality: the Father loves you.

Now, this isn’t the same word used in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world.” That’s a different kind of love, a love that seeks to help people not because of who they are but in spite of who they are, a love that drives God to do good even to the wicked, to sacrifice His Son even for His enemies, in order that they might become His children. No, here in this text the word for “love” is the love of befriending, the love of friendship, of common interests, of “liking” and appreciating someone. And Jesus says to His disciples that God the Father has that kind of love for them, for you, because you have loved me, Jesus says, and have believed that I came forth from God. “You have loved Me.” Same word. The Father not only accepts us through faith in Jesus. He has befriended us because we have befriended Jesus. We consider Him our friend. We appreciate who He is and why He came, and so His Father smiles on us and appreciates who we are, too.

Of course, who we are is who He is making us to be, by His Spirit. It’s the Father who draws people to Jesus, as He said earlier in the Gospel of John: No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. So if you love and believe in Jesus as the Son of God who was sent from the Father to be your Savior, then it’s because the Father drew you to Him by His Spirit in the first place. And now that He has drawn you, and called you by His Gospel, and brought you into the Church of His beloved Son, He wants you to know that He loves you, and that you always have His ear. You should never think that you can’t approach God the Father with a request, whether big or small. You should never think that He’s too busy, or that He doesn’t care, or that you aren’t as important to Him as other people are, as if you needed to pray to them, to the “important people,” so that they could go to the Father on your behalf. No, if you love and believe in Jesus, then the Father loves you and tells you to ask, in Jesus’ name, so that you may receive, and so that your joy may be full, because the God of heaven has given you free access to Him. Now just remember to use it! Amen.

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