Easter 7, Exaudi 28 May Persecution is Coming, and So Is the Counselor. John 15:26-16:4

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1 Easter 7, Exaudi 28 May 2017 Persecution is Coming, and So Is the Counselor John 15:26-16:4 by Rev. Michael G. Lilienthal Hymn: If God Had Not Been on Our Side ELH #396 Let us pray: O Lord, let me not be discouraged when I face persecution for my faith. O Holy Spirit, through the Word, guide me into all truth. Amen. In the name of Jesus our Savior and Lord, dearly beloved, Amen. The grace of the Father, by Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, be yours. Jesus promised the Counselor, and the disciples must have been thinking at this time, Why would we need a Counselor? We have you, Lord! While Jesus walked with them on earth, they were firmly rooted in their faith in this Messiah, knowing that in him salvation would come. They knew this. But what they didn t know was what it would look like. Even by the time Jesus had died, risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven, as we heard on Thursday, the disciples asked, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6, ESV). Jesus knew that their earthly eyes would get in the way of their eyes of faith. He knew that as soon as he vanished from their sight, ascended into heaven, they would be confused, lost, stranded, and anxious, full of fear. The words of the psalmist could have been on the disciples lips in the ten days following Jesus ascension: When You said, Seek My face, My heart said to You, Your face, LORD, I will seek. Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger;

2 2 John 15:26-16:4 You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. (Ps. 27:8-9, ELH p. 178) When Jesus ascended into heaven, his face was hidden the face of God was literally hidden behind a cloud. What then of his promises? What of the kingdom of God? What of salvation? What of his rule over the world? Have you ever heard this line of argumentation before? Look around you! Look how wicked people are! Look at all the crime! Look at how innocent people suffer! And this is all listed as proof of one thing or another ultimately, though, all the same thing. Whether proof that the devil still rules in this world, or proof that a truly good and omnipotent God can t exist, it s all meant to prove that God is in one way or another absent. And it s true: looking at all this with our earthly eyes, where is God? His face seems hidden. Therefore Jesus speaks to the disciples in these words: 26 When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father he will testify about me. 27 And you also are going to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. 16:1 I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a truth. Amen. John 15:26-16:4 time is coming when anyone who murders you will think he is offering a service to God. 3 They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 But I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you may remember that I told them to you. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. These are your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us in the truth. Your word is The gist of Jesus message is this if you take home nothing else, take home this promise of Jesus: the Counselor is coming. Everything else he says in this text is to

3 Persecution Is Coming, and So Is the Counselor 3 expand on that subject, to give the who, whence, and why, and then to strengthen the comfort of that very message. So he pronounces, When the Counselor comes, and what Counselor? Who is he? Jesus explains, the Counselor whom I will send to you from the Father. Here the unity of the three Persons of the Trinity is expressed: The Counselor is with the Father, and will be sent thence by the Son. More, this is part of the very identity of the Counselor: he is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father. And that name of his identity, the Spirit of truth, also speaks to his purpose: he will testify about me. Who is the Counselor? the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father. Whence does the Counselor come? I will send [him] to you from the Father. Why does the Counselor come? he will testify about me. Jesus would leave and no longer be with the disciples, and he wishes his people to know: your mission of announcing him and his Word still continues, even while he is invisible. And this would be supported by the Counselor who was to come and also testify about Jesus. In preparing them for the coming Counselor, Jesus desires to sustain them for the time when they would be bereft of their Lord. Think of it in terms of these ten days. Jesus ascended into heaven. It would be ten days from then until Pentecost still seven days from now. During these ten days, God is silent. During these ten days, the Jews were fuming and raging after the disciples of the presumed Messiah. The disciples needed to be sustained. And therefore Jesus taught them.

4 4 John 15:26-16:4 Remembering his Word, his disciples would be sustained. I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. Jesus knew how difficult the life of a believer would be once he departed. Not only would their own eyes be unable to see their Lord, but the world would make it difficult: They will put you out of the synagogues. For Jewish men, this would be unthinkable. This would be a repetition, personally, for the Babylonian Captivity. When Old Testament Israel was held captive in Babylon, away from the temple, away from Jerusalem, they were forbidden their worship. They were kept from their God. Now, the disciples of Jesus would not only not see their God, but the places where they worship their God would be taken from them as well. And the synagogues were where they would regularly hear the Word of God. Therefore God s Word would not be present to strengthen their faith, not from the synagogues. Therefore Jesus strengthens them now, before that time. But it wouldn t simply be a rejection from the holy things. The world who rejected Christ would go further: In fact, a time is coming when anyone who murders you will think he is offering a service to God. Active persecution was coming. Why? Why would the people of Christ be so viciously attacked, so vilely hated by their supposed brethren, the other Jews? They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. Now this must be both sad news, and cause to take comfort. Those Jews, the people who worship in the synagogues, the houses of God, the people who had God s Word, in actuality they have not known the Father. True faith was not present with them. This is sad news. But it is also comforting, because when the disciples were cast

5 Persecution Is Coming, and So Is the Counselor 5 out of those places of worship, and when those who claimed Abraham as their Father, those people who thought they were the people of God persecuted them, Jesus disciples would know that all that does not matter. Their places of worship, their ideas of service to God mean nothing. The disciples who knew Jesus actually had comfort, for they had seen the fulfillment of these things: Jesus died and rose again, as a testimony to the disciples that their sins were forgiven. When the Counselor came, he would sustain them in this very faith, even though they would not hear the Gospel from their churches, their synagogues. Therefore Jesus says again, But I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you may remember that I told them to you. Remembering the Word of God, this would strengthen the disciples while God was hidden from their eyes. And that is the other reason Jesus told them these things: not only because their time, that is, the time of these persecutions, was coming, but also because he would soon not be with them, for he concludes by saying: I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. And here Jesus has come full circle. When you get to the end of this reading, you could start back at the beginning: They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. But I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you may remember that I told them to you. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father

6 6 John 15:26-16:4 he will testify about me. And you also are going to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. Therefore the thought of Jesus runs thus: He will leave and the disciples will see him no more. Because of this, and because they wish to follow Jesus, they will be persecuted and need strength. Therefore Jesus speaks words of comfort to them now, a promise to sustain them, and when he leaves them he will send them the Counselor. In the place of Jesus who always spoke to them, the Counselor would testify about Jesus, and the disciples would, too, remembering Jesus words, all so that the people of God might be sustained in faith. And as the disciples waited in fear, but also in hope, in these ten days between the Ascension and Pentecost, we, also Jesus disciples, wait in fear, but also in hope, in these tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of days between Jesus ascension and his return on the Last Day. In these days, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, is testifying about Jesus and the disciples are still testifying, too, those who were with [Jesus] from the beginning, in a joint effort, for we have their writings, even this that we study now, written by John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, inspired by the Counselor, the Holy Spirit testifying that Jesus died on a cross to suffer the punishment of hell for our sins, and that Jesus rose again from the dead to declare all sins forgiven, and that he ascended into heaven whence he came to send the Holy Spirit to do this very testifying. Therefore, in these Last Days, we are sustained by Jesus words, which come to us through the Holy Spirit testifying with the disciples. The world wishes to put us out of their religious spaces, and even thinks it is serving their God by putting us to death

7 Persecution Is Coming, and So Is the Counselor 7 (literally or socially), therefore we need this Counselor now, for we do not see our God s face. And as the Holy Spirit and the disciples testify about Jesus, we, too, must testify and not just your pastor, although that is my specific call, but each of us is called to follow the urging of St. Peter: If anyone speaks, let him do it as one speaking the messages of God. If anyone serves, let him do it as one serving with the strength God supplies so that God may be glorified in every way through Jesus Christ. Whatever your gifts, they were given by God through the Holy Spirit, and so God will use them all for the same purpose: to strengthen faith and to glorify God. We have not been abandoned by God. Despite all the look-around arguments of the world, we know that these horrible things come, and we know that this does not mean that God is absent. Instead, we see his face behind all these persecutions, disasters, troubles. We have God s comfort in his Word, in the corporate worship of believers when his Word comes fresh to us each service, and in the Sacraments we receive there, too, which are a foretaste of the time when we will see God face-to-face. We are confident in God: Amen. Blest be the Lord, who foiled their threat That they could not devour us. Our souls, like birds, escaped their net; They could not overpow r us. The snare is broken, we are free! Our help is ever, Lord, in Thee, Who madest earth and heaven. 1 1 Martin Luther, Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit, translation composite, Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (Mankato, MN: ELS, 1996), #396:3.