Sermon 6-17-18 Pastor Ray Lorthioir Trinity Lutheran Church W. Hempstead, NY Our Father Yahweh is a marvel, the one and only Trinitarian being. He is three persons, yet only one being. There is unity and fellowship in the Godhead, the likes of which we cannot imagine. Therefore, when we speak of one person of the Trinity, there is always the unity with the other two persons. We cannot speak of one person of the Trinity out of relationship with the others. That s an impossibility. There are three persons, and there is but one God. Therefore, when Scripture speaks of Holy Spirit, it speaks of Him relationally in the unity of the Godhead. And we find this to be true in an incredible teaching Jesus made on the night of the last supper. It begins in John 14:16-17, 16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever 17 the Spirit of truth. Notice how all three persons of the one God are involved here. Jesus will intercede with the Father on behalf of humanity. The Father will send Holy Spirit who will tell us nothing but the truth about the reality of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and what He has created. Now, on the other side of the equation is Satan, whom Jesus called in John 8:44, a liar and the father of lies. The reason Jesus said this is that Satan always lies about reality. Indeed, he lies to himself when he thinks that he a creature of Yahweh is somehow independent of Yahweh. After all, the entire creation with all of its creatures humans, animals, angels, and the other strange living creatures spoken of in Scripture is Yahweh s. Therefore, if we want to know the truth about reality, then Yahweh is the only credible source. Lord Holy Spirit is the source of Yahweh s truth to us through the Word He has given us. Truth is most important Now, because we are sinners, we humans live in lies all the time. We create realities for ourselves out of those lies. The most blatant example of this in the present is the tumult being caused by females who think themselves male and demand to be called by male names and pronouns, and males who think themselves female and demand to be called by female names and pronouns. The reality these people have created for themselves and are trying to force on the rest of us can only be sustained through deep and pervasive lies. See what listening to Satan has brought us to? But even in everyday life we are constantly listening to and imagining lies about other people and ourselves. All kinds of troubles ensue because we won t bow our knees to Yahweh s truth and follow His precepts. Therefore, the only way to properly live in the reality of Yahweh s universe is to know Yahweh and His truth the one and only truth about ourselves and all things. And Lord Holy Spirit is the bringer of that glorious truth. 1
So, as we saw in John 14:16, Jesus will pray to the Father. The Father will send Holy Spirit. This was accomplished on Pentecost 33A.D. We then read about Holy Spirit in John 14:17, The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. Who was living with the disciples at the moment Jesus spoke these words? Why Jesus Himself. Therefore, by saying this, Jesus was teaching them and us that to have Holy Spirit is the same as having Him. This is an incredible marvel of the Trinitarian God. So, Jesus promised that He would be in the disciples through Lord Holy Spirit, who would be in the disciples. Then Jesus confirmed it in John 14:18, I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Awesome! This is the truth. Jesus went on to predict in John 14:19, Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. After Jesus death, the world never saw Him again. They could only see an empty tomb. However, He did show Himself resurrected from the dead to a select group of witnesses. The eleven present at the Last Supper were among those witnesses. And Jesus predicted what His resurrection would create namely eternal holy life for those who actually saw Jesus and we who believe their testimony. This is Yahweh s most blessed truth in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then Jesus went on to say in John 14:20, On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. That day is either the day of Jesus resurrection, the day of the giving of Holy Spirit, or both. Most importantly, that day is today. Every believer can realize that Jesus is in the Father, we are in Jesus and He is in us. This realization comes through faith in this true Word given by Lord Holy Spirit. But there s more. Jesus said in John 14:23, If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. To obey Jesus teaching is to believe He s telling the truth about the Trinitarian God and His own place in the Trinity. That place, of course, was to become incarnate in mortal flesh and give His life for the sins of the world, so that we might be forgiven. Once forgiven, the Father and Son can come and make their home in us. As we said last week, being re-filled again and again with Lord Holy Spirit is important in times of distress and in times when we are to speak the Word to others. But there is yet another reason why re-filling with Holy Spirit is important. He is the source of our faith in the truth of God s Word to us. Indeed, the only way we can experience ourselves in Jesus and He in us is by faith in the very Word Jesus spoke. (This is the mystical union of the believer with Christ.) And the only way we can experience the Father in us is again by faith in the very Word Jesus spoke to us that it is so. Now, in our relationship with Yahweh, we cannot put too much emphasis on the forgiveness of sins. For, Father and Son cannot and will not make their home with a rebellious sinner. On the other hand, repentance and the forgiveness of sins create a marvelous situation. The Holy Father then dwells within a sinful human being whose life has been justified by His Holy Son dwelling within, and who has been brought to Christ through His Holy Spirit dwelling within. 2
Satan, the liar, says this is not so. But Lord Holy Spirit says that true reality is found in 1 John 1:8-9, 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Therefore, through the Law, Holy Spirit crushes us revealing our sins. Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit brings us assurance of forgiveness, purification and faith for a gracious intimate receiving of Father and Son. Now, when the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, He gave them the everlasting words of a prayer. We call it the Lord s Prayer because our Lord gave it to us. It begins, Our Father who art in heaven. When Martin Luther wrote his Small Catechism, he rhetorically asked what these words mean. He then wrote, With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father. Therefore, in two words, Our Father, Jesus summed up a most precious and important relationship. Our Father is just that to us Our Father. He is present in believers and around believers every moment of every day. He is even present around unbelievers every moment of every day. The words, Our Father, are absolutely true. Now, in our time the devil has placed at least two significant obstacles to believing Our Father. The first comes from our culture. Beginning in the late 1600 s an intellectual movement developed in Europe that fancied itself as the Enlightenment. It was really an Endarkening. But, it literally changed the way we conceive of the universe and God Himself. Enlightenment thinking sees the universe as a giant machine. It sees God as a watchmaker a Creator who made a universe, wound it up, set it running on its own and now has little to do with it. This lie of Satan is deeply burrowed in all our present day thought and understanding. Every time you see something about science or medicine in the news, you don t hear that more of God s will in creation has been discovered. Rather, you understand that the giant machine has yielded up a new piece of information to diligent human inquiry. Even in the church we are beset by this lie. For many of us, prayer, and especially public prayer, is only a formal exercise. The words, Our Father register as a spiritual or emotional zero. Why? Because our watchmaker God is far away and not intimately involved in all things. But according to Jesus words, Our Father, the watchmaker god is a false god. If God had simply made us and then left us alone Jesus would have taught us to say Our Creator. But instead Jesus taught us intimate words, Our Father. Father conveys a direct intimacy with God that the word Creator does not and cannot. Forgive us, dear Father, for being creatures of our increasingly godless culture. The second problem with Our Father comes from our relationships with our earthly fathers. Satan s lies have caused many men not to think of themselves as potential husbands and fathers, but to think of themselves according to the vernacular as mere sperm donors. Thus, many children have grown up and are growing up without their father present. 3
And for too many others their father is present in the house but is distant, abusive, addicted, tyrannical, violent or cruel. Those who have grown up this way or are growing up this way have no understanding of a loving father. For them, a father is an object of scorn and hatred. (Satan works his lies deep into the family.) Therefore, if someone does not know what a true father is, how can they believe and pray, Our Father? Through God s Word, Lord Holy Spirit can teach us the truth about God the Father and the fatherhood He intended human fathers to exercise. We begin in Psalm 103:13-14, 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed. There are two key words here, compassion and fear. The Hebrew word translated compassion in its primitive form means to hug. This is what fathers are to do with their children: show love by godly righteous touch, by embracing a child as one s own. Love from a father looks out for the best interests of a child: physically, emotionally and especially spiritually. The response from a child to a father is to be godly respect and honor. That s what fear means. Fear from a child honors and respects that love. Therefore, this kind of fear is love. Here s Proverbs 3:11-13, 11 My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. 13 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding. All of us enter life undisciplined. Through our parents we have to learn such elemental disciplines as continence, dressing ourselves and how to eat. As we grow we need to become disciplined in speech and behavior. Especially we need to learn self-control, not to bite or kick or injure or speak disrespectfully. Later we need to learn self-control in order not to seduce, or fall into evil or lead others into evil. We need disciplined love how to become committed to others and do right by them. We need all this truth in our lives. And most importantly we need the greatest truth of all disciplined love and commitment to the only true God, Our Father, who is not only in heaven but desires to make His home in us. Thus, true fathering instills wisdom and understanding. True fathering also reveals the devil s lies for what they are. Now because we are rebellious by nature, we don t want self-control. We don t want commitment, especially to God. R ebellion brings disobedience. Disobedience eventually brings punishment of one kind or another. For, Our Father has set up His universe so that ultimately no one can get away with rebellion. But even in punishment Yahweh is full of compassion. Consider Pharaoh. Each plague Moses called down on Egypt was not just discipline. It was an opportunity for Pharaoh to repent and all Egypt with him. God sent Moses to Pharaoh and gave him ten opportunities to repent of his stubborn idolatry and save himself and his country. That Pharaoh would not repent is the great tragedy that cost Egypt its prosperity, its army and probably Pharaoh s own life. Pharaoh rejected the Father s discipline. Nevertheless, the Father mercifully offered Pharaoh ten opportunities to repent, believe and be forgiven. This is God s great compassion toward all the wicked and rebellious. 4
Yahweh is truly a good, good Father the best there can be. When His arrogant, reckless, angry and rebellious children repent and come home they do not find a distant watchmaker. Rather, they find in Jesus the one who personally suffered and died for their sin. In Lord Holy Spirit they discover the truth about themselves and all things. In the presence of the Father they find love, compassion and a discipline of self-control that leads to life and away from death. Moses approached his heavenly Father confidently praying this in Exodus 33:13, If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Teach me your ways, my Holy Father. Teach me your truth. By your Spirit enable me to receive justification through your Son, Jesus, and walk in your ways. Faith in Yahweh s truth is the beginning of wisdom, understanding and life itself. In His Word to us, Our Father offers His Son by His Spirit so that we may have intimate connection with Him and live in His ways. This day and every day, all those who repent so that the blood of the Son covers their sins can ask their loving Father to be refilled with His Holy Spirit. In this way they can receive faith to confidently ask their Father, show me your ways and He will. Amen. All Bible quotes are from the NIV. 5