Pastor Slaughter

Pentecost Day

May 19, 2024

Text: John 15:16-27

The Counselor

• Testifies the truth to us
• Who testifies the truth through us

 

I want you to imagine something for a moment. What if I came to you and told you that everybody is going to hate you. In fact, you are not only going to be hated by everyone but you will be persecuted. You will most likely be taken and dragged out of the church you grew up in and cast aside. You will be killed by people who think they are serving God. The reason being… because of your association with me.

What would you? Would you leave me, abandon me, forsake me? If I was in your shoes, I would. I mean why endure the pain persecution? Why suffer? Why have my very life threatened? Now let me add another layer to it. What if I told you I was going to be arrested and die the very next day. Does that change your answer?

 

That is precisely what Jesus was telling his disciples in the context of our lesson for today. It is Holy Thursday. Jesus has some final words to tell his disciples to prepare them for his departure. Here he tells them that the world is going to hate you because they hate me. Since you are my servants, the world will persecute you because they persecuted me. Confirmands you are making a promise today to be faithful to God. That what you have learned in catechism class is true teaching of God’s Word. What Jesus said didn’t just apply to his disciples but to you, or us as a congregation as well. He was preparing us for when he ascended into heaven. So that we would not be surprised at what will happen to us.

What could Jesus possibly give to us to help us, to encourage us to keep following him? Because there will be times, we wrestle with feelings of fear of what people may say or do to us, with feelings of loneliness for being abandoned, with feeling of anxiety about what could happen, what could Jesus possibly give to us that is greater than all those things? It’s found in two verses that serve as the basis for the sermon for today taken from the Gospel of John 15:26-27, “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. And you also are going to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

When you leave here today, and when you look back on your confirmation, I want you to remember what Jesus gives us; The Counselor, who testifies the truth to us, who testifies the truth through us.

Sometimes I think we don’t give enough credit to the Holy Spirit. We talk an awful lot about Jesus and his redemptive work, and rightly so. We hear quite a bit about the Father. But sometimes I think we just gloss over the Holy Spirit who takes a very active role one in our everyday lives and two very active role in gospel testimony.

To give the disciples comfort right in the middle of when Jesus is describing the persecution they will face, He tells them he gives the Holy Spirit. He calls the Holy Spirit, The Counselor. I think that tells us a lot about the Holy Spirit, doesn’t it? I will give you a couple of seconds to think about this, who is/are the counselors in your life? Now I will give you a couple more seconds, why did you pick that person(s)? Don’t we seek counsel from someone who is trustworthy, whose advice we can trust as we make a decision? They have to be trustworthy, otherwise we could never trust their advise, their word’s, their testimony.

That is precisely who the Holy Spirit is! He is the Counselor, whom Jesus calls the Spirit of Truth. He is the one who testifies the truth, the one who testifies about Jesus. Pilate questioned it, the disciples were confused by it, but Jesus promised it: the Truth.

In this world don’t we just long for the truth? At some point (if not already) you are going to have to figure what is true. You are bombarded with people who are fake, who show only the best version of themselves online but really that is far from the truth. You will be lied too. You will hear half-truths. You will be confronted with people who don’t believe in God nor his word, and they will claim to know and teach the truth.  And with all the different religions out there and even different Christian denominations, how do we know what is the truth?

 

It is because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and testifies about the truth, about Jesus. He testified about the truth which is embodied in Christ and his redemption!  What is true? We have a Lord who loves us so much that he died for our sins. We have a God who loves us so much that he gives to us his righteousness and perfect life. We have a God who loves us so much that he came and cast judgment and condemned the ruler of this world.

             In all the lies we hear (that there isn’t a God), the lies we tell ourselves (that we are not forgiven), we have the testimony from the Holy Spirit who loves us so much that he personally gives us his testimony he gives us in his word.

             Today we are celebrating where the Holy Spirit came on the great day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, where he filled people with the ability to speak languages to spread the good news of Jesus to people. It was miraculous and unique and signaled the beginning of the Church as the disciples testified to the truth of the Savior. This is what Jesus was pointing to in our lesson, “And you also are going to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

I think it is fitting to have confirmation on Pentecost. Because the Counselor, the Holy Spirit convicted the Apostles of the truth of God’s word and in turn centuries later convicted us of the truth of God’s Word. The process to this day is essentially the same, though maybe less spectacular than tongues of fire resting on us. Through the testimony of the apostles written down on the pages of Scripture, the Holy Spirit comes to us and testifies to us about the truth of Jesus. This is the truth that Holy Spirit has convicted you of in catechism class. But it doesn’t end here.  Then we bring the witness to others and the sequence repeats. So God has preserved and extended his church through the ages.

The Spirit of Truth whose testimony has impacted us in such a marvelous way, creating this amazing relationship that we have with God. Assuring us that he is with us always, that he loves us. That he forgives us. Just like when someone does something nice for us we want to respond and do something for them. Well Jesus tells us what we can do. Testify to the truth that saves us!

But when we look at the context of our lesson and think about how the world hates us because of Jesus are we tempted to come up with excuses to not testify to the truth. No one will listen to me. I don’t know what to say. I am afraid of the tension, the broken relationship it could bring. I am afraid of the bad grade I may get in class that teaches evolution. When we are too afraid to talk gender identity issues, when we don’t want to bring up living together before marriage as a sin, when we don’t want to show someone else their sin, all of those things which our world says is good and right but the truth of Scripture says it’s sin and wrong.

When we are too afraid to testify, where is our focus? It is on ourselves. We secretly think that for someone to believe our testimony, is dependent on how smart we are, how eloquent our words are, or how receptive someone maybe to our testimony. When we are too afraid to testify to the truth, when we come up with excuses not to testify, we forget the most important thing, That the Spirit of truth who testifies through us! That our God is more powerful than those who hate us, persecute us.

 

We have an amazing God who has done, and continues to do such wonderful things for us. He has given to us the most amazing truth found in Christ and his redemptive work on the cross and he has given us the Holy Spirit who testifies to that truth through the pages Scripture. That truth which saves us, is what we now go and do. Confirmation doesn’t mean our time learning comes to an end. It doesn’t mean that hearing the truth is less important or that we know all that we need to and we are done. Just as Jesus told the disciples and he now tells us, You are going to testify to the truth. And as you do the Holy Spirit is right there with you. As we testify to the truth of Scripture, the Holy Spirit is testifying the truth through us! Let us find comfort and joy, as we celebrate Pentecost! The Councilor who testifies the truth to us and through us! amen.