Pentecost, 2023
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
Pentecost – Whitsunday
John 14:23-31
May 23, 2021
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Our Lord sent the Apostles to go out into the world and baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is the fullest name of God, revealed to us by Jesus—God in the flesh. Our God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In my opinion, we’re more familiar with the first two persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father and the Son. Of course, all of the work of God is the work of the entire Godhead. The Triune God creates, redeems, and sanctifies us. But in order to make this easier for us to understand, Luther lays out the work of the Holy Trinity by assigning certain attributes to certain Persons of the Holy Trinity. When we say, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,” what that means is, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that he has given me my body soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my sense, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this, He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in me.”
The work we attribute rightly to the Son is the work of Redemption. When we say that we believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, what we mean is that we believe in Jesus, “who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.” That’s how we’re redeemed. That’s how we are “bought back.” We’re made holy and righteous by blood. Christ’s blood, which was shed for us at a terrible cost in perfect love. He has done everything for us.
But today is the one Sunday of the year that we focus our attention on the Third Person of the Holy Trinity: the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, there are countless misunderstandings concerning the Holy Spirit. So that we might understand the Holy Spirit properly, we’ll take up the topics of I. Who is the Holy Spirit? II. The names of the Holy Spirit given in Scripture. III. What He does.
I. Who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God. He is eternal. For in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. So in the beginning, even at creation and prior to creation, the Holy Spirit was also there.
The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son. He is not made or created. Nor is the Holy Spirit begotten of the Father, but He is “proceeding.” The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and since the Holy Spirit is God, we can pray to Him. That’s actually the first distribution hymn today.
The Holy Spirit is just that—a spirit. He is formless. Though sometimes He has taken on the appearance of certain forms. Such as, at Jesus’ Baptism: the Holy Spirit was seen descending like a dove, which came to rest upon Jesus. So also, Jesus was known to give the Spirit to those who would preach His Gospel—that is, the Apostles, and pastors and priests. John chapter 20, when Jesus appeared again to the Apostles, He said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
II. Names of the Holy Spirit
Now the Holy Spirit is not only called “the Holy Spirit” in the Bible. Certainly, that is the primary name we use for the Third Person of the Trinity because it’s the name Jesus used. But the Holy Spirit is also known by other names and it’s important we recognize this.
St. John calls Jesus our “Advocate,” in his first epistle. He says, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” We have a mediator, a middle man, a go-between, an advocate—someone who supports us publicly and defends our cause against the devil before the Father. Jesus is our Advocate. But then He says earlier in John’s Gospel, “I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, that He may abide with you forever.” We already have our Advocate in Christ. But then He says the Father will send us another Advocate. We already have one but we get another. Grace upon grace. Unconditional Love sent down from the Father. The Holy Spirit is our Comforter and Advocate. He is yet another One who is the supporter of those who are accused of their sins and defends them and make amends for them, to serve them with help and aid, and to admonish and strengthen them when necessary.
So also, our Lord calls Him “the Spirit of truth.” He calls Him this because the Holy Spirit is a comfort for those who believe the Gospel, so that they know that the comfort they hear through the Word is true and genuine and does not lie or deceive.
III. What He does
We confess what the Holy Spirit does in the Small Catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the wone true faith. In this Christian Church, He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day, He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.”
You know that no one can “accept Jesus into their hearts.” No one can, by their own human nature, understand the things of God or “make a decision for Jesus.” As St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them.” Because of our sinful nature, it is impossible to accept Jesus or to love the things of God or to willingly grasp the benefits of His cross by our own reason or strength. But this is why the Holy Spirit has been sent to us. Because we have been sprinkled with clean water in Holy Baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit. We have been cleansed from all our filthiness. Our hearts of stone have been replaced with a heart of flesh. God’s Spirit has been put in us, who causes us to walk in His statutes, so that we keep His judgments and do them, and also, so that we do begin to understand holy things and the things of God. Because of the Holy Spirit given in Holy Baptism, we learn to love God’s Law. We have learned and know that the sins we commit and especially the sins we willingly commit are truly dangerous to faith. Repent. God, Who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleans us from all unrighteousness. And because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we also, now, begin to realize that God truly loves us. He is not angry with us. He desires our repentance and He desires to feed us with His body and blood.
For it is the Holy Spirit who calls us by the Gospel, enlightens us with His gifts, sanctifies and keeps us in the true faith. He calls us to Himself through Baptism. There, in those waters, we are enlightened and sanctified, that is, we are made holy. He not only makes us to be holy and beloved children of God and heirs of Christ Jesus, but in His Church—the Church that is His own creation—the Holy Spirit is the one who daily and richly forgives all our sins. He brings the forgiveness and atonement won by Jesus on the cross, and covers us with Christ’s righteousness. So that come the Last Day, the Holy Spirit will raise us and all the dead. Not only that, but He will give eternal life to all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.
In +Jesus’ name.
