Alleluia! Jesus Lives!
5th Sunday of Easter
April 20, 2008
Hecla
Text: John 16:5-15 “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
Theme: The Advantage of Christ’s Ascension
Dear fellow redeemed,
“Parting is such sweet __________.” You know how to fill in the blank - “sorrow.” Some people are better at saying goodbye than others. With high school and college graduations right around the corner we know that there will be many hugs and tears as friends begin to leave for different schools and careers. You may even have heard of something called the “Lutheran Goodbye.” This is the goodbye that seems to take five minutes to complete - even though you plan on seeing that person the next week. On the other hand one of our retired Lutheran pastors never ends a phone conversation by saying goodbye or see you later. If you have a phone conversation with him, he will simply hang-up when the conversation is done - even though you said good-bye to him.
Parting is such sweet sorrow because we do not enjoy spending time away from the ones we love. We can understand why the disciples would have had sorrow-filled hearts as Jesus told them that He would be departing from them and returning to the One who sent them. Here in our text Jesus was preparing them for His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. Hearing Jesus was leaving brought them sorrow. They wanted their Friend and Teacher to stay with Him. On Easter Sunday when Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene we read that she clung to Jesus. To this the risen Jesus says - "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.' " (Jn 20:17) Though risen from the dead there was one more thing Jesus needed to do - ascend into heaven. And Jesus says in our text that this is a good thing. “I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away.” That we might better understand these words of Jesus let us consider this morning - THE ADVANTAGE OF CHRIST’S ASCENSION. May the Holy Spirit guide us into all truth through His holy Word. Amen.
In eleven days we will be celebrating the ascension of Jesus into heaven with a special worship service. But have you ever found yourself wishing that Jesus’ ascension hadn’t taken place? Do you ever think that if only the resurrected Jesus were yet visibly walking among us that your faith would be stronger or that your lives would be better? Or maybe you think that if only Jesus were still walking the earth that then there would be many more believers. Certainly these are things that have crossed my mind at one time or another - and I imagine many of you have thought the same thing.
Yet what important truth do we learn from Jesus today? The words that form our theme tell us that those thoughts are sorely misguided. Jesus expresses an absolute truth when He says, “I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away.” Jesus tells us that when we think such things that we are dead wrong! Things would NOT be better if the resurrected Lord had remained on the earth. Our faith would NOT be stronger if He were still visibly present among us. There would NOT be more believers if people could see and hear Jesus themselves. Remember what that even as Jesus walked the earth the disciples who walked with Him had a weak faith. Remember also that while He walked the earth and people could see and hear Him, that they still rejected and killed Him.
Instead Jesus says it is to our advantage, it is profitable to us that He ascend into heaven. Hear again the words of Jesus, “It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” Jesus says that if He does not ascend into heaven that the Helper or the Paraclete, that is the Holy Spirit, will not come. Instead Jesus would ascend into heaven and send the Holy Spirit ten days later on the day of Pentecost.
Now this is not to say that the Holy Spirit was not already at work on earth. Only two chapters earlier in John’s gospel we read, “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth...you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” (Jn 14:17) The Spirit was already at work in the hearts of these believers even as the Spirit had been at work among the Old Testament believers. He was already dwelling with them.
However the Holy Spirit would not be come in such a measure as He did on the day of Pentecost and following. “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” The Son’s work of redemption being completed with His death, resurrection, and resurrection He would send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would come to convict the world.
We can see the Holy Spirit doing that work of convicting already on the day of Pentecost. Filled with the Holy Spirit Peter would preach his Pentecost sermon that Jesus of Nazareth whom they had crucified, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. The advantage of Christ’s ascension a mere 10 days after the fact. The Spirit working through Peter convicts the hearts of these people of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. So convicted is this audience that they ask Peter and the Apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” The audience sought forgiveness. To which Peter replied, “Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift fo the Holy Spirit.” And we are told that on that day about 3,000 souls were added to the Church.
But the spread of the Gospel was not always met with such additions to the church. Sometimes the preaching of Christ crucified took numbers away from the earthly membership of the Church. It is only a short time later in the book of Acts that we read of that a man named Stephen was likewise full of the Holy Spirit and preaching Christ crucified. Here too the Spirit was convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. But how was this convicting met? It was met with anger, grinding teeth, and stones!
The Spirit convicted them of sin because they did not believe in Jesus. He convicted that audience of righteousness, because the one they had rejected and killed had been accepted by God the Father as seen in His resurrection and ascension into heaven. And the Spirit convicted them of judgment. Though the devil had been dealt a fatal blow on Good Friday and Easter, these enemies of the Gospel refused to flee the judgment by believing in Christ Jesus. Though the Spirit was mightily at work through Stephen, these hard-hearted men rejected the Holy Spirit and killed Stephen.
7.5 billion copies. 450 different languages. No I’m not talking about the most recent Harry Potter book. These staggering statistics are for the Bible! There is hardly a corner of this world that has not had the Gospel brought to it. The Bible is by far the most widely published and distributed book in the world. This is an advantage of Christ’s ascension. While Jesus was among them, the disciples could only bear to hear so much. But upon His ascension the Son would send the Holy Spirit who would “guide them into all truth.”
Throughout the book of Acts we can read of these same weak disciples being guided into all truth by the Spirit. And throughout the New Testament Gospels and Epistles we can read the very truths of God the Holy Spirit. And who does the Spirit glorify throughout the New Testament? “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” There is no mistaking the message of the New Testament - it’s central message is Jesus Christ delivered up for our offenses and raised again for our justification. It is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Throughout the New Testament Epistles the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by expanding on and explaining His work of redemption.
But if Jesus had remained here on earth, if He had remained in bodily form walking the planet over - NONE of this would have happened. The Helper would not have been sent on Pentecost. The Apostles and Evangelists would not have been led into all truth by the Spirit of truth. We would not have the glorious message that of justification by grace through faith in the book of Romans. We would not have the glorious message of faith alone apart from the deeds of the Law in the book of Galatians. We wouldn’t have the message of the Holy Christian Church in the book of Ephesians. We would not have these truths which glorify Christ and reveal to us the mysteries of God if Jesus had not ascended and sent the Holy Spirit.
We see now the advantage of Christ’s ascension. We see that it is to our advantage that Jesus ascended to His Father and our Father, His God and our God. The blessing of Christ’s ascension can be seen here every Sunday morning. Consider how we have already been blessed by His ascension and the coming of the Helper, the Holy Spirit. This morning we joined together in confessing our sins. And why did we do that? What led us to confess that “we are by nature sinful and unclean and that we have sinned against [God] by thought, word, and deed”? What led you to apply those words to yourself? Was it not the conviction of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent upon His ascension into heaven?
What led you to then think that you could flee for refuge to the infinite mercy of God? What led you to implore God’s grace for the sake of your Lord Jesus Christ? What makes you think that God will forgive any of your sins? Is it not because you are convicted?! Yes the reason you flee to God not as Judge who is angry over sin, but a God who forgives is because you are convinced that Jesus was delivered up for all of your sins. You are convinced that when Jesus died on the cross He was punished for every one of your sins. By faith you are convinced that Jesus resurrection from the dead means that God has forgiven you all your sins. Because Jesus rose, you are justified - declared not guilty by Almighty God Himself. These are things that even our youngest members know and believe to be true. But again this would not have been possible if Jesus had not ascended into heaven and the Spirit had not been sent. For no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 12:3)
We could trace through our worship service the work in the Holy Spirit in your heart. From each of the Scripture readings where the Spirit leads us into all truth and glorifies Jesus, to the confession of our faith in the Triune God - these things are all possible only because Jesus ascended into heaven and sent His Holy Spirit. So do you see the advantage of Christ’s ascension? That tremendous advantage can be seen in the heart of every single believer. May we rejoice in Christ’s ascension and treasure the precious gift we have been given by the Holy Spirit in His Word and in our hearts. When it comes to Christ’s ascension we can then say, “Parting is such sweet _______________ JOY!” Hallelujah, Amen.