To Keep You From Falling Away

Text: John 15:26--16:4
Date: Exaudi, Easter VII5/28/06

  When we confirmed our three young eighth graders last Sunday the otherwise joyful theme of the sermon was interrupted near the end with a note of foreboding, for I reminded them and us all, saying, “This faith and confession will very likely get you into trouble—not with God, of course, but with all the forces of the world, the devil and our sinful flesh that still war against God, and his grace and mercy and love in Christ.” Today, then, between the celebration of our Lord's final departure at his Ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, we hear Jesus' words concerning the hatred and opposition of the world, yet how we will be able to withstand it and face the world boldly and confidently because of the Holy Spirit Whom Jesus has sent from the Father.

  In the words preceding our text Jesus spoke of the hatred of the world which was aimed at him while he was still with his disciples bodily and, now that he will be with them only invisibly, this hatred will be aimed at them as they go about doing and proclaiming the same Good News Jesus did. Yes, you heard right, it is the Good News that the world hates. “If the world hates you,” Jesus said, “know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (v. 18-19). You, Christian, are to be no longer “of the world,” worldly, devoted to or all caught up in the things of this world which are, after all, only temporary and passing away. The thoughts and ways of God are as much against the thoughts and ways of the world as His holiness is against sin. The Word of God and fellowship with God requires repentance of sin, admitting that we are sinners. The world will have none of that, cannot admit that, but only tries to save face, to cover up, to put forth its own style of so-called righteousness.

  In order that we may not be scandalized, shocked or surprised when the world criticizes, rejects or persecutes us for standing for the Truth our Lord has told us ahead of time. “I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.” Jesus fortifies us for the battle when we need to be fortified; he hands us the armor just before the battle begins. Not only, however, has Jesus told us these things ahead of time so that we will not be surprised, but he has also sent us the Holy Spirit Whom he calls the paraclete, the Helper, the Comforter.

  Notice how all three Persons of the one, true God are mentioned. Jesus says that he sends the Spirit from the Father. The Spirit proceeds from the Father. The important thing to know is that all three Persons are one in purpose. Only God the Son took on our human flesh and only in him can a person know God the Father. God the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, “will bear witness about me.” That is, the Spirit is always pointing us to Jesus. Then, as the Spirit bears witness to Jesus, our Lord says, “and you also will bear witness.” We are to do what the Holy Spirit does by the power the Spirit Himself provides, namely, point other people to Jesus! As I repeatedly said to our confirmands, “it's all about Jesus!”

  “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away,” that is from being caught unawares or surprised by the world's hatred. Isn't it interesting that the Epistle for today includes the Apostle Peter's words, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” [1 Peter 4:12 (ESV)]. You are not to be surprised or caught off guard because our Lord has clearly told us this is how it will be.

  Jesus then speaks of two of the world's worst forms of persecution. First, “they will put you out of the synagogues.” Now at first that may not sound like much to us. But for a Jew in a Jewish nation to be excommunicated and banned from the synagogue was to be treated as a religious outcast and even a renegade or traitor to the nation. Christians are traitors not to any nation but to the world! To use St. Paul's words, “we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” [2 Cor. 4:1-4 (ESV)]. In our Holy Baptism we have renounced the devil and all his works and all his ways. Again, as St. Paul wrote to Titus, “the grace of God…trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” [Titus 2:11-12 (ESV)]. When we do, however, the world marks us as traitors. We are criticized as being judgmental because when we call sin “sin” they cannot remain comfortable in sin.

  The second form of persecution Jesus speaks of in the words, “indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” We have the record of how all the apostles except for St. John were martyred, killed for their faith in Jesus. In the Te Deum we sing how “the noble army of martyrs” everlastingly praise God, all those who, throughout the centuries, have, as we say it, “paid the ultimate price.” On this Memorial Day weekend in the United States we remember all those who have given their very lives for the preservation of our nation and the cause of freedom throughout the world. Similarly today we recall all who have given their very lives for the sake of the greater freedom—freedom from sin, death and the devil by faith in the Savior Who gave his very life for us and for the life of the whole world. Sometimes both the spiritual and the secular battles coincide. We know that many Lutheran pastors were executed under both Nazi and Socialist regimes. All the politically correct talk aside, it is fundamental to Islam that Muslims indeed consider killing Christians, as Jesus warned, “offering services to God.” And though outright murder does not happen to be our present experience, it still could be. On a less violent level, however, is the increasing criticism of Christians and the growing denigration of even the mention of God in the pledge of allegiance, on our money, in our court rooms or anywhere in the public square! Why is this? Jesus says “they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.” To “know” here means to believe. And you cannot know God the Father apart from the Son. Jesus revealed the Father in all his redemptive and saving love. The Father is known in the Son; to know the one is to know both. People, however, make their own gods from the thoughts and imagination of their own dark, spiritually blind minds. And those “gods” are never in agreement with the one, true God.

  The Christian faith and confession will very well get you into trouble—that is, if you are faithfully confessing and witnessing that faith in Jesus. As we asked our young confirmands last week, so let us ask one another again this week: Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it? Do you intend faithfully to conform all your life to the divine Word, to be faithful in the use of God's Word and Sacraments, which are his means of grace, and in faith, word, and action to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death? The answer to both of those questions reflects the fact that we cannot hope to do those things but rather can only say, “I do so intend by the grace and with the help of God.” It is that “help” that Jesus is speaking about today: the Helper, the Comforter, God the Holy Spirit Who strengthens your faith, your resolve, your courage to bear witness, to endure, to fight the good fight of the faith.

  May we have that spirit of conviction and strength that St. Paul described when he wrote to the Philippians:

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” [Philip. 3:7-14 (ESV)].

____________________
Rev. Allen D. Lunneberg

Contacts:

deblocascio.stmark@sbcglobal.net

Pastor: Rev. Allen D. Lunneberg
7979 Commerce Rd.      (1/4 mile east of Union Lake Rd.)
West Bloomfield, MI 48324
Phone: 248.363.0741
Fax: 248.363.4755