Isaiah 12:1-6/James 1:16-21/St John 16:5-15
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Whether one believes that he shared a uterus with our Lord Christ, was the son of a widower, or an adopted cousin, or some other category of adelphos, it ought to be noted that St James preached like his brother, Jesus of Nazareth. Compare the sermons of Jesus recorded in St Matthew’s Gospel to the Epistle of St James, and he who has ears to hear will resonate with the stereophonic echoes of the Sermon on the Mount.
What I mean is this: Jesus says, Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all (Mt 6:31-32). And St James writes: Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, come down from the Father of lights. They preach similarly. And they make the same point.
All good gifts - your body soul, eyes, ears, and all your members, your reason, and all your senses are given by God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. He also gives you clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, and all that you have. He richly and daily provides you with all that you need to support this body and life.
He defends you against all danger, guards and protects you from all evil. He does this out of fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in you. He who created the world through the spoken Word sustains and supports His created world through the self-same Word. These are His good gifts. And He bestows them upon Jew and Gentile alike, on believer and unbeliever the same.
His greatest and most perfect Gift, coming down from above, is Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, begotten from His Father from all eternity, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. He is the Word by Whom all things were made, and without Whom was nothing made that is made.
The Word became flesh. He came from the Father full of grace and truth. And now, on the night of His betrayal, at His darkest and most solemn hour, He comforts His beloved disciples with the assurance that He is going back to the Father in His death. But it is to their advantage, and yours, that He go away. His Cross and Passion, is to your advantage; His death is for your benefit.
For in going to the Father by way of the Cross, He gives up the Spirit. It is finished. He has won for you an eternal treasure, a heavenly reward, by His innocent suffering and death. He has vanquished hell and Satan’s demons. He has removed the plague of sin and demolished the bars of death.
But if His work remained hidden so that no one knew of it, it would have all been in vain. All lost. Neither you nor I could ever know anything about Christ, or believe in Him and receive Him as Lord, unless these were offered to us and bestowed on our hearts through the preaching of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit. In order that this treasure might not remain buried but be put to use and enjoyed, God has caused His Word to be published and proclaimed, in which He has given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply this treasure, this redemption.
For the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, gave life to the crucified, dead and buried Christ. And on that first Easter eve the Word made flesh bestowed the self-same Spirit of truth upon His disciples, breathing the breath of life into them for the forgiveness of sins. God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, has come to them, bringing peace and reconciliation from the Father who sent His Son, the Word.
For here, in John 16, Christ makes the Holy Spirit a Preacher, saying, Whatever He hears He will speak, that is, He will preach. And this is not the first time! Back in chapter three, that evening catechesis with Nicodemus regarding Holy Baptism, Jesus says, Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and we bear witness, to what we have see, but you do not receive our testimony (Jn 3:11). We. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity and the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They both preach.
And the content of their preaching is the same. When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the Truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak. He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. He will guide you into all the Truth. Doesn’t Jesus say of Himself, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life? (Jn 14:6). Does He not also say later in John 17, Father, sanctify them in the Truth; Your Word is Truth? (Jn 17:17) And elsewhere, It is the Spirit who gives life. The Word that I have spoken to you are spirit and life? (Jn 6:63).
The work of the Holy Spirit is Christ-centered. He does not draw attention to Himself, but glorifies the Son by taking what belongs to the Son and the Father and declaring it to you. One theologian put it this way: “The Holy Spirit is the shy one of the Trinity. He doesn’t talk about Himself, but about Jesus.” And He does this, as Jesus indicates, through preaching and the Word. The Word is how the Blessed Holy Trinity operates; how He works.
The Father creates and sustains all things by His Word. The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. By way of the Cross and Ascension He returns to the Father. The Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, glorifies the Son through and in and by the Word. Again, it is as Jesus said to Nicodemus, The Spirit breathes where He wishes, and you hear His sound (Jn 3:8; my translation). God the Holy Spirit is found in the Word alone. Not in our feelings or emotions, not in our intellect or reason, but only in the Word. This is why St James exhorts you, Be quick to hear [the preached Word].
By the Word of His Law, read and preached, He convicts you of sin - that by your fleshly nature you do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. That you cannot, by your own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him.
And by His Word of promise, He convinces you of righteousness; that is, He calls you by the Gospel and enlightens you with His gifts. He declares to you a righteousness not your own, but one giving by fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy, for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter suffering and death of the only-begotten Son.
And finally, by His Word, He directs you to Christ, who has judged the ruler of this world by His death. Through the blood and wood of His Cross, Christ Jesus has dealt a death blow to the wicked one. Satan and his accusations have been silenced. He has lost. The grave is emptied of its dead and Jesus lives! Beloved, all that Satan has on you is your sin, and every last bit of it has been died and paid for by the shed blood of Christ! The Father’s verdict of the Last Day comes to you now by way of His Holy Spirit who declares to you the things of Christ. He says, through the mouth of your pastor, “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
For all of this the Church sings this glad Easter Day. For God is your salvation; He is your strength and your song and He has become your salvation. His anger has turned away. And here, the Blessed Holy Trinity, bid you come, so that your Father may comfort you in His Son by His Spirit, bestowing to you the things of Christ: His very crucified and risen Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This is for your advantage, your benefit; the very implanted Word joined to bread and wine, which is able to save your souls.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
(Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Whether one believes that he shared a uterus with our Lord Christ, was the son of a widower, or an adopted cousin, or some other category of adelphos, it ought to be noted that St James preached like his brother, Jesus of Nazareth. Compare the sermons of Jesus recorded in St Matthew’s Gospel to the Epistle of St James, and he who has ears to hear will resonate with the stereophonic echoes of the Sermon on the Mount.
What I mean is this: Jesus says, Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all (Mt 6:31-32). And St James writes: Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, come down from the Father of lights. They preach similarly. And they make the same point.
All good gifts - your body soul, eyes, ears, and all your members, your reason, and all your senses are given by God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. He also gives you clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, and all that you have. He richly and daily provides you with all that you need to support this body and life.
He defends you against all danger, guards and protects you from all evil. He does this out of fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in you. He who created the world through the spoken Word sustains and supports His created world through the self-same Word. These are His good gifts. And He bestows them upon Jew and Gentile alike, on believer and unbeliever the same.
His greatest and most perfect Gift, coming down from above, is Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, begotten from His Father from all eternity, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. He is the Word by Whom all things were made, and without Whom was nothing made that is made.
The Word became flesh. He came from the Father full of grace and truth. And now, on the night of His betrayal, at His darkest and most solemn hour, He comforts His beloved disciples with the assurance that He is going back to the Father in His death. But it is to their advantage, and yours, that He go away. His Cross and Passion, is to your advantage; His death is for your benefit.
For in going to the Father by way of the Cross, He gives up the Spirit. It is finished. He has won for you an eternal treasure, a heavenly reward, by His innocent suffering and death. He has vanquished hell and Satan’s demons. He has removed the plague of sin and demolished the bars of death.
But if His work remained hidden so that no one knew of it, it would have all been in vain. All lost. Neither you nor I could ever know anything about Christ, or believe in Him and receive Him as Lord, unless these were offered to us and bestowed on our hearts through the preaching of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit. In order that this treasure might not remain buried but be put to use and enjoyed, God has caused His Word to be published and proclaimed, in which He has given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply this treasure, this redemption.
For the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, gave life to the crucified, dead and buried Christ. And on that first Easter eve the Word made flesh bestowed the self-same Spirit of truth upon His disciples, breathing the breath of life into them for the forgiveness of sins. God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, has come to them, bringing peace and reconciliation from the Father who sent His Son, the Word.
For here, in John 16, Christ makes the Holy Spirit a Preacher, saying, Whatever He hears He will speak, that is, He will preach. And this is not the first time! Back in chapter three, that evening catechesis with Nicodemus regarding Holy Baptism, Jesus says, Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and we bear witness, to what we have see, but you do not receive our testimony (Jn 3:11). We. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity and the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They both preach.
And the content of their preaching is the same. When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the Truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak. He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. He will guide you into all the Truth. Doesn’t Jesus say of Himself, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life? (Jn 14:6). Does He not also say later in John 17, Father, sanctify them in the Truth; Your Word is Truth? (Jn 17:17) And elsewhere, It is the Spirit who gives life. The Word that I have spoken to you are spirit and life? (Jn 6:63).
The work of the Holy Spirit is Christ-centered. He does not draw attention to Himself, but glorifies the Son by taking what belongs to the Son and the Father and declaring it to you. One theologian put it this way: “The Holy Spirit is the shy one of the Trinity. He doesn’t talk about Himself, but about Jesus.” And He does this, as Jesus indicates, through preaching and the Word. The Word is how the Blessed Holy Trinity operates; how He works.
The Father creates and sustains all things by His Word. The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. By way of the Cross and Ascension He returns to the Father. The Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, glorifies the Son through and in and by the Word. Again, it is as Jesus said to Nicodemus, The Spirit breathes where He wishes, and you hear His sound (Jn 3:8; my translation). God the Holy Spirit is found in the Word alone. Not in our feelings or emotions, not in our intellect or reason, but only in the Word. This is why St James exhorts you, Be quick to hear [the preached Word].
By the Word of His Law, read and preached, He convicts you of sin - that by your fleshly nature you do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. That you cannot, by your own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him.
And by His Word of promise, He convinces you of righteousness; that is, He calls you by the Gospel and enlightens you with His gifts. He declares to you a righteousness not your own, but one giving by fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy, for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter suffering and death of the only-begotten Son.
And finally, by His Word, He directs you to Christ, who has judged the ruler of this world by His death. Through the blood and wood of His Cross, Christ Jesus has dealt a death blow to the wicked one. Satan and his accusations have been silenced. He has lost. The grave is emptied of its dead and Jesus lives! Beloved, all that Satan has on you is your sin, and every last bit of it has been died and paid for by the shed blood of Christ! The Father’s verdict of the Last Day comes to you now by way of His Holy Spirit who declares to you the things of Christ. He says, through the mouth of your pastor, “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
For all of this the Church sings this glad Easter Day. For God is your salvation; He is your strength and your song and He has become your salvation. His anger has turned away. And here, the Blessed Holy Trinity, bid you come, so that your Father may comfort you in His Son by His Spirit, bestowing to you the things of Christ: His very crucified and risen Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This is for your advantage, your benefit; the very implanted Word joined to bread and wine, which is able to save your souls.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
(Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
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