Peace

Peace

The Feast of Pentecost

John 14:23-31

Rev. Dr. Christopher W. Brademeyer

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That portion from God’s holy Word for consideration this morning is our reading from the holy Gospel according to St. John in the fourteenth chapter with special emphasis on verses twenty-six and twenty-seven which read as follows:

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”[1]

Thus far the Scriptures.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

     Today marks the Feast of Pentecost, one of the principle and most important celebrations in our liturgical, that is church, calendar. This day commemorates that giving of the Holy Spirit to the Christian Church. And as you may have noticed in the last few weeks, we have spent some time working through readings in John’s Gospel that focus on Christ’s own promises and teachings about the Holy Spirit. To keep it brief, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will come and be present in and among His Christians, that is, in His Church.

    What is interesting about this reading and those we have read from chapters fifteen and sixteen in the last few weeks is that they record what Jesus taught on the night of His arrest, that is, on Maundy Thursday. In other words, this all takes place back in Holy Week. Jesus, knowing that He is going to be betrayed by Judas, wants to prepare His disciples both for His death and His ascension. He wants to assure them that even though He will be take from them, they are not abandoned or cut off form God. He wants them to rest assured that they will be kept in God’s good grace. Therefore, He promises them that the Holy Spirit will come.

The Abiding Presence of the Triune God

Jesus begins by saying, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”[2] What a stunning promise! The Father and the Son will make their home with the one who keeps Christ’s Word. This is the great fulfillment of Pentecost. Not just that God would dwell with His people in a temple made by hands, but that He would dwell in them, by His Spirit. When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He did not build a new temple of brick and stone. He made the disciples themselves into living temples. He made you into a temple. The Spirit has made His home in you. And where the Spirit is, there also are the Father and the Son. The Triune God has taken up residence in your heart by faith.

This is what the Lutheran Confessions remind us; the Holy Spirit is given through the Word of God and through the Sacraments. He makes you into His dwelling place, not through ecstatic experiences or emotional highs, but through Baptism, through the preached Word, through the body and blood of Jesus just as He promised. To put it another way, God chooses to work through means, that is, through things in this world like His Word and the sacraments, in order to make sure that you know that He is with you.

The Spirit Who Teaches and Reminds

Jesus continues: “(t)he Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”[3] What is the Holy Spirit’s work? To teach. To remind. To bring back to our hearts and minds the very words of Christ.

This is why Pentecost is not chaos; it is not about fire for fire’s sake. It is about clarity, truth, teaching, and preaching of the Word of God.

The Spirit came so that the apostles would faithfully remember and proclaim everything that Jesus had said and done. And through their witness, written in the Scriptures and preached from our pulpits, the Spirit still teaches us today. That is why we confess the Nicene Creed today with special emphasis: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life… who spoke by the prophets.”

Where Christ’s Word is, there the Spirit is at work. And wherever the Spirit is, there Christ is made known. If you want to be “Spirit-filled,” you do not need to speak in tongues or feel a thrill down your spine. You need the Word of Christ. Read your Bible. Hear the preaching. Come to the Lord’s Supper. These are the places the Spirit has been promised to come to you for your benefit, to give you Christ your Savior.

The Peace of Christ in a Troubled World

Then Jesus says: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.”[4] Here is one of the greatest gifts of the Spirit, peace. Not the kind of peace the world gives; the world gives peace with conditions. In this world we achieve peace through strength and peace through compromise. The world’s peace is always temporary and always fragile.

But Jesus gives a different peace. His peace comes through His cross, His blood, and His resurrection. His peace is eternal because it rests not on what we do, but on what He has done.

And it is a peace that calms troubled hearts. “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid,” He says.

Dear friends, on this Pentecost Day, Jesus is speaking peace to you. Not because your circumstances are always easy. Not because the world is at peace. But because He has overcome the world. He has conquered death. And He has sent His Spirit to dwell with you always.

This is a peace that stays with you in grief. It comforts you in guilt. It stills your heart when you are anxious. It is peace that comes from knowing you are forgiven, that Christ is risen, and that the Spirit lives in you.

Rejoicing in Christ’s Victory

Finally, Jesus says something mysterious: “You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father.”[5]

Why should the disciples rejoice that Jesus is going away? Because His departure, His death on the cross, resurrection, and ascension, means victory for us sinners. It means the redemption of the world. It means that He can send the Spirit to all people.

At Pentecost, we rejoice that Christ is at the right hand of the Father, ruling over all things for the sake of His Church. We rejoice that the Spirit has come. We rejoice that the Gospel is going out into all the world in every language, for every tribe and nation. And though Jesus is no longer visible to us as He was in Jerusalem when He said these things, He has not left us alone. He comes to us in His Word. He abides with us in the Spirit. He feeds us with His body and blood. And He will come again in glory.

Conclusion

So on this Pentecost, remember what Jesus promised in the quiet of the Upper Room. The Holy Spirit has come. God, the Holy Trinity, dwells with you. The Spirit teaches you the Word. And the peace of Christ fills you.

Do not let your heart be troubled. Do not be afraid. Christ has won the victory. The Spirit has indeed been given to you.

In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] John 14:26-27 English Standard Version. All subsequent citations from Holy Scripture are from the ESV.

[2] John 14:23

[3] John 14:26

[4] John 14:27

[5] John 14:28