The True Spirit

John 16:5-15

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

St. John 16:12-14  12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 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. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  It seems that just about anywhere you go, Christian people talk about “the Spirit.”  They mean, of course, the Holy Spirit…  at least I think they do.  You will hear phrases like, “the Spirit led me to do this,” or “the Spirit laid this on my heart,” or “I have a message from the Spirit,” or “I am Spirit-filled.”  People love to get religious ideas in their heads and say “the Spirit moved me” or “I was inspired by the Spirit.”

I don’t know if you have ever experienced someone saying those kinds of things, but the truth is, that kind of language is neither Lutheran nor Christian.  What I mean is, that kind of talk is not how the Holy Scriptures speak.  Thank God we have Jesus’ words in today’s reading from John 16 teaching us about the Spirit; for, if we didn’t, we might actually believe all that nonsense and silly “spirit” talk.

One of the fascinating things about the Gospel readings for the past few weeks is that, as always, the words of our Lord Jesus teach us to speak and understand things rightly.  After His resurrection Jesus spoke words that prepared His disciples to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  They are words that also teach us what life in the church will be like and what the Spirit’s work truly is.

We live in the post-ascension and pre-second coming days.  Jesus has gone into heaven, and He is not visible to us in the same way He was with the disciples.  By the Spirit we have the certainty of where Jesus is.   And we can be certain of having the Spirit because Jesus has told us where and how the Spirit will be at work in the world after He ascended.

In vv. 13-14 of today’s text, Jesus says, “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.”  In these words of our Lord we have all that we need to know about the Holy Spirit, what He does, and how He works.  We learn that the Spirit comes to us from Christ.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and so the Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Jesus, sent by Him to lead us into all truth.  What is the truth?  Jesus is the Truth.  Since the Spirit is sent by Jesus to lead us to the Truth, we can say with confidence that the Holy Spirit comes to us from Jesus to lead us to Jesus.

So, the first thing we know for certain is that the Spirit leads us to Christ; the Spirit points us to Christ; the Spirit brings us to our Savior.  Anything that does not point to Jesus, anything that does not give Jesus, anything that does not teach Jesus is not the Holy Spirit.  If what is being preached and talked about is not the preaching of Christ crucified and the forgiveness of sins, then it is not the Holy Spirit at work.

The Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus by the Gospel, by the preaching and teaching that the Scriptures contain, which is this: that Jesus is true God and true Man, and that He died for our sins and rose again the Third Day.  The Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus who is the Truth.  That Truth is that we cannot save ourselves from our sins, but the blood of Jesus wipes out our sins and cancels the debt of our sins before God.  The Truth is this: Jesus is our Savior.  The Holy Spirit’s job is to lead us to Jesus.  The Spirit of Truth leads us Christ who is the Truth.

Next question: How does the Spirit lead us into all Truth?  How does He lead us to Jesus?  Jesus Himself tells us: “He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”   The Holy Spirit takes what is Christ’s and gives it to us.  What is it that is Christ’s?  The forgiveness of sins.  Righteousness.  Holiness.  Being the Son of the Father.  How does the Spirit declare these things to us and deliver them?  He does so by giving us what is Christ’s.

He gives us Holy Baptism.  Jesus instituted Holy Baptism as the means by which God washes away our sins and delivers us from death and the devil.  He gives us Holy Absolution.  Jesus told His apostles to go into the world and forgive sins by His authority and in His name.  He gives us the Holy Gospel.  When what the Scriptures teach is taught to us – the Good News that for Jesus’ sake our sins are forgiven – then we are lead to Jesus, the Truth.  He gives us the Holy Supper.  The Spirit, by the Word, gives us what belongs to Jesus, namely, His real and true body and blood for forgiveness, life, and salvation.

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Now, it is also important to watch out for false spirits, false words, false preaching, and false teaching that claims to be of the Holy Spirit but is not.  Here we need to understand what the Spirit is not: the Spirit is NOT our feelings.  Too often today, people do what they feel like doing; they do whatever makes them feel good, whatever seems right.  And if you ask them about it or question them, they say, “But that’s the Spirit moving me.”

The problem is that so much of what passes today for the “Spirit” has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus and His gifts.  The Spirit was not given by Jesus so we can convince ourselves that our own opinions are what God is thinking.  On the contrary, the Spirit leads us, by way of Christ’s gifts, to Christ Himself.  Therefore, we can say it like this: if it is not giving us Christ and calling us to repentance and delivering the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name, it is not the Holy Spirit.

In fact, one of the simplest ways to determine whether the true Holy Spirit is at work is to listen whether it is Jesus or the Spirit that is being talked about.  If all you hear is “Spirit” this and “Spirit” that, it’s a pretty good bet you’re not getting the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit didn’t come to announce Himself or bring attention to Himself.  He came to announce Jesus, to point to Jesus, to give us Jesus, to lead us to Jesus.  If that is not the main thing, then run from whatever spirit that is, because it is certainly not the Holy Spirit.

Now, what is the result of all this? This isn’t a “we’re right” and “they’re wrong” sort of thing.  Jesus goes on to say, “All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”  It means this: Do you have the Spirit?  Do you have Jesus?  The answer is YES because you have Christ’s Baptism, Absolution, Gospel, and Supper.  Therefore, you also have the Truth.  To have Baptism, Absolution, Gospel, and Supper is to have the Spirit and Christ and the Father; it is to have all the gifts God has for you: forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, eternal life, and salvation.

Dear fellow redeemed, all of this is given for our comfort and certainty.  And boy, do we need that now!  There is no doubt that the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh are seeking to take us down.  We’re discouraged with restrictions; we’re concerned with fear; we’re frustrated, lonely, angry, worried, and fed up.  We’re uncertain as to how our lives will play out in the weeks to come.   But take heart, dear Christian: we are protected by the comfort and confidence that we have the Lord and all His saving gifts.   He strengthens and heals us by His grace and mercy, so that even in the midst of all this other stuff, we are bolstered by the certainty of Christ’s death and resurrection for us.

One more thing…  Beware also of the temptation of those who say, “You can never really know the truth.  You can never really know what God thinks about you.  You can never really know your sins are forgiven or that you have a heavenly Father.”  Dear friends, the devil, world and our flesh will shout at you that if you dare to think you have the only Truth, you are arrogant, presumptuous, and full of yourself.  But those are lies from the mouth of Satan!

Jesus says you WILL know the Truth because HE is the Truth.  And the Spirit leads you to the Truth by His holy gifts of Jesus.  Do not listen to the devil, the world, or your flesh.  Listen and cling by God-given faith to those things of Jesus that are given to you by the Spirit.  Live in those gifts and you will be certain that you are indeed in the Truth.  Live in and from those truths.  You are forgiven, and you have eternal life in Christ.

The world is full of the “spirit,” but not the Holy Spirit.  The True Holy

Spirit comes only through the means of Grace – the word and Sacraments.  And the true Spirit gives us only Christ.  The true Spirit only gives the Savior who lived and died and rose again to take away our sins.  Jesus speaks His Words so that we will not be deceived.  Jesus is the Truth.  Jesus gives His Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to lead us to trust in Him, to trust in all Truth, to hear that Truth.

Out there is uncertainty, anxiety, fear, disease, discomfort.  In here, in the Divine Service, in God’s service to you, you have Christ, you have His forgiveness, you have His certainty, you have His comfort, you have His strength, you have His peace – that peace that passes all understanding – that peace which the world cannot give.

God keep you in His certainty today and always.

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