The Communion of Saints [Pentecost]

LISTEN AND WATCH HERE.


READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE

• Genesis 11:1-9
• Acts 2:1-21
• St. John 14:23-31

To you all who are baptized into the fiery and powerful Spirit of the true Son of God:

To you who are called; to you who are beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

Who speaks to us today, saying,

“Jesus answered him, '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.'”

Pentecost is the word for “50 days”. It has been 50 days since the Resurrection of Jesus. It has been 50 days since the disciples were in the upper room for fear of the Jews. And it has been 50 days that they have not left that huddling fear, as we hear in Acts today, “they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1).

Now, there are two ways to understand this statement. The first is the negative, as I have just stated. That they were still afraid 50 days later, which is entirely possible. That they were still indoors even having seen the risen Jesus multiple times, eaten with Him, and being witnesses of His Ascension is SOP for the “O ye of little faith” Apostles. 

What were they waiting for? Were they waiting for an All-Clear signal? Were they waiting for the Jews to say, “Ok we aren’t going to kill you anymore for your belief in Jesus”? Were they waiting for the All-Clear from the government and hear from them that they won’t punish them for causing riots and disturbing the peace? 

More than likely, they were waiting for their end to come. Meaning, they were waiting for Jesus to bring about the End and end them so they wouldn’t have to deal with the times that the Apostles found themselves in, surrounded on all sides, the grave and depths of hell yawning at them, because deep down they knew there would never be an “All-Clear”.

Jesus also knew this. He knew that there would never be a day on earth that His faithfully baptized would not be persecuted or killed as a service to God (Jn. 16:2). He also knew that they would stay hidden, so He told them at His Ascension “to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Lk. 24:49). After that, they would then go out and be His witnesses “both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

So they would stay in Jerusalem and yet leave it? Even though they were to go out to all the earth, they were forbidden from forsaking the places they were already in! So the Apostles went out with these Apostolic gifts, not just to spread the Word, but to spread the Word in order to start churches.

Yes, much to the chagrin of the super-spiritual crowd, the Apostles were sent out to start churches. Not just any churches, but the holy Christian Church which is the communion of saints or the total number of those who believe in Christ. This is the culmination of the Holy Spirit’s work and giving of gifts, that He not only gives tangible gifts, but gives them in a tangible Church as well.

So it is by the power of the Holy Ghost that we say “I believe in the holy Christian Church” and it is by that same power that we come to a second understanding of the Pentecost Epistle from Acts. When they were gathered together, it may have been from fear as we first said, but it was definitely for Church Service, for already in Acts chapter 1 they were continuing to devote themselves to prayer with one mind (Acts 1:14).

Being members of God’s household means that there is a house. The true Gift of the Spirit, Faith, makes us members of this holy Christian Church and this faith is hidden, just as the true Church, the Body of Christ, is hidden. Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Lk. 17:20-21).

So are there two Churches then, one hidden and one revealed? Once again, we run into the problem of being spiritual yet physical creatures. For we see “church”: brick and mortar and people, but we do not see Church, because we also see rust, decay, and sinners which are not in the true Church that has been purified and sanctified.

And yet, there is only one Body, one Church. Christ is the head of the body, the Church (Col 1:18). The Church is called holy because it is made up of holy people: those who have been cleansed by the Blood of Christ and who serve God by holy living. The Church is Christian because it belongs to Christ and is built on Him alone.

So we are what is called a local church. Meaning, we are those who have gathered visibly around the means of the Spirit. This is the revealed church, the one we can see that contains all who use the Word of God and profess the Christian faith, but also alongside the unbelievers. In the revealed Church on earth, both are in the pews and we can’t tell who is who.

Repent. This poses a problem for us and we and the world knows it. We have those undesirable traits in us that are fodder for the unbelievers’ fire. They love to throw our sinful deeds in our faces in order to say, “you are not the church and God’s not real”. We then live in true fear from all sides. We are afraid of going into public with our Divine Service because our reputations will be torn to shreds and we are afraid of claiming to be Christian because of how sinful we know ourselves to be and that’s no example to set, is it?

What is a Church of Pentecost to do?

We are to wait, just as the Apostles did. Wait for power from on high. And we have already discussed how and what the Holy Spirit brings to give us that power. It is the power of Faith. In Word and Sacrament, we are given that power from on high. So it has already come to you. This Scripture has already been fulfilled in your hearing.

This then, is Jesus’ fulfillment of the peace that He promised. He had painstakingly ordered all of creation and history in order to suffer, die, rise again, and build you a Church. “You are no longer foreigners and aliens”, Jesus says, “but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22).

He said, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. What’s so special about them such that Jesus says, “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not overcome it” (Mt. 16:18)? They have the gift of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of the same Spirit. God’s Name will be made holy through men and even through means. Ezekiel told us this last week when he said, through you the Lord will vindicate His holiness (Eze. 36:23).

What the Apostles had to wait for, for 50 agonizing days of fretting over life and death, you gained when your parents brought you to the baptismal font, that is to the means of the Spirit; the way that the Spirit works in this world. Please remember. you have been bought and paid for, redeemed for a price. Yet, instead of being in debt, your Redeemer has made you a lord, in Him.

Your castle is His Body, the Church. Your throne is His throne, there in heaven, and here at His Altar on earth. He has given you His life in order that you always seek to be a remain members of His hidden Church by sincere faith in Him. 

He has sent you His Spirit so that you would remain faithful to His revealed Church, or denomination, which professes and teaches all the Bible’s doctrine purely and administers the Sacraments according to Christ’s institution. He has loved you in order that you avoid false teachers, false churches, and all organizations that promote a religion contrary to God’s Word.

Jesus has granted you such a perfect and complete measure of peace that you are able to cooperate with Him to maintain and extend God’s Church by telling others about Jesus Christ, personal service, and by prayer and financial support.

Such is the power of a Church of Pentecost, which this place is. The Epiphany, revealed, Church Who celebrates Christ’s Mass.  The power to remain hidden and yet be revealed at the same time. The power to face life-threatening peril, suffer from it, and yet live again. The fire of the first Pentecost lives on but now burns in water, Word, and Body and Blood. 

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Our Lord has gone ahead to conquer death and the devil and He will return to get us. He has left us His true Body as a promise that where we are, HE is. And that where His is and is going, that is to eternal life in heaven, we shall be also, even though today it looks like brick and mortar.

The Spirit Gift [Easter 7]

LISTEN AND WATCH HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE

• Ezekiel 36:22-28
• 1 Peter 4:7-11
• St. John 15:26-16:4

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

To you all, baptized into the death and resurrection of the true Son of God:  Grace, Mercy, and Peace are yours from God our Father, through our risen LORD and Savior, Jesus the Christ!

Who speaks to us today, saying,

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.”

So we have been building our understanding of the Holy Spirit. We call Him God because Holy Scripture calls Him God and the special work that He does is conversion; bringing a person from unbelief to belief. But now, after the Ascesion of Jesus, it must be done in a hidden way, for we no longer have the hem of Jesus’ cloak to grab onto.

We may have the Shroud of Turin, but good luck getting to touch that. No, any possibility we had keeping Jesus around as a sort of peddler of spiritual blessings passed out of sight as Jesus did on Ascension Day. St. Peter talks about gifts in his letter today and that we are to use them. He also jumps right in and describes two gifts and promptly puts them out of our reach.

He tells us to speak oracles of God and serve by the strength of God (v.11). This here, along with the speaking in tongues gift, are the quintessential apex of gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to so-called Evangelicals today. The main reason is, well it happened at Pentecost, so why can’t it happen to us all the time? The sub-reason is, the Holy Ghost is a spirit and we can’t see Him, so you can’t tell me that He’s not doing this or that or He is only doing this or that. How dare you cage Him.

There are so many wondrous and miraculous things that happen in our world that could only be caused by the Holy Ghost, they say, and if we turn a blind eye to all these things and make ourselves so narrow-minded, then we will miss God’s beautiful actions in all of life. 

They will then go on to describe all the “miracles” in life: the birth of a child, love, kindness, relationships, etc, and say that this is the Spirit’s work. You know, the normal, everyday things that believers and unbelievers can experience. Very vague and not very convincing.

Well then, they will teach, our encounters with the Holy Spirit vary from person to person. Our experiences might be emotional or non-emotional. We may or may not speak in tongues. Sometimes there is a physical manifestation and other times there is not. But the real evidence of being filled by the Spirit is not an experience. The real evidence is the spiritual fruit produced in our lives. You will know them by their fruit, after all (Mt. 7:16).

The fruit described in Gal. 5:22-23, yes, but also from Eph. 5:18-21, “…Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

So, now the evidence that we are filled with the Holy Spirit becomes Our speech, our singing, our thankfulness, and our submission. Our, our, our, me, me, me, my, my, my. 

This is the sound of just about every teacher. Every one, that claims to be Christian and know the truth about God’s Spirit. And what I hope you conclude by hearing from them is that it turns out to not be about the Holy Spirit at all, but about you. No God. No Jesus. No Spirit. They gave us a little boost up, thank you Jesus, but now we are on our own. Me!

Here Jesus condemns us in our sin. He says in verse 26 of the Gospel today that the Spirit of Truth will bear witness about Him. Not you. Not your neighbor. Jesus. Do not mishear me. I am not saying that the fruits of the Spirit in your life is not real or are meaningless. What we are talking about here is priority. Is it a priority to focus on us or is it a priority to focus on Jesus?

Focusing on us, we get nothing. Maybe a little satisfaction from being a good person, but that quickly fades in our sin. Focusing on Jesus and the Holy Spirit gives us everything, because everything is in their hands only. So while we express our faith by speech, singing, thanking, and submitting to God, we do not gain life-sustaining faith by these gifts neither are they evidence of the Spirit’s presence.

So our teaching and preaching focus solely on Who gives the gifts, because He is God and He works to convert us, daily. We know that after being converted and given faith that “…we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). We also know that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). The conclusion is that faith is the greatest gift of the Holy Ghost and proof that He is present.

But faith is invisible, how do we tell if we have the right faith? It is true that the Apostles had some serious gifts, back in the day. They were healing people, speaking in tongues, raising people from the dead, just like Jesus. The Bible clearly teaches that those were the gifts used to prove Apostleship, as St. Paul says, “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience” (2 Cor. 12:12). Those were not for all times and places.

So while the Holy Spirit may hand those out today if He chooses, not every Christian is promised one. Indeed, I believe only one of two things happen when a person truly receives one of those gifts from the Spirit. Either they keep it quiet out of fear or they actually go out into the world where it can be of use, but also keeping quiet about it. This is because a real gift is useful, not flashy and scary, not exciting.

There is a gift that every Christian is promised though. We have already mentioned it. It is faith. There is also a way for every Christian to tell if his faith is real faith or worthless faith, simply hearing God’s Word and believing it. All of it, not just the bits and pieces about divine gifts and charity to others, but the parts that say “Baptism now saves you” and “given and shed for you”.

Here now are the three most precious gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to all Christians all the time: faith in Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and eternal life. Where is the proof we have these? In the Sacraments. No other indisputable proof is given to any other gift of the Spirit, by God. And fruits are not gifts, but responses. 

No the indisputable truth must be found outside of ourselves. If we are to say that its only in our hearts, there is no way any one else would believe us. This is the importance of the Holy Spirit being God and of Him alone doing the work of conversion. It makes the Sacraments that much more valuable, especially when facing our sinful hearts which are turned against God constantly.

We need an objective gift. We need a gift we can point to that doesn’t depend on us or our efforts. We need a gift that is built on the Rock and not on sand. A gift that withstands even the gates of hell. The Word and the Sacraments, administered in the Church, are that gift that the Word of God suffered and died to purchase and win, for you.

Now, instead of only welling up from inside of you, the Baptismal Font which saved you by water and the Word, stands outside of you; a pillar in your church. Now, instead of God speaking only to your heart and no one else’s, His Word is written down and spreads to all people. Instead of a private meal for a private party of two, God’s Sacrament of the Altar is communed in many places at once.

Proof that the Spirit is among you is the Gospel preached in its purity and the Sacraments administered according to it. I did not make this up. The LCMS did not make this up. The pope did not make this up. God did. These are the things that bear witness to Jesus, with or without our bumbling sinful selves. These gifts of the Spirit are able to convert all people and bring them to salvation in Christ Jesus.

In order to keep you from falling away, Christ has sent His Spirit to give you faith, plant you in His Church, and urge you on to the gifts He gives. Remember these things that Jesus has told to you, for your hour has come to wake up. The Day of Salvation is nearer to us now, than when we first believed (Rom. 13:11). Jesus is coming soon. Come quickly Lord Jesus. 

Spirit Works [Easter 6]

LISTEN AND WATCH HERE.


READINGS:

• Numbers 21:4-9
• James 1:22-27
• St. John 16:23-30

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

To you all, baptized into the death and resurrection of the true Son of God:  Grace, Mercy, and Peace are yours from God our Father, through our risen LORD and Savior, Jesus the Christ!

Who speaks to you pure doctrine today, in v.27 of the Gospel saying,

“…for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”

Last week, Jesus introduced the Helper and the Spirit of Truth to us. We Biblically concluded that He was talking about the Holy Spirit and that this Holy Spirit is God having divine names, possessing divine attributes, doing divine works, and receiving divine glory. Jesus also hinted at the works that the Spirit will be doing. That they will be Jesus’ works and Jesus’ words.

Today, we are going to determine just what that work of the Holy Spirit is, for Jesus is talking about prayer today and while there are physical words and body language going on during prayer, most of the action is spiritual. Plus, we have our Lord telling us that it is the Spirit Who translates our prayers for us in Romans 8:26, “…the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

We call the special work of the Holy Spirit sanctification, as 1 Cor. 6:11 says, “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” We also may refer to this work as conversion. This is an important equivocation because conversion is something that must happen first. An external action. A truth that must be a priori.

A priori is a fancy latin phrase meaning “from what is before”. It is used to refer to knowledge, judgments, and principles which are true without verification or testing. You don’t have to prove blue is a color or that 2 + 2 = 4. It is simply a part of the reality we live in; how the world, how the universe works. Testing, experience, and logical verification are not needed. This knowledge is just known.

One of the biggest arguments against Christianity is that we rely on an unprovable, a priori statement of faith, namely that God exists. The atheists will often argue that so-called "a priori concepts" are little more than baseless assertions — and merely asserting that something exists doesn't mean that it does. Just because we can imagine that God exists, doesn’t make it true. For example, we do imagine plenty of mythical creatures, like dragons, without actually encountering one. Does that mean that dragons must exist simply because we think it? Of course not.

Coming back to our topic, we don’t just dismiss this argument. We can point out that everybody works with a priori statements. The very fact that the atheist can argue and do it rationally, proves that he assumes rational, logic thinking on the part of people and a rational, logical world to operate in. So, a priori statements are not wrong to have, though there are wrong a priori statements.

One of these wrong beliefs is that we need to give permission and allow God be a part of our lives and invite Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. This is not a biblically true statement of faith. We do not first choose God. God first chooses us. When we rob God of this a priori event, we rob ourselves of any semblance of saving faith.

What does Scripture say? Jesus tells us that our sinful minds are hostile towards God (Rom. 8:7). He tells you that you are dead in your sins (Eph. 2:1). You need the Holy Spirit to begin and sustain faith in you because “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).

So there is a chasm fixed between belief and unbelief, because of sin so that no one may go from unbelief to belief or from belief to unbelief, on his own, as Jesus describes in the rich man and Lazarus. Since this is also the path between life and death, God is able to go from one point to another, not that He believes or doesn’t believe on one side or the other, but that He is able to retrieve you from your unbelief by His Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the God-man that crosses that chasm, bringing life and immortality to light. He descends into the lowest parts of hell, even to before Adam and Eve, to bring them and you out of your sin and death. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He blazed the path and sent His Spirit to give the fruits of His work to all people.

The Holy Spirit does not work through man’s choice, but at the Father and the Son’s choice. He makes the first move and calls you by the Gospel and invites and draws you to partake of the spiritual blessings that are yours in Christ, through faith. It is the Gospel that “is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). This invitation does not invite us to chose, it invites us to believe that we have already been chosen, already been invited, by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:13).

This is because the Gospel has already been accomplished for all people and planned for us before the foundation of the earth (Eph. 1:4). Every single person that has heard it, does hear it, and will hear it, ever, hear and receive a full and complete gift of forgiveness that they may trust, rejoice, and find comfort in.

This is why, when we pray as Jesus tells us today, we pray in Jesus’ Name. All things in heaven and on earth have been given to Jesus. There is nothing that exists that is outside that claim, even saving faith. The Way, the Truth, and the Life are all His. You say “to God be all the glory” and this is how God gets all the glory. You do not have the slightest hand in your conversion from unbelief to belief. If you did, then you would have saved yourself and Christ died for nothing.

The holy, precious, innocent Blood of Jesus was not shed for nothing. It has purchased and won this conversion, this sanctification, this regeneration for you. For, “no one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6), Jesus says and “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless one is born of water and the Spirit” (Jn 3:5). So it is only through the crucifixion of Christ that we receive any means or possibility of salvation.

And it is only the Holy Spirit Who utilizes these means and brings them to you, free of charge. Word and Sacrament are the mode of operation of the Holy spirit. Jesus prays for those who will believe through the Apostles’ preaching of the Gospel (Jn. 17:20) because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). 

You have been born again through the living and enduring Word (1 Pet 1:23) and you were saved through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Word and Sacrament are the physical means that the spiritual Holy Spirit gives to save you. There is no doubt or question what they are doing here, in His Church. 

There is no “did He mean it” or “was I sincere enough” or “is this really for me” stuff. You can wrestle with those question, and you will, but the Word stands firm and by Himself. though you may want to interfere or pay Him back, the Holy Spirit does His work regardless. 

At the Lord’s command, the bronze serpent was set on a pole and when people looked at it, the Holy Spirit healed them as was promised. At the Lord’s command, the Word is preached and there are hearers. And those hearers who look in the mirror and find a sinner saved by grace are moved by the Spirit to be a hearer and a doer of the Word.

At the Lord’s command we pray to the Father, but because the Holy Spirit has first done His work in us, converting us daily from our sin into new life with God. We would never find God. We would never do good works. We would never decide to follow Jesus. What comes first is the Father’s salvation. What comes first is the work of Christ. What comes first is the sanctification and conversion from the Holy Spirit.

Holy Ghost, Holy Person [Easter 5]

WATCH AND LISTEN HERE.

READINGS:
     Isaiah 12:1-16
     James 1:16-21
     St. John 16:5-15

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

To you all, baptized into the death and resurrection of the true Son of God:  Grace, Mercy, and Peace are yours from God our Father, through our risen LORD and Savior, Jesus the Christ!

Who speaks to us today, saying,

“But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’”

As we begin to move towards the end of the Easter season, God will focus our attention upon the Helper and Spirit of Truth, through our Gospel readings. Helper because we approach the long season of waiting between today and when Jesus returns. Spirit of Truth because we will need constant reminders of our Lord’s Resurrection in those days in between, which He will bring us.

You may think that we don’t talk about the Holy Ghost as often as we should, but that is not completely true. It is true that we live life under the assumption of the Holy ghost. that is, that we can go about our lives under the grace and justification of Christ only if the Holy ghost is present. If He is not present, then not only our lives, but faith and forgiveness disappear as well.

So it is that our Holy ghost is both essential and humble, content with acting “behind the scenes” as it were, or as a breath of wind, as His Name suggests. This is how He is first introduced to us in Moses’ book of Genesis. In the second verse of the entire Bible, the Lord tells us that “…the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

Interestingly, He is only called the Holy Spirit 3 times in the OT. The first is in Psalm 51:11, which we are very familiar with, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” And the second and third are in the 63 chapter of Isaiah, coming right after a prophesy about Jesus, saying, “But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them” (v.10) and “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit” (v.11).

In the rest of the Old Testament its one or another iteration of names with the word “spirit” in it. The Spirit of the Lord, spirit of God, spirit of justice, or just the Spirit. In all cases, the Holy Spirit has been around since the beginning and is God, just as the Son and the Father are God, also.

We call Him God, not on our own, but because this is how the Word of God presents Him to us. We hear that the Holy Spirit has divine names, or is called God, in Acts 5: “Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…You have not lied to man but to God.’”

And 1 Cor. 3:16 asks us, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?”

He also has attributes that are unique to God alone. The Spirit is omnipresent as Psalm 139 says, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me” (v.7-10)

He is also omnipotent as Jesus says in Acts 1: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). He is Omniscient, “The Spirit searches all things” (1 Cor. 2:10) and Eternal, “…Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God” (Heb. 9:14).

He also creates all things (Gen. 1:2), even us, and sanctifies us (Titus 3:5). So it is that we call Him God and thank God He is God, because it is in the Name of the Holy Spirit that Jesus commands us to be baptized into (Matt. 28:19). If we did not baptize in the Name of God, then Baptism would be just as useless as everyone wants us to believe it is.

Again, all this God-talk about spirits is fine and dandy for the philosopher and the theologian, but what does it all mean, especially when Jesus tells us today in the Gospel that The Spirit will guide us into all truth. The hard part is that He is a spirit. I can’t see spirits. I’m pretty sure you can’t see spirits. So how do you find someone you can’t see? You listen.

In Luke 4 (v.14-21), Jesus gives us a pretty big hint. It is there that Jesus is back in Nazareth and He is once again doing good works, teaching, and preaching in the Synagogue, as He will declare to His false accusers on Good Friday (John 18:20). He is reading God’s Word spoken through Isaiah. God is reading His own words to people. Please let that stick in your memories.

It is there that the Lord says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Is 61:1) or the Spirit of the Lord is “in” me. Jesus then goes on to double down His assertion that the Spirit is with Him saying, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk. 4:21). Now, since the people of Israel have been waiting so long for God to come and act and they have spent millions of hours trying to figure out how the Spirit of God was going to come to them, they rejoiced, right?

Yes, indeed. They rejoiced by being filled with wrath, rising up, and driving Him out of the town in order to bring Him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw Him down that cliff (Lk. 4:28-29).

Repent. The Holy Spirit presents Himself in such obvious ways and in your sin you reject Him. As we talked about Gideon last week, he too witnessed the Holy Spirit when he called down dew from heaven to wet a fleece, so that he would see and believe the Word. “I will be like the dew to Israel” says the Lord in Hosea 14:5. 

“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the Lord have created it” (Is 45:8). Jesus is God’s righteousness for us (1 /cor. 1:30). 

“In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which He will be called: the Lord is our righteousness” (Jer 33:16). Just as the rain falls, so is the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Helper, the Spirit of Truth and it is our sin that blinds us to this fact.

We can not see spirits, but we can see Jesus. Jesus says that the Holy Ghost will glorify Him and speak what He spoke. Just as Jesus spoke His own words to His own people at Nazareth, so too is the Holy Spirit going to speak the same words as Jesus. 

the Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Jesus, Who is the Truth. There is no question that, if you seek the Spirit, you must first find Jesus, and if you seek Jesus, He must first find you. God the Holy Spirit is inextricably attached to God the Father and God the Son. The Spirit is in no other place than where the Father and the Son are, as He proceeds from the Father and the Son.

The Spirit does not speak on His own. The Spirit does not act on His own. Whatever Jesus has said and accomplished is what the Holy Spirit will be preaching and teaching. This is why we can say that the preached Gospel of Christ produces Faith and saves a sinner from his own sin, death, and the devil, because the Spirit is working and He works through means.

The Spirit is God. He reveals the Father and the Son with the same means that the Son reveals the Father and Himself: through the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Christ. The dew that rains down from heaven is the Holy Spirit conceiving Jesus, our Righteousness. The dew that is made flesh then dwells among us.

By that same power, we are made into the dew of God, being baptized into water (dew) and the Word. Mich 5:7 says, “Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man” (Micah 5:7).

And Isaiah prophesying about the Day of the Lord saying, “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead” (Is. 26:19).

The Holy Spirit comes even without our prayers, just as Jesus came at the time and place of His choosing, which was the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4). He is God, as the Son is, so He chooses to work through means, just as He fed Israel in the wilderness, “And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground” (Ex. 16:14), so does He today feed us Righteousness in Bread and Wine in Church.

St. Peter tells us that “you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Pet 4:14). Not only does the Spirit receive the honor and glory due to God alone, but in Christ, you also are a recipient of this honor. Indeed, the length Jesus went to redeem you and sanctify you makes Jesus comment that “you are gods”. He goes on: “If He (God) called them gods to whom the Word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— do you say of Him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” (Jn 10:34-36)

In these last days, we are in the Age of the Church. The Age of the Spirit is the age of the Church where the Gospel preached in its purity and the Sacraments administered according to it are the true marks of the Holy Spirit’s presence and He does not work outside these things that are the Father’s and the Son’s.