Sermon - Exaudi - John 15:26-16:4

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! On Thursday, the 40th day of Easter, we celebrated the Ascension, when the resurrected Christ ascended from earth to heaven. We rejoiced together recognizing that since Jesus ascended to heaven, He now reigns over all the earth through His means of grace. Today, the Sunday after the ascension, we hear the words of Christ who encourages us in this life even though we no longer see Him in the flesh among us. Jesus ascended in order to send us the Holy Spirit who comforts us with the truth while we suffer from the fiery trial.

Jesus said “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” Helper seems to be a weak translation, the more traditional term comforter seems to be more accurate and really gets to the heart of what the Holy Spirit is doing. The Holy Spirit is comforting us, not just helping, but comforting in a time of trial. This is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit: to comfort us.

When we talk about comfort, I suppose a number of things first come to your mind. The world talks about comfort almost exclusively in terms of physical and temporal comfort. So we have high calorie comfort food, like grilled cheese sandwiches, Mac n Cheese, chocolate, and ice cream. Or we have comfort blankets, with special weights in them to make it feel like you’re being cuddled. Or we have comfort dogs trained to lay their head on your lap and pretend to feel sorry for you. 

Seriously, whenever we want to help people, the first thing that comes to our mind is a physical help. So if someone is hungry, we want to feed them; if someone is hurt, we want to give them medicine; if someone is sad, we want to give them flowers. All of these comforts are nice things, but truthfully they are all secondary to the comfort which the Holy Spirit brings.

If we eat a lot of the comfort food it will make us fat and clog our arteries. The comfort blanket could suffocate us in our sleep. And many people are allergic to dogs or are simply afraid of them. Furthermore, the comfort these physical things bring is temporary. Food is digested, blankets deteriorate, and dogs eventually die. So the comfort which the Holy Spirit brings is eternal, it’s everlasting, and it applies to all people.

For the comfort which the Holy Spirit brings is the “witness about” Jesus. The comfort found in the church is one formed by words. This comfort is of a much higher caliber in terms of effectiveness. For this comfort declares that Christ was born for you, sanctifying all pregnancies and births, and giving your birth value since God Himself was born into your flesh. This comfort declares that Jesus in His earthly ministry not only healed all ailments but soothed people’s consciences. This comfort proclaims that Christ’s crucifixion is for you, paying the wages of your sin, and dying alongside of you so that you’re not alone in death. This comfort relates Christ’s resurrection to you so that when you face your’s and other’s deaths, you are reminded that Christ has risen and so you too shall rise; death is transient. This comfort says that since Christ has ascended to heaven, so shall we ascend to heaven and live in perfect harmony with God and each other. This comfort is given to you in the form of words.

Even though we behave as if physical comforts are more important than mental comforts, I think deep down we still recognize that emotional turmoil is worse than physical turmoil. Of course it’s terrible to suffer physically, I’m not denying that, but to suffer in your conscience or your mind can be far worse.

Consider these scenarios, which would be worse? To have your loved one injured in a car accident and no longer have use of their body, but mentally they are as sharp as a tack. They remember you, they can talk to you, tell you they love you, but they’re a paraplegic. Or, through a mentally degenerative disease, they have full use of their body, but they don’t remember you, can’t have a conversation with you, and can’t tell you they love you. Which is worse? I’m sure you’d probably say the second is worse.

We live in our minds for the most part, and even without the use of our bodies, we are still pretty much who we are. To suffer from depression or another mental illness can be far more debilitating than losing a limb but still enjoying life. When Jesus says, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.” He’s not concerned about the physical problems His apostles will encounter, which will be many, He’s concerned with them falling away from the faith. He’s concerned with their consciences. He’s concerned with your conscience as well.

So what has Jesus sent to help comfort and console your conscience? He told His apostles: “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the apostles so that they would be able to bear witness about Jesus without faltering and without error. The eyewitness of the apostles has been recorded in Holy Scripture, written in the Bible. This book has been written to comfort and console our troubled consciences.

Jesus has instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry so that His Word, the Word that witnesses of Jesus, would be proclaimed in order to comfort troubled consciences with the truth of the Gospel. So when I preach on Sunday mornings, I’m not going to be preaching about earthly matters to make you more financially successful or to help you become a better you. I’m not going to have sermon series on 10 steps to a better marriage or preach about how great moms are on mother’s day. While those things are nice and may be helpful in some situations, God has given pastors His Word to preach which terrifies sinners with the law and comforts sinners with the gospel. The sermon is all about Christ for you.

That is why the entire divine service is filled with scripture. Each Sunday the divine service isn’t just filled with feelgood hymns and readings, but is carefully formulated to comfort you with the truth of the gospel. The divine service is jam-packed with the comfort of the gospel to console you in every time of adversity. 

Don’t think that you will get through life without a time of adversity, when doubts will weigh you down. “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.” For the martyrs, this fiery trial was meant quite literally as they were burned at the stake. But even if you’re not burned at the stake, fiery trials will still assault your conscience and cause you to despair of your faith.

These trials will come, if they haven’t already, and they will burn through your heart like a raging fire. Satan employs these trials in order to lead you astray, to cause your heart to doubt, to make you despair of God’s goodness. When that fiery trial comes, mac n cheese, fuzzy socks, and a comfort dog won’t do you any good. Even if they make you feel good for a moment while you momentarily forget the fire, they’ll soon be gone and your doubts will flare up more than before.

The only comfort available to you at that time is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ for you. St. Peter comforts us when we face the fiery trial, saying “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”

In your suffering and pain, whether physical or emotional, you can rejoice because you’re sharing in Christ’s sufferings. When Satan persecutes you and makes you suffer, know that he is making you suffer because you belong to Jesus, and rejoice that you belong to Christ! When you suffer, let those pains direct you to the sufferings of Jesus. Remember that Christ has paid for your all of your iniquity in His horrifying agony. Although the pains of this life are horrible, know that the joys of heaven will be many times more profound than this life.

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit upon you in the waters of baptism. He has sprinkled you with clean water so that you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses. Maybe your fiery trial is the guilt or shame of some terrible thing you’ve done or which has happened to you, so now find comfort in your baptism which has doused that flame and washed away your impurity. 

Jesus has given you a new heart and has placed a new spirit within you, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father and the Son: the Holy Spirit. The Spirit removes your heart of stony unbelief and replaces it with a living and believing heart of flesh. In the waters of Holy Baptism, when you received the Holy Spirit, God the Father said to you: “You shall be my people, and I will be your God.” Those are the words of truth the Spirit of comfort speaks to you today. 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” Let the words of the gospel of truth be ever on our mind and on our lips, so that we ourselves would be comforted and those around us would be comforted by the same Comforter.  Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!