Sermon - Pentecost 2019 - John 14:23-31

Happy birthday! Pentecost is rightly considered one of the chief holy feast days of the year, for today we celebrate the birth of the church. When Christ, by the authority of the Father, through the Holy Spirit, established His church on earth. Jesus makes this abundantly clear when He says, “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.” This home our Savior speaks of is the church here on earth, where the whole divine majesty of the Trinity dwells with us and we with Him. Thus today when we celebrate pentecost and the sending of the Holy Spirit, we would do well to consider in our sermon today who belongs to the church, where the church is to be found, and what the great treasure is of belonging to this church.

So if I were to ask you who belongs to the church, how would you answer? I don’t just mean our local congregations, but who belongs to THE CHURCH? Who belongs to the one holy catholic and apostolic church? Some might answer and say those who are on the roster are members. Others might say that whoever attends is a member of the church. Others might say all the baptized or all who call themselves Christians.

But Jesus answers the question when He says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word...and we will come to him and make our home with him.” To belong to the church is more than just attending, it’s more than just giving money or having your name on the roster, it’s more than being confirmed, it’s more than hearing the word, it’s even more than being baptized; the one who belongs to the church keeps the Word. 

Oh but here you might be tempted to disagree with Jesus! I thought faith was all you needed! Well you’re right, but the two are the same thing. Christ sent the Holy Spirit into your hearts, He now creates faith in you. This faith which the Holy Spirit imparts is like a fire within our breasts, melting away our hearts of stone and filling us with the fear of sin and the love of Christ. This love of Christ consists not only of empty vain words, but a living power that manifests itself in deeds and actions. Through this faith given to you, the Holy Spirit has empowered you to keep Christ’s Word. 

If this weren’t clear enough, Jesus continues by saying, “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” The one who lacks faith and fails to keep Christ’s Word, is not a temple of the Holy Spirit, and does not belong to the church.

Make no mistake here, Jesus is being very clear. It’s not just heathens, and Jews, and Mohammedans who don’t belong to the church, but also those who are in churches but fail to love Christ and keep His Word. 

For example, there are many things you might find in a building which aren’t the building, you’ll find furniture and adornments and even trash, but all of those things are NOT the building. So here in our churches on earth you will find people who have always been there, for generations and generations, yet are without faith, and like furniture they’re not the church. Or you might find people who do such kind and generous things, but are without faith, and are as such, like an adornment. Or you might even find people in churches without faith who live disgusting unchristian lives, and are like a blemish in a building. 

Christ likens the church unto a field of wheat into which have been sown many weeds. The wheat and the weeds grow up together, and at times the weeds are even more beautifully adorned and stronger than the wheat, at times you begin to think the weeds are wheat! The weeds and wheat are watered with the same word, together are growing in the same rich fertile soil, both have the same sun from heaven shining on them, and yet, at the end, the weeds are not wheat. The wheat is carried into the bin and the weeds are thrown into the flames. 

Be warned therefore, my brothers and sisters, just because you appear in church or have been baptized or are on the rolls, that doesn’t make you part of the church. Only faith in Christ which keeps hold of His holy Word will bring you into the grain bin of heaven, the true Christian church, instead of the weed fires of hell. 

Today on Pentecost, I feel it is my obligation to encourage you not to be so secure just because you’re in a church. Let us instead examine ourselves earnestly to see if we love Christ and keep His Word. Where we’ve failed, let us repent, so that with repentant hearts we may return to our true home with God who makes His home with us poor miserable sinners.

But now we come upon our second question. Since we know that the church on earth is mixed with believers and unbelievers alike, and that the true members are known only unto God, we might wonder how we will find the church, since it seems to be invisible. So where is the church on earth? What are its marks, its characteristic identifiers? 

Thankfully for us our Savior answers that question again in our text, saying, “The word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 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.” Even though Christ has ascended unto the right hand of the Father in heaven, He comforts us by sending the Holy Spirit and giving us something which is part and parcel to His church: His Word!

Our Lutheran forefathers wrote in the Augsburg Confession against Rome and other sects and fanatics, where the church is to be found, they said, “Our churches teach that the one holy Church is to remain forever. The Church is the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered.” If you want to find the church, then Christ explicitly says where to look: His Word!

See, this is a problem today. We assume that where we see numerical or financial success, we also see the good thing. So many today are drawn to churches with large numbers, assuming that this large church must be THE CHURCH, just because it’s big. Meanwhile, they’ve neglected to discern if God’s Word is being taught in its purity and the sacraments are being administered according to Christ’s institution. You may find lots of people and many chairs, but unless the Word and the Sacraments are being purely preached and administered, I’m sorry to say it’s not the church, it’s just a bunch of people who might coincidentally hear the Word of God elsewhere and belong to the church.

I urge you, whether it’s our church or you move and look for a new church, listen and discern whether the Word is being purely preached and the sacraments properly administered or not. It might be big, it might be small, it might be filled with white people or black people or any color in-between, in might be near to your home, it might be far away, but the only thing that matters is that Christ’s word and sacraments are being purely delivered. 

Because where the Word is, there is the church. Like our Lord said in Isaiah, “So shall my Word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” 

Now finally, since we know who belongs to the church, and where the church is to be found, we need to ask the obvious question: Why do I want to belong to the church? What treasures does it give to me? What are its benefits?

Jesus says it so beautifully and simply, I love this, “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.” Peace. In the church you have peace. Around us today the world is filled with war, fighting, arguing, diseases, shootings, jealousy, power struggles, sexual perversion, crumbling families, storms, poverty, and strife. The world around us is anything but peaceful. When the world does claim to have found peace, it’s always apart from God, and always results in more strife.

I will admit that Christ offers peace, but not worldly security though. See, belonging to the church isn’t going to make you wealthy or successful or give you great honor or a happier life or an exemption to suffering and shame and poverty and death. Anyone who says your life will be better because you’re a Christian is either just lying to you or trying to sell you something, usually both.

No, the one thing that the Church gives to you, the one treasure Christianity offers, is peace. Peace with God, your creator, because Christ Jesus died to forgive your sins and gain for you eternal salvation, eternal peace. There’s a reason gravestones have the acronym RIP on them, Rest In Peace, because through Christ we are given peace. We’re declared righteous in the sight of the Father. He looks at us as His dearly beloved children whom He desires to live in His mansion with Him forever. This peace is an inner peace of the heart, a sweet, blessed conviction that we have nothing to fear, no wants or needs, because all has been fulfilled in Christ, and we have everything to hope for in eternity.