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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaertner Fifth Sunday of Easter “Guided in the Truth” This sermon was prepared with the help of resources from Concordia Publishing House. Today we hear the words of promise for the future of the church that Jesus gave to his disciples. Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Jesus promised his disciples the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit is to guide us to the truth. The Holy Spirit works faith in believers not through some secret unrevealed truth. The early church had to struggle with heretics that would propose to have received some secret teaching from one of the apostles. But the church was able to discern truth from lie because the Holy Spirit had been at work revealing the truth. The Holy Spirit had not worked in a secret backroom of knowledge sort of way. So when a person arose teaching something new his teaching could be measured against the external words of Holy Scripture. We can have absolute certainty of the truth of the work of Jesus Christ. We are led by the Spirit into truth. Jesus promised the spirit for this purpose. The Scriptures are the inspired Word of God that bring us to Jesus. The Scriptures are not merely filled with facts, history, or handbook. The Spirit works through the Scriptures to make us a new creation in Christ by faith. 2 Peter 1:21, “No prophecy is an act of the human will but by being carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Faith comes by hearing. The Spirit works through us as we bring the word of God to lives of others. The consequence of not knowing the truth is to be under the influence of the Father of life instead of the Spirit of Truth. Jesus told a crowd that was struggling with his call to faith, “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” (John 8:43-44) Paul wrote to the Romans about the dangers of abandoning faith in God saying, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their heart to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” ( The consequence of not knowing the truth is to be guided into a lie. Consider would you be better off with an accountant than when asked, “How much is 2+2?” answered, “How much do you want it to be?” In fact the consequence of living without the truth is deadly. Revelation 21:8 includes liars in a very dangerous list, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” The Spirit testifies to the truth. He is the Spirit of truth. The Spirit begins upon our hearts with the truth of guilt and sin. The Father of Lies would seek that we either deny or excuse sin. We have faith that as we examine our sin and our unrighteousness honestly we deserve the fire and sulfur. But thanks be to God that the Spirit of Truth has come to glorify Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Spirit speaks to the necessity of knowing Christ. We all are sinners in this world. In this church and outside of these walls no one can stand upon his own righteousness. We need Christ. 1 John 5 states, “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 Jn 5:10-12) The Holy Spirit as guide sets us free from the truth of our sin. Jesus said, “If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) Faith in the truth of Jesus Christ as savior from sin brings us escape from the Father of Lies. The Holy Spirit guides us to live godly lives. Jesus said, “Whoever does what is truth comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.” (John 3:21) But we are reminded that are deeds in the end will reveal themselves, 1 John 2:4, “Whoever says, “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that are in him.” The Spirit of Truth guides us to keep the commandments of the Lord with sincerity and honesty instead of with fright and compulsion. The Spirit of Truth gives us the power to speak the truth. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” (Eph. 4:14-15) When we look back to the work of the early church as they maintained the truth of Christ as savior I am confident it was the Spirit of Truth at work. Heresies will rise up in every generation. Whether we are just a generation after Jesus and the apostles or if we are 2000 years after the apostles we stand firm in the truth of Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, is at work through the external Words of Holy Scripture. You can be confident that by faith in Jesus Christ as your savior from sin you are set free. Soli Deo Gloria |
