John 14:25-27 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
The Day of Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021 “Connected by the Counselor”
I wonder what it would have been like to see it. I find myself saying that about a lot of different accounts in the Bible, and that certainly includes the one we heard earlier about what happened on that unique Pentecost. There in Jerusalem, crowded with pilgrims and celebrations, were the twelve disciples of Jesus. They had done what he told them and remained in Jerusalem after he had ascended into heaven. They were probably still unsure about how long they would need to wait. They were probably a little uneasy about things. And suddenly it all happened. There was a sound like a rushing wind. There were tongues of fire that came upon them. And it wasn’t just inside the house. There was a commotion. There were people all over Jerusalem who heard and noticed and wondered and looked into what was going on. And when they saw and heard exactly what was going on, they were even more surprised. What was going on was that ordinary men from Galilee were speaking the languages of those people from all over the world. People were amazed. People were perplexed. People made up strange excuses, like drunkenness, to explain away what they were hearing and seeing. And then Peter told them exactly what was happening. God had poured out his Holy Spirit on his people in a unique and special way. And it was a sight to behold. It was a sound to hear. It was an event to experience. I can try, but I am not sure that I can really even imagine what it would have been like. And when many people think of the work of the Holy Spirit, that’s the picture that comes to mind. It’s winds and flames of fire and speaking in tongues. It’s unusual and exciting and obvious. But that’s not always how the Holy Spirit operates. He always has exciting things to accomplish, but he doesn’t always accomplish them in such exciting ways. His work is often much less obvious. There was only one Pentecost that was quite like this, and very few other times when we know the Holy Spirit’s coming was connected to obvious outward signs. We don’t have an expectation that our worship service today will end up like that Pentecost, but we do have an expectation that the Holy Spirit is here and he is working and he is active. We don’t expect rushing winds or flames of fire or speaking in tongues, but we do expect the blessings of the Holy Spirit. We do expect him to be at work making connections in us. And we expect it because Jesus promised it, not just to those twelve, but to all whom he has chosen. And so we go back even further than that Pentecost celebration. We find the day, depending on how exactly you count it, about 53 days earlier when Jesus was with his disciples in the upper room. It was a much calmer evening at that point. They celebrated the Passover. They listened to Jesus teach, and they heard his warnings and his promises. They heard the words of Jesus from John 14 that are in front of us now, the special promise of a Counselor. They heard how they would be connected by the Counselor to everything that Jesus taught. Counselor is a unique name or title for the Holy Spirit. The Greek word is “Paraclete,” which you may have come across in some translations. It refers to an encourager or comforter or helper. And the Holy Spirit certainly does all those things. As Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit would be sent out by the Father in Christ’s name. His job would be to teach and to remind. He would teach these men to truly understand what Jesus had been teaching them and to remind them of everything he said. And they needed it. Remember that when Jesus was about to ascend into heaven, the disciples asked him about restoring an earthly kingdom to the Jewish people. They needed help putting it all together.
They needed the Holy Spirit to teach them all the implications of the life and work of Jesus. They needed the Holy Spirit to change them from timid followers of Jesus anxiously waiting for what God promised into bold confessors of the truth. And just as they did, we also need those reminders. We need to have the Holy Spirit work in our hearts to overcome our doubts and fears and misunderstandings. We need his strength to move us to apply our faith to our lives, to live as Christians, to do as God has called us to do. We need the Holy Spirit because we remain sinners. We needed him in the first place to call us out of unbelief to faith. We confess and will today, that we “cannot by [our] own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me…enlightened me…sanctified me.” Like the dry bones of Ezekiel’s valley, the Holy Spirit breathes into us his breath of life. He gives us Jesus. What does the Holy Spirit teach? What does he remind us of? He teaches us about the perfect life of Jesus that he lived to take our place. He teaches us about his innocent death because he was taking on the punishment for our sins. He teaches us about Christ’s glorious resurrection which guarantees that we will rise to live with him forever. The Holy Spirit gives us Jesus and his teaching and his preaching and his examples of service. He connects us so closely to Jesus that his love is in us and flows from us to others. And since we have Jesus, we have peace. It is no coincidence that immediately after promising the Holy Spirit to his disciples, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid.” When we are connected to Jesus, we are connected to the peace that he gives. And that is an amazing and wonderful peace. Jesus does not promise an end to wars and violence. He does not guarantee an earthly peace. He gives us spiritual peace, peace with God. Apart from Jesus, we couldn’t possibly know our relationship status with God. We could try hard to please him. We could do our best and hope that is all that God asks for, like a parent or grandparent admiring the handiwork of a two-year-old. But we would be left to worry about every sin. Can God overlook it? Can God forgive it? Can I do enough good things to make up for it? And we would be tormented in the knowledge that we fall short of perfection, and often we fall obviously short of perfection. That’s the opposite of peace with God. Peace with God is what Jesus has earned, and the Holy Spirit delivers it to us by creating faith in our hearts. And, no, that does not always or even often look like the spectacle that was Pentecost. It looks like water being poured or splashed onto the head of a child, who in just days has shown himself or herself to be an enemy of God and dead in sin. It looks like a wafer of bread and a sip of wine that by God’s power carries with it the true body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for us to eat and to drink. It looks like us gathering together to be fed with the Word of life and to sing our praises and recount the works of our Lord. And the Holy Spirit works through the Gospel message, the good news of Jesus, to give us the peace of Jesus. It fills our hearts for all those times when the world and temptations around us encourage us to despair or give up or doubt. I do wonder what it would have been like to have been in Jerusalem on that Pentecost. I wonder how it would compare to my imagination as I read the account in Acts. I likewise wonder what it will be like when I get to heaven, see Jesus as he truly is and feel perfection for the first time. I can never go back in time to see Pentecost, but I know what my future holds. I know what God has promised to me, just as he has to you. His Holy Spirit has connected us to Jesus and all he taught and so he has connected us to the peace that Jesus gives. Do not let your heart be troubled. Do not be afraid. Rejoice.