"The Holy Spirit brings a message that cannot be found anywhere: You are forgiven!" Exaudi 2025

01. June 2025

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John 15:26–16:4

But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. (Jn 15:26–16:4).

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Jesus warns the disciples—and you too—that there will come a time when anyone who kills you will think he’s doing God a favor. Why? Because they hated Jesus without cause first! Jesus understands that everyone wants to exclude Him because they wish to reside in their own little synagogue or church, in their own little la-la land. They want to discuss love, but not His love. They desire peace, but not His peace. They aim to be happy and content, but not in Him, rather in themselves.

And Jesus, meanwhile, knows there is a particular hatred deeply ingrained in their hearts, and it's the one that will ultimately affect the disciples and everyone else who hears today's Gospel lesson. It ultimately comes down to what is happening today in the Christian Church. What's going on isn’t just that the Holy Spirit is coming; it’s why the Spirit is coming and the way the Holy Spirit is arriving.

Jesus promises the Holy Spirit because no one wants Him. Everyone in the world, of the flesh, is going to sideline, diminish, or eliminate Jesus at any cost. Jesus says: “It's not just a couple of people, or it's not just the rulers of the synagogue who are doing this, but it's actually the world that's doing this.” (See Jn 15:18ff)

He’s not targeting a specific religion that holds this view. He’s not targeting a particular race. Jesus knows what He's up against, and He says it straight out: “I am up against the world right here. And I also know why they hate me. I know why the salvation of the world had to be fulfilled in this particular way, by the cross.”

So then, who is the Spirit that Jesus sends? Jesus calls him the Paraclete, the Advocate. This is a courtroom term meaning “defense attorney,” the one who defends you from prosecution. This is not just a nickname; this isn't your old pal, the Holy Spirit, over here. The Advocate refers to what the Holy Spirit does for you, which is the key aspect of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person who is genuinely doing something, helping you in your time of need. But what is your need?

You've got two problems. One is that other people hate you for what you say about Christ. The other is that you (the flesh) don’t like Christ either. Well, He says it: Because you are of the world, you hate Him. And now comes the Holy Spirit, who will be a helper, an advocate, a counselor, and a comforter to you, which is probably the most helpful for you.

Remember, especially in the Lutheran tradition, we commonly refer to the Gospel as a source of comfort for our conscience, working within us. Before the comfort of the Gospel, our conscience is troubled. You have a troubled conscience, and that troubled conscience now faces a problem it can't resolve and cannot overcome.

But the Holy Spirit comes to truly comfort the conscience, which is otherwise consuming itself and cannot find freedom. It desires to be free. It longs to be happy. Yet, it struggles to achieve this. Then, the Holy Spirit arrives. The Holy Spirit understands that your issue is not that you have a dream but cannot quite reach it, or you know what brings you happiness but cannot obtain enough of it, or any of the other reasons people feel they fall short in life of their true desires.

The real issue is that the Holy Spirit understands He needs to overcome your hatred for Jesus. This is what truly needs to happen to you and to everyone. This is the comfort the Holy Spirit must provide. You will not experience the comfort of a true and certain conscience until you truly and certainly understand what Jesus Christ is saying to you. And for that, in comes the Holy Spirit.

Not only does He raise Jesus on the third day, and ascend on the fortieth day, but you also have the fifty days until Pentecost. Next week, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, He will tell you what Jesus thinks of you. That's what He's doing. That's what the coming of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, is all about. And that's the only way He can bring comfort to an otherwise troubled conscience, a conscience that's constantly aware of its problem with Jesus, and suspects that Jesus has a problem with you. Now, the Holy Spirit will come to you and resolve that. He sends you a preacher so that He can wrap Himself in the preacher's words to comfort you.

The Holy Spirit has this purpose. He has something to accomplish, and that is to come to you in the present in a specific way—the way of a preacher using the Word. That is the essence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to do something new for you that has never happened before. He takes what has already been spoken by Christ and then declares it to you now. And only in Christ’s Word do you have true freedom, hope, and peace.

The Holy Spirit does not fabricate anything. He will only declare to you what Christ has already said. He will take what is Christ's and give it to you. Like an older brother who takes from his younger brother, the Holy Spirit has come to take what belongs to Jesus so He can give it to you. But of course, this is what Jesus desires and what the Holy Spirit has come to do for you. Everything that the Father says about Jesus, the Holy Spirit applies to you. 

And if He doesn't do this for you, you would still hate Jesus, you would still be of the world. You would be without comfort because the only thing left for you—why do you hate Christ? What did He do that was so problematic? Apart from Christ, the only thing left is the law. Just you and the law, sitting in your little church, talking about “love this” and “be at peace" and “cheer up" but without any Jesus. And that’s deadly.

Without the Holy Spirit giving you all that belongs to Jesus, without the Holy Spirit sending you a preacher, and without the Holy Spirit speaking a specific Word to you, you will look at Jesus and not just wonder what He thinks of you, or be uncertain about Him. You will actually hate Him because He is wildly, capriciously, and liberally forgiving sins, even of those you hate most.

Jesus does not represent the law. He fulfilled the law. And now He will not be telling you what the law says, but He shuts the mouth of every ugly accusation in your heart and forgives you. You may feel angry because you think you have done something deserving of an award from that law, simply because you believe you are loving. And so your flesh resents Jesus because you feel He has taken something from you. He has removed the law from your life.

But the Holy Spirit brings a new word and song, never heard before, a message that cannot be found anywhere else except from the mouth of His preacher, and it is specifically for you: You are forgiven. The Holy Spirit declares: You are forgiven. The Holy Spirit sets your conscience free from hating Jesus. The Holy Spirit liberates you from the law, so you don't have to worry about loving your neighbor, because now you know there's no reward in it for you. The same goes for loving God with your whole body, spirit, and mind. You don't have to stress about that anymore, either! The Spirit will work what is good, right, and true in you apart from the law.

That’s why the Holy Spirit sends a preacher. He forgives you and sets you free to love Christ, free from the law, free from fear about what the world will do to you when you talk about Jesus, and even free from the fear of death because here's the kicker: the Holy Spirit will raise your dead body because when He sees you, the baptized dead, He sees only Christ and cannot resist raising him, which means He cannot resist raising you.

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin