Date : LWML Sunday, October 2, 2011
Text : Luke 12:8-12
Title : Being with Jesus—living on the edge
This being the first Sunday in October, we have a special order of service provided by the LWML—the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. The theme, as seen on the front cover, is "Being with Jesus—living on the edge." With that, we have a special text for the sermon, from Luke chapter twelve, where Jesus says: "And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
The Lord almost makes it sound like a person can get away with bad-mouthing Him, misusing His name, and all sorts of sinful shenanigans, but one can’t get away with the same thing when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Indeed, Jesus’ name is the one that folks—including Christians—take in vain, more than any name, of any person, in the history of the world, yet no one, when frustrated, is ever heard to mutter, "Well, Holy Spirit."
In this sense, the Holy Spirit, and the Lord Jesus, work differently in the life of the believer. Jesus is the person of the Trinity, who became a human being; the Holy Spirit remains an unseen spirit. Jesus died for the sins of the world, and rose in victory, and ascended to glory; the Holy Spirit inspired men to write the Bible so that we would know about these events.
Jesus is the Savior; the Holy Spirit points us to Jesus so that people can be saved. Without the Holy Spirit pointing a person to Jesus, he will remain pointed in the wrong direction. In First Corinthians, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write as much, that the natural man cannot understand the things of God because they are spiritually discerned. In other words, one has to possess the Holy Spirit to be able to understand the Bible. Without the Holy Spirit living in one’s heart, the Bible is seen to be a book filled with fairy tales and myths.
The person without the Holy Spirit can read the Bible. He can learn about Jesus. But, without the Holy Spirit, the Jesus of the Bible will not be God of God and Light of Light, the second person of the Trinity, whose death on the cross was a bloody sacrifice of atonement. No, to the person without the Holy Spirit, Jesus will be no more than a man, a very good man, a man from whom we can learn how to live the Golden Rule and love each other.
Even for you, who possess the Holy Spirit, you have the ability to mess up what the Bible teaches about Jesus, who is the Word of God. Plenty of Christians have a defect in this doctrine, and that teaching twisted. That’s why we have Lutherans and Catholics and Methodists and so forth: we can’t agree on what the Word of God says about Jesus Christ. Because we disagree, we go our separate ways. Yet, though we declare the other denominations to teach some things in error, and they declare the same thing about us, none of us declare that the others are not Christians.
So, as the Lord Jesus declared in our sermon text, we Christians can speak a word against Him, and we can be forgiven. We can be forgiven because we can repent. We can repent because the Holy Spirit lives in us, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives us faith in Jesus Christ, who brings us into, and keeps us in, the family of the heavenly Father, and who pricks our hearts with guilt so that we repent of our sins.
We can speak about Jesus and repent, when we possess the Holy Spirit. But, the Lord Jesus says that we can’t speak against the Holy Spirit and repent. Why? To speak against the Holy Spirit is to reject Him. To reject Him is to eject Him. If a person blasphemes the Holy Spirit, the person without the Holy Spirit cannot believe in Jesus Christ; he cannot be saved.
How does anyone know that you, dear Christians, possess the Holy Spirit? Can anyone read your heart? No. How does anyone know about anything that you possess in your heart? How does anyone know that you enjoy this sport, or that food, or this hobby, or that movie? You tell them. It comes out of your mouth.
How does anyone know that you possess the Holy Spirit, whom you need to possess to be able to believe in Jesus Christ? You tell them. It comes out of your mouth.
How does it get into your mouth? Where does it begin? If you were baptized as an infant, it begins then. When your parents brought you to be baptized, you were spoken for. Have you taken note how, in our hymnal, the sponsor speaks for the baptized, but the pastor is actually asking the questions of the baptized? The infant cannot speak for himself, so the adult sponsor speaks, but it is the one being baptized who makes the confession of faith.
It works the same way, with spiritual things, as it does with physical things. Infants cannot speak for themselves when it comes to their desire to eat this food, or wear those clothes, or receive a certain inoculation. Mom takes baby for the shot, and dad chooses the jar of baby food, and grandma picks out the outfit—all on behalf of the infant, who cannot do a thing for himself.
So it goes with spiritual things. The infant cannot say, "I want to be baptized." The parents know what is good for their child, spiritually, just as they know what is good for their child, physically. Thus, the parents bring their child to be baptized, and the sponsor speaks up for the child.
The child grows up. He can speak for himself. He can choose his food, and pick out his clothes, and scream about going to the doctor for another shot. He has a will of his own.
The baptized child has a will, too—the will of God the Father, through faith in Jesus Christ—because the Holy Spirit lives in him. How will anyone know that the Holy Spirit lives in him? The same way they will know that he likes this food and these clothes, and that he hates getting shots. The child will speak about Jesus. The child will be in worship. The child will be taught the things about Jesus, so that he can grow up in all godly wisdom.
As you Christians grow, and have grown, you confess your faith before men. Your public worship is the best way that you do that, joining your voice with the voices of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Here, where you were baptized and, here, where you confessed your faith at your confirmation, is where you continue to make the good confession that Jesus is your Savior. You do it when you confess your sins. You do it when you confess one of the creeds. You do it when singing the hymns. You do it when coming to Communion.
Confessing Jesus Christ as your Savior, Jesus promises that He confesses you to the angels of God. That’s another way of saying that He is confessing your name in heaven—that you are known to God the Father as one who belongs to His Son.
These are marvelous promises, which Jesus is making to you. He is promising that you will always be known as a child of God, and that, when you find yourself living on the edge, in a tough spot in life, needing the courage and faith to stand up, stand up for Him, the Holy Spirit will see you through—He will give you the words to be able to stand up for Jesus.
As Jesus Christ defended you from your sins by dying for you, so He defends you from your sins by living for you. Both His death and His resurrection are His gifts to you. His Holy Spirit is His gift to you. Everything from Jesus Christ is gift, is good, is for your benefit.
I’m sure you know the saying: if you don’t use it, you lose it. Does this apply to the gifts which Jesus has given to you? Experience teaches us that it does. For you, who are weak in your faith in Christ, who aren’t crazy about confessing your faith in worship, who are seldom heard to stand up for Jesus anywhere that isn’t church, your Lord Jesus has given these words for warning.
For all who claim to be Christians, to be members of this congregation, who rarely or never are caught confessing Christ in worship, who think they can belong to Christ without ever confessing Christ, the Lord Jesus has given these words as a most stern warning. He expects all, who claim to be Christian, to be confessing His Name in church and in the world. If anyone expects his name to be confessed by Christ, before the angels of God, then those people had better be confessing Christ while they still have breath in their lungs.
That’s the stern Law: if you don’t, He won’t. Here is the lovely Gospel: as you do, He does.
Being with Jesus means living on the edge, and He is holding onto you for dear life. That’s His promise.
How do you know that He is trustworthy? How do you know that He is, indeed, confessing your name before the angels of God, so that you have a spot in the family of His Father? How can you believe that your sins are forgiven, that you are saved from death and possess eternal life? How are you able to trust that Christmas and Good Friday and Easter and Ascension achieved what the Word of God says they achieved in the life and death and resurrection and ascension of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ?
The Holy Spirit is your teacher. The Holy Spirit is your wisdom. The Holy Spirit is your counselor. The Holy Spirit is your comforter. The Holy Spirit gives you faith. The Holy Spirit defends your faith.
The Holy Spirit gives you the peace of God, which passes all understanding, so that you have confidence to confess Jesus Christ as your God and Savior. He teaches you, He washes you, He feeds you upon Jesus Christ, all of your life, so that you can make the good confession here on earth, which you will continue to make there in heaven, in the presence of the angels of God. Amen.