Whom the Father Will Send in My Name

In Nomine Iesu!

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon Text: St. John 14:23-31

“‘But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.’”

Prayer in Pulpit before Sermon:

Send, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, Thy Holy Spirit into our hearts, that He may rule and direct us according to Thy will, comfort us in all our temptations and afflictions, defend us from all error, and lead us into all truth, that we, being steadfast in the faith, may increase in love and all good works, and in the end obtain everlasting life; through + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior + Jesus Christ. Amen. 

My dear friends, the Lord God instructed the Prophet Moses to tell the people of Israel that they were to appear before Him—His tabernacle—three times a year. These were their high feasts. The Church historically also has had three high feasts. A fourth one was added within the last couple of centuries. The three high feasts that the Israelites had, where they were to appear before the Lord, were the Feast of Passover, which corresponds to our Good Friday and the Feast of the Resurrection. The second was the Feast of Pentecost, which we also celebrate today. The third was the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles, which has no ecclesiastical corollary that has been fulfilled, yet.

For the Church our three high feasts are the Feast of the Resurrection, the Feast of Pentecost, both of which have been mentioned, and the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord. This Feast has its corollary in the Feast of Dedication, which was an eight-day celebration of the re-dedication of the temple after it was defiled by the Greeks in the time of the Maccabees. That Feast of Dedication was called Chanukah; it has no resemblance to the Jewish celebration that bears the same name today. They do not celebrate it for the original purpose for which it was established. I suppose it is hard to celebrate a temple which does not exist.

The point I am making is that the Jewish high feasts have corollaries in the Christian Church. What they celebrated finds fulfillment within the Christian Church. The Feast of the Passover celebrated the day the Lord God delivered the Israelites from the bondage of the Egyptians, and led them out into the wilderness. Our Feast of the Resurrection is preceded by the crucifixion and death of our dear Lord + Jesus, the Christ. He is the very Paschal Lamb that was offered for the atonement of the sins of the whole world. He led us, all those who cling to Him in faith, out of the bondage to sin and death. We were enslaved to Satan, and our Lord + Jesus freed us from His rule and authority. We are now free to follow Him wherever He leads us. 

He led the Israelites out into the wilderness to Mount Sinai. There He gave them the Law, the Ten Commandments. These Commandments, literally, “Ten Words,” of our Lord God, declared them to be His people. He was now their God, and they were His people. The Feast of Pentecost was celebrated by the people of Israel fifty days after the celebration of the Feast of Passover. Historically, this fifty days after the first Passover occurred at the time when the Lord God gave His Ten Commandments. They were at Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments fifty days after they were delivered from the Egyptians. They were declared to be the Lord God’s people fifty days after He rescued them from the Egyptians with great signs and wonders. 

The future generations of the people of Israel, especially the men, were to appear before the Lord God, both at the Feast of Passover, where they celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread, from which arose the Lord’s Supper, and they were to appear before the Lord fifty days later at the Feast of Passover to celebrate the first fruits of their planting. This feast for the Jews became a thanksgiving to the Lord God for a successful planting. The first fruits from the planting were a sign that the Lord God granted His blessing to the people of Israel. 

The Apostles were in the Upper Room on this Feast Day waiting as the Lord + Jesus had instructed them. On this day, the Church was gifted with the out-pouring of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost declares to the people of the whole world—“Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judaea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, and the rest of the world—that the Lord + Jesus, the Christ, is the only Savior of the world. He makes all those who cling in faith to the works and merits of the Christ that they are His people. He has suffered and died for them, so that they may be called the sons of God.

The out-pouring of the Holy Ghost on that first Pentecost—the tongues of flame upon the heads of the Apostles, and the three thousand men which were baptized and joined the Church that day—were the first fruits of the Church. They were the first fruits of those who believed on the resurrection of the Lord + Jesus, and clung in faith to Him as the Messiah. The Lord + Jesus is called the First Fruits from the dead. He was the One Who led the way out of the grave, for all those who cling in faith to Him. Now all those who in faith believe on the resurrection of the dead are also His fruits. He is the Vine and we are the branches, which our Lord + Jesus tells His Apostles in the section immediately after the Gospel reading for today from the Apostle and Evangelist St. John. 

This is why we celebrate this Feast of Pentecost today. On it the Holy Ghost was given. The original Pentecost, that is, fifty days, celebrated the giving of the Law of the Lord God. It was a yoke and burden which the people of Israel could not carry. Today, the Church celebrates that the Holy Ghost is given, who declares to us the truth that the Lord + Jesus has freed us from this yoke and burden, by taking it upon Himself. He bore the burden which we are unable to bear. The Holy Ghost declares this to us through the pure preaching of the Word of the Lord God. St. Peter, and the other Apostles, on the first Pentecost began speaking in the tongues, that is, in the languages, of all those countries listed in the Gospel reading, and mentioned earlier in the sermon. The proclaimed the mighty works of the Lord God. The mightiest work of the Lord God is the salvation that our Lord + Jesus won for us upon the tree of the holy cross. 

The Holy Ghost also works through the means of grace that our Lord + Jesus Himself instituted—Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. He gave us His true and substantial Body and Blood in, with, and under bread and wine for the remission of sins on the night before His crucifixion and death. The meal which we eat is the same Body and Blood which He offered for as a once and for all time sacrifice upon the tree of the holy cross. By it the Holy Ghost creates faith in us to know and believe that in this meal we receive forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation.

Our Lord + Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Holy Baptism on the day of His Ascension. Just before He took His place at the right hand of the heavenly Father, He sent the Apostles out into all the world to preach the pure Gospel, and baptize all nations, teaching them all things that He taught them. The Holy Ghost is the One Who accomplishes this for the Church, sending those who have been broken by the Law of God into our midst so that they may hear the Gospel of our Lord’s suffering and death as an atonement for their sins. The Church today, continues to proclaim the mighty works of the Lord God. We continue to proclaim in this place that we are the first fruits of the dead, for our Lord + Jesus has destroyed death and the grave and opened unto us the gates of everlasting life. Not because of any worthiness in us, but purely out of His great grace and mercy. 

This is why the Holy Ghost was sent to the Church, to be a Comforter. He came to be our Paraclete, the One Who comes to our aid. He aids us as we wander in this wilderness of the world, until we reach the Promised Land of heaven. As the Lord God led the Israelites for forty years in the wilderness, for a full generation, the Holy Ghost, by the means of grace, leads the people of the Lord God—the Church—through this evil generation to our home in heaven.

And this is the corollary to the third high feast of the people of Israel, the Feast of Booths. For that Feast celebrated the final harvest. The feat of Pentecost celebrated the first fruits of the planting, the Feast of Booths celebrated the fruits gathered at the end of the season, at the harvest. This corresponds to the Last Day, when the plants of the Lord God will be harvested and taken into the barn of the Lord. The Holy Ghost preserves us in the one, true faith, until our Lord + Jesus comes again at the end of the world, on the Last Day, to take us from this wilderness wandering—this vale of tears—to our eternal home in heaven. These are the mighty works of the Lord God. 

He rescues us from sin and death, leads us into an eternal home in heaven. It is the Holy Ghost, Who has been sent by the heavenly Father in the Name of the Lord + Jesus, to lead us into all the truth. The truth is that we have a Savior in the Lord + Jesus alone. He has suffered and died to atone for our sins. He has fulfilled the Law of God which we were unable to fulfill, so that His righteousness is bestowed upon us through our faith in Him. Here in the Church, the Holy Ghost continues to be given to us poor, miserable sinners, so that we are led into contrition over our sins, and into faith knowing that our sins have been paid for by the Christ, our Lord + Jesus. Here in the Church, the Holy Ghost creates, strengthens, and preserves this faith which He created through the means of grace. All so that we may find ourselves in our eternal home in heaven.

Therefore, my dear friends, let us this day celebrate with singing and praise this Feast Day. For the Holy Ghost has been poured out upon us by the means of grace, so that we cling in faith to our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. It is a great cause for celebration, for we hear and see the mighty works of our Lord God. He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. He has led us out of slavery to sin and death, into the freedom of life and immortality. Let us praise Him and give Him thanks that He has saved us by the works of the Lord + Jesus, and that He continues to preserve and strengthen our faith through the works of the Holy Ghost. May we remain steadfast in the faith until we reach the end of our wilderness wanderings in our Promised Land of heaven. In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Prayer in Pulpit after Sermon:

Almighty God, be pleased to accompany Thy Word with Thy Holy Spirit and grant that Thy Word would increase faith in us; bring into the Way of Truth all such as have erred; turn the hearts of the unrepentant; and for sake of Thy Name grant succor to all heavy hearts and those who are heavy-laden, that they may through the mercy of the Lord + Jesus Christ be relieved and preserved so that they succumb not to the temptation of despair but rather that they gain the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil; through the same + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with the Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

The Votum:

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!