LESSON: LUKE 24:44-49

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:25-26

If the Holy Spirit is to live up to His name, He cannot carry out His office anywhere else but where there is no counsel or comfort available and where such counsel and comfort is necessary and also desired. The Holy Spirit cannot comfort hard-headed men with frivolous hearts. Such men have never known any kind of inward struggle or tasted the bitter fruits of despair. They have never felt any particular need or spiritual distress, so the Holy Spirit has nothing to offer them. His office can be carried out only among the sorrowful, those in need of comfort, in hearts that are despairing.

But what is His work? To teach “all things” and bring matters to remembrance that men must know. Some have explained this as meaning that the Scriptures do not contain all that man must believe and do or leave undone. The Holy Spirit’s work is to teach many things that Christ did not teach. This is absolutely against the work of the Holy Spirt and even quite absurd.

Christ says quite clearly here: “He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you,” that is, “He will explain clearly what I am now telling you better than I am able to teach you with words. You will need no further words or explanations.”

Christ bases His Word on the testimony of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit’s work to bear witness to Christ, and this testimony of the Spirit lives in our hearts so that we understand it and believe it. Hence, if anyone teaches you something different about Christ, do not accept it as coming from the Holy Spirit.

SL 11:1029 (29-30)

PRAYER: Holy Spirit of God, give us a new mind to comprehend the loving purposes of our God and Father, a new heart ever to rejoice in them, and the perseverance which keeps us on the paths of Your will, in Christ’s name. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.

LESSON: EPHESIANS 4:25-32

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Galatians 5:25

There must always be a mixture or blending in us: we must feel both the Holy Spirit and our sin and imperfection. If there is to be improvement in us, we must resemble a sick person in the hands of a physician. Therefore, let no one conclude as follows: this person has the Holy Spirit; therefore, he or she must be quite strong; bring forth the most precious works and never show any signs of weakness. Not so! The Gospel is not a proclamation for everyone.

It is beyond measure a sweet proclamation, but if it encounters raw and acid hearts, it does not achieve its purpose. In this case, men become only more insolent and frivolous in the belief that there is really no need for them to struggle against sin. They have no real knowledge of sin or misfortune. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is given to no one but to those who are truly sorrowful because of their sins and who are afraid of the consequences. Among such people, the Gospel can go to work usefully and fruitfully.

The gift of the Gospel is such an exalted and noble gift that God does not throw it to dogs. Even if the latter come by chance upon the Gospel and hear it preached, they simply devour it without knowing what they are devouring. For successful work, the Holy Spirit must encounter hearts which feel and realize their sinful lusts, and which know that by nature they are in a hopeless situation. There must be a struggle in the heart if the Spirit is to come with His help. No one should imagine that things can take another course here.

SL 11:1027 (23)

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, You have implanted desires in our hearts so great that only You can bring them to pass. Strengthen us by Your Holy Spirit that we may successfully complete all that we have begun in Your name and in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.

LESSON: ROMANS 7:13-20

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. Romans 8:26

In connection with the Holy Spirit and His work, it is always necessary to maintain a certain reserve, so that we do not approach the Holy Spirit with an importunity that amounts to arrogance and a joyfulness that is almost levity.

Some people are so filled with the Spirit that they become secure and imagine themselves to be on the threshold of perfection. A pious Christian is still flesh and blood like other men, except that he deeply deplores his sin and evil lust. He has experiences which he would rather forget. Unbelievers take little account of sin and do not allow it to bother them unduly.

The important thing here is not merely the experience of evil lust and fighting against it. We must not allow our feelings and experience to determine the issue. We must not conclude that all is lost because we still feel our sins. We must keep on working at our sins every day of our lives and permit the Holy Spirit to continue His work in us. We must also have the earnest desire to get rid of our sins. This desire never ceases in believers.

Such sighs penetrate so deeply that they reach a level where they are beyond words (Romans 8:26). But they have a precious auditor, the Holy Spirit Himself. He can fully appreciate all this sighing and comfort the conscience from which it comes.

SL 11:1026 (21)

PRAYER: Hear our sighs, O Holy Spirit, Comforter and Counsellor, and keep working on us with Your purposes of grace and salvation, in and through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.

LESSON: PHILIPPIANS 3:12-16

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Philippians 3:12

We should learn to understand that a man who has received the Holy Spirit does not necessarily become a perfect Christian immediately, experiencing no further trouble from the Law or from sin. Nor is the Spirit’s presence always immediately evident from a spotless purity.

We do not teach that the Holy Spirit has already fully performed His office and completed it but simply that He has begun to carry out His office, that His work is beginning to run its course and continually developing without ceasing.

You will never find a single person who is without sin and sorrow, full of righteousness and joy, and so perfect that he is completely self-sufficient, serving everyone in perfect freedom. Scripture clearly tells us what the work and office of the Holy Spirit is, to save men from sin and its terrors, but that office is still not fully accomplished. Every Christian will at times feel sin in his heart and experience the terrors of death. He will be subject to all the assaults which assail other sinners.

Unbelievers are held so fast in their sins that they no longer feel them. Believers, however, do feel them, but they have a helper, the Holy Spirit, who comforts them and strengthens them. Had the Spirit completed His office, this would not be the case.

SL 11:1025 (19-20)

PRAYER: We beseech You, O Lord, to grant us the comforting presence and aid of Your Holy Spirit, that, whatever by His teaching we know to be our duty, we may by His grace and mercy be able to perform, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.

LESSON: MATTHEW 13:44-45

“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name … will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:26

You will know who the Holy Spirit is if you know why He was given and what His office is. He it is who applies the treasure of Christ and all that He has to us—Christ who is given to us and proclaimed to us through the Gospel. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to fix this treasure in our hearts as our very own possession.

When He has done this and you experience this treasure in your heart, it follows that you will have to ask yourself: If the real issue here is that your works count for nothing and that the Holy Spirit must work all this in you, why should you continue to flog yourself with works of the Law?

All human works and the Law are no longer of any significance here, not even the law of Moses, for a man who has the treasure of Christ in his heart is above all law. The Holy Spirit teaches him better than all books, so that he understands the Scripture better than we can explain it to him and of himself does all that God wants of him. The Law can make no demands on him. The only real use of books is that one can use them to demonstrate in what manner the Holy Spirit teaches men.

Our faith must never become a mere private matter which we keep to ourselves; it must burst forth. To establish and prove our faith, we must have Scripture. Take care, then, that you do not regard the Holy Spirit as a law-giver but as the one who abrogates the Law and sets men free, so that not a letter of it remains in force against you as far as your salvation is concerned.

SL 11:1025 (17-18)

PRAYER: Come Holy Spirit, Comforter and Counselor, with all Your gifts of grace in Christ and dwell in our hearts in such a way that we always have a confident assurance and remain free men, in and through Christ our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.

LESSON: EPHESIANS 2:19-22

“When the Counsellor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me.” John 15:26

In what way does the Holy Spirit change the heart and make it new? What means does He use to take hold of the heart? He does it by proclaiming and preaching the Lord Jesus Christ, as Christ Himself declares in John’s Gospel, “When the Counsellor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me.”

We have often heard that this Gospel, which God allows to be preached in the world and proclaimed to everyone, teaches that no one can become righteous before God through the Law, but that the Law only makes the situation worse for every man. Therefore, God sent His beloved Son into the world to die and shed His blood for the world and to demonstrate that men cannot destroy their sins and get rid of them by their own strength and works.

For the proclamation of this Gospel, something additional is needed. I do not necessarily believe this Gospel simply by hearing it preached. For this purpose, God has given us the additional gift of His Holy Spirit who impresses this Gospel upon our hearts, so that it sticks to the heart and lives in the heart. In the work of Christ, there is the whole treasure of salvation, but it is not necessarily distributed and applied.

If we are to enjoy this treasure, the Holy Spirit must come to us and put this treasure into our hearts and awaken faith in this treasure in our hearts so that it becomes our very own possession. This is the special work of the Holy Spirit.

SL. 11:1024 (15-16)

PRAYER: Almighty and merciful Lord, in the gifts of Your Holy Spirit You have given us a sure pledge that Christ’s work of salvation belongs to us. May Your Holy Spirit always continue to bear witness with our spirit that we are Your children and heirs of Your kingdom, in and through our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.

LESSON: JOHN 14:23-31

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2

On the day of Pentecost, when the disciples of Christ were all together in one place, the Holy Spirit came upon them and filled them. Before this joyful event, they sat in deep gloom, fear, and sorrow. The Spirit gave them cloven tongues of fire, enkindled them so that they became bold, preached freely in groups, and were afraid of nothing.

From all this, you see quite clearly that it is not the office of the Holy Spirit to write books or to set up laws but to abolish all this in the interests of freedom. The Holy Spirit is a God who does His writing in the heart, making it burn. He supplies a man with new courage so that he becomes joyful before God and begins to love Him and then serves his fellowman with a joyful heart.

To set forth the Holy Spirit in this light is to preach the Holy Spirit correctly. Do not believe anyone who sets forth the Spirit in a different light. If the Spirit comes in this way, you see that He annuls the letter of the Law and wants to free men from sins and the Law. Indeed, He wants to make it quite clear that we have no further use of the Law and that He rules inwardly in our hearts without the Law.

SL 11:1023 (14)

PRAYER: Renew our spirits by Your Holy Spirit, heavenly Father, and draw our hearts to Yourself in Him. Let us not serve You as slaves, with a spirit of bondage, but with freedom and gladness as Your true sons, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.

THE WEEK OF ASCENSION - SATURDAY

LESSON: 1 THESSALONIANS 1:2-10

“And you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.” John 15:27

“When you have become sure and certain through the Holy Spirit who has witnessed to you, then first and foremost you will bear witness to Me.”

This is Christ’s conviction about His disciples. He had, of course, chosen them as His apostles; they had heard His words and doctrine; they had seen His works and His life. All this would be very important to their proclamation of Christ. But, in addition, they still needed the witness of the Holy Spirit, or else they would achieve nothing.

Conscience is always too weak to offer effective resistance to sin. There is no sin so small that conscience can really stand up against it, even such a matter, for example, as laughing in church. Likewise, conscience can achieve very little when death assails us. We must look elsewhere for help to supply courage to a timid and despondent conscience, so that it never gives up, although it may be heavily laden with sins.

This needed help, like the One who promises it, must be almighty help so that the timid conscience, which beforehand was previously terrified by the sound of a driven leaf (Leviticus 26:36), is no longer afraid before all the devils of hell. And the conscience, which was previously so sensitive that it could not even endure laughter, is now quite able to stand up against any number of sins.

SL 11:997 (13)

PRAYER: Make us strong, bold, and brave confessors of our faith, heavenly Father, through the witness of the Counsellor, whom You and Your Son have promised to send us, in Jesus’ name and for His sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:244-254.