5.17.26

[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. Pastor Wolfmuller, you're listening to the Sunday Drive to Church podcast for exoti. [00:00:09] We have to ask Pastor Smith how to pronounce all these names. [00:00:14] I don't, I don't know. That's a lot. Exactly. The Sunday after the Ascension, the seventh Sunday and in some ways the last Sunday in the whole Easter season because next Sunday is Pentecost and then Trinity Sunday and then we're into the non festive half of the church year. This is a lot of churches will transfer ascension to today, but we had it on. Oh boy, what a glorious night. Thursday night, the ascension of our Lord, when he. [00:00:46] Well, he doesn't leave, he just enters into a new mode of presence. [00:00:51] So good he takes up his residency at the Father's Right hand, which is not a place, it's an office, like the Right hand man. [00:01:03] It's all of the execution of the responsibility and ability of the divine nature, which is now taken up by the person of Jesus. [00:01:16] So that as we talked about on Thursday, even the attributes of the divine nature now are communicated to his human nature through his person. This is so mysteriously wonderful to think about. He fills all things so that he's with us. [00:01:31] And that's really in some ways a continuation of what we're going to hear about today. But let's begin with a prayer. [00:01:38] O King of glory, Lord of hosts, uplifted in triumph, far above all heavens, leave us not without consolation, but send us the spirit of truth whom you promised from the Father. For you live and reign with him and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. [00:01:56] Amen. [00:01:58] Oh boy, look at our bulletin. Even hints at this promise of the Holy Spirit with this woodcut of Pentecost that's there. And that's what Jesus is going to say. We have John 15 again, John 15 and 16 again today with the promise of the Holy Spirit. And we'll remember that the Holy Spirit sent from heaven is connected to the ascension of Jesus from that mysterious John 7 passage. I still, I've been thinking about this passage for a solid 18 years. This is one of those mysteries that I stumbled across when I was a baby. Pastor, what is this little verse about? It's where Jesus at the feast says, those who believe in me, out of their hearts will flow rivers of living water. And he was speaking of the Spirit. But then John says, but the Spirit hadn't been given because Jesus had not yet ascended. [00:02:47] So that the, the giving of the Holy Spirit is connected to the ascension of Jesus. This is really Important. [00:02:56] Well, I know it's important. I don't know exactly why it's important. [00:02:59] Still trying to figure that out. Anyway, let's look at the text we got today. First, Psalm 51, King David's repentance. Remember, a year after his scandalous, disastrous adultery, murder, and all of the nonsense that. That King David accomplished in that particular season with Bathsheba and Uriah and all of this. And he thinks, okay, I got away with it. I'm gonna be fine. [00:03:27] Until Nathan, the prophet sent by God to deliver King David's soul, goes and preaches to him about. Remember he. He gives him the little parable of the poor man, the rich man who steals his poor neighbor's lamb and uses that lamb to feed a friend. And David is so enraged, he wants to murder the man. And Nathan says to him, you are the man. Look what you've done. [00:03:53] David is crushed. And part of that being crushed is Psalm 51. That's our entrance. Psalm, first 12 verses where David is crying out for mercy. He knows that his life and his standing before the judgment day and everything depends upon the Lord forgiving his sins. [00:04:15] And so he prays this most profound psalm. There are seven of these penitental Psalms. [00:04:23] Psalm 32 and 51 and 130. And I should know that whole list by heart, but I'm about to know it by looking it up. [00:04:33] Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143. [00:04:43] Do you know, my cheating thing for looking that up is on page 165 of the Old Lutheran hymnal. They've got a list of psalms for the Sundays and feasts. And those are the first seven psalms that they list for Ash Wednesday, which also happens to be the seven Penitental Psalms. Legend has it that St. Augustine had all seven of them written out on posters and hung on the wall in the room where he was dying. [00:05:10] Because these are the seven psalms where we're brought most deeply into that work of the Holy Spirit through the law and the Gospel, to show us our sin, to bring us to the end of ourselves, to show us our desperate need for the Lord's mercy, and then to show us that mercy and that forgiveness and that kindness that comes only from his suffering and death, that he puts away our sin. So Psalm 51. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your chesed, your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from My sin. I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. [00:05:55] Purge me and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice this prayer, for it's a threefold prayer for the Holy Spirit. [00:06:09] Create in me a clean heart. This is verse 10, and you'll recognize this from the offertory. We sing this every Sunday after the sermon. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. [00:06:23] Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy Spirit from me. [00:06:29] Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. [00:06:36] I think all three of those spirits should be capitalized. In other words, all three of those phrases are different ways of thinking about the Holy Spirit. [00:06:45] And we'll remember that the Holy Spirit makes us holy. He sanctifies us. [00:06:50] The right Spirit makes us upright, both in our thinking and our doing, according to God's law. And the free Spirit sets us free from fear of judgment and fear of man, and also makes us willing to serve God and to listen to his word. [00:07:11] So that right holy, willing Spirit we're praying for, and it's. [00:07:16] It's pretty profound that we're praying for the Spirit when the Lord is promising to give it. Which is really the theme that's running through the Old Testament lesson and the Gospel. So, old Testament, Ezekiel 36. [00:07:28] The Lord's blasting. Oh, boy, he's blasting away at the house of Israel. Remember, Ezekiel is the prophet of the Babylonian exile. One of them. [00:07:37] He's by the river of Babylon. And there they wept and remembered Zion. He was sent over to Babylon to preach to the people there. And the Lord says, okay, it's not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act. It's for my own sake, for my holy name, which you've profaned among the nations to which you came. I'll vindicate the holiness of my great name, that vindication. [00:08:02] I'm trying to track this thing down. Dr. Kleinig said something. I was talking to him last time. I don't know, maybe a year ago. You guys remember Dr. Kleinig, this greatest theologian alive in Australia? And he's. [00:08:15] He is onto something with vindication. He says we have to pay attention to vindication because it's the flip side of justification. [00:08:25] So justification is the forgiveness of sins. It's the declaration of righteousness on behalf of Christ. [00:08:32] Vindication is how the Lord shows himself to be right, especially in punishing the wicked. [00:08:41] It's kind of a clearing of charges. Justification is forgiveness for something that you have done. Vindication is proving that you didn't do anything wrong. So the Lord is vindicated. And it says here, I will vindicate the holiness of my great name. [00:08:59] Again, there's something more there that's good for us to think about. Verse 23. [00:09:04] Through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. [00:09:08] I'll take you from the nations and from all the countries and bring you into your own land. This is the regathering that happens all at the end of exile in 5:30 with the decree to return and Ezra and Nehemiah and that return that happens over and over until it culminates in Pentecost. [00:09:28] I will listen to this baptismal talk. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. I'll cleanse you and I'll give you a new heart and a new spirit within you. [00:09:42] And I'll remove that heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And verse 27. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my just decrees. We've been thinking about this for a couple of months now, since Easter, but it's over and over in the text. And this idea that we have to remember that the. That the Lord Jesus who died for us has sent his Holy Spirit to dwell in us, in each of us, so that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And together, as the Lord's people, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. [00:10:23] That's what Jesus says in John 15 and 16, skipping over. I'll come back to the epistle. Jesus says, when the helper comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he'll bear witness about me, and you will bear witness. [00:10:40] So the Spirit is sent from the Father to bear witness. And when the Spirit is bearing witness, we're also bearing witness. That word helper for the Spirit. There is that famous Greek word paraclete, which is hard to translate, but it means the one who stands beside us when we go to court to advocate on our behalf. [00:10:59] I. [00:11:01] You know, the way these ancient cities were. There was. [00:11:04] I mean, there was a. There were big cities, but they would have a central market. The Agora normally would have a big kind of open square. Maybe there'd be a temple on one side and something else on another side. All these Shops. And then there'd be the government palaces or the. The governmental. [00:11:28] Like a courthouse or something. And then there'd be a big, like, chair, like a. A stage almost, with a seat on it, a big throne that was a. Where the Roman ruler, the governor, would sit on that Bema seat. [00:11:45] You can see him in different ruins. We seen the Bema seat in Corinth where Paul stood, or the Bema seat in. [00:11:54] Where's the other be seat? In Philippi. You can see where it is. And the way it would work is these, you know, these guys like Pontius Pilate, you know, he's. [00:12:03] They. They gather to the Bema seat. He's got to go out there and he sits on the seat to hear the court. So I don't know, say you're. Say you got a shop on the agora and some. Some guy comes in and steals a bunch of dried dates or something. [00:12:18] And you grab him and you take him straight to the judge right there. You just drag him to the Bema seat and you say, this guy was stealing all my dried figs or whatever and say he wasn't. [00:12:33] And someone knew it and thought that you were just trying to get something from him. And they come along and they stand next to him and they argue on his behalf against you. [00:12:45] That person that stands there next and argues on their behalf, that's the paraclete. [00:12:50] That's the advocate. [00:12:52] That's the one who speaks well of them. [00:12:55] And the most beautiful Paraclete verse, it's interesting that the noun is not that many times in the Bible. The noun is maybe like five times or six times. [00:13:05] The verb is everywhere. It means to encourage, to support, to rebuke, to instruct, to par. Kaleo, to cry out, to call out. [00:13:15] But the noun, that kind of technical term, it's used just a few times. And the most beautiful is in first John, where John says, we have a paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. That means before the beam that this judgment seat of God, where we're being accused, we have one who rushes to our help to intercede for us. And it's none other than Jesus for you. This is Hebrews 7. He always lives to intercede for us. Romans 8, he prays for us. This is what Jesus is doing now. [00:13:50] Wow. Wow. [00:13:54] So we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And that paraclete in heaven says, I'm going to send you a paraclete on earth, the Holy Spirit. [00:14:03] So the Holy Spirit rushes to our side in our Conscience to speak of Christ and the things that he's done to remind us of all of these things so that we can also be comforted and justified, forgiven. [00:14:21] Now, this is important because as Jesus has indicated before and is about to indicate. I'm going to read you the verses. Is about to indicate again, things are not going to be easy. [00:14:33] He's going to the right hand of the Father and he's not taking us with him. Not yet. [00:14:37] I mean, our time will come. [00:14:40] Your time, my time will come. We'll be at the right hand of the Father soon enough. [00:14:44] But it's not yet. And in the not yet, it's going to be difficult. [00:14:50] That's why Jesus said, this is now John 16:1. I've said these things to you to keep you from falling away. We say, wait a minute, falling away? [00:14:59] Why do we need to be kept from falling away? Well, they'll put you out of the synagogue. The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he is offering service to God. What? [00:15:11] Hold on. [00:15:12] You read that and you're like, can I Hold on, Jesus? Let me just. You're telling me that the days are coming when the people who murder your disciples are going to think not just that it's not a bad thing, but not even just that it's a normal good thing, but that it's a special service to God to murder the Christians? [00:15:34] Yep. [00:15:35] That is what Jesus says. [00:15:38] And we see it in the. We see it in the martyrs. I mean, every martyr, those people who did the martyring were pretty sure they were doing a good work. [00:15:48] Poof. [00:15:51] They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. [00:15:55] But I have said these things to you that when the hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you. We have to do this remembering work. It is important that we do not forget that things that Jesus says, especially because he says them to us before the time comes when we need Him. [00:16:12] So in some ways, all these Bible passages that the Lord Jesus has given to us, we just have to tuck away because we're going to need them. I mean, maybe this afternoon or tonight or tomorrow or sometime this week, we're going to need it. So we're going to tuck it away. [00:16:28] The spirit of truth is coming. And he'll remind you of all the things that I said to you. [00:16:33] Okay, we skipped the epistle, which is from 1 Peter, chapter 4. Remembering Peter there in prison in Rome. Paul's gone to check out Spain. So Peter's writing back to the churches. Paul started to Support him. And he says, the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self controlled, sober minded for the sake of your prayers. That's interesting that our sobriety of mind is connected to our prayerfulness. Keep loving one another earnestly. Love covers a multitude of sins. [00:17:02] Show hospitality one another without grumbling. That word for hospitality is fellow kyrranase. Oh, boy. I better look that one up. [00:17:14] Well. What? I can't remember what I said before I paused it. I'm sure I got it wrong. I was looking at it this morning. I did a word study on all the times that this verb comes up in the New Testament. [00:17:25] So apparently how long I can remember things is five hours. [00:17:30] Old man. Pastor. Anyhow, Philo zenioi. [00:17:36] Philo xenoi. That's how to, I think, say it. Philo means to love. Like Philadelphia. That means love of brothers. But this is philo Zaniel. We say this for. For alien or stranger. [00:17:49] Xenophobia is just another. That's like fear of the stranger. [00:17:55] Racist, I guess. Xenophobic. We say this is not xenophobic. This is philo xeno. [00:18:02] This is to love the stranger. [00:18:05] That's amazing word there. [00:18:08] And Peter says, hey, you gotta be. The Christian is called to be a philozeno, a stranger lover. [00:18:18] We're not supposed to only love the people who are like us. [00:18:23] Show hospitality one another without grumbling as each has received a gift. Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. [00:18:34] The charis, the gifts of God are different. And he's given me different gifts than he's given to you. [00:18:40] And he's given to you different gifts than the person next to you in church. The Lord has dished out different gifts to all of us for different reasons. [00:18:50] Because he wants us to serve one another and bless one another with the gifts that he gives. [00:18:56] Whoever speaks is one who speaks the oracles of God. [00:18:59] Whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified, through Jesus Christ, to Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Look at that. [00:19:12] I'm just now noticing that thing here. I'm always talking about serving with the energy of God. And here's. This is exactly what Peter is saying. [00:19:22] Serve by the strength that God supplies. What that word strength is here, should probably serve this. Is this with God's strength. [00:19:39] As from. [00:19:41] As from the equipment of God. Strength from God's supply closet. [00:19:51] Now. Okay, sometimes you gotta. [00:19:56] Sometimes you don't think you've got the resources to serve. [00:20:00] Man, oh man, look at all these kids running around. Or look at all this work to do, or look at all this stuff. I mean, we look at our home and our work and our state and our world and our church. How can we do all this stuff? Well, we are not serving with our own strength. [00:20:25] At least we are not called to. [00:20:27] We are called to serve with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in everything through Jesus Christ, he has the glory and the dominion forever and ever. [00:20:40] That's a nice encouragement. [00:20:44] That is a nice encouragement. [00:20:46] Okay, so we'll talk about that in a few minutes. We have Bible class today still studying the Sermon on the Mount and oaths and instructions from our Lord Jesus. We've got the. [00:20:58] We've got the voters meeting after the late service today. Hope you'll be able to join us for that. We've got the harpsichord dedication recital coming up. [00:21:06] That'll be next Sunday, which will be really a beautiful, wonderful thing. [00:21:11] All these things are happening. Make sure to take a look at all the announcements that are there in the bulletin for you. We will see you soon. God's peace be with you. Bye. Bye.