Pentecost Sunday

June 8, 2025

John 14:23-27

Because He Lives— Christ Sends Us His Spirit!

23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (NIV1984)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Have you ever heard anyone say, “I’m spiritual but not religious”? Whenever I hear someone say something like that I always wonder, What does that mean? Back in February of 2023 a study was done which focused on what people mean when they say, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” Twenty-two percent of the people who took that survey— and about thirty percent of those between the ages of eighteen and thirty— have adopted the “spiritual but not religious” label.

According to what I found on Google, “For those who are not Christians, being spiritual but not religious might mean that they believe in the spiritual parts of life— like the soul— but do not follow any religion as defined by the various belief systems. These people do not follow Christ or Muhammad or Buddha, but they want to experience their own ‘transcendent’ spiritual journey, so they are ‘spiritual’ in a New Age way.”

The article continues, “Many people— inside and outside of Christianity— presume religion comes with dogmas, doctrines, and rituals while spirituality is more about the heart, feelings, and experiences. Religious is seen as cold, passionless, and even dead. Spirituality, though, is welcoming, passionate and bursting with life.”

While this may or may not be at the heart of why someone might say, “I am spiritual but not religious,” it is definitely not what the Bible teaches. It is definitely not the relationship that our crucified, risen and ascended Lord has established with us, His disciples! Today as we conclude our sermon series entitled Because He Lives let’s see how the Festival of Pentecost fills us with the confidence of knowing: Because He Lives— Christ Sends Us His Spirit!

Our text for today begins with the words, “Jesus replied.” What was Jesus “replying” to? In the verses immediately preceding our text we learn that Jesus was replying to a question from the apostle Judas (not Judas Iscariot). After once again telling His disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me,” Judas asked, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Considering the circumstances there in the Upper Room, that was a very relevant question! Jesus’ disciples did not yet fully understand some of the powerful truths Jesus proclaimed there in the Upper Room. Judas’ question, therefore, gave Jesus another opportunity to speak to His disciples about how He would deal with people after His ascension into heaven. Specifically, Jesus assured His disciples that even after He was no longer visibly present on this earth, their connection to God would always remain strong when their connection to God centers on their connection to God’s Word. That’s why the Lord said to His disciples— and He says to us!— “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

There are two key words here. The first key word is the verb that is translated as “love.” Not surprisingly this is the verb form of agape. Agape love is the unconditional love that Jesus has for us. Agape love is the self-sacrificing love that led Jesus to willingly suffer and die on the cross to take away our sins. Agape love is the unconditional self-sacrificing love that we are to have for Jesus! (Pointing to the cross)

How do we know if our heart is filled with agape love for Jesus? The Lord Himself tells us that one way to gauge our agape love for Him is to examine our relationship to His Word. Our agape love for Jesus leads us to “obey” His Word. That is the second key word we want to look at. The word that is translated here as “obey” not only means, “to keep, observe, obey,” but it also can be translated as “pay attention to, keep under guard.”

Think about what that means, my friends. When someone has agape love for Jesus that will lead them to “pay attention to” His Word and “keep it under guard.” That in turn will lead the heavenly Father to show His agape love for that person by “coming” to them and “making his home” with them. Does that sound “cold” and “impersonal” to you? Not at all! It sounds very much like what people say they are looking for today: a relationship with God that is “welcoming, passionate and bursting with life”!

Note how closely Jesus links together Himself, His Father, and His Word with how the Father and the Son live in our hearts. God makes His home in our heart through His Word. We demonstrate our agape love for God by “paying attention to” God’s Word, by “keeping” God’s Word “under guard” in our own hearts and in our own lives.

On the flip side of that very same coin, a lack of agape love for Jesus results in not “obeying” His Word, not “paying attention to” His Word, not “keeping His Word under guard.” Tragically, when someone rejects Jesus and His Word they also reject the Father. As Jesus clearly points out, “These words you hear are not my own, they belong to the Father who sent me.”

Now look at verses twenty-five and twenty-six of our text. Jesus continues, “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

These verses “connect the dots” between our sermon text for today and the fact that we are here in God’s house to celebrate the Festival of God the Holy Spirit, also known as, the Festival of Pentecost. Note how Jesus promises His disciples that after He ascends home to heaven, the heavenly Father will send Jesus’ disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit— which we heard about in our reading from Acts chapter two. Note how Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as “the Counselor.” The word that is translated as “the Counselor” can also be translated as “the Comforter,” or as “the Helper,” or as “the Intercessor.” It is the word “Paraclete.” Very literally, this word pictures someone who “”calls us to their side.” Note also that Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Counselor, the Paraclete will do two things for Jesus’ disciples.

First, Jesus promises His disciples that the Holy Spirit will “teach you all things.” Second, Jesus promises His disciples that the Holy Spirit would “remind” them of “everything” Jesus had said to them. We cannot underestimate how important this was for Jesus’ disciples! For three years these men heard Jesus teaching and preaching the Truths of God’s holy Word. Humanly speaking, it would have been impossible for Jesus’ disciples to “remember” everything Jesus had said over the course of those three years— accurately! That’s why Jesus’ disciples needed the gift of the Holy Spirit! Without the Holy Spirit’s help, without the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, the disciples would have struggled— at best!— to give to us an accurate record Jesus’ life and ministry!

Jesus’ promise that the Holy Spirit would both “teach” the disciples everything God wanted them to know and “remind” them of everything Jesus had said is what gives us the confidence of knowing that the Bible is the holy, inspired, inerrant Word of our God. This is why we disagree with anyone who tries to claim that the Bible is old-fashioned and outdated. This is why we disagree with anyone who says that the Bible is irrelevant to what is going on in our “modern-day” world! This is why we disagree with anyone who tries to dismiss the parts of the Bible that they don’t like by saying, “Jesus never even talked about that issue!” Jesus’ promise that the Holy Spirit would “teach” Jesus’ disciples “all things” and “remind” His disciples of everything our Lord had said means that we can have the same confidence concerning what Paul wrote concerning God’s design for marriage as we have for what John wrote in John 3:16 concerning God’s love for this world!

When we stop to think about it, it is truly astonishing how Jesus’ promise to send His disciples the special outpouring of God the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples to perform miracles, to speak in tongues and even to raise the dead. It is equally as astonishing that through ordinary human beings God the Holy Spirit gave us the Book that we call the Bible. Recall that in 1 Corinthians 13 the apostle Paul tells us, “Where there are prophecies, they will cease; where they are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge it will pass away” (I Corinthians 13:8). The one gift of the Holy Spirit that will never “pass away,” the one gift of the Holy Spirit what will continue until the very end of time is the gift of God’s holy Word.

God’s Word is powerful because God the Holy Spirit is powerful. God’s Word is trustworthy because God the Holy Spirit is trustworthy. And as Jesus Himself brings out in the closing verses of our text, God’s Word is our constant and consistent source of peace because God the Holy Spirit is a constant and consistent source of “peace.” Look at what our Savior says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Note very carefully that Jesus defines this “peace” as “my peace.” He alone has this “peace.” He alone was able to establish this “peace” through His innocent suffering and death and through His victorious resurrection from the dead. He alone can give us this “peace.” Hesends the gift of the Holy Spirit into our hearts to assure us that we poor, mortal, sinful human beings have the “peace” that comes from knowing that we are reconciled to God!

All of this helps us to understand two additional points. First, it helps us to understand why Jesus says to us, “I do not give to you as the world gives.” The “peace” that the world offers to us consists of empty words. It has no lasting value. All too often and all too quickly the “peace” that the world offers to us is exposed as an illusion, a vanishing dream. As soon as tension or disagreements or war breaks out, the “peace” that the world offers to us becomes useless.

Second, the “peace” that only Jesus can give to us, the “peace” that is based on who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us enables us to understand why Jesus says to us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” You know as well as I that there are any number of things that we experience in our lives that “trouble” our hearts. You know as well as I that there are any number of things in this life that can cause our hearts to be “afraid.” The uncertainty of how a particular situation at home, or at school or at work is going to turn out could cause our hearts to be “troubled” and “afraid.” The inability of our doctors to come up with an effective treatment plan for a physical problem we are enduring could cause our hearts to be “troubled” and “afraid.” The anger and the meanness that is directed toward us by not only the unbelieving world, but sometimes even by those who claim to be our fellow Christians, could cause our hearts to be “troubled” and “afraid.”

Whenever and however and whyever our hearts become “troubled” and “afraid” we need to remember the words of our Savior, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

But we might ask— How? How does Jesus’ amazing “peace” become our personal possession? The answer to that question becomes clear when we stop to remember that we are studying this portion of Scripture on Pentecost Sunday! God the Holy Spirit takes the “peace” that Jesus secured for us (Pointing to the cross) and freely gives it to us through God’s holy Word and God’s holy Supper. This means that if our “peace” is being threatened by something that Satan or by something that the sinful world in which we live is trying to do to us, we can read our Bible, we can come here to God’s house and let the Holy Spirit serve as our Counselor, as our Comforter, as our Paraclete. This means that if our “peace” is being threatened by something inside of us, if our old sinful nature has led us to do something or say something or think something that brings a tear to our Savior’s eyes, we can— and we need —to approach God’s altar, receive God’s holy Supper and let the Holy Spirit counsel us and comfort us through Jesus’ words of forgiveness, words which the Holy Spirit has recorded for us in His holy Word.

Through His precious Means of Grace— the Gospel as it comes to us in Word and Sacrament— God the Holy Spirit does for us what He did for Jesus’ disciples here in our text, namely, He “teaches” us what we need to know and He “reminds” us of what Jesus says to us. Read God’s holy Word! Receive God’s holy Supper! Let God the Holy Spirit strengthen and nourish your faith!

“Many people— inside and outside of Christianity— presume religion comes with dogmas, doctrines, and rituals while spirituality is more about the heart, feelings, and experiences. Religion is seen as cold, passionless and even dead. Spirituality, though, is welcoming, passionate, and bursting with life.”

My prayer this morning is that we will never allow anyone to convince us that we have to choose: Are we going to be “religious,” or are we going to be “spiritual.” Our risen Lord and Savior wants us to be “religious” in the sense that He wants us to “obey,” to “pay attention to,” to “keep under guard” His Word, His teachings. At the very same time, our risen Lord and Savior sends His Holy Spirit into our hearts so that through God’s holy Word and through God’s holy Sacraments we will be disciples of Jesus who are indeed “welcoming, passionate, and bursting with life”!

To God be the glory!

Amen