In the Name of the Father and of the  Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord
and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen
Fifth Sunday of Easter [Cantate] (2014)
The Spirit of Truth
Rev. Toby O. Byrd
“But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell
you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will
not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the
world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not
believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no
longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. “I still have many
things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will
guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears
he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he
will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said
that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:5–15, ESV)
Our text this morning from the Gospel of John speaks specifically of the Holy Spirit, His
coming and His work. Therefore, let us pray that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, will come
upon us, enlightening our hearts to the truth of the Gospel as we listen to our Lord Jesus tell us of
the Spirit’s impact and guidance in our lives.
I find it most pleasing and appropriate that this Gospel from John is our given text for this fifth
Sunday of Easter since this is also the basis of our adult Bible study for the past two Sunday’s.
The words recorded by St. John in our text today are words from our Lord’s farewell address to
His apostles. The night before His crucifixion and death, Jesus, knowing the hardships and
struggles His apostles would have to face after His departure, promises to send them One who
would convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, while simultaneously giving the
apostles the divine help they would need to fulfill their commission to evangelize the world. In
this address our Lord Jesus verifies the words of the Psalmist when He asked: “From where does
my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1–2
ESV). Jesus says to the apostles, “if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you” (v. 7).
The broadest sense of this name “Helper” signifies one who is a “best friend.” In this respect
He is our Champion, defending us by the two-edged sword of God’s Word, leading us into all
holiness and righteousness for the sake of God’s only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. This can be
understood more clearly when we listen to the other name our Lord Jesus gives to the Holy
Spirit. In v. 13 He calls Him “the Spirit of truth,” an expression or name for the Holy Spirit that
describes Him more fully. Jesus said to the apostles, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will
guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears
he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13 ESV). Thus,
in this sense, the Holy Spirit proves to be our Helper as He guides us into all truth.
This might seem strange to our ears when we consider that for three years the disciples sat at
Jesus’ feet, dedicated pupils learning from the greatest teacher in the history of man. So why
would Jesus say they needed additional guidance in the truth? Although they had learned many
things from Jesus, especially the truths pertaining to the person of Jesus, they had not learned all
things. They had not yet comprehended our Lord’s suffering, death, and resurrection. They had
not yet learned the deep meanings of the great hopes that center on our Lord’s atoning sacrifice
upon the Altar of the Cross for the forgiveness of sins. Furthermore, they were still ignorant of
the true nature of His kingdom and the manner of its influence upon man. In fact, just prior to
telling them of the coming of the Spirit of truth, Jesus said to them, “I still have many things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12 ESV). Therefore, there were still many
things for them to learn, truths yet to be revealed before they could go into the world and testify
of Christ to Jew and Gentile. But who would teach them these truths yet untold?
This could not be our Lord Jesus. In fact, He had just announced His physical withdrawal from
them, saying, “But now I am going to him who sent me,” (John 16:5 ESV). Jesus’ earthly
mission of saving mankind from sin would be completed in just three days and soon thereafter
He would be seated at the Right Hand of God. Who, then, was there from among humanity, who
could teach the apostles those things Jesus had not said to them? Certainly not themselves! How
could they reason the unknown things of God? Left to themselves they not only could not learn
more truth, instead they would lose the little truth they had learned. Instead of apostles they
would be apostates. No, this was impossible for them to accomplish, therefore, for their own
salvation and the salvation of the world they needed the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Moreover, according to Jesus, there was only One who could give them the truth and that was the
Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead. He would be their teacher and
the teacher of the Church from the day He is sent by Jesus until the Day of Judgment. As their
teacher and ours He guides us in all truth (v. 13); leading the way, one glorious, divine step after
the other, continuing to teach where Christ left off. Using God’s Word, especially the Gospel, the
Spirit of Truth leads us by the lamp of His righteousness, lighting our path as we walk through
this darkened world of sin keeping us from falling into every pitfall and trap set for us by the
devil. Furthermore, through these means, the Spirit of Truth leads us to become witnesses,
disciples of our Lord’s atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins before a hostile world.
Without the Spirit of Truth man must seek enlightenment in himself. What are his means for
this; his flesh and his reason. Led by Satan, man seeks only the pleasure of the world and the
worldly, satisfied only by the desires of the flesh. St. Paul warns us against the desires of the
flesh when he wrote to the Galatians, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual
immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,
rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you,
[he said] as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of
God” (Gal. 5:19-21). But our Lord Jesus sent the Spirit of Truth to specifically warn us of such
things.
As I said at the beginning, the setting for these words of our Lord’s is in the upper room the
night before His death. That was over two-thousand years ago. The Spirit of Truth whom our
Lord promised to send came upon the apostles on that first Christian Pentecost, enlightening
them to be great men of God, enabling them to evangelize the Gospel to a world dying from sin
and in so doing, to establish the Christian Church throughout the world. This Church has been
the voice of Christ all these years proclaiming His death for the eternal life of men. Yet over the
years the true message of the Gospel became corrupted by the will and reason of man. Men,
rather than seek their souls deliverance from hell in the truth of the Gospel began to believe that
they, too, had something to do with their souls salvation. That somehow they should aid Christ in
their redemption through their works because His crucifixion wasn’t sufficient in itself to save
them from the fires of hell. As such, many fell into the pitfall of Satan’s works righteous gospel.
But our Lord Jesus raised another whom many consider the fourteenth apostle.
As Christ called Saul on the road to Damascus to be His apostle, giving Him the gift of the
Spirit of Truth to proclaim the Gospel to a predominately Gentile world, He also called Martin
Luther under a tree in the midst of a raging storm, giving him the gift of the Spirit of Truth to
enlighten modern man, teaching that he is born utterly lost, without any hope of self-salvation.
He opened the sainted Luther’s heart and mind to the truth that only Christ, who bore the sins of
the world upon the Altar of the Cross, is able to save man. He taught that our efforts at saving
ourselves are nothing more than works of foolishness. You and I were blessed to learn this truth
of God’s Word in our catechism classes; Luther’s explanation of the Third Article of the Creed
fully explains this truth:
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come
to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified
and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the
whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this
Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last
Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This
is most certainly true.
St. Paul told the Church at Galatia, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the
desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the
Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the
things you want to do” (Gal. 5:16-17 ESV).
Thus, the Spirit of Truth, the Helper, brings to us the revealed truth of God’s desire to forgive
sinners. He does this through God’s Word, Law and Gospel. The Spirit of Truth reveals God only
through His Word and it is through the Word of the Gospel by which we are saved and given the
gift of faith to believe (Rom. 10:17). Without the Spirit of Truth we would not know the Gospel,
we would not know God’s Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Without the Spirit of Truth we would not
understand the truth of God’s Word nor be able to receive the gift of faith to believe in His Son’s
atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. Lacking these there would be no peace of
conscience, no freedom from sin, no hope, and no certainty of eternal life. Moreover, we would
be unable to witness successfully to the world. Oh, to be sure, our reason argues great blessings
would have come if Christ had remained. But the truth is greater blessings have come as a result
of His return to the Father. Our Lord Jesus made it clear, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is
to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you” (v.
7).
We owe our deepest thanks to our Lord Jesus for sending the Spirit of Truth because He has
brought to you and to me and to the entire world the marvelous truth of our Lord’s crowning
work; that our Lord Jesus willingly gave His life upon the Altar of the Cross that our sins could
be forgiven, and that by His death we are justified before God, reconciled to Him and offered
eternal life for all who believe that Jesus gave His life for them. Our Lord Jesus said, the gift of
the Spirit of Truth is that, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to
you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare
it to you” (vv. 14-15). Amen.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus. Amen.