In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit

Jesus promises His disciples the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name. He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

How will the Spirit do these things? There is no doubt that the Holy Spirit attaches Himself to the preaching of the Word. If He was not attached to the preached Word, churches would be empty because preaching would be ineffective. Pastors alone can’t figure it out. We don’t so much write sermons as wrestle them from the Holy Spirit. He alone knows what you need to hear.

What you need to hear is the Word of the Lord. Jesus says if anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. You say you love Jesus. Why don’t you keep His Word? He commands you to love God and your neighbor as yourself. Yet you’d rather make a name for yourself just like those in the plain of Shinar building a tower reaching to heaven.

The Holy Spirit teaches you all things, yet you want to pick and choose what is convenient for you to believe. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Sometimes these are good things. But most times they are a hindrance.

You love God and your neighbor, but only when it is convenient with your agenda. There is joy in your life, but only when others are hurting who deserve to hurt. The only peace needed is peace in your life. When others are longsuffering, you enjoy it. Good and faithful are you when God leaves you alone. You can afford to be gentle when others do as you tell them. The best fruit of all is self-control. You can tell God to get lost so you can pilot your own ship.

When this is your way of responding to God’s Gifts, the Holy Spirit will call to mind an important word: REPENT. Repent is a word that kills. It kills the stinking, festering, Old Adam inside of you. It teaches you to turn away from the way of death and walk the way of everlasting life.

The way to a right understanding in all things is to understand your ways and your thoughts are not your heavenly Father’s ways and thoughts. That’s what the Holy Spirit does when He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. His convicting message turns you away from the spirit that brings eternal death toward the Spirit that delivers eternal life.

The Holy Spirit calls to your remembrance all that Jesus Christ did for you. The Word came down to us through the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Word kept the Law perfectly in your place. The Word dies for your sins. The Word rises from the dead victorious over the grave. You are not an orphan. You have Christ’s peace given through the preaching of the pure Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments according to our Lord’s institution. That’s how the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

The Spirit calls you out of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ when He points your ears to the pulpit. It’s hard to believe that words can create something as intangible as faith. But it’s not the pastor’s words spoken here. I speak the Word made flesh into your ears. The Holy Spirit takes care of the rest after the Word hits your ear drums.

The Spirit gathers the Church around the Word proclaimed through sermon, song, water, bread, and wine. It’s hard to believe that these earthly things can gather such a crowd. But it’s not stuff alone that gathers. When the Helper powers the stuff with the Word, the people of God can’t help but gather to receive our Father’s Gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

The Spirit enlightens and makes holy the Church on earth when He keeps Her with Jesus Christ. Christians are always looking for evidence that the Spirit is hard at work in their congregation. Some doubt that the Spirit works because things aren’t going the way they should. So they doubt God and try new measures designed to stir up emotions that make others think something is happening.

God be praised we don’t have to do much more than preach the Gospel, baptize young and old, put the Body and Blood of Christ in people’s mouths, and forgive sins in Holy Absolution. That’s how the Spirit has operated in the Christian Church since day one. Where the world expects results akin to business principles, the Lord God feeds, leads, and grows His flock according to His ways, not ours. Blessed Martin Luther understood this when he wrote about how God’s Word brought about the Reformation: I opposed indulgences and all papists, but never by force. I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word: otherwise I did nothing. And then, while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip of Amsdorf the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing: the Word did it all.

There’s a lot of comfort in the words: the Word did it all. You don’t have to build a tower to heaven to bring God’s love in Christ Jesus. The Word brings Jesus to you. The Holy Spirit is behind that Word, endowing us with wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

The Feast of Pentecost is the capstone of the Easter season. Today the promised Holy Spirit enters in the world to keep God’s beloved bride, the Church, with Him and in Him forever. Today God arises and scatters the enemies who hate Him. Today the Lord sends His mighty voice to call, gather, enlighten and sanctify His holy people through His holy Word. Today God’s resurrection peace is with you, even to eternity.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Through the diversity of tongues You gathered together the nations, in the unity of the faith. Alleluia, alleluia.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit

Link Here.

“This is why the Lord promised to send the Holy Spirit: He was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become dough and one loaf of bread without moisture, so we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water and Spirit that comes down from heaven. Through the Baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in Christ’s Body; through the Spirit we have become one in His Life.” (St. Irenaeus)

We could never know anything about Christ or believe in Him and receive Him as our Lord if it were not first offered to us and laid on our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel. The redemptive work has taken place and is finished, for Christ has purchased and won the treasure for us through His suffering, death, resurrection, etc. But if that saving action stays hidden and no one knows about it, then it would all be for nothing, wasted. In order that this treasure might not remain buried but be taken up and enjoyed, God has let the Word go forth and be proclaimed. In the Word He has given us His Holy Spirit to lay the treasure of redemption on our hearts and make it our very own. (Luther’s Large Catechism

On the day of Holy Pentecost we celebrate and thank our dear Lord God for the great and timeless gift which He bestowed one earth. From heaven He revealed to us poor earthlings his holy, precious Word—a Word that is neither common nor ordinary. For it was on this very day that Christ established His kingdom through the apostles, a kingdom that through the gospel is revealed to the whole world. Christ possessed this kingdom in his own person from all eternity, but on this day the Holy Spirit used the apostles to reveal it to all the world. And this revelation was made with great courage, boldness, and joy by the apostles. (Blessed Martin Luther)

Today the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples with a sudden sound, and completely changed their earthbound way of thinking by his love. When tongues of fire appear outwardly, their hearts within them were set afire. Since they received God in a vision of fire, they were gently enflamed by love. The Holy Spirit is love, and so St. John says: God is love. A person who desires God with his whole heart already possesses the one he loves. No one could love God unless he possessed the one he loves. If any one of you should be asked if he loved God, he would answer with entire confidence and complete conviction, “I do.” But you hear at the beginning of the Gospel reading what Truth says: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.” The proof of love is its manifestation in deeds. (Gregory the Great)

Below you will find a series of bulletin inserts originally compiled by Fr. John Fenton during his tenure as pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church of Detroit, Michigan. They are made available here to you with his permission.

Enjoy!

-Pr. Peperkorn

Bulletin Excerpts from the Church Fathers

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Exaudi – Easter 6 (May 8, 2005)
John 15:26-16:4

TITLE: “He Will Testify of Me”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from the Gospel lesson just read, the words of Jesus, But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

The New King James translation of the Bible lists this little Greek word paraklete as “Helper.” Other translations will have the word comforter, or even the word counselor, like the right hand man of the king who speaks advice to him on how to run the kingdom. But what does it really mean, to say that Jesus will send the Holy Spirit to us from the Father? What does it mean to say that He is the Spirit of truth? And what does it mean to say that the Holy Spirit will testify or give witness to Jesus? Those are the questions we will try to answer this morning. Continue reading »

I posted recently on my blog about using workspaces in Accordance or Libronix for sermon preparation. I use the historic lectionary, so that’s what I’m working on. One of the chief advantages of the one year lectionary is the ability to build and expand upon previous work. Here is my current Accordance workspace for Exaudi:

You can see that I have the ESV, NKJV and NA-27 open. In the Old Testament tab I have the BHS instead of NA-27. I also have the Book of Concord (Triglotta) open for the BOC reading for the week. In the bottom I have a user note which includes citations, sermon notes, and other items of interest.

What do you think? Could any of you use this, or something like it? I would be interested in hearing from 3-year lectionary folks, if there is something similar

Worldly comfort is false and counterfeit because it directs a person to rely on material goods, fame, honor, power, and the assistance and sympathy of the high and mighty. It is at best nothing more than miserable, poor, uncertain comfort. Its relief is temporary. The Holy Spirit, however, comforts you when you are frightened and discouraged, miserable and wretched, forsaken both by other people and by your own heart. That is why the Holy Spirit carries the name, because he is a true Comforter who does not fail. Where there is sorrow and affliction, that’s where you find the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. (Blessed Martin Luther)

This is what Our Lord tells His disciples in today’s Gospel: “They hated Me, and seeing Me they put Me to death. But the Spirit’s testimony will cause those who do not see Me believe in Me. You also will testify because you are with Me from the beginning. The Holy Ghost will testify, and you shall testify. For since you were with Me from the beginning, you can preach what you have seen. But you do not so now because you do not yet have the fullness of this Spirit. He shall give testimony of Me, and you shall give testimony of Me. And the love of God that is poured forth into your hearts by the Spirit shall give you courage to testify.” (St. Augustine)

When a Christian begins to know Christ as His Lord and Savior, his heart is aglow with a flaming love of God and he desires gladly to help everyone to the same experience. For you know that Christ has redeemed you from death and brought into His kingdom and inheritance. And so you have no greater joy than to possess this treasure and trust Christ. Therefore, a Christian goes out and encourages other people, praising and testifying (in word or deed) to all, praying and yearning that they too enjoy God’s grace. (Blessed Martin Luther)

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit

For those who do not know Christ, there is no greater step than the one taken into a church building. For those who know Christ and trust in Him as their Savior from sin, death, and hell, there is no greater privilege outside of hearing the preaching of the Gospel than prayer. Yet the greatest step a Christian can take is one many either forget to take or won’t take.

All it takes is folding hands and a few silent moments to speak to our heavenly Father. Yet it seems rocket science is easier than prayer. We have so many wants and needs that paper and pencil aren’t sufficient. But when it comes time to talk with our heavenly Father about our problems and joys, we don’t know where to begin. Continue reading »

Everyone who loves the Christian church and the gospel, and is concerned about their well-being, ought to remember that he must help sustain them.  We can do this best of all through prayer, praying that the name of our God in heaven be hallowed, his kingdom come, and his will be done; on the other hand, that the name of the devil be reviled, his kingdom overthrown, and his will and designs repulsed.  When you do this, then you and every Christian are like warriors on the field of battle with weapons drawn, helping to guard and protect the Christian church against the devil and the world.  For every Christian is a soldier who is engaged in battle with the devil.  As firmly as other pastors and I do battle through our preaching and teaching, so firmly ought you contend with us by prayer.  This is how we must contend and fight at every turn; for we Christians are mighty warriors, some of us preaching and earnestly praying, pierce the devil’s heart.  If he is to be defeated and overthrown, it must be done by these two weapons.  For the one who rules in heaven does not lie.  (House Postils, Vol. 2, 110)

When Our Lord speaks of “joy made full,” He is talking not about carnal but spiritual joy. That joy is so great that nothing further needs to be added to it. So whatever we ask which relates to the attainment of this joy, we must ask for in the Name of Christ. When we ask for anything else, nothing is asked for. Not in the sense that it is really nothing, but that in comparison with this spiritual joy. And now we can correctly understand the words: “If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you.” The word “anything” does not mean “anything whatever,” but anything that is not as nothing in comparison with the life of the Blessed. (St. Augustine)

In today’s Gospel, Our Lord Jesus urges us to pray. He spoke this exhortation when telling His disciples that they will suffer, but their sorrow will be turned to joy. There is a connection between these two things. For when a Christian is experiencing sorrow and tribulation, peril and trial, the only comfort and help he has is to resort to cry to the Lord in prayer. The Lord teaches His disciples, and us, that during times of heartache we should be bold and fearless in prayer. For this reason you may come boldly before the Father and pray with confidence, never doubting, for your prayers are heard. It is, indeed, a winsome invitation to prayer. (Blessed Martin Luther)

Prayer is not made perfect by the uttering of syllables, but in the purpose of the soul, and in the just actions of a lifetime. Neither are we to think that God needs the reminder of our spoken words. Rather are we to believe that He knows our need whether we ask of Him or not. Be mindful then of God, O Man, and keep the fear of Him ever in your heart, and join yourself to all men in communion of prayer. Place your hope in the goodness of God, and look for His aid, knowing that if we truly and sincerely turn to Him, He will not cast us off for ever, but even as we pray to Him He will say to us: Here I am. (St. Basil)