We prayed in the Collect Prayer: 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 who you promised from the Father, for You live and reign with Him and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen The church celebrated last Thursday the Ascension of Jesus, observing how our lives have a purpose beyond the material needs of this world since Jesus has ascended and Jesus will return in Glory to take us to heaven with Him.
And now today the church looks forward to the celebration of Pentecost, where Jesus sends the gift of the Holy Spirit. As we await Jesus’ return we are not alone, we are not without consolation, Jesus has made arrangements for us to continue in the faith.
In our gospel lesson we have the final prayer Jesus prays before his departure to the cross, John 17 gives us Jesus’ will for us the church: that the Father would keep us in His name, that we would be one in faith and doctrine in His name, that we would be kept from the evil one, knowing we are in the world but not of the world. Jesus prays that we would be sanctified in the truth of God’s Word, that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth and set our lives apart to live in this truth.
As the Church we have a truth that comes entirely from outside of the wisdom and knowledge of this world, that comes from God in heaven. Accordingly, when we live in this truth the world hates us. People who are of the world will not understand this truth unless someone is born again of Water and the Word and thereby sanctified into the truth.
Look at the architecture of this church through spiritual eyes. See the Baptism font, the altar, and the communion rail. Gaze at the candelabra, the two altar candles, the eternal light and the Christ candle all lit. There is nothing before your eyes that is of the world. See the inner sanctuary of the church for what it is, that this is not simply a church on the East Side of Indianapolis in the state of Indiana and in the US. Not simply a church with history dating back to this buildings construction, but instead see it is part of Jesus’ prayer for his church- a place set aside for the Holy Spirit to lead people into all truth.
This place of worship is an outpost of God’s kingdom, this church could be located in any part of the world and at any time in history since Jesus’ resurrection, and it would mean the same thing, that Jesus has overcome the curse of sin and death on the cross. That he calls all people of every nation and land to be joined into this church to make a holy people offering sacrifices of Thanksgiving.
The gifts of life and salvation that come from the baptism font, the altar and the pulpit, these gifts were not designed by man. They are not a fruit of Western civilization or American history, they are a direct design of the Lord Jesus himself, instituted to the disciples in Jerusalem in those great days of our salvation.
We are the New Israel, we are here in this church in our own corner of Heaven on Earth. When we are here the ways of the world no longer matter. When we are here, we share the sentiment of the hymn: What is the world to me!
As Jesus prayed, he described how none of those who were given to him were lost except the son of destruction, so that the scripture may be fulfilled. In our church year we do not talk much about Judas. During holy week when we hear about his betrayal of Jesus, our attention is on our Lord’s passion. This Sunday we hear from our reading from Acts and our gospel lesson about the significance that one of Jesus’ followers should betray him.
If the 11 disciples became apostles of Jesus to proclaim the gospel to the world, then Judas can be understood as the opposite, although originally a disciple of Jesus he is now no longer a disciple, there are just 11 now, Judas is no longer numbered among the faithful, he traded the birthright to be an Apostle of Jesus to be instead an Apostle of Satan.
Through Judas, Satan finds opportunity to do violence to Jesus. Judas is a mediator or a minister of not life or salvation, but of murder. The power of darkness has many ministers, all those who have been called into service of sin rebellion and death.
In fact, Satan even seeks to enlist us into His service. And he can do this without our changing many parameters of our lives. His agenda can replace God’s law from our hearts and our minds simply through enticing us to live according to our sinful nature and putting God’s law behind us so as to live for ourselves.
In our reading from Acts we hear about how Judas is replaced with a new Apostle, someone who has been following Jesus since the beginning. Matthias is chosen to continue the office of life. Although Satan tried to bring death to God’s kingdom, his efforts were in vain.
For just as Matthias was appointed to replace Judas and continue the ministry of the gospel, so also has the Lord Jesus has continued to send laborers into the mission field to proclaim life. Although the world may shout its values and rage fiercely, when we are here in this church the message of the world is not heard.
Although it was necessary for the scripture to be fulfilled as prophesied by David that Jesus would be betrayed by one who was numbered among us. There are also qualities of the followers of Jesus that are also necessary by divine decree.
Listen to these words from the gospel of Luke, as the risen Jesus teaches: 44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
It was necessary that the scripture be fulfilled, that Christ must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and forgiveness must be preached to all nations. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are participating in the final must happen necessity, that the forgiveness of sins be preached to all nations.
This must happen so that the Father’s will is met, that the church be kept in His name, kept in the truth. The forgiveness of sins must be preached through Matthias and all other ministers of the Word. So that through this Ministry of truth Christ’s life becomes our life, his death becomes our freedom from sin, his resurrection our victory, and his ascension our sure and certain hope.
Satan would prefer that instead of the preaching of God’s Word there would be silence. Satan wants us to keep silent in the world. He wants to use our silence, our laziness, our timidness for his will to be done on earth.
Satan celebrated when Adam was silent in the face of his lies to Eve. Joseph’s brothers were silent when Judah introduced his plan to sell their youngest brother into slavery. Aaron went along with Israel’s desires to build the golden calf. Yet the ministry of God will not be silent, we will not be silent. We will proclaim Christ and his salvation, we will hold to his truth and his truth alone.
Thanks be to God, it is divinely ordained that this ministry of Life will continue from one generation to another, until the end of the age. Amen.