Exaudi, the 6th Sunday after Easter + John 15:26-16:4 + May 13, 2018

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In today’s gospel lesson Christ promises His apostles hardship and persecution. He says, “The will put you out of the synagogues.” Jesus tells them that the Jews will excommunicate them. This was already happening during the ministry of Jesus. After Jesus heals a man born blind, the Pharisees question the blind man’s parents to make sure he had really been blind from birth. They confessed that this man was in fact their son and that he had been born blind, but they stopped short of confessing that it was Jesus who had healed their son. John writes that “his parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue” (John 9:22). That the Jews would expel the apostles from their churches would be difficult to swallow. They had all been brought up in the synagogue. But their testimony of Jesus would not be tolerated by the Jews, so they would be cast out. It will be far worse than simple excommunication though. “Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.” For their testimony they would pay with more than just their synagogue membership. They would pay with their lives. Jesus’ words are true. Church history tells us that eleven of the twelve apostles died as martyrs.

This is how much the world hates the testimony of Jesus. This is how much the false church cannot stand the confession of Christ. By “false church” I mean anything that has the name “church,” looks outwardly like it is a church, but teaches contrary to the Word of God. In the apostles’ day it was the synagogue of the Jews that became the false church because they failed to recognize their Messiah. They railed against Jesus. They despised His teaching of salvation by God’s free gift apart from the works of the Law. They looked like church. They the synagogue liturgy. They had the Scriptures. They had the ancient hymns. But they rejected Christ’s work on their behalf. Since they rejected Christ they would have no problem rejecting Christ’s apostles. Their rage against Christ would lead them to murder the apostles and then blasphemously call that murder service to God. Earlier in this chapter Jesus had told them, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). The world and false church hated the apostles because they testified to Christ, the one whom they truly hated.

In spite of this admonition, the apostles forged ahead and preached Christ’s innocent life, His bitter sufferings and death for our sins, and His resurrection, ascension, and future return to judge the quick and the dead. This isn’t because the apostles were strong enough on their own to accept such persecution and hardship. They weren’t made of sterner stuff than you or I. They testified because they had the Holy Spirit. Before He tells them of the coming persecution, Jesus says to them, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” Christ promised to send them the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to testify of Christ. God the Holy Spirit has no other job, no other duty, than to testify to Christ, than to preach the Gospel of Christ to mankind. Christ promises the Holy Spirit to the apostles so that they also will bear witness, to testify, to Christ. They had been with Christ from the very beginning of His earthly ministry. They were eyewitnesses of His baptism, His miracles and His teaching. They were to take that eyewitness to the four corners of the world, preaching to all men that God had come in human flesh to die for men’s sins, so that all who trust in Christ for mercy and forgiveness possess all that Christ earned for them in His life and death. Their testimony would be true, because the Spirit of Truth would inspire their preaching and their writing, which is how the apostles’ testimony of Christ still preaches to us today.

God the Holy Spirit would comfort them in their persecutions and trials. When the world would laugh at them and hold them in derision for their gospel, the Holy Spirit would comfort them that they had the truth. When the world rejected their testimony as false or unimportant, the Holy Spirit helped them to rejoice in their sufferings and rejection because they were suffering as Christ had suffered during His earthly life. When the false church would mock them, despise them, and ban them, the Holy Spirit comforted them so that they would rejoice “that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). The Spirit of Truth fortified them in the truth of the gospel so that they didn’t care what others thought of them because of their testimony of Christ. They would be excommunicated, but by a group of unbelievers and Christ-haters. They would be put to death in the name of God, but by the power of the Holy Spirit they would bear suffering and death as nothing compared to having the truth of the God’s word and the comfort of the gospel.

The church the apostles built, of which Christ is the cornerstone, still testifies of Christ. And because of that testimony the church is still rejected by the world which hates Christ. We may not be being killed for the faith, but we are most certainly being rejected for it. But we must not despair that the world isn’t beating down our door to hear of Christ. We know the world hates Christ! We must not get down on ourselves when we see false churches growing numerically. The false church caters to the sinful flesh. It gives its hearers social causes to champion, religious works to fulfill, or emotional highs that they call the Holy Spirit, but it do not give them the gospel of the forgiveness of their sins. For in most churches today the gospel is never even mentioned and oftentimes when it is it is only an afterthought. We must not become despondent when visitors walk out mid-service because our doctrine doesn’t conform to their private opinions and feelings.

When we experience these things we mustn’t hem and haw about our future or finances. We should rejoice that the Gospel is purely taught among us and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution. We must rejoice that God has given us the testimony of Christ, the Son of God who came in our flesh to take away all of our sins! We can cheer ourselves with the knowledge that we have the Holy Spirit, the Helper and Comforter, because Christ has promised Him to us. We can take heart that the Spirit helps in our weaknesses, aiding our prayers. We can be of good courage because we know that Christ is present in the Word and Sacraments to forgive our sins and strengthen our faith in Christ. We have no reason to be downcast and fainthearted. We have the testimony of Christ and that is the only thing that matters. Let the world hate us and reject us for the gospel. It is not us they reject by Christ. Let the false church despise us and ban us and deride us for our insistence upon the entire doctrine of the apostles. It is not us they despise but the testimony of the apostles and Holy Spirit. Take comfort, dear saints of God. Christ told you all these things would happen, and He told them to you so that you would not stumble when they occur. Instead, look to Christ and give thanks for what you have here: the testimony of the apostles, the testimony of the Holy Spirit, the testimony of Christ for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

May the peace of God which far surpasses human understanding guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.