Easter 4—Cantate
Beloved. Beginning last Sunday and throughout the rest of the Easter season, our Gospel readings are from Jesus’ talk with His disciples in the upper room that first Maundy Thursday, just hours before His betrayal and arrest. In these Gospel readings we will be hearing, our attention is being turned toward Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in today’s Gospel: But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I said that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.
Notice the work of the Holy Spirit. He points to Jesus; He declares the work of Jesus; He guides the disciples into all truth so that what they speak and teach as our Lord’s apostles, as through them Jesus establishes and builds His NT Church, is pure and without error. So right away from the beginning we see the importance and the centrality of the word of our Lord—that word that was first spoken and then which the Lord had the blessed apostles and evangelists write. The blessed proclamation of the Church is the proclamation of God Himself. And not only does it proclaim Jesus but it gives the gifts, blessings and benefits Jesus won for us on the cross and which His resurrection announces.
St. James begins our text: Do not be deceived, my dear brothers. The way that we are kept from being deceived is by holding to the word, the word of the prophets and apostles, that very word and truth that the Holy Spirit guided them into and protected and preserved down to us. Because we still have our old sinful nature that works with the devil, we are easily lead astray; because all around us we are surrounded by the thoughts and ways of the world and because the devil is always working to draw us away from the faith and to destroy that faith in us, left to ourselves and our own devices we would so easily be deceived and led astray. But what? —we have the word, that holy, Spirit-inspired word that works faith and has lead us into all truth so that we recognize it and hold it fast.
As we examine our text, we will see that the wonderful thing is that God’s word works on us twice. It worked in the past bringing us to faith and it continues to work on us in our lives now.
1. St. James continues in our text: Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights. What is the perfect and ultimate good act of giving and …perfect gift that has come down from the Father of the lights? It is Jesus. Jesus is that good act of giving because He is God giving Himself up for our sins, giving Himself up to reconcile us sinners to Him. And Jesus is that perfect gift because He is the holy, sinless God man who not only came into this world holy and sinless but He also lived His life holy and completely without sin. He met God’s requirement of perfect, that very perfection that God demands of us in His holy law but which we fall far short of by our sin. Jesus is that good gift and that perfect gift that God gives; Jesus is from above, He is true God, and He has come down from heaven and became also true man to be our Savior. Jesus is that true gift of God who comes from God—from above—and has the qualities of God—good and perfect—because He is God.
What does that have to do with the word, the word that keeps us from being deceived? Jesus is center and focus of the word. All of Holy Scripture is about Jesus. In the word the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus and declares and gives what belongs to Jesus—His holiness and perfection.
Our text: Of His own will/ just as He planned he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creations. Jesus is the center of the word of God; the word of God is grounded on Jesus and His work. And what was the purpose of the word of God, the word of truth? To give us birth, to give us new spiritual and heavenly life. That’s the mighty work of the Holy Spirit in and through the word—to bring us from spiritual death to spiritual life. This is the only way that we can be saved—through that life God creates in us by the Holy Spirit in the word—be it the word that we hear, or the visible word of Holy Baptism. St. Peter writes by the Holy Spirit [1 Peter 1.23]: You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. And Jesus is very clear [ John 3. 3-8]: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. So, God, by the word—the word of truth—converts us, brings us to faith, giving us that new spiritual life.
Are you a Christian? That’s God at work in and through His word on you in the past. The moment of your conversion, that’s God’s word’s first work on you.
And again notice what St. James writes in our text: Of His own will/ just as He planned. The very fact that you are a Christian is purely God’s love and grace toward you. God wasn’t forced to—but Of His own will—that is, it’s not that we were so good and so deserving of God’s favor. Instead, it is purely His good and gracious will: Of His own will/ just as He planned. St. John writes about the Christian [St. John 1.13]: we were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. We couldn’t save ourselves, decide to make ourselves part of God’s holy family, decide to be born again. We are conceived and born into sin; we are conceived and born spiritually dead, as enemies of God. The only way that we could be saved was by Someone outside of us—by God Himself. And how did He do it? Just as He planned he gave us birth by the word of truth. Again— by the word of truth—be it the word that we hear or the visible word of Holy Baptism. Either way it comes from God—not from us—because that is His good and gracious will toward us: Just as He planned he gave us birth by the word of truth. That word which is about Jesus and which gives us Jesus and His gifts and merits.
What a glorious thing God’s mercy is! Look again at how St. James describes God in our text, note the comparison: the Father of the lights, who does not change or shift like a shadow. God is pure goodness—even/ especially to us poor sinful beings. He doesn’t change; He isn’t fickle. His merciful face is never hidden from us. Without change and without interruption His gracious and merciful face shines on us. He has sent His Son, the good [gift] and [the] perfect gift…from above to be our Savior. Through His holy word, the word of truth, He has given us spiritual life. We are now His dear Christians so that come what may, no matter how it may look/ seem to us, we are enjoying nothing but God’s pure grace and mercy and every heavenly gift that Jesus has won for us and which the Holy Spirit now showers upon us.
In our conversion, God by the Holy Spirit at work the first time in the word of truth, the word that has Jesus and His work as its foundation, gave us new spiritual life. He gave us a new heart, mind, and desire so that we know the Lord rightly and love Him. And there’s a reason why He has done this: so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creations. In the OT the firstfruits—the very first of the harvest—were set aside and consecrated to the Lord. So now as Christians, as those to whom the Lord by the Holy Spirit has given birth by the word of truth, as those to whom He has shown every grace and given new hearts, minds and true knowledge and love of Him, the Lord has set us apart from the sinful world to be His own. We are the firstfruits—a sanctified people, priests and kings of Christ and so children and heirs of God. Through faith in Jesus, by our new birth by the word of truth we belong to the Lord and are lords over the devil, death, sin and hell.
2. O dear Christian, we have been shown great grace. Just as he planned, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creations. And now as His dear Christians, all the good we do and have is from the Lord. We would have nothing—no spiritual knowledge, nothing of value to our souls—without the Lord’s almighty power, without His work in and through the word of truth, that word that has Jesus as its center and foundation, that word through which the Holy Spirit is mightily at work. What does this mean, but that we dare not boast of ourselves because of God’s gifts and graces—they are precisely that: His mercy and grace toward us sinners. Instead, recognizing that, we humble ourselves and submit to others in love.
In light of God’s great grace to us, first in sending Jesus the good [gift] and [the] perfect gift…from above to be our Savior, and then in giving us birth by the word of truth, St. James continues: Remember this, my dear brothers: Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Certainly, a man’s anger does not bring about what is right before God. So after getting rid of all moral filthiness and overflowing wickedness, receive with humility the word planted in you. It is able to save your souls.
Here we see that the word of God, the word of truth, works not just in the past, bringing us to faith, but the word of God, the word of truth, works now, in the present, in our Christian lives now. What does St. James say here? Let everyone be quick to listen. Listen to what? To the word! To the Gospel! We cannot hear God’s word enough. We need to hear it diligently. Why? Like we heard at the beginning of our text: Do not be deceived. We need to hear God’s word continually because it is the word of truth and all around us is lies and falsehood from the devil and the world trying to draw us away from Jesus and the word of truth. Once we realize what the word of truth is, how can we not want to hear it? How can we not want to study Scripture? How can we not want to be in church where we hear the word in the liturgy, in the absolution, and hear and receive it in the Blessed Sacrament? May we take time to be faithfully and diligently listening/ hearing the word. As we hear the Gospel, the word of truth, we will then be slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Certainly, a man’s anger does not bring about what is right before God. That is, we will hear that we have received mercy and we will be quick to forgive and slow to pass judgment on our neighbor; we will, by the Holy Spirit at work in the word of truth and in our hearts become patient, gracious and will control our passions realizing we need the same from God on account of our sin.
In our daily Christian life, the Holy Spirit is mightily at work in the word of truth as we struggle to remain in the faith and battle against the devil, temptation and sin. By the word that we daily hear and receive, the Holy Spirit strengthens us for the battle and encourages us in the midst of it; by it He defends us from the lies of the devil, the world and our own sinful nature, from being deceived.
But listen also to our text: So after getting rid of all moral filthiness and overflowing wickedness: we fight against sin—and may be a bit worse for wear—and then we receive with humility the word planted in you. It is able to save your souls. Notice: the word planted in you. God at our baptism planted in us that word that can save us. And in our daily lives as Christians that word is mightily at work as we daily return to our baptism confessing our sins and in the humility of faith receive forgiveness and all the blessings Jesus won for us and gives us. God’s word not only works mightily at our conversion but also now in our lives every day. INJ Amen.