By pastorjuhl, on April 29th, 2010%
I am indebted to Rev. C.S. Esget for some of his thoughts on this text. Soli Deo Gloria!
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
What is the worst sin of all? The Lord Jesus says the worst sin of all is not murder or pedophilia or homosexuality. He says the worst sin of all is not to believe in Him. All the problems in the world, all of the sins people commit, have at their core this common cause: unbelief. Unbelief is failing to love God, to fear Him, and to trust Him above all things.
Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. The Spirit convicts the world of sin, the sin of not believing in Jesus. Sinners are those who do not worship God the Father, confess Him as the Giver of every good and perfect gift, and those who do not trust in His Son. The sinner believes in himself. He looks to himself as his own master. Jesus becomes a teacher, a co-pilot, a back-up quarterback – but not the Savior. A Savior is only for someone who is lost, needs saving, helpless and ruined, and can do nothing for himself.
What do you seek? Do you seek a pep talk or salvation? Do you seek some good advice on stress management or deliverance from death? Are you looking for help in forgiving yourself or forgiveness from the God whom you offended? Do you expect tips for dealing with difficult people or defense from the assaults of the devil?
Do you not see your own unbelief? When you see food as something you earned instead of God’s gift, that is unbelief. When you breathe air and drink water that is considered part of a natural ecosystem while forgetting that air and water are gifts from the Creator Who lovingly sustains you, that is unbelief. When you see people as objects to be manipulated, enjoyed, or endured at best, instead of fellow creatures of God to be respected, that is unbelief.
When you look at God’s Word to see what you can get away with rather than what you get to do, that is unbelief. When you are overcome by fear of loss, when you squander all your time on self-destructive amusements that you know you should stop doing but do it anyway, when you are angry and sad over nothing and everything, don’t you see this all comes from unbelief? When you are obsessed with the sins of society, the failings of your pastor, and how everyone else is the cause of all your problems, do you not see your unbelief?
Do not be deluded by the diabolical trick that believing there is a God is the same thing as believing in God. Saint Augustine wrote “to believe Christ is not to believe in Christ.” The demons believe Christ. They know the Bible better than some who are Christians. This is not what Holy Scripture calls faith. Faith is having all your hope in Jesus Christ and loving Jesus above all things.
Jesus has taken away your sins. He bestows you with His righteousness in place of your sins. You need not look at yourself or the things of the world to give you pleasure. You look to Christ for every good thing, even everlasting life.
Jesus changes your tune. The first word of today’s Introit is “sing”. Jesus takes away your dirge of unbelief and gives you a new song. Consider Psalm 98: O sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things! His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him. The battle for life and death is over. Life is victorious. Jesus wins the battle in your place and gives you the spoils of His victory.
Jesus will soon ascend into heaven, but He will not leave you alone and forsaken. Jesus promises the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. The Spirit comes to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. This conviction happens in the application of God’s Holy Law and Holy Gospel through preaching and teaching. The Law preaches repentance. The Law has no mercy. God’s Law shows you how blind you are to God and His Word. The Law always accuses.
Once the Law has brought contrition and repentance, the Gospel is preached. The Gospel shows the Father’s grace toward you in Jesus. The Gospel is pure gift. The Gospel never accuses. The Gospel preaches the righteousness of God in the death of Jesus Christ. The Gospel delivers forgiveness and life in Word, in water, in bread and wine, Body and Blood. The Gospel brings Divine pardon. You shall not die, but live. This is the new song you sing through faith in Jesus Christ.
Where are you going? You are going to Christ. He alone cancels all the sins on your list of the worst sins. The Holy Spirit cannot come unless Jesus first ascends to His Father. Now that the Spirit has come, you are connected to the Word of life and the means of grace. The Spirit continually delivers the convicting Word of both repentance and forgiveness. You are also convicted of forgiveness. This conviction is one of being found “not guilty” because of the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. His “not guilty” conviction shows itself in love toward one another through works of mercy where God puts you. Saint James puts it this way in today’s Epistle: lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. The implanted Word washes you clean from sin, saves you from eternal death, and guides your steps in this world toward the life of the world to come.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
By pastorjuhl, on April 28th, 2010%
A person who acts contrary to God’s Word is not justified because he has acted according to his conviction. He is condemned. The thoughts, the intentions, the principles which each person has by nature are the very things from which every person must be converted, if he wants to be saved. Not the convictions of our natural reason as to what is good and evil, and wherewith one can stand before God, avails before God, but the conviction which God gives through His Holy Spirit (Walther, “Old Standard Gospels”, p. 177).
The office and function of the Holy Spirit are that he makes clear to us Christ and his work in our hearts, that he makes alive for us everything that Christ has taught us, spoken to us, done and suffered for us, that he makes Christ, his person, his work alive in our hearts, that he renders Christ intelligible to our hearts. Indeed, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is an inner, divine thing. If the hand of the Holy Spirit does not enlighten our spirit, Christ is and remains a dead image, the Gospel of Christ for us [is] a bunch of dead letters. We need this Instructor. We need this pronouncement, this revelation which the Holy Spirit gives us.
The Holy Spirit reveals to us all the more the mystery of God, the mystery of Christ. By nature we have foolish, erroneous concepts of God. The Holy Spirit gives light through the Word. The Holy Spirit shows our spirit the Son and the Father whom Christ has proclaimed. The Holy Spirit puts a bright light into our hearts so that we in the countenance of this man Jesus Christ see the brightness of God, so that we see the Son and in him the Father. This same Spirit teaches us to call no one but Jesus Christ Lord, puts the name of Christ, the only-begotten Son, into our hearts, on our lips, so that we confess with our hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord, and wish such confession at the same time worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
The Holy Spirit alone reveals to us the mystery of the atonement and redemption which have come through Jesus Christ. By nature we have false, foolish concepts about the way of salvation. When we follow our own impulse, we always mix our own works into faith. We always want to add a little something to what Christ has done. The Holy Spirit teaches and assures that our every work is a matter vain, lost, and condemned, that Christ’s work, Christ’s death, Christ’s way to the Father is our only righteousness, that Christ stands in our stead, that Christ has without our aid accomplished all things for us. The Holy Spirit causes the comfort of redemption to sink into our heart and makes divinely sure that the prince of this world, that sin, death, hell are really judged and condemned. The Holy Spirit draws Christ, his work and merit, into our heart, that we confess from our hearts, each one for his own self: This Jesus is my Savior, who has borne all my sin. God is gracious to me through Christ, his Son (George Stoeckhardt, “Grace Upon Grace”, p. 203-204).
By sean.daenzer, on July 17th, 2009%
…at least productive musically.
Here are the introits for the Sundays after Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, and the First-Eighth Sundays after. Hopefully we’ll remain caught up from here on out. After the completion of the summer introits I hope to begin transcribing the Alleluias & Verses for the Church Year. (I also intend to do Introit and Alleluia for all major feasts as they come) Graduals are not given in most of the 16th century Lutheran chant sources, though occasionally for major feasts. Instead they often sang sequences and/or hymns (Graduallieder).
+SDG+
Quasimodo geniti
Misericordia[s] Domini
Jubilate
Cantate
Rogate
Ascension of our Lord
Exaudi
Feast of Pentecost
Feast of the Most Holy Trinity
Trinity I
Tirnity II
Trinity III
Trinity IV
Trinity V
Trinity VI
Trinity VII
Trinity VIII
By Petersen, on May 15th, 2009%
I should have put this up a couple of weeks ago, but Rogate hits John 16 again so here it is, explicit references to John 16:
[XXVIII.] Concerning the Power of Bishops [The Confession of Faith: III, art. vii, par. 31]
[IV:] Justification (2) [Apology of the Augsburg Confession: art. i, par. 3, par. 132]
[XXI:] The Invocation of the Saints [Apology of the Augsburg Confession: art. i, par. 9, par. 17]
[3:] Concerning Repentance [The Smalcald Articles: III, art. iii, par. 1]
V. Concerning Law and Gospel (4) [The Formula of Concord: Solid Declaration, art. v, par. 11]
VI. Concerning the Third Use of the Law [The Formula of Concord: Solid Declaration, art. vi, par. 12]
XI. Concerning God’s Eternal Foreknowledge and Election [The Formula of Concord: Solid Declaration, art. xi, par. 12]
XI. Concerning God’s Eternal Foreknowledge and Election (2) [The Formula of Concord: Solid Declaration, art. xi, par. 65]
By pastorjuhl, on May 7th, 2009%
Revised from 2003.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Gospel last weekend, this weekend, and the next two weekends focus on Jesus catechizing His disciples. He is preparing them for apostolic ministry after His ascension to heaven. When Jesus predicts His Passion, death, resurrection, and subsequent ascension, the disciples are exceedingly sorrowful. Who wouldn’t be? Jesus will soon depart. The disciples are sad even though they do not ask Him where He is going.
When someone leaves, there may be a promise to return. My late Uncle Loren used to say good-bye by saying, “See you at the next meeting.” Now my father has taken that phrase as his good-bye when we leave him or he leaves us. We might say, “see you later” or “see you around”. This means we will see the person departing sometime in the future. The danger in saying these phrases is the person not seeing us later or around. Who knows when death may overtake us? One of the regrets of losing a loved one in a sudden way is the regret that we never have to say good-bye, a word that is shortened from “God be with you”. If our loved one was a believing Christian, we know we will see them again.
We know that we will see Jesus again just as the disciples will see Jesus again. It is good that Jesus departs. If He does not ascend to His Father in heaven, the Helper will not come. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, does as He hears from the Father. When the Father is glorified, so is the Son and the Helper. The Helper comes to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The disciples will stand in Christ’s stead and by the power of the Holy Spirit speak conviction to the world. It was no easy task then. It is still not an easy task today.
There is no lack of sin in the world. Sin is when we disobey God’s Word. The Helper convicts the world of sin because [the world] does not believe in [Jesus]. Not believing in God’s Word is more than disallowing prayer in schools or removing the phrase “God bless you” from our vocabulary. Not believing in God’s Word is putting another god, a false god, ahead of the One True God. When God supposedly “fails” us, we turn inside ourselves to find a god that will give us what we want. The result is looking to reputation, income, sex, drugs, food, or another idol that soothes us but cannot forgive us. When the Helper convicts us of sin, we believe the Helper is our enemy rather than our Helper.
Allowing sin to reign in our bodies means we lack righteousness from above. We believe we may be righteous but that righteousness does not save us. If we were righteous by what we say or do outside of Jesus, then why bother coming to Church? We don’t need Jesus anymore. We’re righteous! We did it our way! Everything Christ does is not for us but for our neighbor who isn’t as righteous as I am. When the Helper convicts us of righteousness, we think Jesus departs because we need Him no longer. The Helper is once again our enemy rather than our Helper.
Reigning sin and self-righteousness brings judgment. The ruler of this world rejoices because we do not listen to our Father in heaven. We listen to Satan, the ruler of this world. We make our ways His ways. The path grows dark when we listen to Satan. Standing against God in the darkness becomes comfortable. We know what to expect when we walk in darkness. We are allowed to do whatever we want, whenever we want. There is no jealous God looking over our shoulder threatening us with the Law. The Gospel is for wimps who can’t save themselves. What will happen when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead? What will self-righteousness rooted in sin say in our defense? These things will say nothing, for the Law of God silences them. We are found guilty. We must die for all eternity with the ruler of this world. We have cast our lot with death. We stand convicted with Satan.
Jesus says when…the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. The Helper speaks to the Apostles first on Pentecost through a rushing wind and tongues of fire. The Helper will speak through them the Law of God, convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Law cuts the heart open to expose the cancer of sin and death. Yet this conviction heals the heart from the cancer of sin and death. The dead lives because Jesus Christ becomes death for us. Jesus Christ is convicted of sin, righteousness, and judgment in our place. Jesus takes the punishment we deserve. Jesus dies and rises again, putting death to death forever.
The Helper glorifies the Father and the Son because He delivers Good News to a dying world. When pastors speak, they speak not their own words but the Word that convicts. When we hear the word “convict”, we sometimes put the emphasis on the first syllable. Someone who is in prison is a “convict”, a noun. We are convicts outside of Jesus Christ. Jesus uses the word “convict” in John chapter 16 as a verb, putting the emphasis on the last syllable. To convict someone means to show evidence that demands a verdict of “innocent” or “guilty”.
Pastors preach the law to convict us of our sin. Pastors preach the Gospel to convict us that our sin is pardoned in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. We are judged “innocent” because of Jesus. Jesus convicts the ruler of this world in His death and resurrection. The head of the serpent is crushed once and forever.
Every Lord’s day the Helper helps us see Who brings forgiveness and life. He helps us see Jesus in the preaching of the Gospel. The Word of Christ proclaims an end to death and a beginning of everlasting life. The Helper helps us see our Baptism and how we live our lives as royal priests. A royal priest prays, sings, and lives their lives in the forgiveness given us through water and the Word of God. The apostle James writes let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Absolution reconnects us to Baptism as Jesus forgives our sins through His called and ordained servant. As we are absolved, so we should absolve one another when we sin against each other. A royal priest does not live in spite against another royal priest. A royal priest forgives just as he is first forgiven in Christ.
The Helper directs us to the altar, where forgiven royal priests receive the True Body and Blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. His Supper is the foretaste of the Supper to come in heaven. There and here, our song of victory sounds like the words of Isaiah: God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For YAH, the Lord, is my strength and my son; He also has become my salvation. We leave the house of the Lord today fortified with Christ’s forgiveness and Christ’s life. Great indeed is the Holy One of Israel in our midst, not merely in the liturgy, but in us under bread and wine.
Jesus will soon ascend into heaven but He will not leave us as orphans. The Helper soon comes to lead us into all truth. He will lead us out of the pit of self-righteousness and false gods to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gifts of forgiveness and life. Even now, He is here in Word and Sacrament just as He said He world. He has put a new song in our mouths; a song of freedom from sin and joy in Jesus always.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
By ToddPeperkorn, on May 5th, 2009%
Historic Lectionary already has three posts on Cantate Sunday HERE, HERE and HERE. But here’s a little more to whet your appetite. From Bo Giertz’ excellent book, To Live With Christ (pp. 331-332):
The Spirit of truth made the impossible possible. We can thank Him for the picture of Christ given to us through the evangelists, a picture that gives all the essentials we need to know. The Spirit led the apostles, and with them the Early Church, to the truth about everything God has done in Christ. For this reason, there is something fundamental and of vital importance in the apostles’ work. The Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. This is why the Nicene Creed calls the Church not only holy and catholic (meaning the whole Church), but also apostolic
Jesus summarizes the Spirit’s work in three short points that we constantly encounter. He teaches us the truth about three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Spirit convinces us of our sin, teaches us right from wrong, and alerts us to our most serious shortcoming, which is unbelief. The Spirit witnesses about true righteousness that comes from God, the righteousness Christ acquired for us and gives us after He completed His work and returned to the Father. And the Spirit also witnesses to the truth about the fate that Christ’s death sealed for the prince of darkness and all the deeds of darkness, including the deeds we’re guilty of in our own hearts – a judgment that is simultaneously a victory for forgiveness and mercy, so that we, who are in fact condemned, now stand in grace and limitless mercy instead.
By pastorjuhl, on April 15th, 2008%
Origen – De Principiis II:7:4
But the Paraclete, who is called the Holy Spirit, is so called from His work of consolation…. For if anyone has deserved to participate in the Holy Spirit by the knowledge of His ineffable mysteries, he undoubtedly obtains comfort and joy of heart…. In the case of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete must be understood in the sense of comforter, inasmuch as He bestows consolation upon the souls to whom He openly reveals the apprehension of spiritual knowledge. (ANF 4:285f.)
Raymond Brown – Anchor Bible Commentary on the Gospel of John
Brown on “convict” – The idea is that, in a reversal of the trial of Jesus, the world is found guilty of sin in that it has not acknowledged the justice (righteousness) of God in the glorified Jesus, and this very conviction is a judgment on the prince of this world who accused Jesus and put Him to death. (p. 705) Continue reading More Notes for Easter 5 – Cantate
By pastorjuhl, on April 14th, 2008%
Pius Parsch, The Church’s Year of Grace
[The Gospel] alludes not only to the ascension but also to the descent of the Holy Ghost, and indicates that there is a connection between them. (Vol. 3, p. 129)
The Gospel proclaims a double message, Christ’s return to heaven and the mission of the Paraclete. The third Person of the Blessed Trinity will soon inaugurate His saving work in the world and in the Church. As Guide and Teacher He will continually deepen our insight into the doctrine of Jesus. He will also glorify Christ, the mystical Christ on earth. The Holy Eucharist is the Means He uses; that which we listen to in the Fore-Mass, we soon experience in reality. (Vol. 3, p. 130f.)
Church Fathers
This is the meaning of “to convict the world”: to show the world that those things are true which it did not wish to believe were so. For it did not wish to believe that the Savior came from God. But the Savior, after He had restored justice, did not delay in returning to Him Who had sent Him. And by so returning there He proved that it was from there He had come; because “no man hath ascended into heaven but He that descended from heaven, the Son of Man Who is in heaven.” (Ambrosiaster, quoted in M.F. Toal’s “The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 340)
Let men, therefore, believe in Christ, that they be not convicted of the sin of their own unbelief, whereby all sins are retained: let them make their way into the number of believers, that they be not convicted of the righteousness of those, whom, as justified, they fail to imitate: let them beware of that future judgment, that they be not judged with the prince of the world, whom, judged as he is, they continue to imitate (St. Augustine, NPNF 1:7:371)
To convict the world means to show the world those things that are true which it did not wish to believe were so. For it did not wish to believe that the Savior came from God. But the Savior, after He had restored righteousness, did not delay in returning to Him who had sent Him. And by so returning there He proved that it was from there He had come; because “no man has ascended into heaven but He that descended from heaven, the Son of Man Who is in heaven.” (Augustine, from Toal Vol. 2, p. 340)
Anyone who does not want to go to Christ and to the heavenly Father, let him be afraid to die. (Cyprian, quoted by Blessed Johann Gerhard in Postilla, Vol. 1, p. 394)
P.E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary
That is the chief sin of the world, of the unbelievers, that they reject Christ and His Gospel…. And therefore unbelief, which refuses to accept the forgiveness of sins, deliberately cuts itself off from salvation…. The world wants nothing of Christ’s blood and righteousness, preferring its own self-righteousness. And so both righteousness and salvation are lost to them by unbelief, as the Spirit will impress upon them…. The redemption of Christ sealed the devil’s doom…. This the Holy Ghost testifies to the hearts of the unbelievers, showing them that because of their unbelief they will have to share the doom of the devil, that they are condemned for rejecting the Conqueror of Satan. This also serves for the comfort of the believers, since they know that the world is even now convicted. (New Testament Vol. 1, p. 499)
That is the work of the Spirit for and in the believers, that He teaches them to know Jesus Christ, the Savior, aright and with ever-increasing clearness. (NT 1, p. 500)
Blessed Martin Luther
The summary of evangelical doctrine, then, is that we proclaim what sin and righteousness are, and that because of this doctrine we may expect the world’s judgment and condemnation. Yet we take comfort from what Christ says here: The prince of this world is already judged. This doctrine about sin and righteousness we preach diligently, and as a result we endure the world’s judgment against us. (House Postils Vol.2, p. 102f.)
Blessed Johann Gerhard
Christ is saying with this that the Holy Spirit will reveal to the world the fount and source of every other sin – namely unbelief – through the office of the ministry. He also will knock the props out from the false dream of self-righteousness. Also, He shall direct them to another, better righteousness. Ultimately, He will convict the world on account of its false judgment and false jurisdiction – that it no longer is to serve the devil, nor any longer acknowledge him as its ruling lord. Instead, it should allow itself to be guided and ruled by the Holy Spirit. (Postilla Vol. 1, p. 396)
Hymns (Lutheran Service Book)
Invocation: 792, “New Songs of Celebration Render”; Sequence: 459, “Christ is Arisen”; Hauptlied: 556, “Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice”; Communion: 633, “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing”; To Depart: 816, “From All That Dwell Below the Skies”
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