• "Jesus Talks About His Return to Heaven"
• Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Easter
• May 9, 2004
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

In the gospel today, Jesus talks about his return to heaven, or ascension. When he spoke to his disciples about this, they were sad because they thought it meant that he would no longer be with them. But Jesus said, "It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you" (John 16:7, NKJ).

The helper is the Holy Spirit. Jesus, who ascended into heaven forty days after Easter, continues to be present on earth with his church through the gift of the Spirit. Being led by the Holy Spirit, the church, the body of Christ, carries on the ministry of Christ in the world.

The gospel highlights two aspects of this ministry: reproving the world and leading disciples into the truth. Jesus said, "When he (the Holy Spirit) is come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment" And Jesus said, "When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth."

Jesus confronted sin and unbelief in Israel. He called the nation to repentance. And Jesus gathered disciples and taught them the truth. The church carries on this ministry globally. It is called to confront the world with the presence of Jesus Christ, to reprove the world of sin and unbelief and call people to repent. And it is called to gather disciples and teach them the truth.

Thus, the Holy Spirit makes a distinction between those who do not believe and those who do. To those who do not believe, the Holy Spirit is, in a sense, confrontational. The Spirit lets people know that a day of judgment is coming. The Holy Spirit sets forth true standards of righteousness that convict people of sin and lead them into holy behavior. The Holy Spirit calls people to repent of sin and believe in Jesus Christ.

There is an erroneous idea afoot among some Christians that the ministry of the church, as an extension of the ministry of Jesus, is all about being nice to everyone. The church, according to this line of thought, is not supposed to make anyone feel bad about anything, but is to be tolerant of whatever each person might think or do.

Such an idea of the ministry cannot be reconciled with the Bible. The first ministerial words out of the mouth of Jesus were, "Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mark 1:15). The sense of the church's vocation is captured in the longer ending to Mark's gospel: Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (16:15, ESV).

The church fulfills its vocation only when, like Jesus, it provokes people to respond. There are three general responses to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Some reject the convicting message of the Holy Spirit. They deny that they have sin. Or they acknowledge their sin but refuse to repent. Some are indifferent. They hear some things they like and some things they don't like and decide they will respond next year. And some repent and come to faith. But where the Holy Spirit is at work in the world, people will be provoked to respond.

The Holy Spirit has a different ministry in the lives of those who repent and come to faith. The Spirit leads us into all truth. The Spirit leads us into all truth about God so that we, more and more, come to know him and see him as he is. The Spirit leads us into all truth about ourselves so that we grow in repentance.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit within us remains confrontational to some degree. The Holy Spirit still reproves us of sin when we do what is wrong. But in the baptized believer, the Holy Spirit works as the Spirit of a loving Father who corrects, disciplines and trains.

The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth in a corporate as well as personal sense. The primary sense of the Spirit leading us into all truth is that the Holy Spirit leads the church as a body into all truth. Sometimes people overemphasize the personal and individual sense of the ministry of the Spirit-as if the Holy Spirit could say something to one person that is at odds with what the Spirit says to another.

The Holy Spirit does give us each special insight and wisdom for our unique life circumstances and challenges. The Holy Spirit does give certain individuals gifts of wisdom and knowledge to understand the truths of the faith in a deeper and more profound way. But personal revelations given by the Holy Spirit will never be in conflict with the revelation of truth God has given to the whole church. Thus, our personal sense of what the Holy Spirit is saying must always be held accountable to the Body of Christ as a whole.

The Holy Spirit led the church into a right understanding of God. The Holy Spirit led the church to select which writings would be placed in the Bible and which would be rejected. The Holy Spirit led the church to write the creeds, which are the authoritative summaries of biblical doctrine.

The Holy Spirit works in our hearts to enable us to understand and embrace the Truth. The Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the spiritually blind and the ears of the spiritually deaf. We know that the Holy Spirit is within us because he has given us the grace to say Amen! to the creeds and prayers and doctrines of our salvation.

As 1 John says, "By this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us" (3:24. NKJ).