Fifth Sunday of Easter (1905)

John 16:5-15 Before our gospel the Lord Christ speaks about the fact that the unbelieving world hates and will be hostile toward Christians because they have Christ's mind and Spirit and would not live according to worldly sense. Christians of the present day also experience this. Mankind hates Christians because they remain in the Gospel of the crucified Christ. Mankind mockingly call out to us: "We don't live in the time of the Apostles anymore. We don't live in the good old days, but in the 20th century. Mankind has to keep in step with the times and enlightenment and adjust the Gospel to the times. The old must be abolished and a new take its place." This is the mind of the educated and uneducated world against the faithful witness of Jesus. And because we Christians neither can nor would make sense of it, thus the world hates us and holds us as narrow men, and if they could, they would also persecute us.1 What should we make of this? Christ shows us: We should confidently perform our work: to bear witness about Christ. Because 1. the witness of the Holy Spirit goes out into the world through our witness. a. No one can rightly bear witness to Christ from their own reason. The apostles themselves had not understood all doctrines before the sending of the Holy Spirit, although they believed in Christ.2 Therefore the Holy Spirit shall sharpen their senses and guide them into all Truth.3 b. The Holy Spirit has now been poured out upon the dear apostles. What has He witnessed to them? . That which he has decided in the council of the Holy Trinity with the Father and the Son.4 . He does not teach differently than the Son, but takes Christ's teachings and explains them.5 . And the teaching is again no different from that which the Father teaches; for everything the Father has is Christ, because it is about what Christ has done through His incarnation, His passion, death, etc., for the salvation of mankind. In other words, the Holy Spirit has proclaimed to them the whole act of God for salvation and they are enlightened about it. He led them into all truth, His testimony is complete, He brings us the testimony of the triune God, so it is infallible and can never lead us astray. We need no traditions in addition to it, new revelations, etc. c. The Lord Jesus sent His disciples into all the world with this testimony. The Holy Spirit compelled them to write down this testimony. So we now have in
John 16:1-4. Acts 1:6; Mark 10:35. 3 John 16:13a. 4 John 16:13b. 5 John 16:14.
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the writings of the Apostles the same doctrine that the Holy Trinity adopted in council, fulfilled in the Son and is inspired by the Holy Spirit.6 d. Now this is the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, we depart from it neither to the left nor to the right, but proclaim and speak only that which God prompts us in His Word, so we speak not our own, but God speaks through us. It is the Word of the great God which we bring to mankind. So the witness of the Holy Spirit goes forth into the world through our witness. 2. The world is condemned in its own conscience through our witness. a. We convict the world concerning sin through our witness, because they do not believe in Christ.7 The world wants to know nothing about a Savior and thus nothing about faith. Children of the world do not consider themselves sinners and think that Christians are to blame precisely with their doctrine of faith in the crucified Savior of Sinners, that mankind has still not approached the gods. It often seems as if the whole world is drowned in unbelief. Nevertheless the Holy Spirit works through our witness. He convicts them guilty of the Truth of the Gospel, and judges their own consciences, even if their mouth denies it.8 b. If the Holy Spirit has convicted the world of sin, then they are restless in their conscience and seeks to help through their own works, seeks righteousness in their own deeds. But we bear witness to the righteousness of Christ's blood.9 The self-righteous world wants to hear nothing about it. They despise those who would be saved by grace: the Pharisees, the Publican.10 But God speaks through our witness and convicts the world in its own conscience, that their righteousness is still rejected.11 c. We witness that the prince of this world and thus also all godless ways of the world, e.g. dancing, theater, masquerades, binge drinking, lodges, etc., are condemned by Christ. The whole world together with the hellish powers then appear against such witness. They do not want to know it and does not like to suffer, that the world shall be succumbed with its desire of condemnation. They oppose the witness with hatred and enmity, with threats and rebukes. They want us then to be anxious, as if the Church, His congregation, will be subject. But take heart! You do not speak your word, but God's Word; you do not lead your cause, but Christ's cause; you do not give your witness, but Christ's witness. The great God, Whose instrument you are, is your counsel, and He convicts the world in its own conscience, that their cause is still a lost cause, and that they must be lost, because they do not receive Christ. W.C.K.

1 Corinthians 2:13; Matthew 10:20. John 16:9. 8 Acts 24:25. 9 John 16:10. 10 Luke 18:9-14 11 Acts 26:27-28.
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