Author: Rev. Eric Brown

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”

The children of Israel had been grumbling. They probably didn’t think their grumbling was that big of a deal – they probably thought they were justified to grumble. Then the fiery snakes came and bit them, and they knew they were going to die painfully. But a way of salvation was given – God has Moses put a serpent on a pole, and if you looked at the serpent, you would live. That was just how it would work.

We can forget that our sin is vile and deadly. We often brush off what our anger and cruel words do, what impacts our greed and lust have, but in reality, they kill. They are deadly. But we don’t want to believe that. We want to say that what we do isn’t so bad, or that we had good reason, or that at least it’s not as bad as “those people.” And our denial of our own sin just makes our lives and relationships get worse and worse.

So God lets our sin bite us sometimes. God lets the impact of our sin be painfully obvious. Why? Not because He’s simply annoyed with us or because He’s out to get us. No, we feel the weight of sin so that we would be driven to repentance and see Christ. Jesus was lifted up upon the cross for real sins. Our sin isn’t dealt with by our excusing it or brushing it off, but by Jesus taking the full, real, nasty deadly sin onto Himself and crucifying. This is how He loves you – He takes your sin from you and puts it to death, and in return He gives you eternal life. He does everything required for you to have eternal life. You don’t have to justify yourself or downplay your sin – Jesus takes it all for you.

“Let not your hearts be troubled” – John 14:27

The day of Pentecost is often seen as the Holy Spirit’s big day – and we can want to focus on the lights and flames, the different tongues and rushing wind – but that sort of misses the point. When Peter preaches, he basically brushes off the “miracle” of the day – this is just what Joel told you would come. Instead, Peter preaches Christ and Him Crucified for forgiveness. He preaches baptism for the remission of sin, and with this baptism you will “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

And what in particular does this gift of Holy Spirit bring? It is what Jesus promises in John 14. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” This is the job of the Holy Spirit, to bring the Peace of God to sinners. This is a real gift for real sinners.

Do you find yourself trapped in your sin, daily struggling with issues and angers and emotions that are seemingly beyond your control? Do you daily end up doing things you know you shouldn’t, saying unkind words, thinking unkind thoughts, wounding friends and family, spreading gossip, being short with each other, despising others? Well, the wonderful thing is this: the Holy Spirit works through the Word even in English to folks today proclaims again the great message: Peace be with you! Your sin, your warfare and rebellion against God, is forgiven, for Christ Jesus has died upon the Cross and has risen again, and He has declared His peace. Right now you are at peace with God.

And this peace that Jesus gives through His Spirit, He doesn’t give it as the world does. There are no strings attached. There are no hoops for you to jump through, no veiled threats included. Jesus has declared you forgiven, and you are. You have no need of being troubled, no need of being afraid of either God’s wrath nor the wrath of men. This is the twofold message that is proclaimed in the Church and has been since Pentecost – that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and that God gives us that forgiveness, truly gives us freely and completely that forgiveness, on account of Christ Jesus. Therefore we have true peace, peace in Christ.

“and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations…” – Luke 27:47

That’s it? All the stuff that happens in Jesus’ life, indeed all the stuff in the scriptures leads up to Christ’s death and resurrection – and the result is just that? He ascends and leaves us with just repentance and forgiveness being preached? At first glance it doesn’t seem like much – shouldn’t all this Jesus thing mean we get more stuff or money or wealth? Shouldn’t it mean that we get to crush our enemies (and certainly not forgive them)? Is that it?

Well, yes. But the thing is we can forget how mighty and wondrous repentance and forgiveness actually is. We can become bored with them and look for other things to our own sorrow. Consider what a gift repentance actually is. Sin messes with all of us, and it grows. Little white lies start to get bigger and bigger. We start of mildly annoy, and then we get perturbed, and then we get angry, and then there’s shouting matched and things get broken. A little bit of lust starts to warp and twist entire relationships. And instead of just standing by and letting us run wild and ruin everything in our stupidity, Christ has a word of repentance spoken – He shows us our sin and checks us up. That is no small thing!

And then, when we are made aware of our sin – when we see the mess we’ve made and how we’re making it bigger, Christ speaks a word of forgiveness. The consequences of sin are horrible – and they ought to get worse. But instead of having you run into and live in the consequences of your sin, now and forever, Christ Jesus has taken them up for you, He took them to the cross and you are forgiven. You are right with God. You will not die, but you will live eternally with Him. And even the temporary and earthly problems that come about because of sin – you see them differently. You live in Christ’s love. You admit you are wrong to your neigbhor – you don’t have to double down. You forgive your neighbor – you don’t need to get vengeance or punishment.

And that’s hard on you. Living in Christ’s love is hard, especially when you are still in your sinful flesh, and when you are running into things that really are hard and painful in the world. And sometimes your flesh and the world get the best of you, and they pull your eyes off of Jesus and lead you astray. And yet, what has your ascended Lord commanded His Church to give to preach to you – the repentance and forgiveness that you need. Repentance is no small thing; it’s everything you need – and Jesus gives it to you over and over again.

“I have said these things to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world” – John 16:33

In the world you will have tribulation. Not you might, not you could, but you will. Jesus doesn’t pull any punches or sugar coat reality here at all, does He? That’s not how we tend to operate. So often people will try to downplay or minimize the lousy things that happen to us. “Oh, it’s not so bad.” “Hey, it could be worse.” As though that makes what I’m suffering right now any better! Yet that’s how we tend to think of comfort – simply telling people that it’s not that bad.

Jesus knows, though. He knows the world for what it is, He knows sin for what it is, what it can do and unleash upon people. He bears it all up upon Himself; He goes to the Cross and suffers the full weight of it – and He’s not up there whistling away or saying, “Well, at least it’s not raining, there’s a silver lining to all this darkness covering the land.” No! Jesus knows sin for what it is. He knows hardship for what it is. And Jesus is honest – He knows that you will face hardship.

But Jesus also tells you something that is even more profound than your sorrow – so profound that He has no need to minimize what you are going through in the slightest. He has overcome the world. The world did its worst to Jesus, crucified Him – yet He rose. Sin, death, and the Devil all came after Him loaded for bear, and He strode out of the tomb and proclaimed peace.

In the world, you will have troubles. And you don’t need to pretend it is otherwise, because you are also in Christ Jesus. You are baptized into Him. You are forgiven, redeemed, and life everlasting is yours. Christ Jesus has said so. So no matter how truly and honestly big and nasty the trouble of the day is – Jesus is still your Lord and Savior, and He has truly conquered all, and you do have peace and life and victory in Him. It’s not that your troubles aren’t really that’s big, it’s that your Savior is bigger than them all, and He still loves you.

“[The Spirit will convict] concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” – John 16:11

Christ Jesus has won the victory over the world, over the devil, over the powers of evil. But right now, we don’t always see that. We look around and see wickedness and vileness and evil. We see Christians persecuted, we see Christians mocked. And we may even ask ourselves – why doesn’t Jesus just hurry up and come back? The Apostles and the Early Church, they asked themselves that. Luther wanted Christ to return quickly. We do ourselves! Thy Kingdom Come. Come, Lord Jesus! That is the prayer of the Church. And why does Christ delay – I can’t answer fully. It’s good that He does – If Christ had returned in Luther’s day none of us would be here, so we know that God’s love for us had some part in His delay, that He’s waited for us to be brought to faith. How long – that’s in His hands – we trust in Him and pray as He has commanded us.

But in this meantime until His second coming, we see the world, and it can be easy to become depressed. We see dog eat dog to get ahead, and we can wonder if our suffering is worth it. And the world continually calls out to us, offers us vain, fleeting promises. And we are tempted. And at those times, the Holy Spirit comes and uses the Word of God to speak to us clearly and with conviction this truth – that the ruler of this world is judged. The Holy Spirit points us to the true victory that we have in Christ, the eternal victory. This is why Luther has us sing in A Mighty Fortress “This world’s prince may still scowl fierce as he will – he can harm us none – he’s judged, the deed is done. One little word can fell him.”

But also this – you have been judged – but judged righteous, declared, that wonderful word, declared righteous on account of Christ. This world is judged, Satan is judged and condemned – but you, dear friends, you have been declared righteous, declared forgiven, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – the blessings that Christ has won have been given to you – and so you can stride through the trials of this life boldly knowing that your salvation rests solely upon Christ. That’s what the Spirit proclaims to us over and over again.

“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Think for a moment how upsetting these words would have been to many of the people in Jerusalem. They were the special people – and then here comes Jesus saying that He’s going to just bring on in “other” sheep. So know – “them”. “Those people.” Samaritans and Gentiles and Tax Collectors and who knows what else. And it annoyed many folks them. Terrified them. In verse 20 some asserted that He had a demon and was insane.

Think for a moment about how upsetting these words are to us today. We are in a highly tribal and divided day. There are so many “others” that we are trained by society and our peers to fear and hate. And here comes Jesus with this daft plan not just to save me and the people like me, but all sorts of people. Not just my clique, not just the people who think the same way as I do on the issues of the day, not just the people who look like me. Nope, Jesus brings in the other.

Our words today like to separate us from the other. We say that “they” are lazy or oppressors. We will angrily yell and type how hateful “they” are. That “they” abuse the system and society – whether they are welfare queens or the one percent. “They” are bad. That’s what the voices all around us cry, that’s what we tend to cry.

Then comes the voice of Christ Jesus. The voice of the Good Shepherd, the voice of the Lamb Who Was Slain. He says that He has laid down His life for you, for all of you. Even that person whom you fear and hate. He says peace. He calls out sin and proclaims forgiveness. He batters down our divisions with His mercy. He doesn’t let us define ourselves by our quirks or individual wants – we are defined together – one flock, one Shepherd, one faith, one Lord, one baptism. His Word, His voice actually does gather us together with some of the most fascinating and wondrous people in the world. Fellow forgiven sinners. Fellow sheep who were rescued by the Good Shepherd. And that is where we actually live in peace that the world cannot give.