Brothers and sisters in Christ, just about anywhere you go, people talk about "the Spirit." They mean, of course, the Holy Spirit. You can hear phrases all the time such as "the Spirit led me," "the Spirit laid it on my heart," or "Spirit-filled." People love to get some religious idea in their head and say "the Spirit moved me" or "I was inspired by the Spirit." Thank God we have Jesus' words teaching us about the Spirit or we might actually believe all that nonsense and silly "spirit" talk! I told you last week that Jesus' words over the next few weeks are very important. They are words that prepared His disciples, after His resurrection, to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. They are words that teach us what life in the church will be like and what the Spirit's work is actually all about. Now that we cannot see Jesus, can we be sure of where He is? Absolutely! By the Spirit we have the certainty of Jesus. Well then can we be certain of having the Spirit? Absolutely! Because Jesus tells us where and how the Spirit will be at work in the world after He has ascended.

"When that one, the Spirit of Truth comes, he will lead you into all truth because He will take of what is mine and announce it to you." Here in this one sentence of Jesus we have all that we need to know about the Holy Spirit and what He does and how He works. We learn that the Spirit comes to us from Christ. Jesus is the Way, the TRUTH and the Life, and so the Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Jesus, sent by Him to lead us into all truth. What is the truth? Jesus is the Truth. So if the Spirit is sent by Jesus to lead us to the Truth, we can say that the Holy Spirit comes to us from Jesus to lead us to Jesus. So, first question: what is the Spirit's job? To lead us to Jesus. To point us to Christ. To bring us to our Savior. Anything that isn't pointing us to Jesus, giving us Jesus, teaching us Jesus isn't the Holy Spirit. In fact, we can even go so far as to say: If what is being preached and talked about isn't Christ and the forgiveness of sins, then it's not the Holy Spirit at work. The Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus by the Gospel, the preaching and teaching that the Scriptures contain, namely, that Jesus is true God and true Man, that He died for our sins and rose again the Third Day. The Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus who is the Truth, that Truth being that we cannot save ourselves from our sins, but the blood of Jesus wipes out our sins and cancels the debt of our sins before God. The Truth is this: Jesus is our Savior. The Holy Spirit's job is to lead us to Jesus. The Spirit of Truth leads us to the Truth.

HOW does the Spirit lead us into all Truth? How does He lead us to Jesus? Jesus tells us: "He will take what is mine and announce and declare it to you." How does the Spirit lead us to Jesus? How does He give us Jesus? Answer: He takes what is Jesus's and gives it to us. What is Jesus' stuff? The forgiveness of sins. Righteousness. Holiness. Being the Son of the Father. How does the Spirit lead us to Jesus? Bring us to Jesus? By giving us these things? How does the Spirit declare these things to us? How does the Spirit deliver them? By giving us what is Jesus' goods: Holy Baptism. Jesus instituted Holy Baptism as the means by which God washes away our sins. Holy Absolution. Jesus told His apostles to go into the world and forgive sins. The Holy Gospel. When what the Scriptures teach is taught to us, the Good News that for Jesus' sake our sins are forgiven, then we are lead to Jesus the Truth. Holy Supper. The Spirit, by the Word, gives us what belongs to Jesus, namely, His own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. Do you have the Truth? That is, do you have Jesus? The answer is simple: Yes, if you have His Baptism, His Absolution, His Gospel and His Supper. Apart from these gifts, these means of grace, these holy "B.A.G.S" as the children have learned to know them, there is no Spirit, no Jesus, no forgiveness, no salvation, no eternal life. But with these gifts, have NO DOUBT that the Spirit is present and active and leading you to all Truth, that is, to giving you Jesus.




What we need to watch out for, however, brothers and sisters, are false spirits, words and preaching and teaching and religion that claims to be of the Holy Spirit but is not. Here we need to hear what the Spirit is NOT. The Spirit is NOT our feelings. Too often today, people do what they feel like. Whatever makes them feel good. Whatever SEEMS right. And if you ask them about it or question them, they say, "But that's the Spirit moving me. You can't keep me from doing something the Spirit has led me to do." The problem is, so much of what passes today for the "Spirit" really has nothing to do with Jesus and His gifts. The Spirit was not given by Jesus so we can convince ourselves that our own opinions are what God is thinking! No, the Spirit leads us, by way of Christ's gifts, to Christ Himself. Therefore we can say it like this: if it's not giving us Christ, and calling us to repentance and delivering the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name, it's NOT the Holy Spirit. In fact, one of the simplest ways to determine whether the true Holy Spirit is at work is to listen whether Jesus or the Spirit is being talked about. If all you hear is "Spirit" this and "Spirit" that, it's a pretty good bet you're not getting the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't come to announce Himself. He comes to announce Jesus. To give us Jesus. To lead us to Jesus. If that's not the main thing, then run from whatever spirit that is, because it's not the Holy Spirit.

Now, what is the end result of all this? This isn't just "we're right" and "they're wrong" sort of stuff. Jesus goes on to say, "All that the Father has is Mine and that is why the Spirit will take from Me and give to you." It means this: Do you have the Spirit? The answer is easy: do you have your Baptism? Absolution? Gospel? Supper? Yes! Do you have the Truth? Do you have Jesus? The answer is simple: do you have the Spirit? Yes! Do you have the Father? The answer is also simple: Yes! In Jesus. To have Baptism, Absolution, Gospel and Supper is to have the Spirit and Christ and the Father. It is to have all the gifts God has for you: forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, eternal life and salvation. All of this is given for you comfort! So that when the devil, the world and the flesh come after you to take you down, you are protected by the comfort and confidence that you have the Lord and all His saving gifts. Beware also of the temptation of those enemies that "You can't really ever know the truth. You can't ever really know what God thinks about you. You can't really ever know your sins are forgiven or that you have a heavenly Father." Brothers and sisters, the devil, world and flesh will shout at you that if you dare to think you have the Truth, you are arrogant and presumptuous. Full of yourself. But don't believe those lies! Jesus says you WILL know the Truth. Because HE is the Truth. And the Spirit leads you to the Truth by His holy gifts of Jesus. Don't listen to the devil, world and flesh. Listen and cling to and trust in those things of Jesus that are given to you by the Spirit. Live in those gifts and you will be certain that you are indeed in the Truth. In Jesus. Forgiven. That you have eternal life.

The world is full of the "spirit." But not the Holy Spirit. The True Holy Spirit comes only through the means of Grace, the word and Sacraments. The B.A.G.S. And He gives us only Christ. Only the Savior who lived and died and rose again to take away our sins and give us once again a heavenly Father. Jesus speaks His Words so that you will not be deceived. That's because Jesus is the Truth. And He gives His Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to lead you to Him, into all Truth. Hear that Truth, brothers and sisters in Christ: Your Lord has redeemed you from sin and death and given you His Spirit who by His holy gifts brings you into the faith of Christ and keeps you in it. So we end with that word that means "Truth" and "True" and "So it is!" and "True 'dat:" Amen.