John 16:12–22

¹²"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁶"A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me." ¹⁷So some of his disciples said to one another, "What is this that he says to us, 'A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me'; and, 'because I am going to the Father'?" ¹⁸So they were saying, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We do not know what he is talking about." ¹⁹Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, "Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, 'A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me'? ²⁰Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. ²¹When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. ²²So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

The first time I took my wife to a reunion of my family, all my relatives were quite anxious to meet her. Everyone went around with smiling faces introducing themselves. It was somewhat overwhelming, to be sure. My father's family alone had 11 children so all total my aunts and uncles and cousins, along with their children and grandchildren number in the hundreds.

It was a little like what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit in our text. "He will take what is mine and declare it to you." Sort of like introducing your relatives to your wife, the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by introducing him to people as the crucified and risen Christ.

However, sometimes we may have a difficult time remembering some of the people we are introduced to. Or may not always get it down exactly just how they are related. Just like the disciples. There were a lot of things that Jesus told them that they just didn't get, or found it hard to understand. In fact, not just the disciples, but we too find them hard to understand and sometimes don't want to understand them.

Like the time he washed his disciples' feet. They did not understand why their master was washing their feet. That we the job of a servant, not a master. But when Jesus says that this was to show them that they too had to become servants of others and "wash the feet of others," that is just too much for some of us to comprehend, and even harder to put into practice. We rebel at the thought of having to become servants, especially to people we don't like or to people we consider lower than ourselves.

Or what about the time Jesus told them "A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you." Love, that sounds good. But just how did Jesus love you? He loved you so much that he gave his life for you. That means, you are to love others and give your life for others. And that's not all, he says to love others so much that you turn the other cheek when they offend or insult you. He even says to love your enemies! Love them to the point of giving your life for them as Jesus gave his life for you.

Or, how about the time Jesus said to "deny yourself and take up your cross and follow him." We don't like self-denial or self-sacrifice. And we certainly don't want to bear any crosses that involve trials; suffering; or pain.

So we, like the disciples, often don't want to hear, much less do what Jesus tells us. We just don't get it. We want life to be just about us. Not about others. We want to focus our eyes inward on self; self-satisfaction; self-esteem, self-fulfillment. So when Jesus tells us to turn our eyes outward onto others, we don't want to hear, and often turn off our ears.

So when the disciples asked him, "Where are you going?" and when Philip said, "Show us the Father," Jesus understood that it was too much for them at that time. They weren't ready to understand. So Jesus made another introduction. He introduced them to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit "will guide you into all the truth." You are not ready to understand now, but the Holy Spirit will give you understanding. "He will not speak on his own authority," but will speak "whatever he hears." He will only speak God's word to you. "He will declare to you the things that are to come." The chief work of the Spirit is to introduce to people what "all" this "truth" is about. All the hard things about Christ that we don't understand by our own reason or strength he will testify to us. Luther explains in the third article of the creed that we confess that "We believe that by our own reason or strength we cannot believe in Jesus Christ or come to him." It is the Holy Spirit who introduces us to Christ.

In a few weeks we will celebrate the day of Pentecost. On that day the Holy Spirit was poured out onto Christ's disciples in order to introduce Christ to people. The work of the Holy Spirit to introduce us to Jesus continues; it is an on-going project. It is not a onetime thing such that "now you have it" and it's over. The Holy Spirit continues through God's Word to draw us to Christ, bring us ever closer to him. We need to hear, study, learn God's word continually. Confirmation is not graduation from studying God's word, it is the beginning. It provides only the basic fundamentals. It is the beginning of spiritual growth, but we must keep on growing; we must keep on nourishing our souls or they will die; the Holy Spirit must continue to introduce us to Jesus every day or we will fall away from Him.

I've never been real good at remembering names. Someone can introduce themselves to me and thirty seconds later I have forgotten their name. I have to ask a person over and over again before I finally remember their name. It's important to be able to remember names of people and I need to listen more attentively and develop a system of doing it.

But it's crucial to pay attention to the introduction the Holy spirit makes. It is a matter of life and death. If you don't hear or pay attention to the Word read and preached and taught it will result in falling from faith and losing your eternal salvation. Jesus say, "If you remain in my word you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." Remain! He was talking to people who already had heard and knew Jesus, but he warned about not remaining in the word.

Still, we don't always pay attention to the word of God. Many stop listening after they are confirmed thinking they know it all. As if there is no need to keep growing in Christ. Many stop learning listening, stop learning, stop studying, and stop nourishing their soul. Oh, yes, you go through the motions, you come to church, but don't always pay attention to the Word read, preached and sung in the hymns and liturgy. And many people spend no time outside of Sunday morning in God's Word. The result is spiritual starvation and death.

In the Word the Spirit is introducing you to "the things that are to come." Jesus said, "a little while and you will not see me; and again a little while and you will see me." In other words, the Holy Spirit is reintroducing you to your Savior, Jesus Christ. Keep listening!

As Jesus said these words, just a few hours later he was arrested, tried, crucified and died on a cross. But the truth is, this was Jesus' moment of greatest glory. It would only last for awhile. As Jesus said, "after a woman gives birth, her sorrow turns to joy." "You hearts will rejoice and no one will take away your joy from you." The apostles would find joy again at Christ's resurrection.

By the Holy Spirit's introduction to Christ, he gives us his joy. We have the joy of sharing in Christ's death and resurrection. That is the joy of baptism where the Holy Spirit introduces us to Jesus the first time. For in your baptism you were joined to Christ in his death. Your sins were hung on that cross in the flesh of Jesus Christ. Your sins were paid for by his suffering and death. His blood was shed to wash you from your sins. Your sins were forgiven and you were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. You have been purchased with Christ's blood to be the people of God. You no longer belong to yourself or to this world, but you are the possession of God and your citizenship is now in the kingdom of God.

And the Spirit keeps that joy alive by constantly reintroducing you to your Savior, Jesus Christ, in word and Sacrament. By listening to his word, by receiving the sacrament in faith, the Holy Spirit keeps you alive in Christ.

So, since I don't have all that good of a memory for names, I have to keep going to family reunions to be reintroduced to them. Fact is, my wife has a much better memory than I do. So now, she introduces me to them. Whenever I want to know who someone is or how they are related to me, I ask my wife.

The Holy Spirit keeps reintroducing you to Jesus. There really is only one name you absolutely need to remember; the name Jesus. The Spirit introduces him to you as your crucified and risen Savior. He introduced him to you at your Baptism and continues to declare him to you in the Word and Sacrametn. That brings joy, and even a new joy, the joy of introducing Jesus to others who don't know him. There is no greater joy than helping someone new learn his name.

Amen.