It was a time of transition, a time of change, for the disciples. They had been with their Lord for three years and now He was about to go to the cross. Throughout these three years, Jesus had spoken often of His coming suffering and death as well as the resurrection that would follow. Now it is all coming to completion. Jesus speaks the words of today's Gospel on Maundy Thursday evening, the eve of His crucifixion. One more time Jesus speaks to His disciples of His death and what lies beyond His death, resurrection, and ascension for them. He will leave them and yet they will not be left alone. That is Jesus' promise to His disciples and it is fulfilled for us as well, for Jesus has sent us the Helper, the Spirit of truth.

Jesus does not leave His disciples to fend for themselves in this world that is hostile to Him and those who bear His name. Make no mistake about it - the world is not friendly to Christ and His Christians. Just before the Lord spoke the words of today's text He said, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (15:18-19). The world, locked in stubborn rebellion against its Creator, refuses to acknowledge the true God. The world finds it much more comfortable to live as though there is no God to whom it is accountable. It is this world that hates the Father. It is this world that hates the Son, for He perfectly reveals the Father. And it is this world which hates those who confess that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. So Jesus tells His disciples ahead of time that they can expect the same rejection and hatred that He has experienced. Jesus says, "These things I have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble." And again He says, "But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them."

Now Jesus is going to the Father. By way of His cross, the empty tomb, and the cloud of Ascension Day, the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the Father who sent Him. As we heard on Ascension Thursday, the Ascension is not about the absence of Christ but His presence with us in a new way. He ascends far above all heavens that He might fill all things. Before His Ascension, the Lord promises to send the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who will keep us in union with Jesus Christ.

Notice how Jesus describes the Holy Spirit. He is called the Spirit of truth. Earlier Jesus had said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." The Spirit sent from the Father and the Son is the Spirit of truth. He will testify of Jesus. In other words, He will bear testimony to the truth of who Jesus is and what He has done to save us. The Spirit of truth does not come to bring new revelations or to impart some secret knowledge about God. No, the Spirit of truth works through the Word of truth. He brings to remembrance all that Jesus said. He sustains us in saving faith through Jesus' words, for His words are spirit and life.

The Spirit who is given to the Lord's apostles will make of them His instruments to bear witness. They "will bear witness," Jesus says, because they have been with Him from the beginning. In other words, the apostles will testify to the things that they have seen and heard from Jesus Himself. This is what Jesus means in Acts 1:8 when He says to His apostles, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, to the end of the earth.." The apostles were unique. They had spent three years with the Lord. They were eye-witnesses of His teaching and miracles. They heard Him with their ears, touched Him with their hands, and saw Him with their eyes. We are dependent on them for our confession of Jesus Christ. When we testify of Christ, we can only repeat what we have been given from the apostles in Holy Scripture.

That means we are to be terribly uncreative in our evangelism. The Christian faith is not something that you improvise as you go along. We can only confess, that is, repeat what we have heard in God's Word. The only Savior we know is the One proclaimed to us by the Scriptures. He is the baby of Bethlehem and the Man of Calvary. He is the Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He is the Lord who was raised from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. That is the Gospel which the Spirit caused the apostles to preach in all the world. And it is that Gospel that earned for them rejection.

Note that this Jesus says, "They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service." The world is quite content to tolerate generic religion, but it will not tolerate the preaching of Christ alone as the Savior of the world. Such a message will be characterized as narrow and arrogant. And a world that prides itself on being ever so tolerant becomes highly intolerant of the Gospel. Even as the Jews who stoned Stephen though they were serving God by executing this preacher of the Gospel, so there are those today who think that they are serving God by attempting to silence the confession of Christ. The May issue of First Things tells of how the Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and ELCA campus ministries at Dartmouth College encouraged the college administration to ban Campus Crusade from distributing free copies of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity on campus because the book might offend non-Christian students.

The hostility that the apostles experienced did not come from the secular world, at least not initially, but from the synagogue, the religious establishment. So today, the most vocal opponents of the Gospel are often not the secularists but those within the church who want a non-offensive Gospel that is welcoming and affirming of anything and everything without regard to repentance and faith. But this should come as no surprise. Jesus tells us beforehand that "these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me."

There is comfort for us in this Gospel. We are not left alone in the midst of a God-forsaking world. The Ascended Lord has sent us the Helper, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit. Through the preaching of His Gospel, that Spirit is creating and sustaining faith in those who hear that Word wherever it pleases Him. God imparts His Spirit in the waters of Holy Baptism to wash away sin and give us the new birth from above. We eat and drink our Savior's body and blood given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins and His heavenly food strengthens and sustains us for the struggles and temptations of this life. No, we are not alone. We are not left without consolation. We have the Spirit of truth and He keeps us connected to our crucified, risen, and ascended Lord. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.