pUtTiNg ThE pRoPEr eMpHaSiS oN tHe WrOnG SyLLaBLe!

The Holy Spirit as Helper and Witness to Christ

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message.

From Pastor Chris Rosebrook. The Holy Gospel according to St. John chapters 15 and 16. Jesus said, when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.

And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

And they will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me. But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. This is the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus.

Now you've heard me say this phrase many a time probably if you've listened to me for any amount of time and that is the phrase putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable. Now I got to be honest I first heard that from Dr. Rod Rosenblatt back in the days that I was attending Concordia University Irvine.

In fact the students of Dr. Rosenblatt often called phrases like this Rosenblatt isms. And what's really funny is that there's now people calling some of the phrases that I use Roseboro isms which just means that Dr. Rosenblatt and others have paid it forward.

And in the future when people steal these phrases of mine and make them their own may God curse them by having them named after them. But you get the idea. But the whole point behind that phrase is about mispronouncing the word emphasis and syllable because by doing that you mispronounce the word and thus you err.

And so you're going to note when we talk about God the Holy Spirit we live in an era post Azusa Street that is well the church is heavily infected in all regards in all places and in all denominations heavily infected by false understandings of God the Holy Spirit that have as their source the aberrant theology of the Pentecostals and the Charismatics and now today's New Apostolic Reformation.

They are always putting the emphasis on the Holy Spirit. However listen carefully to the words of Christ. This is the night that he is going to be betrayed. This is the night that he is going to be put on trial.

And when he wakes in the morning he will be crucified. He has less than 24 hours to go to live on this planet. And he is giving instructions to comfort his disciples and he is promising to send the Holy Spirit.

A few weeks back we looked at one of the aspects that Christ said that the Holy Spirit would come to fulfill. The purpose of convicting us of our sin and our unbelief. That's one of the important works of the Holy Spirit.

But now Christ gets kind of to the nubbins if you would. The central core idea of why the Holy Spirit needs to come. And when he says these words, when the Helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

So you'll note we're going to put the proper emphasis on the right syllables here. And we're going to note that Scripture instructs us to test the spirits. Even spirits claiming to be the Holy Spirit.

To see if they pass muster. To see if they actually are truly the Holy Spirit or at worst a demonic spirit. Listen carefully again to Christ's words. When the Helper comes. Let me ask you guys a question.

We're all familiar with having people who are helpers. There are people who well they make enough money that they can afford professional helpers. People who are helpers. Are they front and center? Are they the people that everyone focuses in on?

No. Helpers usually work in the background. Helpers make it possible for the person in the foreground to do the things that he is doing. And so you'll note that the Holy Spirit Christ says is going to come as a helper.

Helper to whom? Helper to the Apostles. Helper to Christians. And so that being the case the Holy Spirit comes as our helper. And there's important things that the Holy Spirit is helping us to do because quite frankly we need good professional help when it comes to our lives.

And you'll note that a helper that is worth his weight in gold is a helper who knows even more than the person he's helping or she's helping that they know all the things that need to be taking place.

Oftentimes we don't even know what we don't know. That we should know that we don't know. But we don't know that we need to know it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Or are you guys just completely confused and you don't know what I'm talking about?

But the point is that a good helper knows all the things that we're supposed to know that we don't know. And then helps us to achieve those things by saying oh I don't know if you thought about this but there's this other thing that you need to take care of.

And so you'll note a good helper does those things and that's exactly how the Holy Spirit is described in Scripture. We don't even know how to pray properly for the things that we ought to do. So you know what the Holy Spirit does?

The Holy Spirit says let me help you out here. And the Holy Spirit helps us, prays for us, and things of this nature. So Christ tells us that the helper is going to come. In the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches and in the New Apostolic Reformation, the Holy Spirit is not the helper.

The Holy Spirit is the focus. The Holy Spirit is the one that everybody is focusing in on to the point where you wonder is that really the Holy Spirit? Because this Holy Spirit seems to be all about garnering attention and glory for himself.

Yet Christ says that the helper when he comes he's going to be a helper. He proceeds from the Father and he will bear witness about who? Christ. So you know back in the day when I was in seminary and I also remember hearing this when I was in Concordia University, a proper understanding of the Holy Spirit is a good way to think about it.

Not only is he a helper, but he's obsessed with telling you about Jesus. Bearing witness about Christ. And you'll note that we are as Christ's disciples called to also bear witness about Christ to speak the truth.

In fact, the Holy Spirit is described as what? The spirit of truth here. Have you noticed that the Charismatic Pentecostal churches are not really known for trafficking in truth? They are known for trafficking in bald face lies, huge misunderstandings of Scripture, and flat-out rank Scripture-twisting.

I would note that I've got a sermon review coming up on Fighting for the Faith where I'm going to be covering a sermon by Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, California, where he legitimately argues that if you do not perform miracles, you are disobeying Christ and Christ will say to you on the last day, depart from me, I never knew you.

Now that's not to put pressure on you, but I assure you, I have never once performed a single miracle. And this doesn't count. As miraculous as that is, it doesn't count. I've never performed a miracle.

Should I assume that I am therefore doomed, Del? That doesn't sound like the spirit of truth to me. So what I thought I would do, you'll note that at the beginning of chapter 16, Jesus says these words, I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away.

Christ knows full well what the Apostles are going to be facing after his ascension into heaven. So they will put you out of the synagogues, indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he's offering a service to God.

And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor have they known me. But I said these things to you so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you. Christ prepares them.

He says in this text, I'm sending the Holy Spirit, he's going to be a helper, he's the spirit of truth, he's going to bear witness about me, and by the way, all of this I'm telling you so that you don't fall away.

And I would note when you look at the immediate fulfillment of Christ's prophecy here that he gave on Monday, Thursday, it's actually quite stunning and helps us put the proper emphasis on the correct syllable.

Apostolic Signs, the Healing at the Beautiful Gate, and Peter's First Sermon

If you will just bear with me a little bit here, you'll note that we don't have Sunday school, so I thought maybe we can work our way through a couple of chapters of Acts today. What do you think? All right, I cheat.

Rosebud is always cheating, got to get some more word in there. In the book of Acts chapter 3, you'll note next Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, we're going to have a focus on Acts chapter 2. But let's look at the immediate aftermath of the day of Pentecost.

And at the very tail end of Acts chapter 2, it says this, after everyone's baptized, after Peter preaches that great sermon that leads to a whole bunch of people repenting and trusting in Christ, and it says this of the brand-new baptized Christians, they devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.

Hmm, that sounds like the divine service to me. Because you'll note the divine service here, we are devoted to the Apostles' teaching, our fellowship together, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. Isn't that interesting?

It doesn't matter if you have a nice building or not, or even if you own hymnals. If you have the Apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers, well, you got church, right?

And this is a very portable, inexpensive model, I want to make that clear. And it says this, all came upon every soul, and listen to the next words, and many wonders and signs were being done through the Apostles.

That's going to be re-emphasized in Acts chapter 5, by the way. But you're going to note here, who was primarily performing the miracles in the earliest church? It was the Apostles. And you'll note when you read the book of Acts, it's pretty rare to see an ordinary garden variety disciple of Jesus performing signs and wonders.

And so the text makes it clear here that it's the Apostles who were primarily performing the signs and wonders. Who's doing that work? Christ is, through the Spirit whom he sent, to validate his message of the gospel in the mouths of his Apostles.

In fact, the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians makes it clear. He says to the church in Corinth, who was challenging his Apostleship, that he performed the signs of an Apostle in their presence. These are the signs of the Apostles validating the fact that they were sent by Christ.

And it is not true that ordinary grassroots garden variety Christians are expected by Christ to do the same. If he expected us to do the same, then the Holy Spirit would be working that in us. And well, miracles would be as common as fish in the sea.

And so we'll note miracles are actually kind of rare, and rightfully so in our days. So here's where the text goes. And listen carefully to our theme. Again, the Spirit of Truth, who's the helper, who's bearing witness about Christ.

See if you can see what's happening here, because this is the Holy Spirit working in the background. Acts chapter 3. Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man who was lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple.

At the conclusion of this portion of the text, we're going to hear that this fellow was more than 40 years old. Now it's a little bit annoying to say that, because one of the things I've noticed in Scripture, especially in the New Testament, when it talks about people over 40 years old, it talks about them in such terms as if somehow they're really old and ancient.

Well, I just turned 56. I mean, I wonder if I should start looking at a nursing home at this point, according to the biblical way it describes age. But that's a whole other point. But you'll note, he's more than 40 years old, and that being the case, he was laid daily at the beautiful gate of the temple, which means this.

Jesus saw this guy every time he went into the temple. And you know what? Jesus never healed him until this takes place. Keep this in mind. So he was laid at the beautiful gate to ask for alms of those entering the temple.

Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.

But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

You'll note that throughout the scriptures, apostolic quality healings are, well, undeniable. We'll talk a little bit more about this in a minute. Everybody knew that a miracle had taken place. This fellow, who was lame from birth, was able to rise up and walk.

And Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up. His feet and ankles were made strong. And then leaping up, he stood and began to walk. And he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

And you'll note that this is quite the strategic miracle, if you think about it, because this is a fellow who everybody going into the temple would have seen and would have been familiar with. And they had to go into the temple with some regularity as required by the Mosaic Covenant.

And so everybody knew who this fellow was. They could recognize his face. They knew that he was lame. And there he was, leaping and walking and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

They recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him. And all the Pentecostals at this point are going to put the emphasis on this syllable.

Oh, look at this power! This is what needs to be happening in the church today. And they will berate churches like our churches. Oh, that Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, it's a dead church. They don't even have the Spirit.

How do we know? Because they don't have the lame walking and leaping and stuff like that in their church. To which I say, you don't have it either. The miracles that you claim are happening in your church are nothing but cheap, tawdry parlor tricks.

It's completely deniable that you're even experiencing the miraculous. I do find it fascinating that Bill Johnson at least is honest enough to say that he's not good at this. But that's a whole other story.

So is this where we should put the emphasis on this syllable? No. Because you'll note that the Holy Spirit is the one who worked for the purpose of this man's healing. Why? To draw attention to the Apostles and the message that they are going to speak.

And who is Peter going to preach about? Is he going to sit there and go, did you see that miracle? Would you like to have miracles in your life? You can have your best life now. The Holy Spirit's looking for people who are willing to invite him in, be baptized in the Holy Spirit so that they too can experience perfect health.

Is that his message? Nope. What's he going to be preaching? Christ and him crucified for our sins. And I would note here, in the next chapter we're going to see very clearly a little aside in the text that makes it clear to us how Peter is able to preach with such boldness the message that he preaches.

And if you think it has something to do with the Holy Spirit, you'd be right. So listen to what follows next. And this is where we put the emphasis. While he, this man now formerly lame, clung to Peter and John, all the people were utterly astounded.

They ran together to them to the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people. Here's where the real miracle takes place. Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?

Peter makes it very clear. It's not by his own power or by his piety that this man received the miracle. Instead, he gives the proper credit where the credit is due. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, he's glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him.

But you, you denied the Holy One, the Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author of life. Well, that doesn't make me feel very good about myself. I could see this.

If Peter were preaching this today, oh, social media would be abuzz. And people would be criticizing him on this ground. Look at what he is doing. There are people in the crowd there. They weren't even there on Friday morning when Jesus was on trial, and he's making them guilty of murdering Jesus.

How arbitrary, how capricious, how unjust. He's making slanderous false charges against these people and putting Jesus's blood on them when they weren't even there. They were sleeping in on Friday. You know I'm right, okay?

Because that's how social media works. They always look for that tiny little thing where they can undo the preaching of truth. Let me ask you this. Since this is written for us in Scripture, and Scripture, all Scripture, according to the Apostle Paul, who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says all Scripture is theanoustos, it's God-breathed.

Why would God the Holy Spirit give words like this to Peter that are then recorded here in the Scriptures, where Peter is just arbitrarily accusing everybody of being guilty of killing Jesus? Because by implication, if what he's saying is true, that would mean I'm guilty of murdering the author of life.

That's the point. By his arbitrary, very broad brush that he is painting with. You'll note then that when you go back into the Good Friday texts and you read of the crowd calling for the release of Barabbas, and them saying, crucify Christ, and Pilate saying, why?

What evil has he done? And they saying, crucify him. And he said, will his blood be on you? And they responded, will his blood be on us and on our children? That that crowd is our representative in the same way that Adam was our representative.

What they spoke, they spoke for us. That means that I, as well as you, we rightfully can be condemned as those who have killed the author of life. We are the ones who asked for a murderer to be released.

We are the one who denied the Holy and the Righteous One. We are the ones who asked for a murderer to be granted to us instead. Now, a little bit of a note here. That would mean that we're all guilty of the greatest murder in all of human history, and we are.

Your sins and my sins were laid on Christ. But you're going to note there's something different about the blood of Jesus. It's not quite like the blood of faithful Abel. Abel was was murdered by his brother Cain, and Abel's blood cried to God from the ground.

And Jesus's blood similarly cries to God from, well, the base of Golgotha, from the foot of the cross. But his blood does more to then just call out our guilt. And the point is this, is that Peter is not going to merely say that they are guilty of murdering Jesus, the author of life, and therefore they should just expect the wrath of God.

He knows full well that Jesus's blood is kind of like a double-edged sword. It cuts in two different directions, if you would. Jesus's blood truly does condemn those who persist in sin and unbelief, and every human being is guilty of the murder of Christ.

Indeed, Christ's blood does condemn. But for those who, through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the gospel preached to them, are granted repentance and faith from the Holy Spirit, Christ's blood no longer condemns them.

It is Christ's blood that washes away their iniquity and their guilt and their sin. Your sin and my sin has been washed away by the blood of Christ. And it is his blood that is the active detergent that has taken our filthy clothes and made them white in his blood.

And so you'll note that Peter here in preaching starts off with some pretty heavy law, so heavy that it crushes, and it's designed to do that, crushes any inkling of self-righteousness, crushes any pretense of innocence, and instead makes everybody guilty of murdering the author of life.

But then he says these words,. But God raised him from the dead, to this we are witnesses. And his name, by faith in his name, in Jesus, he has made this man strong whom you see and know. And faith that is through Jesus has given this man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. So repent, therefore.

Turn back so that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets long ago.

And there it is, the call to repent, the call to turn from your sins, and the promise that their sins would be blotted out for the sake of the one that they murdered, for the sake of Jesus Christ who bled and died in their place on the cross.

So that times of refreshing may come from God. God does not wish for you to experience the torment of hell. Everybody who ends up in hell ends up there by their own will. Keep that in mind. God does not will for anybody to be in hell.

Instead, he wills that times of refreshing may come through the gospel, the good news that we've been reconciled to God, that the hostilities are over, and that Christ himself has made peace with God through his blood.

So that the times of refreshing may come, beginning with the times of forgiveness, mercy, and grace, and peace that comes from the gospel, and culminating in the consummation of time when we will experience the refreshing Sabbath rest of the new earth in a world without end.

All of this from God. Who's Peter preaching about again? Christ. And the Holy Spirit is empowering him to do so, giving him the strength to do it. He then continues, Moses said, the Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers, and you shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.

And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people. And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaim these days.

You'll note that the words of Revelation come ringing in here. Revelation says the spirit, that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And here the Apostle Peter affirms that from Moses all the way through all the Old Testament prophets, they were prophesying about who?

Christ. And who was it that empowered them to prophesy about the future coming Messiah? It was none other than the Holy Spirit who inspired their words and carried them along and gave them those words.

And so he says then, you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your father saying to Abraham and to your offspring shall the families of the earth be blessed. So God having raised up his servant sent him first to you to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.

Zing! What a sermon! And a little bit of a note here. I am a sermonator. I know what it means to put a sermon together. I didn't say terminator, okay? I'm a sermonator. I do this for a living. And I can tell you a lot of prep goes into a sermon.

You have to study the text. You have to translate the text. You have to ask yourself the question, what does my audience, what does the congregation need to hear? How am I going to weave the gospel into this?

What is this text saying? How do I make sure I rightly handle it? And there's a lot of prep that goes into this. Peter, off the cuff, with no sermon prep at all, hits a grand slam home run. And I look at this as a sermonator and go, dang!

How'd he do that? Right? The answer is, he did it through the helper. The Holy Spirit was helping him. That's how he was able to nail that landing and score the perfect ten. Hit the grand slam with that home run.

You get the idea. Well, remember this. Christ prophesied in the gospel text for today. He said this. He says, I have said these two things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogue.

Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he's offering a service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor have they known me. So chapter 4 then, no good deed going unpunished, begins with these words.

As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

Do you see that cognitive dissonance at this point? You'll note, I used the metaphor last week, that we are all snakebit and the venom of the serpent runs through us. In fact, it's the venom of the serpent that's running through these people that are causing them to be so blind to what's really going on here.

I mean, just step back for a second. A guy lame from birth, over 40, which means he's ancient. He has just been healed and is leaping and praising God. And all the people are praising God. And you're annoyed because this healing took place in the name of Jesus.

And they were preaching Christ and Him crucified, the forgiveness of sins, and promising people to be raised from the dead on the last day by belief in Jesus. You're annoyed by this? The miracle speaks for itself, doesn't it?

Right? But they were greatly annoyed, the text says. So, they arrested them. And the them here is going to include Peter and John and the fellow who was healed. No, no, no, enough of this. All of you are, you three, in prison for the night.

Does any of that make any sense to you? And my question is, where did churchmen get this authority to arrest people? Okay, how can there be such a confusing of the right and the left hand kingdom? We don't have a brig here at Kong's Finger.

You know, just saying, okay? Not for children and not for adults. We have to make that clear. But, all right, so they put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those, listen to this, many of those who had heard the Word believed.

And the number of men came to about 5 ,000. That little note in verse 4 of chapter 4 is not a little note. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ. God, the Holy Spirit, promises to be active with the preaching of the gospel.

And the gospel is the good news that Christ bled and died for our sins. And He will forgive everyone who believes in Him. So note here, the Holy Spirit was quite active that day. So that now the number of people at church, and there's only one congregation at this point, has more than 5 ,000 men.

How many women? How many children are part of this? This is like a ginormous mega church, right? Which is going to have problems of its own, but that's for other chapters. And so on the next day, their rulers, and their elders, and their scribes gathered together in Jerusalem.

Another impromptu church council meeting, okay? And so with Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and all who were the high priestly family, and when they set themselves in the midst, they inquired.

And here's the first question out of their mouths for this interrogation. By what power or what name did you do this? What a question. We're now referring to the healing of a lame man as this. It's not a safe question, is it?

But listen to the next words, the opening of verse 8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. If you listen to today's modern charismatics, when you hear the words filled with the Holy Spirit, the next word should be, then fell on the ground, slain in the Spirit, started barking like a dog, you know, meowing like a cat, and behaving like a chicken.

And all the people were amazed at how drunk he was in the Spirit. He began speaking in gibberish, and you can hear him crying at the top of his lungs, coulda bought a Hyundai, shoulda bought a Kia, right?

That's what happens when people are filled with the Spirit, right? No. Jesus said, when the Helper comes, He, the Spirit of truth, will bear witness about me. So let's see what Peter does with this immediate filling of the Holy Spirit.

Peter, filled with the Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we're being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, well then let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man is standing before you well.

Zing! Wow! Total. He's unafraid. This is courage and boldness that is like rare in humanity. These are the people who can put Peter to death. These are the people that Peter was afraid of, right? On the night that Jesus was betrayed.

So much so that a girl, a servant girl, aren't you also with the Nazarene? I never knew the man, never knew him. Now what are you talking about? Right? This same Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, is now preaching with such boldness that he has properly laid the murder of Christ at the feet of those who conspired to kill him, and says, whom you crucified, it's by His name this man has been healed, but God raised him from the dead, and by Jesus this man is standing before you well.

This, Jesus, is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

I mean, this puts Martin Luther's here-I-stand speech to shame. I'll be blunt, you know, as wonderful as that was, this one is way above that. And listen to these words, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, the Scripture says, is the Holy Spirit pointing people to the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is pointing people to Jesus. And on top of that, he makes this very bold and politically incorrect statement, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

And I can hear all the blue-haired, feminist, woke types sitting there going, are you saying that my Buddhist neighbor and my Muslim friends, they're not going to heaven unless they believe in Jesus?