Fifth Sunday of Easter - Video of Divine Service and sermon
Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer
2025 Easter 5
Revelation 21:1-7
John 16:12-22
Before the Readings: A theme that arises from the three readings today is that there is “more to come.” As the Church continues its seven Sunday celebration of Christ’s resurrection, we receive the miracle of Christ’s resurrection and look forward to more that is to come through God’s grace. The “more to come” includes the explanation in Acts 11 by the Apostle Peter to the brothers that the Holy Spirit calls both Jews and Gentiles into the faith. The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ unites Jew and Gentile. Thus, the Holy Spirit propelled Peter to baptize the Gentile Cornelius and his family. The reading from Revelation shows us the culmination of God’s promises in Christ’s resurrection. In the new heaven and new earth, there will be no more separation between God and His people. Sin and all its symptoms will be no more. The reading from John’s Gospel encourages us to look beyond our resurrection joy to the coming Holy Spirit at Pentecost where the Holy Spirit will lead the Apostles and the Church into true doctrine as we glorify the risen Christ.
Sermon: O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.
The phrase “more to come” is a promise. Jesus says that there is more to come. John 16 occurs as Jesus is on His way to the Garden of Gethsemane. He is only hours away from his betrayal, arrest, and the commencement of His great suffering. At this moment, Jesus can only allude to the coming Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Because of what is going to happen next in the events of His crucifixion, the resurrection, and the coming Holy Spirit, He knows that detailed explanations will simply be lost to them. They will have to live through it with the training and faith they already have. In time, with additional explanation in the post-resurrection appearances, they will understand. But for now, he can only assure them that “more is coming.”
Jesus promises the Holy Spirit. In John 16:13, he declares “When 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.” The Holy Spirit brings into remembrance all that Jesus teaches them. They will need the Spirit’s help as they wrap their minds around the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection, His doctrine, and as they work their way through the challenging questions of their identity as the Church. Slowly, the apostles awoke to the grandness of God’s vision and plan of salvation. The second person of the Trinity did not become Incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth just for the Jewish people. As Peter learned – God’s vision of salvation is just as Jesus says in John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” The world is bigger than the Jewish world. The world means – gulp – the Gentiles too.
What finer example of a Gentile can there be than Cornelius, a Centurion, in the Roman army, serving the very empire that occupies the Holy Land by force, and was the instrument of Jesus’ ghastly death on the cross? Peter learned through the guidance of the Holy Spirit that Jesus died for Cornelius, the soldier and Gentile, and his family too. The Holy Spirit arranged for Peter to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them. Before Peter’s very eyes, the Holy Spirit worked faith within them through the preaching of the Gospel. They promptly confessed their faith in Christ. The whole household – men, women, children, slaves and free – were baptized.
The Apostle Peter reported to the brethren that the Holy Spirit led Gentiles into the truth of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world that dies for their sins. The Holy Spirit guided Peter and the Apostles into the truth that Jesus came to save all people through his death on the cross and victorious resurrection from the dead. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy the truth of what Peter learned: God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all...” (1 Timothy 1:4-6)
Jesus said that there is more to come. Indeed. In Revelation 21, we are blessed with a snapshot, a picture of what is to come when all the striving and testing and turmoil of this world comes to an end. When the end finally comes, when Jesus’ judgment is complete, we are told in Revelation 21 that God will create a new earth and a new heaven. The old will completely pass away. In this new circumstance, God will dwell with His people in a way that we do not enjoy now. There will be no more sin. Because there is no more sin, there is no more need for forgiveness. God dwells with His people. No more veil, no more separation, no more hiddenness. God’s people will dwell in the fullness of God’s presence. Because there is no more sin, there will be no more pain, suffering, sorrow, tears, death, or anything else that makes this current world and life seem like a vale of tears. Revelation 21 gives us a picture of everlasting Shalom. We will know complete peace and we will be whole.
Yes, there is more to come. The mystery of God’s grace is that we are brought into this truth through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit creates within us our faith in Jesus Christ. In Jesus is our forgiveness and our hope for a future beyond all imagination. Jesus Christ is the reason we have a hope that more is to come.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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