May 22-24, 2021 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: John 14:25-27 “NO WORRIES!”

 PENTECOST

May 22-24, 2021

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: John 14:25-27

                                         “NO WORRIES!”

1.     The Holy Spirit provides the teachings we need.

2.     The Holy Spirit provides the teachers we need.

 

John 14:25-27 (EHV) “I have told you these things while staying with you. ²⁶But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you. ²⁷“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid.”

 

          Perhaps you have had an experience like this. You are in a class or a presentation for work or school. The teacher or presenter fills you with loads of information. As the class wraps up the teacher says, “OK, I hope you took good notes. You can use them for the test tomorrow.” What? Why didn’t you let us know that at the beginning? I would have taken notes. Your heart sinks. To be sure, you should have taken notes whether the teacher told you to or not. That is your responsibility. But at that point, it’s too late!  Now if you have had that type of an experience or feeling I’d like you to try to imagine being one of Jesus’ disciples in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday evening. You have been following Jesus for nearly three years. You have seen things that have astonished you. You have heard things that confuse you. Clearly He is the Messiah, the Promised one from God. He is the Anointed one. He will rule Israel. Yes, He has talked before about being put to death and leaving you but you never really believed it. Here in the Upper room, on this night, things are different. Jesus speaks bluntly, clearly, about betrayal, death, and leaving you to go back to the Father. “Oh, there’s one more thing, dear disciples,” Jesus says. “You will take over teaching the people everything I have told you.” What? Why didn’t you tell us that at the beginning? We would have taken notes. To be fair if they had tried to do that, they would have had a wagon load of scrolls to pull around. I imagine their mouths agape. How are we going to do that?

          No worries! Jesus swooped in. He promised to send the Holy Spirit. Today we observe the church festival of Pentecost. It celebrates the 3^rd person of the Triune God, the Holy Spirit, and the gifts He brings to believers. That reminds us of our secondary emphasis this weekend as we say good bye to one retiring teacher and four teachers who will be leaving to serve God elsewhere. No worries! No worries for people moving to a different place. No worries for one finding new ways to serve. No worries for St Jacobi congregation. Why? The Holy Spirit provides gifts for believers, gifts we need.

          He provides first of all the teachings we need. That’s what was promised. “I have told you these things while staying with you. ²⁶But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you.” It’s like that dreaded test became an open book test! “No worries disciples. You don’t have to remember everything I taught you. The Holy Spirit will take care of that for you.” And that, my friends, is exactly what happened and how we got the New Testament of the Bible. As you heard in the Acts reading the Holy Spirit filled these disciples now called Apostles. They received special gifts to rapidly spread the Good News that Jesus is Savior for all. They knew how to speak languages they never studied before so when they went to different countries they could speak God’s truth in the language the people would understand the best. They were given the ability to do miracles to authenticate that God was behind these teachings. And they were given total recall, the ability to remember the teachings and even exact quotes of Jesus. And they wrote them down. Matthew, Mark and John’s Gospels. Or told them to someone else, Luke’s Gospel. And the Holy Spirit continued to work in them and through them inspiring the words of God that we now have in the Bible.

          Do you understand what this means? No worries! We have the teachings we need. There are all kinds of things that you and I may want to know about heaven or resurrected bodies or why God let the Devil continue to exist, but we don’t need to know them. We have what we need. We need to know we are sinners who can’t save ourselves. So you will find as you read your Bibles, the laws of God that are absolute, no matter what the laws of our country say. Murder is murder whether you pull a gun and shoot someone who cut you off driving or tear apart a little baby in its mother’s womb. Sexual sinning is sinning whether it involves heterosexual or homosexual. Trusting first in anything other than God who has revealed himself in the Bible is idolatry. Thinking you can do anything yourself to get to heaven is arrogant blasphemy that denies that Jesus is the Christ, the only way to heaven. We need to know those things so we repent in our own lives. And then you have the Good News, the Gospel, that tells you God loves you anyway. That He has sent His only Son Jesus who is your Savior. Your sins are forgiven. While you can’t get yourself forgiven or to heaven Jesus already has. So no worries. Don’t worry about questions you have that aren’t answered in the Bible. You don’t need them. Do concern yourself with understanding what’s in the Bible.

          Which takes us to our second Holy Spirit blessing. Not only does the Holy Spirit provide the teachings we need. He provides the teachers we need too. A few weeks ago you may remember we had the reading from Acts about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Remember the guy was riding in his chariot and reading from the book of Isaiah. He could not understand who it was talking about. Do you remember what happened next? The Holy Spirit sent Philip to explain it to him. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. He provides the teachers we need, teachers of God’s word.

          Listen again. “I have told you these things while staying with you. ²⁶But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you.” YOU! Over and over again Jesus was speaking directly to the disciples. They would be the teachers that time needed to teach God’s people God’s holy will. To help them keep their eyes fixed on Jesus no matter what. To remember that their true purpose in life was to be witnesses for Jesus wherever they were at and whatever they did. The disciples called apostles did just that. They started in Jerusalem and then went further and further out, guided by the Holy Spirit. They were the teachers that were needed so they were provided by the Holy Spirit to teach the people back then. Over time these disciples called Apostles died. What then? The Holy Spirit provided more teachers.

          And He has been doing the same thing since, also here at St Jacobi. Those of you who have been at St Jacobi a long time have seen a relatively few pastors. Some remember the first Pastor Eckert and then of course the second. Some remember Pastor Henning and then all of you know who you’ve been stuck with lately. On the teacher side you have seen many different teachers as we have a large school. If you are relatively new to St. Jacob and you heard throughout the school year that teachers were leaving for various reasons you may have been a little worried. No worries! The Holy Spirit provides the teachers we need and he has. We are ready to go for next year. Thank you, Holy Spirit!

          Just like the teachers who are leaving were the ones we needed at the time. We thank, Kari Falck, Paul Frisque and Jeff and Sarah Roloff. You will be going to new places where the Holy Spirit has provided you to serve others. We thank you for your service here and pray for God’s continued blessing on your new endeavors. Mrs. Sue Saatkamp, you have chosen retirement which means you get to do work without getting paid! We thank you for your service over the years. The Holy Spirit provided you as a gift to us. So now what? Are you worried what you will do, how you will feel next school year when you won’t be going back to school? No worries!

Listen to the voice of your Savior! “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid.” That’s another one of those teachings we all need. Jesus gives peace. Not like the world’s peace which only lasts until the next crisis. His peace is a calmness we get to have because He is with us always through thick and thin, good times and bad, working or retired. Jesus is with you. The Holy Spirit provides what you need. Always. No worries! Amen.

May 8-10, 2021 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Acts 9:36-42 (EHV) “SHOW AND TELL!”

EASTER 6

May 8-10, 2021

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Acts 9:36-42 (EHV)

 

“SHOW AND TELL!”

1.     Show the love of Jesus

2.     So you can tell the love of Jesus!

 

Acts 9:36-42 (EHV) “In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was always doing good deeds and acts of charity. ³⁷At that time she became sick and died. After they had washed her, they laid her in an upstairs room. ³⁸Since Lydda is near Joppa, when the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, who urged him, “Come to us without delay!” ³⁹Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they led him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing him the robes and clothing that Dorcas made while she was still with them. ⁴⁰After Peter sent them all outside, he got down on his knees and prayed. Then he turned toward the body and said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. ⁴¹He gave her his hand and helped her stand up. After he called the saints and the widows, he presented her to them alive. ⁴²This became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.”

 

          It’s another one of those fun things you get to do in school. Show and Tell. Maybe you got your first chance in kindergarten. Remember how excited you were to bring your own thing from home to show and tell. Maybe you had a special collection or grandpa’s war medal. Fun thing to do. I’ve brought something today for Show and Tell. It’s called Spirit Lifters. Some of you have heard me talk about it before. It was a gift from my mom to all her children. For every day of the year, even Leap Day, to has an encouraging or inspiring Bible passage, hymn verse or saying designed to—you guessed it! Lift your spirits. What is also interesting is who made these little beauties. St. Paul’s Dorcas Society, Brownsville Wisconsin.  A Dorcas Society. A group of women who got together to serve and make nice things. Now where do you think that name came from? You know. You heard about it in our reading. “In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was always doing good deeds and acts of charity.” A disciple, a believer in Jesus. Tabitha, also known as Dorcas. And why is her story in the Bible? She’s going to teach us how to Show and Tell.

          First show the love of Jesus. We aren’t told a whole lot about this woman named Dorcas. We aren’t told if she was married or had kids. Was she widowed or working? No, the Spirit draws our attention to what we need to see. She was a disciple, a believer in Jesus. She knew the love of Jesus. Like you and I do as well, she understood Jesus’ great love for her, a love that moved Him to take care of her greatest need at greatest cost to Himself. He took her sins on Himself and paid the awful price of Hell. This changed Dorcas. She understood her purpose in life. Show. Show the love of Jesus. Kindly meet the needs of others at cost to herself.

          “In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was always doing good deeds and acts of charity. ³⁷At that time she became sick and died. After they had washed her, they laid her in an upstairs room. ³⁸Since Lydda is near Joppa, when the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, who urged him, “Come to us without delay!” ³⁹Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they led him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing him the robes and clothing that Dorcas made while she was still with them.” Dorcas showed the love of Jesus by making robes and clothes for widow women. Back then, there were no retirement pensions, no investments, no Social Security. Widowed women often found themselves poor and dependent on their church and others to survive. Dorcas saw a need and she showed the love of Jesus.

          Now remember all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. What does the Holy Spirit want us to see? A woman showing the love of Jesus in a way that she could. Why? To encourage and motivate us to do the same. How many years of training do you think Dorcas received before she started showing the love of Jesus? What degrees did she hold? No, Dorcas was just herself. She obviously had skills as a seamstress but there were undoubtedly many seamstresses. Why does the Spirit focus our attention on Dorcas? She showed the love of Jesus. She saw a need and met a need. She was kind.

And you know what? Every one us can do the same. We know the love of Jesus. We have experienced it. Through faith we see Jesus loving us sinners and suffering for us sinners and happy to do so. We can show how Jesus has changed us. What nice things can you do for others? Neighbors need help with the garbage can? A ride to a store? You know one of the loneliest groupings of people in our society are the elderly. Kids you could make a card, sing a song, take a flower. So many ways to show the love of Jesus and on a weekend like this we have to think of how moms and grandmas do that. Show the love of Jesus as they raise kids and grandkids.

          But friends we need to dig a little deeper here. Why is the Spirit putting the spotlight on Dorcas? Surely there were other people who did nice things too. Well the book of Acts is the history of the early Christian Church. It’s put in the Bible to show how the living Lord Jesus was with the early Christians and how the fact that He lives changed the way they lived, their priorities, their purpose, and how Jesus used that to bring more and more people into the family of faith. It’s there so the fact that Jesus lives will change the way we believers live, our priorities and our purpose. Let’s see how.

          “After Peter sent them all outside, he got down on his knees and prayed. Then he turned toward the body and said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. ⁴¹He gave her his hand and helped her stand up. After he called the saints and the widows, he presented her to them alive. ⁴²This became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.” We’re not told but somehow Peter knew what Jesus wanted him to do. While all these people were gathered at the death of this beloved woman Tabitha it was time to use the power Jesus had given the apostles to do miracles. With Jesus’ power he raised Tabitha from the dead. How cool was that? But that was not the really cool part, was it? This was: “This became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.” Many believed! The purpose for Tabitha’s life and Tabitha’s death and Tabitha’s back to life was the same. Opportunities for her or others to tell the love of Jesus so more believe and are saved.

          And this, brothers and sisters, is how Jesus works through you. When you show the love of Jesus in your daily living you will gain opportunities for you or others to tell the love of Jesus. And the neat part is it does not require any classes or degree. It just requires you to be yourself but always to remember the greater purpose of connecting people to Jesus so they can be saved eternally. Dorcas did nice things for others. Doing nice things built relationships and those personal relationships became to bridge to building the only relationship that matters for eternity, faith in Jesus.

          So go ahead and be nice and do good. Help the poor, feed the hungry, help a neighbor, give a ride, make some cookies, rake some leaves but don’t be content with just being nice. Use nice to get to Jesus. Pray for an opportunity to let the reason behind your nice come out. I believe in Jesus. He loves you too. When it’s right leverage those relationships. Kids, when we start up next year, “Say, I’m going to sing at church, will you come see me?” With that lonely elderly neighbor, “Would you like to come over for Thanksgiving Dinner? How about you come to church with me and join our family for our Thanksgiving meal?” So many opportunities once you show the love of Jesus for you or others to tell the love of Jesus. In your life and in your death.

          You do know that this Tabitha who was raised to life later died—again. She went to heaven. Her body stayed here. What do you think they talked about at her funeral? How many people were there? Your death could do the same. Show the love of Jesus and when you go to heaven we will tell the love of Jesus to everyone there. It’s Show and Tell!

          You know, someone once said that “Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten.” In many ways that is true. Like Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. Like I am Jesus little lamb. Like be nice and kind to everyone. And like Show and tell—the love of Jesus! Amen.