Have you ever had a secret you just can’t wait to share? Maybe you found someone the perfect gift, and you know how excited that person will be to receive it, but the birthday party isn’t for two more weeks. Gotta keep it a secret. Or maybe there’s some big news in your life. Just got engaged. Just accepted an offer for a new job. There’s a new baby! It’s a boy! Sometimes these are things you just can’t wait to tell everyone, but you can’t yet. You need to keep it a secret for a little while. You need to wait for just the right time.
As you read the Gospels you can’t help but notice that there are a lot of times when Jesus told his disciples to keep something secret. I wonder how hard that was for them to do. Sometimes word got out anyway. With some of Jesus’ miracles there really was no keeping them secret. But we often wonder why, when we run across Jesus commanding his disciples, “Don’t tell anyone.” Wouldn’t it be good for everyone to know?
The simple answer is that it just wasn’t the right time yet. Jesus had not come to entertain. His goal was not to draw crowds. His goal was the cross, and he would let nothing get in his way. Keep it a secret, disciples. It isn’t the time yet. First, Jesus must complete the work he came to do. First, he must secure our salvation.
But as Jesus stood on the precipice of his victory, as he spoke to his disciples in the hours before his arrest, he told them what was coming and the part they would play. No more keeping secrets. The time was coming to proclaim these things to everyone—those who receive it and those who don’t. Jesus told them, “You Will Testify by the Spirit of Truth.”
Our sermon text for today comes from the end of John 15 and the beginning of John 16, where we read a few short verses from a long section of John that records some of Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples. A disciple is a student, and that is very much what they had been these past three years. Some people are students just because they like to learn, but most want to learn so that they can do something with that knowledge, whether it’s for personal benefit, or career advancement, or for the sake of others. The disciples, ever since Jesus first called them, knew that the would be using their learning for God’s purpose. “Follow me,” Jesus told them, “and I will make you fishers of men.” And they had some practice with this too. Jesus sent them out, to the towns of Galilee, to tell people that the kingdom of God is near.
But in a manner similar to what we still use today for our seminary training of pastors, they were reaching the end of their formal instruction time and graduation was coming. They would soon be fulfilling that call of Jesus to be fishers of men.
They weren’t going alone, though. They would be guided by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. Jesus said,
“When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27And you also are going to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
They had been keeping many things to themselves as Jesus taught them and journeyed toward the cross. There were so many things they had to share when the time was right. That time was just about here. The time to testify. The time to bear witness. The time to proclaim all the things that Jesus had done, all culminating in the events that were about to happen, his atoning sacrifice on the cross, his glorious resurrection from the dead, and his ascension to the right hand of Father. Jesus came to save the world. The whole world needed to know what he had done. They, his disciples, would be his witnesses. They would testify, because they had been with him from the beginning.
But really, it would be the Holy Spirit testifying. Jesus promised to send them the Holy Spirit, whom he calls the Counselor and the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit would be the one testifying about Jesus to them and through them.
This promise of Jesus is a great one for many reasons. Think about the disciples and how they must have felt. Jesus was leaving them. They were going to be all on their own. They had the whole world to testify to. And they would have to remember everything that Jesus taught them, without distorting his word. They couldn’t go into all the world with their smartphone Bibles in their pockets.
But here Jesus was saying that he was not really leaving them. They would not be alone. And they would have a helper far better than any smartphone. They would remember everything that Jesus taught them because they would have the best help they could possibly have, the Spirit of Truth.
Think also what this means about the reliability of their witness. These apostles, together with the Apostle Paul who was called by Jesus later, and others working with them, would record their testimony writing the books that together make up the New Testament. How can we know this word is reliable? It’s because it’s not the word of men, but the testimony of God the Holy Spirit. This isn’t new. God also spoke through the Old Testament prophets. But we have this great promise from God, that he himself will testify.
And then think what this means for us. Klemet Preus, in his really excellent book “The Fire and the Staff” says that Christians today shouldn’t describe what they do as “testifying” or “witnessing,” but “confessing.” He’s making a good point that we did not witness the cross and empty tomb the way that Jesus’ apostles did. We are confessors, who confess the faith that has been proclaimed to us. But I don’t think it’s quite right to say that we are not witnesses at all. We are witnesses, of God’s word and God’s work. The Holy Spirit is the one testifying to us whenever we hear the Gospel proclaimed. And the Holy Spirit testifies through us as we speak that word to others.
That doesn’t make it easy. Jesus warned his disciples, and us. He said,
“I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. 2They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who murders you will think he is offering a service to God. 3They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. 4But I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you may remember that I told them to you. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.
Some people, Jesus says, are going to hate this testimony. He told his disciples that they will put you out of the synagogues. For the Jews, one of the worst possible things that could happen was to be expelled from the synagogue. This was usually done to say that someone was cut off from God and from the whole community. Jesus was telling them that they would be rejected by their society and by their churches, places where people really want to belong. Are you ready to face this rejection? Oh, but there’s more than that. People will murder you, thinking that they are doing a service to God.
History shows that Jesus was completely right. In the earliest days of the church there was persecution. Paul was one of the worst persecutors before Jesus appeared to him. The book of Acts tells how Paul, after his conversion, went with others from town to town and was thrown out of synagogue after synagogue. The Apostles would all suffer for their testimony, and almost all of them would die for it.
And not just the Apostles, but countless other martyrs as well. They were beheaded. They were fed to wild animals. They were burned to death. All to testify about Jesus.
Are you bursting at the seams to spill this secret? Are you so eager you can’t wait to tell others about Jesus? All too often we take this good news for granted. We get all excited to share other news with the people in our lives, but this, this news of Jesus? That’s no big deal. I wouldn’t want to impose my beliefs on anyone else. I think I’ll just keep that to myself. Or maybe it’s worse than that. Maybe we’re outright ashamed of it. “Oh, don’t look at me. I don’t believe all of that stuff.”
But what does Jesus say? “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.” His word is the answer to a timid heart and a weak faith. His word is what takes away our shame. His word is what makes us bold to testify. And that’s because his word is the word to which the Holy Spirit testifies. Hear the Word. God himself is speaking to you. And through his Word God himself is at work in you. Your heart is a new creation of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sent in your baptism. He dwells there in you and works by the gospel in word and sacrament to establish and strengthen your faith.
And so you can confess this faith, boldly proclaiming the truth of God’s Word. And you can testify to all that God has done for you. You can proclaim this Gospel boldly, because it is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who testifies through you. He is at work to bring life to those who are dead and light to those in darkness. He’s also at work in you to convict the world. And what can the world in all its rage do? Murder you? Oh, but it can’t take away the life that is yours from God.
Don’t keep the Gospel a secret. Live it by your holy life, set apart for God. Proclaim it, constantly, boldly, joyfully. Jesus is your God and Lord, ruling over all creation. He’s your brother, ascended on high. He’s your loving Savior, who has spoken to you, who has taught you his word, who has sent you the Holy Spirit, so that you will testify by the Spirit of Truth. Amen.