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If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word…Whoever does not love Me does not keep My Words.

᛭ INI ᛭

Time for harvest! (Pentecost was a harvest festival.) Bringing in the sheaves! But not just sheaves of wheat—people, the nations! Just as the Lord called His first four Apostles to be fishers of men, so also His Church is the harvester of people. As the Psalmist says, “The earth has yielded its increase.” (Ps 67)

The increase of the earth is people who believe in Jesus, both Jew and Gentile. That’s why at the first Pentecost of the Church, “there were…devout men from every nation under heaven.” So also today, we are the sheaves being harvested by Jesus through the Spirit, who came on Pentecost.

All well and good, but how are we harvested? Well, that’s quite clear from Jesus’ Words in John 14. It has to do with what’s sown to create the crops. “The Seed is the Word of God.” But not just any “Word of God.” It’s as Jesus says today: “My Peace I give to you.”

This Pentecost Sunday were focusing on Peace, Jesus’ Peace, and that means focusing on His Words, too, because

JESUS GIVES HIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS.

(I. Jesus’ Words give His peace.)

JESUS GIVES HIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS, because Jesus’ Words give His peace. Jesus speaks peace to His people: “Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints.” (Ps 85)

**“Cry out that [their] warfare is ended, that [their] iniquity is pardoned, that [they have] received from the LORD’S hand double [forgiveness] for all [their] sins.” (Is 40)** So, Jesus says: **“Peace I leave with you...Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”**

When He speaks peace, He’s announcing what He’s done for you—that He has “purchased and won you from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil with His holy, precious blood and with His holy innocent sufferings and death.”(SC) That’s what Jesus is talking about at the end of our Gospel reading: “The ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing on Me. Rather, that the world would know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father commanded Me, rise. Let us go from here.” He goes to Calvary. “For he himself is our peace, who…has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility,” (Eph 2) “making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Col 1)

JESUS GIVES HIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS. This is so because His Words actually give what they say. “Let there be light, and there was light.” “Peace I give you.” “This is My body and blood for your forgiveness.” “If you forgive anyone, they’re forgiven.” And since it’s Pentecost: “Lasset die Kindlein zu mir kommen.” (That’s what it says on the Font [at Immanuel.]) “Let the little children come to Me.”

(Transition.)

Jesus’ Word of Peace actually delivers His Calvary-won Peace. JESUS GIVES HIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS.

An example of this is the familiar blessing from end of the service, which concludes: ***“The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”*** The Lord says says this about the blessing: **“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them,”** bless them with peace. 

So, Baptism, Absolution, the Lord’s Supper, Sermons, and God’s Word deliver the forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, the promise of everlasting life. In other words, they deliver peace.

JESUS GIVES HIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS, and this is why Jesus says, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word…Whoever does not love Me does not keep My Words. He says this because Word keepers are then peace receivers.

(II. Word keepers are then peace receivers.)

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word,” Jesus says. We think this means “doing,” obedience. But we often define “doing,” so that it fits what we’re already “doing.” (Sinful law games.) But JESUS GIVES HIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS, not through our doing.

We pit Commandments (Law words) against one another. For example: We sinfully ignore anything related to the 2nd and 3rd Commandments like praying, going to church, hearing sermons or reading our Bibles, thinking it’s okay because we’re generally nice people. Or there’s the sinful understanding of forgiveness that makes us think we can live however we want.

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word…Whoever does not love Me does not keep My Words.

Keeping Jesus’ Word is deeper than just doing it. Keeping flows from love; doing or obedience not necessarily. “Keep” in a biblical sense means to guard or protect. (The most secure part of a castle was the keep.) “Keep” means to cherish something that you wouldn’t want to lose, forsake, break, or ruin.

So, do you really cherish Jesus’ Word? Not His Law Word. How often we put up excuses or don’t tear down hindrances to the Commandments we break! We don’t cherish Jesus’ Word of Peace either! We like whatever else fills our time besides our Scriptures, the Sermon, or the Supper; we’re unforgiving and angry because we like being ornery.

Yet, JESUS GIVES HIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS, even to the likes of us! His forgiveness, His undeserved kindness and mercy come to us in His Word and Sacraments, which are just the physical Word. We love Jesus for doing this, so we cherish Him and His Word. Those who Jesus’ Word now keep, they are those who keep His peace.

Jesus’ peace means there’s forgiveness for your sin, Absolution to silence Satan’s accusation, and the promise of life in the midst of death. He plants His peace within our hearts, sprouting up into faith and love. Peace with God and Peace with each another is worked within us through Jesus’ peace, and JESUS GIVES HIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS. So, we cherish His Word and Sacraments for these cause fervent love toward one another to bloom.

(Conclusion.)

This Pentecost Sunday were focusing on Peace, Jesus’ Peace, and that means focusing on His Words, too, because

JESUS GIVES HIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS.

The Spirit is in those Words, as He was in Peter’s Sermon as well as Baptism later in Acts 2, so He is every time Jesus’ Peace, the forgiveness of sins, is delivered in the many and various ways He sows it to us—Baptism, Absolution, Sermons, Bibles, His Supper.

Beggars can’t be choosers, neither are keepers! Since JESUS GIVES HIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS, those who love Him don’t pick and choose. Every Word a gift! Picking and choosing which Words and Gifts of Jesus you receive and when, so you can avoid them isn’t love for Jesus. “Whoever does not love Me does not keep My Words,” doesn’t guard them, cherish them.

But Jesus wants you to have peace. Jesus died and rose for you, and JESUS GIVES THIS PEACE THROUGH HIS WORDS. There have been plenty of peace words today (Absolution, this Sermon, various parts of the liturgy). There are many more to come, even “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

᛭ INI ᛭