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Whoever invented the tool box sure knew how to frustrate people.  When you have one of those things, you have a place to put your hammer and your screwdrivers and all those other things you need to do the jobs around the house.   The problem with a tool box, though, is that you can find everything in one except for the tool you are actually looking for.  That particular tool is more likely to be found on top of the fridge or near the site of your last project or where the kids left it when they decided to play with it.   It may even be found here at the church, or in your neighbour's garage more often  than in the tool box where it really belongs.   Wouldn't you love to see the day when you could press a button on your tool box that would make all the tools that belong there automatically find their own way home?  It would be great to have some invention that guarantees that you will have exactly all the tools you need precisely where you know to find them!  How much easier life would be!

One of the things that we celebrate on Pentecost Sunday is that Jesus Christ has Himself provided for us just such a thing.  He has given us all the tools that we need, not just to become God's children, but also to worship Him as members of His Church on earth.  Not only has He given us those tools, He has even given us a way that guarantees that we will have exactly all the tools that we need, precisely when we need them!  What a great gift that is!  

Today we thank God that Jesus has sent us the Holy Spirit!  We thank God that Jesus has sent us the Holy Spirit Himself so that we can use all the tools that God has given us and use them to worship Him!

 

 

We thank God that the Holy Spirit leads us to that very important tool called repentance.  Repentance is like those scraping tools like a rasp or a file or a planer  you sometimes use when you have to fix something like a sticking door.  Often a door sticks because there are too many coats of paint on the door and on the frame.  In order to get the door to work right, you have to scrape off all those extra coats of paint until you get down to the bare wood underneath.  When you've uncovered the original, then you can refinish it and make it like the way it's supposed to be.

Jesus said in John 16:8, "When the Counsellor comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin ... because men do not believe in Me."    This is how the Holy Spirit begins with us.  Jesus knows that we don't like the sound of the word, "sin".  He knows how we like to talk about "mistakes" or "misunderstandings".  He knows how often we are like children who figure that anything that goes wrong is always the other person's fault, or even God's fault.  Jesus knows how we like to cover up our failings with yet another coat of paint so that we can feel better about ourselves, and keep covering up that sin until the day when we find ourselves tightly jammed up by the problems of our lives.   

Jesus knows, and because He knows, He has sent us the Holy Spirit.  He has sent us the Holy Spirit to show us God's Word.  He has sent us the Holy Spirit to make it plain that sin is really our problem and to convict us of that sin.  He sent us the Holy Spirit to scrape us up with the truth that we will never see sin for what it is as long as we do not believe in Jesus.  In fact, we can never worship Jesus and praise Jesus unless the Holy Spirit has placed the scraper in our hands guided us to scrape all of our excuses off the outside of us!

The genuine peace that Jesus promised in our Gospel lesson this morning  can only be found where God's Word has scraped us up and made our sin painful and raw.    A  real understanding of what it means to believe in Jesus can only be found where the Holy Spirit has brought us to cry out to God with our sins held out for Him to see.    We can only remember in a God-pleasing way what Jesus has done for us  when the Spirit moves us to return to the Lord in faith and say along with Hosea, "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, Lord, that we may offer the fruit of our lips."  (Hosea 14:2) 

Jesus said in our Gospel lesson this morning, “If anyone loves Me, He will keep My Word and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”  There is definitely a house that has to be built here.   There is clearly the promise of a home with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit filling the rooms of that house with warmth and love.  All that is possible because the Holy Spirit has opened your heart to hear God’s Word and respond not with arrogance or a fight or an argument or suggestions for improvements to God’s blueprint, but with a humble heart that rejoices in God’s forgiveness!

Jesus gives you the tools and moves you to use the tools when the Holy Spirit comes to you and convicts you, not just in regard to sin, but also in regard to righteousness.  How are you convicted in regard to righteousness?  That happens to you when the Holy Spirit lifts up your head to see our Lord hanging on the cross above you.  It is in the shadow of that Cross where we finally get it right.  In order to be happy and to really celebrate life, we dare not overlook the shadows.  We dare not forget the blows and the pressures that must happen before something good and strong can be built in us.  We dare not forget that real and everlasting joys can only be found where our Lord Himself has made the effort to build something new in us.

When you reach into a tool box and pull out a hammer, you have quite a weapon in your hands.  It is a tool that is designed to concentrate a blow and build up physical force so that you have enough force to peg two pieces of wood together with a nail and keep them together.  When the Holy Spirit convicts you in regard to righteousness, He shows you that only Jesus could strike the hammer blow that saves you.  Only Jesus could pound through the resistance of sin, death and the devil so that you could be connected to God!  Only Jesus, through the blows that He received in His suffering and death, could strike that final hammer blow that keeps you with the Father in the one true faith!

Jesus has held the hammer so that your sins truly are forgiven, shattering the pain of your guilt, and replacing it with a well-built love.  Jesus has held the hammer so that the way could be opened to you to hear His Word and believe His promises.  Jesus has used that hammer by His power and His strength so that you may respond to His offer, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:29)  

During our stay in Ontario, one of the members of the congregation there offered us a rabbit for a pet.   We decided to accept the offer, so I went to the lumberyard and bought all the supplies I needed to build a sturdy rabbit hutch that would keep the rabbit safe from the local dogs and racoons.   At the time our son, Willem, was about three years old, and he was eager to help me.   My plan was to build the parts in panels lying flat on the ground and then to assemble the hutch when all the parts were done.  After Willem helped by doing things like turning screws and holding on to pieces of lumber that I was sawing, I told him it was time to help me lift up the heavy panels.   They were actually much to heavy for him to take an equal share of the weight, so I picked them up by the middle and allowed him to essentially hang on to one end, making them even heavier still for me.    After we moved a couple of those panels, Willem, who saw me strain under the load said, “Dad, you must be pretty weak.  These things are so light I only need one hand to lift them!”   

We know that the burden for our God’s own project to rebuild us into His own dear children is heavy for Jesus to carry, but we get the light end of it.  We get the light end because Jesus carries all the rest to the Father to whom He has gone.  He has gone the Father who has given you life and salvation for the sake of His Son, and will give you all the tools you need to remain in Jesus and know His righteousness!

It is because you have been convicted by such a righteousness that you are able to worship God and worship Him well.  The righteousness of Jesus Christ is shared with you so that you can recognize your loving Lord Jesus and fall down at His feet to worship Him.  As Paul said it in Romans 12:1, "In view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--which is your spiritual worship."  We have seen the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.  We have seen a righteousness that has shown us the great gift we have received in the Gospel of our Lord.  As we stand before that awesome righteousness of a Lord who has forgiven us and forgiven us completely, we can't help but get down to our feet and offer our whole lives to God!

There is another tool in the tool box that the Holy Spirit finds for you and places into your hands.  It is the tool that cuts away the cracked and splintered edges of our lives and trims everything to fit into God's Will for all those whom He has redeemed.  It is a tool like a handsaw that is held just right so that every cut is at the perfect angle and every fit is a perfect fit.  It is the handsaw that cuts as the Holy Spirit convicts us in regard to judgment!

Judgement is one of those things that threatens to take the fun out of life.  Even as we praise God and are filled with the joy of salvation, there are times when we can't help but feel badly for those people who have rejected our Lord.  We can't help but feel sorrow for those people who have been cut off from God, even when we know that they are the ones who have rejected Him. They are the ones who moved the teeth of that saw back and forth over their souls every time they laughed at God and every time they figured they are better off without Him.   They have moved that saw to the point where they have been cut off from Him.

The Holy Spirit convicts us in regard to judgement, it is true, but that conviction is for a very specific reason.   In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus said, “The prince of this world is coming.  He has no hold on Me.”   (John 14:30)     Jesus explains that more clearly in John 16:11 when He says, "the prince of this world is condemned."    By these words, Jesus was saying that there is still hope and will always be hope as long as the Holy Spirit is with us.  It is a hope that we will see the judgement that has come upon the world and be moved to see the Lord while there is still time.  It is a hope that God will spare all people from the judgement that condemned the prince of this world, by turning them to Jesus through God's Word.  It is also the assurance that the prince of the world that has such a strong hold on so many people on this planet cannot have a hold on us, because we belong to Jesus and he as no hold on Him!   In fact, he only looks much more threatening than he really is to any true believer in Christ because he has already been condemned.  He has already been judged.  He has already been convicted, and his conviction does not count for anyone who has been brought safely into the arms of Jesus!

Our lesson from the Book of Acts this morning reminds us that, on the first Pentecost Sunday, the great miracle of the many languages caused everyone present to react one way or another.  Some people made fun of the whole matter and condemned themselves by unbelief.  They were so unbelieving that they did not recognize the miracle for what it was.  They explained it away and they were lost to the prince of this world.  Other people were shaken, asking, "What does this mean?" and many of them were moved to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.  

The Holy Spirit brought all of them the same tool.  They all had the same opportunity.  For some people, the conviction of judgement turned out to be a gift.  For others, it only strengthened the curse they had placed upon themselves.  In both cases, though, the Word came through strongly.  In both cases it was clear that the Lord had given everybody a unique opportunity to see that the Spirit is busy gathering His harvest.  The Holy Spirit is busy doing the work that will change those people who will not resist Him.  The Spirit is busy doing what He has come to do.  He will continue to do that work until the Lord comes again and the devil himself is powerless to stop Him!

This truth lead us to a deeper understanding of what  worship really is.  Worship is not just the personal blessing of repentance and forgiveness and a personal expression of gratitude.  Worship is also the action of an entire community of believers that is called to receive the tools that the Spirit gives us and use those tools for blessing.  Worship is the action of the whole church on earth that has been given God's Word to proclaim that Word in every language to every nation so that everyone has the chance to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.  Worship is that activity by which we hear and learn the teachings of Jesus so that we are moved by the grace of God to obey them out of gratitude and thanksgiving to God.   Worship is the activity of a congregation that enlarges the family of God through Baptism, uses the blessings of the Lord's Supper to be strengthened and encouraged, and preaches the truth of God's Word for the edifying of God's people.  Worship is the praise and joy of individual Christians that blends together as a whole community of praise.   It is the response of people who have been cut by God's grace to fit perfectly together, hammered together to be tightly joined, and scraped and sanded and painted to reflect the glory of our Lord as we celebrate His love for us!  

The Holy Spirit brings us the tool box of God and places the tools into our hands.  He brings us together and keeps us together so that we can all play our part in praising the Lord and worshiping Him in everything that we say and we do.   The tools are yours.  You know where they are and you will never have to waste any time looking for them.  The tools are yours by God's great gift so that faith in Jesus Christ will burn in you and give you everything that you need.  

What a wonderful thing to celebrate!  What a fantastic thing to praise God for this Pentecost day and every day.  The Holy Spirit has given you the tools for worship!  May you worship the Lord this day and every day by using those tools to His glory and praise always.  Amen.