In John 16:23-33, Jesus prepares His disciples for tribulation, offering peace through faith in Him. This sermon explores how Christ’s death, resurrection, and real presence in Word and Sacrament overcome worldly chaos. True peace isn’t wishful thinking, it’s the certainty of salvation, grounded in God’s promises and sustained in His Church even amid suffering.
Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org
Transcript
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus’ words and warnings about his need to depart and be crucified, and to ascend into heaven have caused the disciples enormous anxiety, enormous stress.
After they acknowledged him to be the son of God, after they confessed that they knew him to have come from the Father, Jesus gave to them a final warning about the events to come, and he offers words of comfort.
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.
In the world, you will have tribulation.
But take heart, I have overcome the world.
The Incarnate Word of God came at his first advent to bring peace to the world, to bring peace on earth and goodwill towards those with whom God is pleased.
In me, you may have peace.
Faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, your Redeemer, will bring you peace.
Peace means tranquility.
It means freedom from worry, harmony, order, and rest.
This is what Christians find in Christ.
It is the assurance that you will go to heaven the instant your life on this world ends.
That you have no doubt of this fact.
There is no equivocating.
There is no saying, I hope I go to heaven, or maybe I’ll go to heaven, or I’ll go to heaven if I’ve been good enough.
Statements such as those are not peaceful, for they stem from the worry that you have that you’ve not done enough to merit salvation or that Christ promises may not apply to you.
These statements deny the efficacy of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
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Peter wrote to the early church that they should have no such doubts.
God’s abundant mercy was begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In Christ Jesus, you have peace because he called you to faith by the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel.
Then, Christ works to keep you there.
Christ works to keep you in faith by preaching and teaching his word through the power of Holy Baptism, by coming to you with his body and blood at his table, joining you as one flesh with not only himself but with all your brothers and sisters in the faith.
This is the power of God for salvation.
This is the peace promised by our Lord.
I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace.
In the world, you will have tribulation.
In Christ Jesus, you have peace in him, in his word, in his church, and especially in his sacrament of the altar.
You find peace.
Hermann Sase, a German Lutheran pastor who held fast to the true faith amid the tribulations of World War II, wrote, Everywhere a congregation is gathered about her altar in the deep faith in the one who is her Lord and her head, because he is her Redeemer, where she sings the Kyrie and the Gloria and lifts her heart to heaven.
And with all angels and archangels and the entire company of heaven sings holy, holy, holy to the triune God.
There will her church be a true house of God, a place of the real presence of Christ in the midst of a boisterous and unholy world.
This text will apply to her.
The Lord is in her temple.
The Lord is in his temple.
Let all the world be silent before him.
So I’d say a man living in the midst of Nazi Germany in the middle of World War II, with bombs falling all around, with tanks on trains going across the country, with the sound of boots on cobblestones outside the doors of his university office, still had the Lord’s promise in mind.
In the world, you will have tribulation.
The Christ on the cross has overcome the world.
And he now comes to you, not just in spirit, but physically in the sacrament, to bring you peace, to bring you confidence because of his victory.
When Sase writes of a boisterous non-holy world, he’s quoting the prophet Habakkuk, who prophesied, you walked through the sea with your horses, through the heap of great waters.
When I heard my body trembled, my lips quivered at the voice.
Rotten, rottenness entered my bones and I trembled in myself that I might rest in the day of trouble.
When he comes up to the people, he will invade them with his troops.
This is the life of God’s people, whether you lived during World War II or not.
You walk through the sea.
You’ve been brought into the church, through the waters of Holy Baptism.
Just as Israel entered the promised land, through the waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan River.
At every step of the way, Satan and his evil hordes, the world and your sinful flesh, these are the great heaps of waters held back by the power of Almighty God.
These are symbolized by the waters of the Red Sea, held on either side as the Israelites walked through on dry ground.
The waters that threatened to destroy them.
This is what the disciples would endure on Monday, Thursday and in the days immediately following the crucifixion.
Anxiety, doubt, disorder, the rottenness of sin creeping in through their very bones, causing them to doubt.
Their creator had been killed.
That was not how they imagined salvation was to work.
This is the folly of the cross and human wisdom.
Would they be next?
Who would save them from their enemies?
What were they to be doing?
Could they still be forgiven after they had abandoned their Lord?
They lacked peace, because they lacked Christ.
Christ came to them on the evening of the first day of the week.
And he did so, speaking the very first words, peace be with you, peace.
He was back with them.
And even the doubtful among them would later explain, my Lord and my God, centuries before this night, Isaiah also came to speak words of peace to Israel, the people who were also anxious and disordered and doubtful.
Come, my people, enter your chambers and shut the doors behind you.
Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation has passed.
For behold, the Lord comes out of this place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
In that day, the Lord, with his severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan, that twisted serpent, and he will slay the reptile that is in the sea.
This is a promise for the church.
Come, enter into your chambers, enter into the house of the Lord.
Enter into his word of peace.
Repent of sin.
Be forgiven.
Enter into the waters of Holy Baptism, where every sin is washed away, where you are sealed as his child forever.
Enter into the church and sing, Lord, have mercy and glory be to God on high and on earth peace.
Cry out with the angels and the archangels and the whole host of heaven, holy, holy, holy, as your Lord creates in you a new heart, a heart which you then lift up onto him.
As he comes to you speaking peace, your sins are forgiven.
And never will I leave or forsake you.
Come into his holy temple and let all the tribulations of the world fall silent before his heavenly throne, for he has redeemed you from sin.
The Lord called us here.
The Lord has called us into his church, into his family, into a new life, walking in the spirit.
He’s called you here to sustain you in the faith for a little moment.
This life, this world, this tribulation, though may seem like an eternity at times, is but a little while.
The Lord will return and he will come back not as a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger.
He will come back not as our savior, not as a humble rabbi.
He will come back with a trumpet call.
The cloud shouts, riding on his horse with his two-edged sword in the clouds, bringing his judgment to the earth.
On that day, Leviathan, that evil serpent, Satan, and all his hosts and allies will be slain and cast forever into the abyss of hell, never again to trouble the saints.
No more will God need to restrain the great heaps of waters threatening to sweep his way, for they will be destroyed.
There will be no more pain, sorrow, or tribulation.
There will be no more need for memorial days, for death will be put away forever.
Until that day, the Lord has equipped us with his means of grace, with the ability to pray.
On that day, he will ask of me nothing.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
The disciples had relied on Jesus’ presence among them for help and understanding.
And Jesus promised them that in that day, you will ask nothing of me.
After the resurrection, after the gates of heaven have been opened again to them, in that day, the faithful no longer need an intercessor.
They don’t need a high priest and certainly not another saint in heaven to go to the Father in prayer.
They can go directly themselves.
Our Father, who art in heaven.
These words, God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true Father, that we are his true children, so that with all boldness and confidence, we can approach him as dear children ask their dear Father.
Our Father, who from heaven above, teach us no thoughtless words to say, but from our inmost hearts to pray.
This is your privilege as his child.
You can call upon him day or night.
There’s no numbers to take, no hotline to call.
You simply pray.
And you know without a doubt that he has promised to hear and to answer your prayer.
As Jesus tells us, ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.
That your joy may be full.
That you may be at peace.
That Christ may be with you as he has promised.
Because he has risen.
He has risen to be.
He’s risen victorious over Leviathan, victorious over the world.
He’s risen victorious over your sinful thoughts, words and deeds.
He’s risen victorious and redeemed you from trouble.
He’s risen, and his holy precious blood has paid for all your sins.
His innocent suffering and death has done this as well.
That you may be his, that you may be his own and live with him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.
Just as he’s risen, he lives and reigns for all eternity here as his children, gathered in the real presence of Christ, in the midst of a boisterous and an unholy world that surrounds us, he rejoice for the Lord is in his temple.
Let all the world be silent before him.
Be at peace.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
