Passage: This Week's Second Reading

"The Victorious Christian Life?"

I want to live the victorious Christian life. I really do. I want to be one of those super-Christians that other people look up to, with a faith that never wavers, and who always knows the right thing to say. I want to be one of those people that when people talk about me behind my back, all they can say is "boy, he sure is a man of God."

I want to be able to stand up and preach like Peter did on that first Pentecost, to be a Spirit-filled Christian that God can really use and be proud of. I want to be a Christian that others can look at and say, "Wow, being a Christian is cool. I want to be a Christian just like him."

So come on Holy Spirit. Fill me up and start a fire in my life and heart. I’m ready to get going.

But is that really what the victorious Christian life looks like? If so, it is something I’ll probably never attain. More often than not, I’m like the apostles who were habitually filled with fear and doubt and whose hearts were filled with sorrow. I’m more like the prophet Ezekiel, looking around and seeing only dryness and death.

I see the wreckage of life. I see embattled families and marriages. I see the carnage of wars and natural disasters. I see terrorism and hatred, economic uncertainty, threats of pandemics, and trouble at every turn. I see churches sacrificing the truth for the porridge of popularity.

I see my own struggle with sin, which frequently gets the better of me and I can’t seem to overcome no matter how hard I try. Sometimes, I even question my fitness to stand here and point out your sin, administer the Sacraments, or do the things that the pastoral office requires.

What about you? Are you weak, tired, struggling, doubting? If so, today is for you. Pentecost is for you. Today is all about teaching you and me the truth about what the victorious Christian life really looks like, and best of all, it’s about the Holy Spirit giving that life and victory to you and me.

I guess you noticed that our text for this morning was sort of a "selection" of verses. They skipped the first four and a half verses of chapter 16. What was it that the people who chose the passages of Scripture for each Sunday didn’t want you to hear? Well if it makes you feel better, the omitted verses from today’s Gospel reveal that life wasn’t going to be very victorious-looking for the disciples. The suffering and cross to which Jesus was about to go to would be their suffering and cross as well. The disciples, and we, need those visions of personal greatness kicked out of us every now and then. Personal greatness and achievement is not what the victorious Christian life is about. But on the other

side of the coin, we also need to be reminded that we’re not alone in our struggles.

You see, the victory has already been won. It’s not something that we can do or accomplish. The victory is something that we’ve been celebrating this entire fifty days of the Easter season. We’ve been celebrating the fact that through our Baptism and our God-given faith, Christ’s death and resurrection, the victory He won over death and the devil is also our victory over sin death and the devil.

And so Pentecost is not about leaving the celebration behind and my putting the burden on you to follow in Christ’s steps and trying to be victorious. Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit taking what is Jesus Christ’s and giving it to you. It’s the continuation of Easter in our lives and it’s about showing us that we already live the victorious Christian life in the glory of the cross.

Jesus speaks the words of our text to His disciples just hours before he will be arrested. Jesus tells them what to expect in the very near future. Jesus ascended into heaven forty days after Easter, and now here is Pentecost, just ten days later. Jesus tells them that when he sends the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will "convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment."

The Holy Spirit will bear witness of Christ and convict of sin. That’s not two different things, but one thing done in three steps. The convicting is done as the Holy Spirit takes us to the cross and shows us the truth of our life-stealing sin, the life-restoring righteousness of Christ, and the life-assuring defeat and judgment of the devil. The Holy Spirit bears witness to the fact that the victory that we can’t win has already been won for us on the cross, once and for all, by Jesus. And we live in that victory as we live in Christ.

It’s not that the victorious Christian life is a myth; it just looks a lot different than most people think. You see, it looks like the cross. It’s not lived above and beyond the problems of this life, as if we Christians are somehow immune to them. The victorious Christian life is lived in the middle of the problems of life. It’s not lived in a life that is free from sin. There is no such thing.

Jesus came into our midst and gave His life for those of us who feel dried out, chewed up, and spit out by sin. He came and planted His cross right in the middle of our lives, dying for us so we might rise with Him to a new life. Not a life where we go around with our heads in the clouds, but with our feet firmly planted, living at the foot of the cross, and living in Christ.

That means that we’re victorious not when we stop sinning, (which is impossible), but when we repent of our sins and receive the forgiveness and victory of Christ. When we fall on our knees and hear those wonderful words "I forgive you all your sins," and the Spirit takes the atonement and forgiveness that

Christ won on the cross and gives it to you. When we take the words of Jesus in faith when He says; "He, (The Spirit), will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you."

We’re victorious not when we grow up and stop needing to rely on Jesus so much. We’re victorious when we rely on him more every day. Every day, remembering our Baptism and who we are as children of God. Every day, dying and rising with Christ. Every day, receiving His victory, life, and salvation, not growing up and away from him, but growing into him. The Spirit taking the life of Christ and giving it to you; "He will take what is mine and declare it to you."

And we’re victorious, not when our faith is the marvel of others, but when we who are weak in faith take refuge in the body and blood of our Savior, on the cross and on the altar, given and shed for you. It’s the Holy Spirit taking the salvation of Christ and giving it to you; "He will take what is mine and declare it to you."

And that’s not all. This victory of Christ given to you also bears fruit in your life. "You also will bear witness," says Jesus, "because you have been with me from the beginning."

The disciples were about to learn, as they faced the opposition and persecution Jesus predicted, that you are not victorious when your life is problem-free, but when you forgive and do good to those who sin against you. You are victorious not when you have everything you want, but when you serve others and make sure they have what they need.

You are victorious, not when others look up to you, but when they don’t have to look up – because you are on the same level they are, in the muck and the mire, in the blood and the carnage, in the sin and the wreckage of life, bringing Christ and his cross of victory to a world in need of hope, a world full of dry, dead people.

That’s part of what keeps me going when I don’t feel worthy to be standing here, and that’s why I don’t really have to have all those things I said I wanted a few moments ago, although maybe some of Peter’s preaching skills wouldn’t hurt.

When Ezekiel looked at that valley, he saw death. We see it too. But God sees life through his Spirit just waiting to happen. As Ezekiel would tell you, when the Spirit comes, life happens. The life of Christ, the life of our Savior who hung on the cross as a bag of dry, dead bones, came out of the valley of the shadow of death and gives eternal life to us.

And when you are feeling unworthy of God’s blessing, remember that in Christ, all things are yours, for through faith, Christ is yours and you are his. You may not look like it. You may not feel like it. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, "The Lord and giver of life" as we confess in the Nicene Creed, we are victorious in Christ, because he has taken what is Christ’s and given it to us. Amen.