John 14:15-17 NKJV 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
In our lesson Jesus says that He will ask the Father to give us “another Helper,” and by that He means the Holy Spirit. Martin Luther, in the Small Catechism, said, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith, even as He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith” (SC, AC III).
All these blessings would not have come to us if the Holy Spirit had not come to us. And the Holy Spirit would not have come to us if Christ our Lord had not sent Him. Fortunately for us, that is precisely what He promises in our text today.
You see, the Christian life, between the time that we first come to faith and the time that we finally get to heaven, is a life of many struggles and many joys. Jesus’ promise to us is not that we will only have joys and no struggles; rather His promise is that He, in the person of His Holy Spirit, will be with us through all the struggles and joys. His promise is that He will not leave us as orphans, to fend for ourselves, but that He will send us another Counselor, a Helper, a Comforter, to be with us, to give us His gifts, to equip us, to empower us, to stand by us in every time of trial, and to rejoice with us in every time of joy.
Jesus gives us this promise, and a main theme of the Easter season was that because of the resurrection, we know that Jesus always keeps His promises. So, the promise of sending us the Holy Spirit is also a promise that He kept, and we celebrate that on Pentecost and throughout the Pentecost season and indeed in every day of our lives from now until eternity.
Let us pray: O God, you taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit. By that same Spirit give us a right judgment in all things that we may have and always rejoice in His holy comfort; through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and forever. Amen.