The World Always Claims That It Wants to See

Fifth Sunday of Easter

April 24, 2016

John 16:5-15

The World Always Claims That It Wants to See

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

It was a strange sight. Hundreds of pastors were yelling at the sky. They were dancing around a pile of stones with a dead bull on top. Then it got really stranger. The pastors started taking knives and cutting themselves, not fatally, but clearly painful and messy. They shouted, danced, and slashed all day long, but there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

This scene is from 1 Kings 18. It is the incident on Mt. Carmel. The prophet of the true God, Elijah, challenged the people of God, the Israelites, to a contest. Whosoever's god sent fire down from the sky to burn up their altar sacrifice was the real god. Then the people of God would see that the real god was the Lord, and not the pagan statue called Baal.

The prophets of Baal would be most similar to pastors today, so I described them as pastors. However, their behavior is not something I or any other pastor that I know has performed.

These prophets who shouted, danced, and slashed themselves thought their performances would win the attention of their god. But their statue god Baal was only a figment of their sinful imagination. No fire came down from the sky.

But when Elijah prayed in the evening, the Lord God immediately consumed Elijah's altar with burning fire. Here was a science experiment in full swing. Hypothesis: Real Gods can send down fire from heaven. And now this hypothesis was tested. And the results of this empirical test were conclusive.

The world always claims to want to see proof that God exists. But when confronted with the truth, the world proves that it is blind and unable to see the Truth, even when it's right there in front of their eyes.

The strange day on Mt. Carmel had begun with Elijah calling on his countrymen to decide which god to worship, but by the end of the day, after seeing the clear evidence of the true God, they rejected Him.

God's prophet was quite sure that he was all alone.

A thousand years later Jesus warned His disciples that they would feel quite sure that they were all alone when He ascended to heaven to sit at the Father's right hand.

“But now I am going away to Him who sent Me, and not one of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. (John 16:5-6 HCSB)

Jesus was telling His disciples that after He was put to death, He would be raised from the dead, but after that He would be with them for long. He would returning to His Father's right hand in heaven. Jesus anticipated that His disciples would think that they would be all alone. So He told them that they would never be alone; He was sending the Holy Spirit to comfort them with His promises for the rest of their lives.

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. (John 16:13 HCSB)

The Holy Spirit does tell us the truth for He tells us about Jesus. He also tells us what is going to happen: that Jesus will continue to forgive us and our sins. So we are never alone.

Elijah thought he was alone, because the Lord never left Him. The Lord fed him and spoke to him and in the end, He took Elijah home to heaven.

There are times when we think we are alone, but the Lord never leaves us, either. The Lord feeds us as He does today, He speaks to us, and in the end, we know the future: He will take us home to heaven.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Alleluia! Amen!

2 Corinthians 5:21