Fourth Sunday after Easter

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St. James, in his Epistle, writes a line of such proverbial wisdom that unless we take it in context, we would think it only a flowery sentiment about the Christian GOD. It goes like this: “Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of Lights, with Whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (1.17). Without context, these are just poetical descriptives of the GOD of the Bible: ‘every good and perfect gift’; ‘Father of lights’, ‘no variableness, nor shadow of turning’. — What is James saying, and why is he using these descriptions? First, the light of GOD’s Truth, which changes not, nor varies due to times and seasons like the sun’s light moving on a sundial. The Father’s unshifting truth is the one thing that can order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men, and without the shadow of turning, His good and perfect grace leading, men are caused to love and desire only the things which He commands and promises. He does this all, perfectly, even when our circumstances and situations are ever changing because of the world’s unruliness. — Thus, we understand that there are men and women who are ruled by and desirous of GOD, and there are men and women who are not. — What is the differentiator? The differentiator, Saint James says, are those who “lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness, the engrafted word [of truth], which is able to save your souls” (1.21).   

In the tradition of the Anglican Way, on the Fourth Sunday after Easter, Mother Church was thinking about the newly baptized who were implanted into Her Body by the Word of GOD through the Holy Spirit in Baptism on Easter Even. In the Epistle Lesson, James encourages these new believers in their Christian walks with the following words: “Of His own will, with the Word of Truth, He ‘bringeth forth and gives birth to’ us, that we should become a kind of firstfruits [of righteous offspring] of His creatures” (1.18). — The language is colored with regeneration and baptismal imagery. And the spiritual reality of new life in Christ, says James, comes to all believers through GOD’s Word of Truth, unchanging and invariable.   

This Word of Truth, according to King David, is spiritual, and is transferred through human speech in the local vernacular, so that all who hear it might understand it – and if they believe its message, they will put their trust in the promises of that articulate Word and receive its blessings. — David, responding to GOD’s Word presented unto him, says: ‘Let Thy loving mercy come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according unto Thy Word … the Word of Thy Truth.’ (cf. Ps. 119.41). We know from the story of David, Uriah the Hittite, and Bathsheba, that by GOD’s Word of Truth given to David by the prophet Nathan, GOD ruled over David’s unruly heart such that he saw his sin and repented of it. In the modern vernacular, Nathan spoke GOD’s Word of Truth to David, and he understood it, and by it, recognized the judgment he deserved for sinning against Uriah, Bathsheba, and the lovers’ illegitimate child who died. GOD’s Word of Truth did not move from the brightness of Noon to six o’clock because of some personal bias GOD had for David. Instead, GOD’s Truth remained invariable and without shadow, such that David, convicted, confessed to GOD ALMIGHTY: “I acknowledge my faults, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified in thy saying, and clear when thou shalt judge” (Psalm 51.3-4).  

Being a man after GOD’s own heart, David was cut to the quick. His conscience was convicted with the spiritual reality of his sin, which GOD had placed before him, being canvassed in a clear and true, invariable light. Just like the noonday shadow from the sun on a sundial would be irresistibly clairvoyant, David could not refute his naughtiness. — To David’s credit, with a soft heart, he responded to GOD’s Truth, being thus compelled by grace, he turned and pursued GOD’s Word of Truth, in spite of its consequences. This he did, rather than be conquered by his evile desires. In a sense, David was regenerated by the engrafted Word of GOD’s Truth, spoken to him by the prophet Nathan, who said: “The LORD has put away your sin; you will not die” (2 Samuel 12.13).  

In this story of David, we see that indeed, the Word of Truth is spiritual, and it is life – it is given and actuated in the hearts, souls, and minds of believers by the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost. Through the common vernacular – the Word written and the Word spoken – the Spirit communicates it to men, women, priests, prophets, and kings, such, if they will, will be ruled by Him, graciously. — With this theological truth being made known to us, we come to JESUS’ Upper Room Discourse from our Gospel Lesson, with His Apostles. 

The LORD JESUS, in our Proper Readings for the middle Sundays in Easter (Easter III, IV, & V), tells His Apostles that He must be going away. — “A little while and ye shall not see me, and a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to my Father” (St. John 16.16). — Some think JESUS is speaking about His death and resurrection because He would go away for three days, cloaked by the grave. He would then return in newness of life on Easter Morning, showing Himself once again to His disciples. But note, JESUS says that they will see Him because He will go to His Father. If JESUS went to the Father in Heaven, how could the Apostles see Him? The LORD answers the question in today’s lesson from Saint John, when He says: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you” (St. John 16.7). 

It must have been amazing to walk and talk with JESUS; to sit at His feet and to hear His teachings. Yet, a disciple would have only been able to do that if they could actually get an audience with the LORD. So many people tried to see Him, be touched by Him, hear from Him, and learn from Him; the crowds thronged about Him, and only a few were able to enjoy His Presence. This was because JESUS limited Himself to time and space as a man, considering His divinity as something not to be grasped. The LORD JESUS, like any human being, could only be in one place at a time. As such, He could only engage with the people that His environment would allow. — Yet, in this case, according to JESUS in the Upper Room, if He were to go away, then through the Person of the Holy Spirit, all who desire by faith, shall see JESUS, be touched by Him, hear Him, and learn from Him. 

The Spirit of GOD is the actuating power of GOD’s Word of Truth, and before He could come to the whole world, which was the agreement of GOD by the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son, JESUS had to depart. — By the Divine Counsels of Heaven, Christ’s going away was ordered before the Comforter’s coming.  — One commentator has observed: “it is congruous enough that the ambassador extraordinaire should be recalled, before the envoy come, that is constantly to remain … Further, the disciples had to be weaned from JESUS’ bodily presence, which they were too apt to dote upon, before they were duly prepared to receive the spiritual aids and comforts of a new dispensation; viz., the Church Age.”¹ And in this age, the envoy of the Holy Ghost would come to live and dwell in the hearts of all regenerated, baptized Christians. — Unlike the limitedness of Christ in His Humanity, the Holy Spirit is boundless and able to speak GOD’s Word of Truth into all of our hearts and minds at once. — By Christ JESUS’, ‘a little while and you will not see me, and a little while and you will see me,’ the Holy Spirit would come into the world, sent by the Father and the Son, universally ordering the unruly hearts of men, and enabling them to love the Father’s commands and promises. — This, according to the Divine Counsel of GOD, would be a significant upgrade from the operating system of the Old Testament. In that system, like with Nathan and David, GOD’s Word of Truth came to one man at a single time, and with limited effects.  

By His going away, JESUS said of the Holy Spirit: “I will send Him unto you. And when He comes, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged” (St. John 16.8-11). –First, the Holy Spirit is promised by JESUS to come and expose the world to the errors concerning sin. The sin that the world is guilty of, is the lack of belief that JESUS is the Son of the Living GOD and Savior of the World.  

Conviction or exposure in the Greek sense, is “the summing up of the evidence, and setting a matter that has been long canvassed in a clear and undeniable light by GOD’s Light.”² — “The Spirit is sent to convince sinners of sin, not barely to tell them of it, but to convince them of it, proving their sin upon them, so as to force them to own it and repent of it … The Spirit convinces us of the fact of sin, that we have done so and so, and that by it, we are become odious to GOD … and liable to the fruit of sin; the end thereof is death – spiritual death – the Spirit makes sure that we make no mistake of its weight and eternal consequence.”³  

The further exposing ministry of the Spirit in the world after JESUS goes to the Father, concerns the conviction of the world to what true righteousness is. Until JESUS would be seen no more, it was His earthly ministry that was the source of righteousness, leading men boldly to righteous deeds.  — In one incident, He said, “Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, you hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and but have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith; these ought ye to have done, without leaving the other undone” (St. Matthew 23.23) — The ability of the Holy Spirit to engage every heart of man, now the righteous Heart of the GOD-MAN of JESUS being glorified, exposes the world of its own “hollowness in righteousness, being now forced to conceive the righteousness of Christ, who has been vindicated through His exaltation unto the Father’s Right Hand.”⁴ Being tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin, the world now sees and knows what true righteousness is. 

Finally, JESUS says, when He goes away, the Holy Spirit will come to expose the world of judgment. The world and its prince believe that at the Cross, JESUS was defeated. Since JESUS suffered and died on the Hill of the Skull, it would appear that death closed the door on JESUS and His Movement. Yet, at the cost of their own lives, the Apostles declared that this JESUS, who was “taken, and by wicked hands crucified and slain: GOD hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden by death” (Acts 2.23-24). — Instead of JESUS, it was Satan, sin, and death that were conquered at the Cross. — Recall how the LORD, on the threshold of His Passion, said in St. John 12: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (v.31). And since JESUS overcame the world at the Cross, the Holy Spirit comes at His departure to set the scales of justice aright. For before that, the kingdoms of this world believed that what was up was down, and what was down was up. They were fooled by the prince of the powers of the air. — Now, through the Cross of Christ, the head of the Serpent, that Satan of old, has been crushed, allowing “The Kingdoms of this world to become the kingdoms of our LORD and of His Christ” (Revelation 11,15). Thus, the Church proclaims in her hymns of praise: “O LORD, once lifted on the glorious tree … So shall our song of triumph ever be; ‘Praise to the Crucified for victory.'”⁵    

Dear church, the Word of GOD’s Truth is a gift that comes down from the Father of Lights, in whom there is no shifting of shadows nor variableness of changing. This Word of Truth is spiritual, and it is sharper than any double-edged sword; cutting through soul and spirit, bone and marrow. (cf. Heb. 4.12). — For those who respond to it with softness of heart and liveliness of faith, GOD the Holy Spirit stirring, this Word causes their unruly hearts to be ruled and their undesirous desires to desire after His promises alone. — “The Spirit has work to do, not only on the enemies of Christ, to convince and humble them of sin, judgment, and righteousness, but also upon His friends and agents too; to instruct us and comfort us. Therefore, it was truly expedient for JESUS to depart.”⁶ — On the eve of Pentecost, may the LORD GOD of Hosts, by the powerful workings of GOD the Holy Ghost, convict us with the Word of His Truth, that among the sundry and manifold changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where His true joys are to be found.  – “I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away from you, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I do depart, I will send Him unto you … and He shall take of mine, and give it unto you, [even the Word of Truth, wherein there is no is no variableness, neither shadow of turning]. (St. John 16.7, 13). A gift to you and to me from the Father of Light. Amen. 

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1 BlueLetterBible.org. “Matthew Henry Commentary: John 16.” Accessed 2 May 20026. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Jhn/Jhn_016.cfm?a=1013001.   
2-3 BlueLetterBible.org.  
4 Carson, D.A., France, R.T., and Motyer, J.A., New Bible Commentary, (Downers Grove, Intervarsity Academic, 1994), 1058.  
5 Book of Common Praise, “Lift High the Cross”, (Newport: Anglican Press, 2017), 573.  

6 BlueLetterBible.org.