Sermon for The Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2026.
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). This Spirit of truth Jesus promised to send when He ascended to the Father, and He did. We’ll hear a lot more about the Holy Spirit’s coming in a few weeks, when we celebrate Pentecost. Today, we do well to consider how the Spirit of truth guides us into the truth. In our James reading, we are taught that God has brought us forth by the word of truth. This word of truth is the instrument that the Spirit of Truth uses to bring us forth from death. It’s the tool He uses to save sinners from our old, rebellious ways, and make us God’s creatures. And so, James tells us to receive with meekness the implanted word [of truth], which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21).
The majority of you have been confirmed in the faith. In your instruction, you learned and continue to learn the biblical reason behind our confession of belief in the Holy Spirit in the Apostles’ Creed. The Nicene Creed expands the confession a little bit. What do we confess? “And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.”
Do you recall what it means to confess faith in the Holy Spirit? To quote the Small Catechism, which you can find on page 323 in your hymnal, “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. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”
This is exactly what Jesus promised us in today’s Gospel reading. This is the advantage we have been given. Look at John 16:7. “…I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” And verse 13, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth….”
You, dear Christians, you have received the Holy Spirit, the helper, the Spirit of truth. He has come to you in the preaching of the word of truth. As he spoke by the prophets in former days, He now speaks through the Father’s Son, Jesus Christ, as Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”
Yes, still to this day, the Holy Spirit is speaking through Jesus. What does Jesus say in our Gospel lesson? “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me,” Jesus says, “for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:13-14)
The Spirit of truth speaks the word of truth. Who is truth? Jesus. What does he say in John 14:6? “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the truth. He sends His Spirit to us, to proclaim His Word to us, so that you and I would be brought forth from our sin-caused death and be a kind of first fruits of God’s creatures.
And this is why we confess that we can’t believe in God without the Holy Spirit implanting this word of truth in us. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, the Holy Spirit puts it this way: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
We need the Holy Spirit to help us. Jesus calls him the Helper for good reason. We need him to give us spiritual eyes that see the truth. We need him to give us the good gifts that come down to us from the Father, to guide us into all the truth.
Another passage that the Holy Spirit inspired for us to learn this fantastic reality is Ephesians 2:1-10. Check this out!
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience [not the Spirit of truth]— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God [as James recorded, right? “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Back to Ephesians 2], not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Friends, this is what we ought to dwell on this week. We have been blessed with the Spirit of truth, our Helper. That you are a Christian, that you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that you don’t resist the word of truth, but receive it with meekness as it is implanted in your heart by way of your ears, which is why James says: “let every person be quick to hear [and] slow to speak,” that you have faith in the blood of Christ that covers your sins and atones for your trespasses, friend, this is the work of the Spirit of truth and it is a wonderful comfort. Listen to more from words inspired by the Spirit to guide you into all truth. From Ephesians again, 1:13, “In Him also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
1 Peter 1:23-25, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
‘All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.’
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”
Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” And before that, in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”
In 1 Thessalonians 2:14, we learn that the Spirit of truth “called you through [the] gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Praise be to the Father of lights, with His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of truth, together with the Spirit of truth who proceeds from them. One God, now and forever, amen!
Rev. Tyrel Bramwell 
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