Sermon Notes for 4th Sunday of Easter, 18 May 2025 Anno Domini,
the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
The Fourth Sunday after Easter.
The Collect.
O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God, by the Word and Light of Truth, has provided a means for our marred image to be restored to His Holy Image. As Christian believers, we are accounted the currency of the Kingdom, and all currency bears the mark and image of its issuing authority. But do we? We cannot do so without the empowering grace of our Lord to order our steps. With our hearts stayed on Christ, we will know the way and be led therein into holiness of life and action. These principles are outlined in our Prayer of Collect.
Nothing received from His divine Majesty is anything less than perfect. His love is that perfect standard to which we aspire. Without His love, we can have no love for we love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
The lectionary texts and Prayer of Collect today center on the believer growing more and more in sanctification and in becoming more in the image and likeness of His Father in Heaven. Our control of our emotions are a necessary check on our inclination to sin. In the words of St. Augustine, “Anger is weed; hate is the tree.” Surely, unjust anger can grow into enormous sin if watered with hate and envy.
James, in his Epistle, points out the nature of the Christian as sharing in the first fruits of our Savior who rose first from the death to ascend to the Father. We, too, share in that blessing as first fruits of the dead in trespasses and sins for we are made alive by the Holy Spirit of God. Those who have been made alive in Christ will not suffer the second death.
Though we are reading beyond the Epistle text for the day, we are told in James 1:22-25 that belief is evidenced in our obedience to the Law – we are doers of the Law and not merely hearers of it. If we simply have a head knowledge of the Law and not a spiritual commitment to it, we are like a man observing his face in the mirror. We see that we are guilty in the same sense as Adam, David, and Saul; yet, we are worldly in our ways and forget that we are egregious sinners in the eyes of the Lord. The Law of God is that Perfect Law of Liberty about which the Epistle speaks. Many are under the impression that their wills are already free before salvation – that they must surrender much of their freedom in coming to Christ. They could not be more mistaken. The desires of the flesh bind us a chains to sin. Our wills are not free but are self-wills. But when we come to Christ, we have freedom of will since we have taken upon our souls the Mind that was in Christ. The old desires are gone, and righteous desires not dominate wills to do good.
When the time comes that we must part with the darling of our souls – our mates with whom we have shared many long years of love and bliss – our sorrowful would we be at that parting; however, Christ has meant much more than a beloved companion to the disciples – He has been their all-in-all. Their trust and future hope have been realized in Him. How can they part with Him, and they comprehended not why it would be necessary for the Savior and son of God to depart from them leaving them without head and heart to face the world and its wickedness.
Jesus knows the hurt of their hearts at His departure, but reassures them that noting will be taken from them but rather added to their blessings in the omniscience of the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, who was to come. Our Lord Jesus Christ had come in the body of a man and, as a man, was limited in the nature of omnipresence. The work of Christ was finished on the cross at Calvary. Now the new mission of the Holy Ghost would accompany them severally in all walks of life. The Comforter did not represent any change in direction or purpose, but a continuation of that purpose in greater zeal in all places and all times. He did not come representing Himself, but as Christ came representing the Father, so, the Comforter came to reveal and bring to our remembrance all things written in the Holy Book of Christ.
Up until this point of the departure of the Lord Jesus, the disciples had followed Christ in faith. Now the power of the Holy Ghost would enter their hearts and invigorate that faith. It would be a constant presence to them and a grantor of courageous faith and action. Christ is truly not departed from us in Spirit for He is with us always. He will neither forsake nor leave us, but will be with us in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Ghost will add a spiritual dimension to the preaching of the Gospel. His testimony of the Gospel of Christ will either convict, or condemn, the sinner of his transgressions.
Our Lord had many more treasures to share with the disciples, but they were incapable of grasping them at this point in their walk. Following the events of Good Friday and Easter, however, their eyes were opened to far greater wonders than ever before. His resurrection sealed all that their faith of which their faith had given testimony.
Regardless our present status as believers and our study of the Holy Scriptures, our Lord has many mysteries yet to share with us a s well as we seek deeper and deep er knowledge and wisdom from the Deep of His Word. As we seek, we shall find. All our doubts and worries are removed in the heart-warming testimony of the Holy Spirit. Where darkness once dominated in our hearts, the Holy Spirit shed great light to our minds from God’s Word. The truth was always before us, but we could not comprehend its fulness of meaning, much like a winding road in abject darkness. When the sun rises we can see clearly the path, but it was there all along. We were simply blind to it.
Contrary to much false teaching today, the Holy Spirit will not speak of Himself, but point always to our Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He will glorify Christ – not Himself. He does not promise luxury and wealth, but the way of the pilgrim in search of truth. We do not have a ‘Holy Spirit’ church, but a Christian Church that upholds and worships the Lord Jesus Christ.
