(Saturday Night's storms knocked the office computer to safe mode, hence the late posting)
+In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit +
Dear friends in Christ, a joyous and happy Pentecost to you. Pentecost, 50 full days after the Passover, Pentecost, the 50th day after Easter, Pentecost – that joyous day where we remember the disciples stepping boldly into the temple and preaching Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins to so many that need to hear His Gospel. That is what we think of first when we think of Pentecost, isn’t it? The preaching of Christ. Is that what we think of when we speak of Pentecost? Or do our thoughts zoom straight to the Holy Spirit? Pentecost is sometimes thought of as the Holy Spirit’s day – the day where we focus on the Spirit – and the Spirit’s phenomenal acts of power and might. Behold the tongues of flame, behold the speaking in tongues, behold the boldness!
+In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit +
Dear friends in Christ, a joyous and happy Pentecost to you. Pentecost, 50 full days after the Passover, Pentecost, the 50th day after Easter, Pentecost – that joyous day where we remember the disciples stepping boldly into the temple and preaching Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins to so many that need to hear His Gospel. That is what we think of first when we think of Pentecost, isn’t it? The preaching of Christ. Is that what we think of when we speak of Pentecost? Or do our thoughts zoom straight to the Holy Spirit? Pentecost is sometimes thought of as the Holy Spirit’s day – the day where we focus on the Spirit – and the Spirit’s phenomenal acts of power and might. Behold the tongues of flame, behold the speaking in tongues, behold the boldness!
To what point, dear friends? Why does the Holy Spirit appear as tongues of
fire, why does He grant for this day the ability to the Apostles to speak in
tongues? Was it a simple demonstration
of the Spirit’s power? Was it a matter
of the Holy Spirit wishing to remind us that He is here and active? Peter tells us by quoting the prophet Joel –
God will pour out His Spirit so that people will prophesy, and there will be visions,
and wonders – and all for one reason. And it shall come to pass that everyone
who calls upon the Name of the LORD shall be saved. This is what Peter tells us. And immediately after quoting Joel, telling
the people in the temple what they are seeing – Peter preaches. “Men
of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God
with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst,
as you yourselves know – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite
plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless
men. God raised Him up, loosing the
pangs of death because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.”
7 Weeks ago, Peter had been hiding in
a locked room for fear of the Jews. Now,
on Pentecost, He and the other Apostles stride boldly into the temple, filled
with the Spirit, and they proclaim the death and resurrection of Christ. The miracle, the wonder of Pentecost isn’t
the tongues of flame. The amazing thing
that the Spirit does isn’t that He grants the Apostles the ability to speak in
tongues – but rather that by the working of the Spirit they speak at all. Gone is the fear of 7 weeks ago, gone is the
confusion and bewilderment of the Apostles of Ascension day as they stand dumbfounded
staring up into the sky – and rather the Spirit has come, and now they boldly
preach Christ and Him Crucified for our Salvation.
That is the miracle of Pentecost, dear
friends. The tongues of flame simply
bear witness to the fact that these men have been anointed by God for this task. The speaking in tongues, that is simply so
more people can hear and understand. The
key thing, the important thing, that which the Holy Spirit has continued to do
through all the ages since that first Pentecost is that the Gospel of Christ
Jesus is proclaimed. This is what the
Spirit does – He points to Christ, for it is in Christ Jesus that we have life
and forgiveness and salvation, and there is no other name under heaven or earth
by which we are to be saved. That is how
the Spirit is the giver of Life – He gives out Christ Jesus and Christ’s life.
The miracle and wonder of Pentecost,
the true miracle and wonder, continues to this day, in every time and place
where Christ the Crucified is proclaimed.
We know and we see that the Holy Spirit was active on Pentecost. Do you think He is any less active
today? Do you think that the Holy Spirit
has taken a breather? Paul teaches us
that no man may say Jesus is Lord, that no one may confess Christ Jesus except
by the Holy Spirit. Does that not
continue on to this day? Is not the Word
of God preached here in this place even to us unworthy sinners? Do we not marvel that God deigns to come to
us and give us forgiveness? And
moreover, do not you yourselves speak of Christ Jesus and what He has done for
you and what He has done for the whole world to your family, your friends, your
neighbors? Behold God’s Spirit at work
for you and through you!
Sometimes when we look at Pentecost we
can become whimsical. Oh, if only we had
what the Apostles had. Sometimes when we
look at Pentecost we become depressed and ashamed. I don’t see the Spirit at work in us like
that, what’s wrong we me? When we think
like that, we are looking at the wrong thing.
Do you wish to know if the Holy Spirit is indeed active today in the
Church? What then, should you look
for? Not the speaking of tongues, not
fires and flames and other such stuff.
Look for the preaching of Christ!
Is Christ proclaimed for the salvation of sinners? Hear what Jesus says concerning the Spirit
and what He will do. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in my Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your
remembrance all that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; My Peace I give to you. That’s our standard – that’s how we are to
look at and judge the Church. Jesus
tells us what the Spirit will do. Is
Christ taught? Yes indeed. Do we remember that which Christ has
said? Yes indeed. Do we receive peace, the peace that surpasses
all understanding, the peace that comes from the forgiveness of sins? Yes indeed.
Then we know that the Holy Spirit is indeed active here, and active for
us. The Holy Spirit is active in His
Church, for the Spirit is the One who calls by the Gospel and enlightens and
sanctifies and keeps people in the one, true faith.
Dear friends, we are the Church of Pentecost. We are the Spirit’s own Church. And our focus is not upon trying to make the
Holy Spirit bring forth tongues of flame again – our focus is not upon seeing
how we can do neat things like speak in tongues again. If the Holy Spirit wants you to speak in
tongues, you will, and if He doesn’t, nothing you do will make Him let you
speak in tongues, so don’t worry about it at all. That’s not what Pentecost was about. Pentecost was about the preaching of God’s
Word spreading to every tongue – even strange tongues like Median or Lybian –
or even eventually to the strangest language of them all – our own English
language. Flames and tongues do not make
the Church – rather we are the Church for we preach the same message and
indeed, we benefit ourselves from the same message that was proclaimed by the
Holy Spirit through the Apostles on that first Pentecost.
In the Nicene Creed we confess that we
believe in one Holy Christian and Apostolic
Church. We even call one of our creeds the Apostles’
Creed. When we say these things, we are
making a claim – we are claiming that we hold to the same things that were
preached on Pentecost, that we teach the same things that were taught, that the
same Spirit who saw Christ proclaimed on Pentecost sees that Christ is
proclaimed in our midst this very day.
Towards the end of Acts 2, Luke describes for us what those who believed
at Pentecost did. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Is this not the same thing that we do to
this day here in this house? Do we not
week in and week out gather together for fellowship in the Word of God, hearing
His teaching? I know we call that room
there the parish hall or the fellowship hall – but it is here, in the Sanctuary
where Biblical Fellowship takes place. Fellowship
isn’t Christian social time (not that there’s anything wrong with some good
social time, mind you) – but it is where two or three are gathered together in
the Name of Jesus, where we are gathered together into one people to Hear God’s
Word and receive His forgiveness. We
here with our fellow Christians confess our sins and receive forgiveness. We here with our fellow Christians devote
ourselves not to the ramblings and personal opinions of some quack who happens
to be our Pastor, but to the teaching of the Apostles, to the Word of God, to
what Scripture teaches us. It is here in
the Sanctuary that we devote ourselves to the breaking of Bread – that is our
Lord’s own Supper, where He took bread and broke it and gave it to the
Disciples. It is here in the Sanctuary
that we devote ourselves to “the prayers” – that we gather together and pray
all the prayers in the liturgy of the Church that we Christians have prayed for
centuries, some even since the day of Pentecost word for word.
Just as the message of
Christ crucified for sinners was proclaimed on Pentecost, it is proclaimed here
today. And just as people heard and by
the power of the Spirit believed, so too we hear the Word today and the Holy
Spirit makes us to believe. We have our
sins forgiven again and again here in God’s Church, we grow from the preaching
of the Word, we receive forgiveness and strength from our Lord’s Holy Supper,
we live our lives as the Baptized – and why?
Because the Holy Spirit is active, because the Holy Spirit is active
among us, because the Holy Spirit breathes life into us by the Word of God, and
we rejoicing believe in the promises of Life and Salvation in Christ
Jesus. Indeed, by the Spirit of God we
confess this same Jesus, we add our own voices to the great throng of saints
who have gone before us – we join in the chorus of Angels and Archangels, and
glorify God Almighty for the Redemption He sent us in His Son Christ
Jesus. As Peter says, “The promise is for you and for your
children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the LORD our God calls to
Himself.” As Peter says,
this is for you. In the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit - Amen.
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