Pentecost – May 14th
and 15th – Acts 2 and John 14
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
needed 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
focus on the Holy Spirit off in a vacuum? Pentecost is sometimes
thought of as the Holy Spirit’s day – the day where we finally
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, my 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 simply a demonstration of the
Spirit’s power? Was it a matter of the Holy Spirit wishing to
remind us that He is here and active? “I'm over here guys, don't
forget Me”? Peter tells us the answer 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 – this is what 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 isn’t that the
Spirit 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 at the Ascension as they stood 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 are
neat, but they 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
on 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? Saint 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, 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 us? Here's the thing though - 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,
does the peace of the Lord come to be with you always? 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
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 on
Pentecost 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 out our lives as the Baptized,
daily dying to sin and rising to Christ – 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 given to
us 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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