Sermon manuscript:
There are three great festivals that the Christian church
celebrates every year: Christmas, Easter, and today’s festival of Pentecost.
During these festivals we often learn and speak about the significance of them.
Therefore, with Christmas, we learn how very changed the universe has become by
the Son of God being joined to our human race and born of the Virgin Mary. By
this union of God and man in Jesus Christ we have been intertwined with God.
At Easter we consider the way that Jesus achieved atonement
and justification for all people, for all sinners. He suffered and died on the
cross on Good Friday. He rose from the dead on Easter. Because of him all who
believe in him will overcome sin and death and rise again to new life.
So what about Pentecost? Before we speak about its
significance for us, perhaps we better briefly speak about what happened.
Whereas most people can tell you what Christmas and Easter are about, they get
a little hazy with the events of Pentecost. The timeline goes like this: On
Easter Sunday Jesus rose from the dead. He appeared to his disciples on many
occasions, in rather unusual ways. For example, he didn’t seem to walk down the
street or go from one place to another like a normal human being. He appeared
to his disciples in a room where all the doors and windows were locked. He
appeared to two disciples on the road, but they didn’t immediately recognize
him. For forty days Jesus did this. Then he ascended into heaven.
Fifty days after Easter Sunday is when the events happened
that we heard about in Acts. The disciples and many Jews from around the world
were gathered in Jerusalem for the Old Testament feast of weeks. While they
were all gathered together there was a strange blowing of wind, tongues of
flame, the ability to speak in other languages, and Peter testified that the
only Savior of the world was the one whom these Jews had crucified about seven
weeks prior. Peter told them that although they had crucified the Lord of
Glory, they and their children should believe in him, be baptized, and be
saved. And so it was that 3,000 were baptized that day. Thereafter they
continued to gather to hear God’s Word, to pray, to eat together, and grow in
grace.
These are the events of Pentecost. What is the significance
of this festival? There are two things that are especially important. First, we
learn more about the Holy Spirit. Second, we learn more about the Christian
Church. We’ll begin with the Holy Spirit.
Pentecost is a festival that is dedicated to the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He proceeds from
the Father and the Son. With the word “spirit” we might just think of an energy
or a force. That’s not altogether wrong, because most certainly the Holy Spirit
works within a person. But this “spirit” is not just an energy. He is true
God—just as much God as the Father or the Son is.
With the three persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is
not talked about as much. The Bible has much more to say about the Father and
the Son. The prayers we pray in Church are most often addressed to the Father,
sometimes addressed to Jesus, much less so to the Holy Spirit. Our chief hymn
today is unusual in the way that it is a prayer to the Holy Spirit: “Come, Holy
Ghost, God and Lord.” The vast majority of our hymns are not addressed to the
Holy Spirit.
This is not an accident. It is not dishonoring the Holy
Spirit. It is a recognition of the Holy Spirit’s proper work. On the Day of Pentecost
the Holy Spirit manifests himself in the rushing wind, the ability to speak in
tongues, and the divided flames of fire. But of whom does the apostle Peter
speak, when he stands up to address the crowd? He does not speak to them so
much about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit causes the apostle Peter to speak
about Jesus. He urges the people to call on the Name that is above every name
so that they too may be saved. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the Holy
Spirit’s choosing, some of them believe, are baptized, and saved. Others remain
in their unbelief. The Holy Spirit saves. The way he does it is by creating
faith in Jesus with his almighty power.
This brings us to our second point today: At Pentecost we
learn more about the Christian Church. The Christian Church is the Holy
Spirit’s own creation. The Christian Church consists of all those individuals
who believe that Jesus is their Savior from the devil, death, and hell. By the
preaching of God’s Word the Holy Spirit creates this faith in Christ. This is
the only way that anybody can be a Christian. Being a member of a congregation
does not make a person a Christian. There are no works that a person can
perform in order to become a Christian. The only way that someone can be a
Christian is by God’s action, the Holy Spirit’s action, in announcing God’s
grace in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit creates Christians by preaching, by
baptizing, and by the giving of Jesus’s body and blood in the Sacrament.
Notice that as a Christian congregation these are the very
things that we do. I suppose that the sky’s the limit for what a congregation could do. I suppose a congregation could
teach math, be an amusement park, cure cancer, or bring about world peace.
These are not what Jesus has given to us. Frankly, even curing cancer or
bringing about world peace are not important enough. Something more important
happens with the preaching of Christ the crucified, with baptism, and with the
Lord’s Supper. The Holy Spirit works in these things by his almighty power to
make sinners trust in Jesus. Thereby the devil is defeated with all his lies.
Hell is shut. Heaven is opened. And people are made into children of God, with
Jesus as their brother. There is nothing higher or more important than this!—not
even curing cancer or world peace.
Now at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you
might be thinking, “He’s drunk”—or something along those lines. He doesn’t know
what he’s talking about. How can water or bread and wine do such great things?
How can a humble, little building, with such ordinary people, have the Holy
Spirit in it? Not everybody was converted on Pentecost either—as you heard in
our reading from Acts.
But it doesn’t really matter what people think. What is
important is God’s action. The Holy Spirit who was at work at Pentecost and who
saved those people, is the same Holy Spirit who is at work today among us.
Through the preaching of Christ he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies
the Holy Christian Church on earth and keeps us together with Jesus Christ in
the one true faith. Things of cosmic importance happen here. The devil is
renounced, the one true God is embraced, sinners are given the true body and
blood of their Savior for the forgiveness of their sins. The Holy Spirit is to
be praised for doing this work to you and among us as a congregation.
We began today by speaking about the relevance of the three
great Christian festivals. Christmas is important because God becomes one of
us, so that we could become children of God through him. Easter is important
because this is the way that sinners are redeemed and set free from the Law that
would otherwise require our death and drag us down into hell. Pentecost is also
very relevant and important. In Pentecost you see how the Holy Spirit
distributes Christ’s salvation, and how it is received by the Holy Spirit’s
power in those whom he has chosen to receive his grace. The Holy Spirit
continues to do this work today among us. “Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord, with
all your graces now outpoured. On each believer’s mind and heart; Your fervent
love to them impart. Alleluia, alleluia!”
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