The Day of Pentecost
May 19, 2024
Text:
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
Why does our Lord Jesus Christ send
us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of His Father, the Spirit of truth? He sends Him to bear witness to Himself,
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our Savior. And
to guide us into all truth. He sends Him
to speak whatever He hears in the divine council of Father and Son. He sends Him to glorify Jesus, to take the
things of Jesus, which are the things of the Father, and declare them unto us,
to give them to us, all the gifts of grace, and to bring us into them. Which is to say, He sends the Spirit, as Dr.
Luther tells us, to call us by the Gospel, to enlighten us with His gifts, to sanctify
us, and to keep us with Jesus Christ in the one true faith, even as He does for
the whole Christian Church on earth (Small Catechism II:III). Jesus sends the Spirit, because that was His
Promise to His disciples on the night in which He was betrayed. And Jesus does not lie. He cannot.
Jesus always keeps His Promises.
And so it was, that as the disciples
were gathered together (congregated) in one place, in the City of Jerusalem,
for the great Feast of Pentecost, there was, all at once, the sound of a
mighty, rushing wind. Now, “spirit,”
“wind,” and “breath,” as you know, are all the same word in Greek (πνεῦμα), and
in Hebrew for that matter (רוּחַ), and so, what is going on here? The mighty, rushing wind is the Spirit. And that means this is an act of New
Creation. God is redoing Genesis,
breathing anew into Man the Spirit/wind/breath of life. The Lord Jesus breathed His last, yielded…
gave up… His Spirit in His death on the cross (Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46;
Matt. 27:50; John 19:30). And after
three days, the risen Jesus appeared in the midst of His disciples and breathed
on them (resurrection breath), and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John
20:22; ESV). And gave them, now, and
henceforward, to breathe Him forth into others in the forgiveness of
sins (v. 23).
So, here comes the mighty, rushing Spirit,
filling the House where they are congregated, filling the Church, and there are
the divided tongues as of fire resting on each one of them (fire, the symbol of
the Holy Spirit… the pillar of fire by night, fire on Mt. Sinai, the fire of
God upon the altar in the Tabernacle, the fire consuming Elijah’s sacrifice,
and so forth, and so on). And filled,
now, with the Holy Spirit, they begin to speak in other tongues, languages
(note this, known human languages, not ecstatic gibberish). That is, they speak the very Word of God, and
in such a way that the people can hear, and comprehend. Whereupon we get the first recorded Apostolic
sermon… Peter preaches. He
preaches the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Father’s only Son, for
sinners. And the Spirit blows forth in
that preaching, so that the people are convicted, and ask what they should do
to be saved. And Peter declares (and
unfortunately we don’t get this part of the reading today): “Repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For 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” (Acts 2:38-39). And there
it is, the whole doctrine of Pentecost in one, short summation.
This is what Jesus does for you and
me. He sends His Spirit. Baptized, you and your children, for the
forgiveness of sins, and in this way, you receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit. We saw it with little Paul
Gerhardt last week. Gathered into the
House, the Congregation, where the Spirit blows through in preaching. A life of repentance and forgiveness. And confession, as Elsa will, by the power of
the Holy Spirit, confess her Savior this afternoon in the Rite of Confirmation,
and receive His blessing for her strengthening.
In fact, the Spirit molds our lives into the pattern received by the
Apostolic Church in the wake of Peter’s sermon: “they devoted themselves to
the apostles’ teaching,” as we do, as we hear the Scriptures and preaching,
“and the fellowship,” the koinonia, the unity and communion, the
conversation and consolation of the brethren that happens here; “to the
breaking of bread,” the Holy Supper of our Lord’s true body and blood, “and
the prayers,” Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, the Lord’s Prayer, the
Prayer of the Church, the liturgy, and our individual and family prayers that
flow forth from them. Another way to say
it is, Word and Sacrament, the Divine Service.
The Spirit brings us into the ongoing Feast, where heaven comes down,
and the Lord is Present, bodily, with His Church. And here you are. He does it for you. And it is gift. All gift.
Do not refuse it. Do not resist
it. Come, with great rejoicing, as the
Spirit calls you.
And now, what the Spirit does for
you, He would do for the whole world. So
He says through the Prophet Ezekiel, “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I
have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his
way and live” (Ez. 33:11). And so
the Spirit blows through the whole world in His Gospel, working faith when and
where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel (AC V; John 3). Now, to be sure, here we run into the mystery
of Divine Election, which, for the purpose of time, we’ll have to do on another
occasion. Suffice it to say, we do not
understand how God can both will the salvation of everyone (many are called),
and yet so many are lost (few are chosen).
But we do know this: Every last person who hears the Gospel is
faced with the Spirit’s conviction… conviction of sin, conviction of
righteousness, conviction of judgment.
Conviction of sin, because, apart from Spirit-given faith in Christ,
they cannot be freed from their guilt.
Conviction of righteousness, because Christ alone is righteous, as
evidenced by His resurrection and exaltation, and He alone is the
righteousness, the justification, of sinners before God. And conviction of judgment, because
everything the world worships, including the very devil (the ruler of this
world) is judged… by the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the preaching. Law and Gospel. The Spirit blows through in preaching,
convicting by His holy Law, thus bringing forth repentance, enlivening and
enkindling faith by His saving Gospel of forgiveness of sins in Christ
Jesus. A mighty, rushing wind blows
forth from the mouth of Christ… through the mouths of His ministers… filling
the whole House… filling our ears, our minds, our hearts… resting on each one
of us… who then go out into the world and blow forth the Spirit in our
vocations, as we confess and embody Christ to the people around us. See, the Pentecost miracle has not
ended. It is happening now. The Spirit still blows, the Church is still
gathered, the Apostles still preach, the people still hear and believe and
repent and are baptized. God open our
eyes. When He opens our eyes, we cannot
help but rejoice, as our hearts burn within us.
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in
them the fire of your love. Alleluia”
(Introit).
That is what I pray in those moments
before the sermon, as we sing the final lines of the hymn. Lord, grant that Your Holy Spirit blow
through and fill us all in the preaching of His Word, as we know He will. And never forget, we have Jesus’
unconditional Promise: The Father will not fail to give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask Him (Luke 11:13). So,
the Spirit blows through on the breath of His Word, and behold, a
rattling. Dry bones in the valley of the
shadow, now joined, bone to its bone, clothed with sinews and flesh and skin,
enlivened by the very breath of God.
Israel, spirited by the Spirit, raised from the dead. The Church of God. Jews and Gentiles. You.
Here. Now. Pentecost.
Why does Jesus send the Spirit? For that. For that.
The Holy Spirit. The Third Person
of the Holy Trinity. Proceeding from the
Father. Given by the Son, and so, yes,
the Filioque, the “and the Son” of the Creed. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and
the Son. Who, together, are
worshiped and glorified, one God, living and reigning, world without end. More on that next week. For now, simply bask in the Spirit who has
been poured out on you, who rests on you, who possesses you. Live in Him.
Pray in Him. Rest in Him. And confess His Word. It is a marvelous thing to be in this House
as the mighty, rushing Spirit blows through.
Glory be to Jesus, who gives us this reality by His death and
resurrection for us. In the Name of the
Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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