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INJ
St Acts 2:1-21
'The Gift of the Holy Spirit'
Morning Service
Pentecost Sunday | May 11, 2008
Dear Saints,
For weeks now we have heard in our Gospel readings the Lord Jesus promise to send His Holy Spirit. “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” [John 14:26]
And now we hear of the promise kept. (The Lord always keeps His promises.) Fifty days after the Lord's resurrection, ten days His Ascension the disciples are gathered in the upper room, and the Holy Spirit comes like Jesus promises, and the Twelve go outside and preach.
Imagine being there on the first Pentecost. You are the standard Joe-unbeliever, maybe Joseph-unbeliever. A least you didn't believe the strange rumors of the resurrection after that false Messiah was crucified a couple months back. But now the hubbub from this strange crucifixion with resurrection rumors have long ago died down, and today the streets are abuzz with pilgrims from all over the world.
Jerusalem is swollen with strangers, over double, maybe triple the normal population, all for the Feast of Weeks, sometimes called the Feast of Harvest or Pentecost because it was fifty days after the Passover. This feast is a commemoration of the law given to Moses on Mt Sinai, and all the able-bodied men of Israel are to attend.
Now you are out and about on this feast day, perhaps headed to the temple to make a sacrifice, and theres a disturbance up the street. The sound of a sudden storm, a rush of wind, then a murmur and then strange voices preaching. You push your way through the crowd and see twelve rustic men with a flame of fire. (And here lets pause a moment. Most pictures of Pentecost put the tongues of fire on top of the Apostle's heads, but Luther prefers to picture them in front of their mouth. These men, after all, are preaching. Back to the story...) You recognize a word here and a phrase there, a little Greek, then Caldean, and you notice that the pilgrims are drawing near because they hear these Galileans, these rustic men, preaching in their own language.
Some start to mock, saying that these are drunkards, and that they haven't sobered up. “That must be it,” you say. After all, this is a bit nutty. And then one of them stands up, and in Aramaic preaches to the crowd gathered round. “These are not drunk, as you suppose, it's only 9 o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was promised by Joel, the prophet. 'It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams...'”
And this preacher continues to preach, continues to quote the prophets, and the crowd continues to grow. There must be thousands now, listening. You've never seen such a big crowd be so quiet. Part two of the sermon is next. He speaks of this crucified Messiah. “According to the council and foreknowledge of God, you took with lawless hands and put to death Jesus of Nazareth, but God has raised Him up from the dead, like David prophesied, “You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” David is dead and buried, his tomb is down the street, but he was a prophet, and he knew that God would keep his promises that the Messiah would be from his children. So David foresaw this resurrection. And we have see it too, and are witnesses.”
And as you are listening to the preaching about this man Jesus, and His death, and His resurrection, and all the promises of the prophet, you believe that it's true. The sermon goes on. “This Jesus who has risen has also ascended into heaven, again as David wrote in the Psalm, 'The Lord said to My Lord, sit here at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.'” You mast have sung that Psalm a thousand times, but never knew what it was talking about. Now you understand, its about the Messiah, dead, raised, ascended to God's right hand. It all makes sense now. This Jesus was the One, the long promised, the long expected. The Messiah has come.
And now this sermon comes crashing to and end, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Oh. Oh yes. In your excitement you forgot about the whole cross bit. You heard the crowd chanting that morning through your window, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him!” You even looked outside trying to get a glimpse. “Crucify!” you said, once or twice, but when the mob headed the other direction out of town you let it go and went back to your business. But now, that was the Messiah! What have I done?
And you are not alone in your sorrow. The whole crowd is crushed. It seems that many if not most of the people around you also believe this preacher, and now there is a real fear. “We killed our Messiah.” So the cry goes up from the crowd, “What shall we do? Is there any hope for us? Can we be saved?”
And the preacher answers, some of the sweetest words that you've ever heard. “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you and to your children and to all who are afar off, and many as the Lord our God will call.” Hallelujah! Promises, not curses. Forgiveness, not wrath. Peace, not war. Life, not death. Salvation is come, for me, for my children, for all people.
You rush home for your family and on the way back to the street where your heard this sermon you tell them about Jesus, about the promise of David, about death and resurrection and ascension, and about the Holy Spirit and baptism and the forgiveness of sins. And you and your family are baptized that day by one of the Lord's disciples named Andrew. He was the brother of the man who preached that morning. “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” And your sins are forgiven you are born again. You woke up that morning a Jewish unbeliever. You went to bed a Christian.
So it is, dear saints, that the Holy Spirit worked on the first Pentecost, and continues to work until this day. A few weeks back we had a sermon on the works of the Holy Spirit, and someone mentioned to me afterward that we don't hear many sermons on the Holy Spirit. I you know what, I think that's just how the Holy Spirit would have it. The Holy Spirit preaches, but not about Himself; He preaches Christ Jesus. You know the stunning thing about the first Pentecost sermon is that is wasn't a sermon about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was preached about, to be sure, but it was a sermon about Jesus, because this is what God the Holy Spirit does: He creates and sustains faith in Jesus.
When Jesus promised the Comforter, He gave another promise as well. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” [John 14:27] The Holy Spirit brings to us peace, and this peace comes in the forgiveness of all sins. The cross is the declaration of victory over death and hell and is the ceasefire between God and man.
“Having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [Romans 5:1] The Holy Spirit delivers to us that peace. In fact, He is delivering it to us right now through His Word and the promise that our sins are forgiven.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
