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Sermon for Pentecost
Joel 2:28-32 + Acts 2:1-13 + John 14:23-31
Today is Pentecost, ten days after the Ascension, 50 days after Easter, the Feast of the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit like? How are we to know Him? He is clearly a Person, a Person who is just as divine as the Father and the Son. After all, Jesus commanded His disciples to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a divine Person, but He’s not described in the Bible with any human figure or with any comparison to human relationships, like Father or Son. That makes it hard to picture the Holy Spirit. We simply use the dove when we want to depict Him, since that’s how He chose to appear at Jesus’ Baptism. But the word “Spirit” means breath or wind, which are both unseen things. You don’t see a person’s breath; what you see is a person breathing in and out, and, of course, the result of the breath—that a person stays alive. You don’t see the wind; what you see is how the wind carries the dust or the smoke or the clouds or the rain, or how it bends the trees or how it rustles the leaves. The wind is invisible. But you can see its signs and its effects.
So it is with the Holy Spirit. So He made His presence known on the Day of Pentecost. He Himself remained invisible. But He revealed Himself with signs and effects that proclaimed to the world that the prophecy you heard today from the prophet Joel was being fulfilled, that a new and final age of the world was now at hand, the age of the Holy Spirit, whose signs indicate both His presence and the manner of His work.
The first sign of the Holy Spirit’s coming was a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where the disciples were sitting. The sound of a blowing wind, a sign of Jesus fulfilling His promise to send the Helper from on high, breathing the gift of His Spirit onto His disciples, even as He breathed on His disciples on the eve of His resurrection and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit!”
The second sign: there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. The tongues “as of fire” rested, not on everyone in Jerusalem, but on each of Jesus’ disciples, a sign that this ever-present Spirit sent by Jesus was to be found specifically in His Church, among believers. Tongues of fire, because the Holy Spirit would spread throughout the world as fire spreads, but He would spread through the tongues—through the Word, through the speech, through the preaching—of Christians.
Fire represented many things in the Old Testament. The presence of God in the burning bush that Moses saw. The pillar of fire that accompanied the Israelites throughout their desert wanderings. The fire of burning lamps to give them light. And the fire of the altar of sacrifice in the Temple, where animals were offered up to God to atone for the sins of the people, making them acceptable to God.
So fire is a fitting sign of the Holy Spirit. The presence of God, who accompanies His Church throughout these desert wanderings below until we reach the Promised land. The light that enlightens our minds to see—to believe in Christ. The fire of sacrifice—now no longer making atonement for sins, because Jesus was the once-for-all sacrifice that reconciles sinners with God, but it’s the Holy Spirit who gives us new birth in Holy Baptism, who brings us to faith, who connects us to Jesus’ sacrifice by faith, and who now spurs us on to lead holy lives, to do works of love that are pleasing and acceptable to God, as Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, I beseech you, brethren… that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
This twofold work—the work of bringing us to faith and the work of spurring us on to lead holy lives and to do works of love—is called Sanctification. And if you remember Luther’s explanation of the Third Article of the Creed, that’s the very work that’s ascribed especially to the Holy Spirit. He is the Sanctifier. And both faith and love are symbolized by His holy fire.
The third sign of the Spirit’s coming: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. If you recall, it was God who divided the tongues of men in the first place, way back at the Tower of Babel, about 150 years after the world-wide Flood. At that time, God divided mankind up into nations and scattered the nations throughout the world. At that time, God let the nations to go, each in its own godless way, each to create its own idols and false gods to worship. At that time, God chose Abraham and His descendants, the people of Israel, to be the one nation on earth where He revealed Himself, making a covenant with Israel to be their God and to forgive their sins through the ministry of the priesthood and of the Temple. All who wanted to know the true God and to become part of His holy, chosen people, had to find Him and worship Him in the nation of Israel.
But now, on the Day of Pentecost, the Word of God was suddenly being proclaimed in all the languages of all the people who were present there that day, visiting Jerusalem from all the surrounding nations. No longer would salvation be tied to a single nation or a single race. No longer would God’s focus be on the city of Jerusalem. But His Word was to go out into all the world, to every nation, tribe, language and people. The call is universal: Repent and believe the good news about Jesus, the Savior of the world! And the promise is universal: He who believes and is baptized shall be saved!
This universal Gospel was prophesied in the Old Testament, not only by Joel, but also by Isaiah and Micah: Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go forth, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
What the Jews missed about this prophecy—what many Christians seem confused about today, too—is that, when God poured out His Spirit in the latter days, there was to be a transition from the earthly Jerusalem to a spiritual Jerusalem. The word of the Lord did go out from earthly Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost in every language, calling sinners from every nation into the Church of Christ, which is the spiritual Jerusalem. The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit—His work of bringing to faith, preserving in the faith, and spurring us on to works of love—is being done wherever the Word of Christ is preached throughout the world, so that we who call on the name of the Lord in New Mexico are also citizens of Jerusalem, that is, the one holy Christian (or catholic) and apostolic Church.
The last days are here. They’ve been here for almost 2,000 years. The Spirit is now poured out from heaven on His Church and will move like wildfire through the whole earth. The Spirit will be the power behind the preaching of the Word of Christ, spreading the fire of faith and love. The Spirit’s call and promise are universal: 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. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.
From the Day of Pentecost until Christ returns at the Last Day, this is the age of the Holy Spirit. This is the age of the building of the Church. We don’t see the Spirit, but we see the signs of His presence. The Word of Christ is still being preached in the world and in our midst. There are still people hearing it and confessing it. There are works of love being done on a daily basis by Christians here and throughout the world. There is barely a place on earth where the name of Jesus is not known.
But this age is drawing to a close. The world has heard the tongues of Christian preachers. The elect have believed, but most have not. It’s almost time for Christ to return and for the age of the Holy Spirit to be brought to completion. So let’s make the most of this age while it lasts. Preaching. Hearing. Believing. Confessing. Praying. Speaking. Leading holy lives every day. And loving. In all these things, even though you can’t see Him, you see the signs and effects of the Spirit’s work, and you know He’s there, calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying the whole Christian Church on earth, and preserving it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. Amen.
