The Church is built by the work of the Spirit

Sermon for Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13  +  John 14:23-31

There were three Old Testament feasts every Jewish man was supposed to celebrate in Jerusalem: The Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Tabernacles. Now, Passover was followed immediately with the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, and on the Sunday that fell in that Passover week was another little feast called the Feast of Firstfruits, when the very first fruits of the harvest were collected in March or April, as the guarantee or proof that there would be an abundant harvest to come a couple of months later in May or June.

Well, Jesus, our Passover Lamb, was slain. And on the Sunday of that Passover week, which was the Feast of Firstfruits, He rose from the dead. As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward, at His coming, those who belong to Christ. So in our celebration of Holy Week and Easter, we’re really celebrating the fulfillment of those Old Testament shadows pointing to Christ. The same is true on this Day of Pentecost, when we celebrate the fulfillment of the shadow of the Feast of Weeks, 50 days (or seven weeks + one day) after the Feast of Firstfruits. On that day the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples in Jerusalem, proceeding from God the Father and sent by God the Son, bringing about the harvest, or the conversion, of some 3,000 people who were baptized on that day in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

Now, today we see in the book of Acts, not the Holy Spirit Himself, because He is a Spirit—unseen and unseeable—we see not the Spirit but the three signs that the Spirit had been poured out on the believers in Jerusalem. External signs, visible signs, and signs that in and of themselves teach us something about the Holy Spirit’s purpose and work.

It began with the sound of a mighty, rushing wind. Not wind, but the sound of a mighty, rushing wind. And since the word “wind” is related to the word “spirit” in Greek and in Hebrew, that was the first sign that this was the arrival of God’s Spirit. It was also a sign of how the Spirit would do His work in this New Testament period, invisibly, like wind or breath, working on the hearts of men through the preaching of the Gospel, preaching, which is made up of breath and sound formed into words.

Second, there were the tongues of fire resting above the heads of the disciples, another miracle indicating the Spirit’s presence. Tongues, because the Spirit would work through the tongues of men, again, through the preaching of the Word of God. Of fire, because the Word of God is compared to fire in Scripture. As God said through Jeremiah, “Is not My Word like a fire?” Or as John the Baptist prophesied about Jesus, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Or as Jesus said before His crucifixion, I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! And what does fire do? It burns, and it spreads. It sets other things on fire. In the same way, the Spirit would kindle the fire of faith and love through the preaching of the Gospel, faith and love that would spread throughout the world like wildfire, even as the preaching of the Gospel would spread throughout the world like wildfire—a fire that is still burning 2,000 years later.

And third, the actual tongues of the disciples were then turned into the Spirit’s instruments to proclaim the wonderful works of God in many languages, languages that were known to the hearers visiting Jerusalem that day, but unknown to those who spoke them. It was no accident that the Spirit was sent on a day when large crowds were gathered in Jerusalem from all the surrounding nations, to keep the Feast of Weeks. It was God’s purpose to show that Jesus the Christ was the Savior of the whole world, to show that the Gospel was intended for every nation, tribe, language, and people, that there is no such thing anymore as a favored race or a favored language. It signified that the Gospel is truly to be preached in all the world, in all the languages of men, so that not just a few lucky people in Jerusalem, but all men everywhere might be brought to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and so be saved from the wrath that will one day be poured out on the world for all the sins of men.

Those were the external signs or witnesses of the Holy Spirit given to the early Church for the purpose of confirming the apostles’ testimony about Jesus. The gift of speaking in other languages sometimes accompanied the preaching of the Gospel as the apostles went forth into the world. Other external signs were also given at times: the gift of prophesying future events, the power to drive out demons, the power to perform some miracles of healing. They were given to help the young Church grow and to attract the attention of outsiders, exactly as they did on the Day of Pentecost, and it’s a historical fact that those gifts ceased to be given after the days of the apostles. But those things weren’t the main work of the Holy Spirit. The true work of the Holy Spirit goes on.

And what is that work—or better, what are those works? The first work is faith itself, both bringing people to faith and preserving believers in the faith. As Paul says to the Corinthians, No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. He works through the preaching of the Word of God to persuade sinners to repent and to believe in Christ Jesus and to baptized for the forgiveness of sins. The crowds in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost would have never believed that story about Jesus being the Christ, about Jesus being raised from the dead, about Jesus reigning at the right hand of God the Father, about God’s free offer to forgive the sins of all who believe and are baptized, without the Holy Spirit working on their hearts to persuade them, to convince them, to bring them to faith.

Of course, that work was directly related to another work that Jesus alluded to in today’s Gospel. He told His apostles, 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 the things I have said to you. The Holy Spirit was responsible for the inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures, which testified about the coming Christ. As Peter writes, Prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In the same way, the same Spirit would also be responsible for reminding the apostles of all the things Jesus said to them. That’s why we have absolute confidence that the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments, are trustworthy and true.

That inspiration of Scripture doesn’t continue today; it was completed through the apostles. But the teaching continues. He taught the apostles all things that they needed to know and understand so that they could pass them on, so that the truth of Christ could spread like wildfire. Now the same Holy Spirit drives believers into the inspired Scriptures. He opens and enlightens the minds of believers to understand the Scriptures. He gives us discernment. He restores our fallen reason so that the things of God make sense to us, while the same things make no sense to the minds of unbelievers. That’s why the actions and beliefs and thought processes of the unbelieving world often appear absolutely insane to us, because the Spirit has restored to us Christians a measure of sanity and reason.

Another work of the Holy Spirit is the work of sanctification in the sense of leading and guiding Christians to lead holy lives as we await the day of judgment. He sanctifies us in love. Love for God, love for our neighbor, and a special kind of love for our fellow Christians. He continues to use His inspired Scriptures to teach us what love looks like, how God defines love, and then He works in our hearts to lead us in the direction of love, always having to struggle against our sinful flesh that wants to lead us in the opposite direction.

Another work of the Holy Spirit is comfort. Comfort, after He brings us to know and to lament our sins. Comfort, during times of testing and tribulation. Comfort, when the world and everyone seems to be against us. He comforts us by turning our attention to Jesus, to Jesus and all He has done for us and all He has promised to do. This is the comfort that Jesus talked about in today’s Gospel, too. 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. You don’t always experience perfect peace in your heart, but when you hear the words of Jesus, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid, they have an effect on you, don’t they? Don’t they comfort you? Don’t they battle against the troubles of your heart and the fear that bubbles up in your heart, to bring you some measure of peace? That’s the Holy Spirit.

And with comfort and peace comes also boldness, boldness to pray to our Father in heaven in the Spirit of adoption, boldness to face the struggles and the challenges of each new day, boldness to speak the truth in all things and to accept the backlash it will bring from the world that hates the truth. It’s that boldness we see in Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost or in Paul’s missionary journeys, where he was so often persecuted for preaching the Gospel. None of us has that kind of boldness dwelling in us naturally. But the Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of believers. God has made His home with us, and that’s the source of all our strength.

Bringing people to faith through the preaching of the Gospel. Preserving us in the faith through Word and Sacrament. Giving us the Word of God in the Bible and teaching us to understand it better and better. Sanctification. Comfort. Boldness. These are the works of the Holy Spirit who dwells with believers and in believers. These are the works by which the Christ’s Church is built and fortified and by which Christians are guided and strengthened in our lives and in our mission. Give thanks today for the Spirit of God who dwells among us! Dig into the Scriptures He has inspired! Treasure the Sacraments by which He works! Rejoice in the comfort that He offers! And follow where He leads—to turn away from sin, to trust in Christ Jesus, and to live a life of love! The Spirit is God’s gift to you. So treasure it, and use it! Amen.