The miracles attest: Repent, be baptized, and remain devoted

Sermon for Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13  +  John 14:23-31

On this great festival of Pentecost, we turn to the words that the Holy Spirit, whose coming we celebrate today, inspired St. Luke to write in the book of Acts, chapter 2. In fact, the inspiration of Scripture is one of the many works attributed to the Holy Spirit, 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. So it is with good reason that we mention again the verbal inspiration of the New Testament Scriptures, because it’s connected with what Jesus promised in today’s Gospel: 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 the things I have said to you. Jesus’ promise, combined with the fulfillment of the promise on Pentecost, is the reason why we have absolute confidence in the words of the Bible.

As you know, the Jewish feast of Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, took place every year. But the one we celebrate today took place ten days after Jesus’ Ascension and 50 days after His resurrection. On that day, Jesus sent the Spirit from the right hand of the Father, as He promised He would. He poured the Spirit down upon His gathered disciples in Jerusalem, as a cloud pours rain down upon the earth. So the Spirit was poured out on the Church.

But a spirit, by definition, can’t be seen. A spirit has no physical form of its own. How was anyone to know for sure that the Holy Spirit had come? That was the purpose of the three miracles that occurred on that day, as we heard in today’s reading. It began with the sound of a mighty, rushing wind. Not a natural wind, because it wasn’t accompanied by the swaying of trees or the blowing of air. Just the sound of a mighty, rushing wind. And since the word “wind” is related to the word “spirit,” 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?” 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.

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. 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 mankind’s sins.

Our Epistle today ended with the miracles, but the day of Pentecost wasn’t really about the miracles. Again, the miracles were just there to get people’s attention and to confirm the word that the apostles would preach. So we would do well to listen to Peter’s sermon on that day. Let’s turn back to Acts 2 and pick up where our Epistle left off:

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.’ “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the LORD always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’ “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” ’ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “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.” And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they remained devoted to the apostles’ doctrine, and to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.

That sermon. That is what Pentecost is about. That is what the Holy Spirit does. He empowers Christians to preach the Gospel clearly and boldly, and He works through their preaching.

What a beautiful summary of the Gospel we have in Peter’s sermon! Jesus went around doing good. His words were attested and confirmed by God through all the many miracles He did. You should have listened to Him! But instead, you mistreated Him and crucified Him and killed Him. But God raised Him from the dead, just as He said through the prophets that He would. And now He has seated Him at His right hand to reign as Lord and Christ, to crush His enemies and all who oppose Him in due time.

Then, once the hearers were cut to the heart and realized just how much danger they were in for sinning against God and for disbelieving His Christ at first, the Holy Spirit adds the rest of the Gospel: Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. The answer to your sin, says the Holy Spirit, is not to keep sinning, but to repent of your sins, to grieve over them and to fear God’s wrath. But there is hope for those who repent! A sure hope that cannot fail. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized in His name for the remission of sins, for the forgiveness of sins. That’s the answer! Not pretending to be innocent. Not redeeming yourself. Not atoning for your sins. But faith in the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and in the atonement price He paid with His blood. Where there is faith, where there is Baptism, there is forgiveness, life, and salvation.

The Holy Spirit worked in, with, and through that preaching on the day of Pentecost to call men to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. He then brought the believing to Holy Baptism, where He washed away all their sins and gave them new birth and new life. And then He continued to work in the baptized believers so that they remained devoted to the apostles’ doctrine, and to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. In other words, the Spirit didn’t just create faith in all those people and then leave them to go off on their own. No, He continued to drive them to the Word of God as the apostles preached it. He drove them to gather with one another and to love one another. He drove them toward the “breaking of bread” (clearly a reference to the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper). And He drove them to the prayers by which they, as a Church, continued to seek God’s help.

The same Holy Spirit is still at work today whenever the Gospel is preached, whenever Christians are gathered in the name of Christ. We don’t have the same kinds of miracles to attest to the truth of the Gospel as they did in the early days of the Church, nor do we need them. How often does God need to prove Himself, after all? How often does He need to confirm the apostles’ doctrine with miraculous signs? Again and again, for each and every generation? Is the Spirit’s early testimony in the Church worth so little that we won’t believe it unless we see the signs for ourselves? Certainly not! Instead, believe the testimony of the apostles and of the early Church! Understand that the Bible itself, and the very existence of the Holy Christian Church throughout the world, and the perpetual ministry of the Church, and the continual administration of the Holy Sacraments are all visible signs from God that we should listen to His Spirit in the Word. So listen to the Spirit and repent, with daily contrition and repentance. Listen to the Spirit and be baptized, if you haven’t been, and if you have, then live each day according to the New Man who was born in Baptism. Listen to the Spirit, and remain devoted to the preaching of God’s Word, and to the fellowship of the Church, and to receiving the Lord’s Supper, and to the prayers that will most certainly result in God’s help and guidance, until the Church is fully gathered and fully sanctified, until you join the Lord Christ at the right hand of God and see for yourself the awesome work that the Spirit of God has been doing on earth since that great day of Pentecost, in which you—praise God! —have been given a part. Amen.