A Pentecost Miracle!

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Pentecost                                                  Trinity Lutheran Church

20 May 2018                                             Murdock, NE

 

+ Jesu Juva +

 

Acts 2:1-21

 

This really is quite a shocker. Entirely unexpected! Scrambles your eggs! Did you hear the 12 preachers? What got into them?

 

One explanation is that the apostles are three sheets to the wind. Wasted. Dean Martin-ly or Foster Brook-ish-ly sloshed. That they’ve guzzled too much liquid spirits from the bottle! Wouldn’t you agree? After all, what else would explain the apostolic ability to speak in foreign languages and various dialects of people from all over the Mediterranean world?

 

I’ll throw out another explanation. The correct one! The preachers are full of SPIRIT — capital “S” Spirit! The third Person of the Holy Trinity: the Holy Spirit! I believe in the Holy Spirit! So do you!

 

The Old Testament prophet Joel promised that the Holy Spirit would be given in the last days or end times. So did Prophet par excellence Jesus! The last days or end times pouring out of the Holy Spirit has happened! “But when the Helper comes,” Jesus pledged, “whom I will send from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.”

 

Pentecost is not the outpouring of a power or a force as if it’s another Star Wars movie. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit – God Himself – God of God – very God of very God – is the very coming of God Himself. In fact, the very giving of God Himself in person!

 

The Holy Spirit poured out at Pentecost is He who hovered over the formless void and the darkness of the deep at the beginning of the world (Genesis 1:2)! It was through the Holy Spirit that the chaos of the cosmos was made into an orderly creation. The Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets (2 Peter 1:21)! We heard that with Ezekiel’s preaching from the Old Testament reading today. His preaching gave life to the dry as dust, dead, and buried bones of Israel. The Holy Spirit conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb as the archangel Gabriel preached his sermon into her ears. The Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove on the baptized Jesus (Mark 1:10)! The Lord Jesus breathed on the apostles and gave them the Holy Spirit to forgive or not forgive sinners their sins (John 20:22-23). He promised to give the Holy Spirit, the Helper, to His apostles to bear witness to Him — the Good Friday Savior of sinners for their salvation (John 15:26-27). Jesus also promised that the Holy Spirit would help the persecuted church. I could go on and on.

 

The point is this. The apostolic preachers are not intoxicated. They don’t have a drinking problem. It’s a different Spirit! Not from below but FROM ABOVE! The Holy Spirit has been poured out! Bestowed on them! Fallen on them! And notice how hard: suddenly – a mighty rushing wind – tongues of fire! Again, this is to describe the fact that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, GIVES HIMSELF!

 

Why? So that the apostles will Pentecost-ly preach! Listen again to Jesus. “But when the Helper comes whom I will send from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.” Apostolic preaching at Pentecost then! And the hearers declare:  “We hear them telling in our own tongues [languages] the mighty works of God.”

 

Those “mighty works of God” are the Good Friday death and Easter Sunday resurrection of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity that took on flesh, bore all the sin of the world in His body and got damned with it namely, the Lord Jesus Christ! Mighty works of God FOR YOU AND FOR YOUR SALVATION!

 

The Holy Spirit is not about the Holy Spirit. He’s not into Himself. The Holy Spirit doesn’t talk about Himself. He’s very shy about that. Instead, He bullish about talking SOMEONE ELSE and His Mighty works! He’s all about bearing witness to graveyard dead but now risen from the dead Jesus! That makes perfect sense. After it was Jesus that was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. Jesus, not the Holy Spirit, suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified, died and was buried FOR YOU and for all. Jesus is the star of the Trinitarian salvational show!

 

So the apostles preach! Apostolic preaching bears witness to the mighty works of God that Jesus did FOR YOU and for all on Good Friday and Easter Sunday! The apostolic preachers proclaim that Jesus died for all. That salvation unto us has come! So whatever language, mother tongue or dialect the gospel needs to be preached the Holy Spirit sees to it. “We hear them telling in our own tongues [languages] the mighty works of God.” That’s full-of-the-Holy-Spirit-preaching! When the mighty works of God are being preached, even though the Holy Spirit isn’t even mentioned, THEY HOLY SPIRIT IS DOING HIS MIGHT WORK!

 

It’s a Pentecost miracle! Not only in the preaching but also in the hearing! Through the mouths of men and their preaching the Holy Spirit spoke the eternal and powerful Word! In addition, the Holy Spirit performed a miracle in the hearing of that Word. The fact that anyone believed the apostolic preaching was a total Holy Spirit Pentecost miracle! After all, the Holy Spirit can be resisted and rejected. Remember, not everyone there believed what was preached. There were those who mocked and made fun of the preachers and the preaching: “Those apostles are just a bunch of drunkards!”

 

So the Small Catechism has it right – faithful – regarding the work – the giving of the Holy Spirit: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him but the Holy Spirit has called me [to faith in Jesus] by the gospel!” And the gospel is proclaiming the mighty works of God FOR YOU!

 

So all throughout the Book of Acts the apostles keep on preaching. Preaching Jesus! “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified,” (Acts 2:36).

 

This is what I preach to you! My preaching is apostolic as well. In a language or mother tongue that you can understand! I’m not intoxicated either. I preach the holy gospel to you today – IN ENGLISH! And it’s this: Jesus died FOR YOU! Jesus rose victoriously from the grave FOR YOU! He reigns at the Father’s right hand as King of kings and Lord of lords in order to serve you. To take care of you. To help you.

 

Jesus has given you the Holy Spirit too! First, in your baptism! You are baptized in the Name of God the Father, the Son, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT! Consequently, in holy baptism you have been given the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38-39)! So too in the very gospel I preach to you every Sunday. In the holy absolution that I categorically declare to you every Sunday! In the Words of Institution that I chant every week for your faithful reception of the Lord’s body and blood hooked with His promise of forgiveness! Yes, your sins are forgiven! Yes, you are redeemed! You are saved! Heaven and eternal life are yours! Jesus has Good Friday-ly won it all FOR YOU! He personally then gives you all the benefits of His death in Word and sacraments. There is where the Holy Spirit is at work. There the Holy Spirit calls you to believe only in Jesus for salvation.

 

I’m not drunk. I’m telling you the truth! You too are Holy Spirit-ed! Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. He has given Himself to you! He abides in you! Every Sunday then is a little Pentecost. A total Pentecost miracle! Every Sunday as the gospel is proclaimed and given the Holy Spirit at work. Having a church! A bunch of hangers on to Jesus!

 

The ongoing miracle of the Holy Spirit’s work in the preached and sacramental gospel explains why you’re a believer and why Trinity congregation has been here at Murdock for over 125 years! The astonishing work of the Holy Spirit explains why hundreds of thousands in Africa, China, India, Indonesia, South America, and other parts of the world are converted and receive holy baptism every week! The miraculous work of the Holy Spirit through the Word preached is what helps millions of persecuted Christians all throughout the world to live in and from their baptism in Christ and to remain faithful to Him even unto death.

 

Speaking of death. Death is not the end. On the Last Day the Holy Spirit will miraculously raise you and all believers from the dead, give you a resurrected body and grant you eternal life together with that a new heaven and a new earth.

 

Well let’s wrap this up and call it good. For that, please open your hymnals and turn to hymn #497. Let’s sing and pray stanza 2.

 

Come, holy Light, guide divine

Now cause the Word of light to shine.

Teach us to know our God aright

And call Him Father with delight.

From every error keep us free

Let none but Christ our master be

That we in living faith abide

In Him our Lord with all our might confide.

Alleluia, alleluia!

 

Happy Pentecost Day!

 

In the Name of Jesus to whom the Spirit bears witness!