The Feast of Pentecost
May 12, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Genesis
11:1-9 Acts 2:1-21 John 14:23-31
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today, for the Feast of Pentecost, is from the 2nd
reading, especially these words, “But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted
up his voice and addressed them.” Thus
far our text.
Dear friends in
Christ. It started as a pretty average
Pentecost day in Jerusalem. The town was
full with visitors to celebrate the annual harvest festival of Pentecost. The feast not only was the celebration of a
good harvest, but also the remembrance of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments
on Mt. Sinai. The feast was a
remembrance that you shall not murder.
That you shall not steal, commit adultery or bear false testimony. It was the day they celebrated receiving
God’s Holy Law, even as they failed to keep it.
So the town was bristling
with activity. The people were buying
their goods at the shops at the foot of the Temple Mount. Others were taking their two loaves to into
the temple to wave as an offering before the altar in the inner courts. The daily sacrifices for sin rose up as smoke
from before the temple itself. It was by
that animal’s death and burning that their sins were forgiven. It was by Sacrifice and blood that those
ancient Jews knew they were forgiven. The
day was going forward just as every Thanksgiving feast had before that
day. As the sun rose, the people went
about their routines with a familiar sense of normalcy.
But then suddenly
a great wind blew through town, to the upper room where those 12 followers of
Jesus were staying. A great noise arose,
reminiscent of the great wind that came before God in Elijah’s day. A wind, that blew as strong as the wind that
split the Red Sea, as they escaped from Egypt, led by a pillar of cloud by day,
and fire by night. And now flames as red
as our altar paraments again came to God’s people. A fire from heaven came and landed on those
12 followers of the Resurrected one, and the Holy Spirit came to his people
with His Word.
Immediately the 12
went out into the temple mount, and began to preach, speaking in dozens of
languages. All that were gathered there
for the feast could understand the words in their home land’s languages. In Egyptian, in Parthian, in Cappadocian and
Phrygian. In all the languages, God’s
Word came from the mouth of the 12. And
through those 12, The Holy Spirit began his work, of preaching a Word about
Jesus. About the true Sacrifice. About the one who died on the cross, who shed
his blood that all mankind may be forgiven.
The people knew
the story. They had been there 50
days earlier, when that Word Jesus had
been crucified. They had heard the
rumors about his rising again, risen indeed.
But now those rumors were confirmed to them, not by miracles, not by magic
shows, not by babbling and gobbledygook as in the Pentecostal churches. But by a preaching of a sure and certain
word. By the work of the Holy Spirit,
who works always through that word to point us to Jesus. To meaningfully deliver the forgiveness of
Jesus to us by Word and Sacrament. The
promise in the sermon of all 12, in all the languages, that whoever calls upon
the name of the Lord will be saved.
Dear friends, our
text today is a historically reality.
The Holy Spirit came truly through God’s Word to God’s people. And dear friends it does the same for you
today. You too go about your daily
lives, just as those in ancient Jerusalem did.
You go to the store, you visit friends, you plant your crops, and in a
few months you too will harvest them.
And just as those
people, you deal with sin. You deal with
hurt, and pain and sorrow. You are
guilty, and you see others who are guilty.
For there is none innocent. And
because of your sin, you try all sorts of ways to sacrifice your time and
efforts to God. You try to make up for
what you’ve done wrong, but deep down you know the truth, that you cannot by
your own reason or strength earn forgiveness for your sins.
So God comes to
you as well. He sends his Holy Spirit to
you also. No, not with wind, not with
flames that land upon your forehead.
That only happened to the 12. But
God sends the Holy Spirit to you same way it came to those people 2000 years
ago. Through preaching.
Through the
proclamation of God’s Word to you in your own language, with a slight Nebraska
accent, the Holy Spirit comes to you.
And so every week, we gather together and hear about Jesus, and the Holy
Spirit says, “IN Him you are forgiven.”
We read God’s Word about Jesus together, we sing hymns with God’s Word
about Jesus in their verses. We come to
this place to be inundated with the Holy Spirit in God’s Word pointing us to
Jesus. And by it, you are connected to
Christ on the cross who died and rose for your forgiveness.
And the Holy
Spirit calls you as well to come to the font, and be washed in Christ’s
blood. To be marked as belonging to
God. The Holy Spirit calls you to the
altar to eat of Christ’s body and blood for your forgiveness, for you life, and
for your salvation. He proclaims to you
in his Word, that whoever calls on the name of Jesus will be saved.
That’s what
Pentecost is all about. Hearing God’s
Word through the work of the Holy Spirit.
To be forgiven by the Word of God.
To be pointed firmly and certainly to the cross, through the Word of
God. It happened 2000 years ago on an
average day in Jerusalem, and it happens today, on an average day in Hankinson,
ND. The Holy Spirit comes. His Word is
proclaimed, clearly. And faith is
created in our hearts.
Come Holy Spirit,
creator blessed. And make our hearts
your place of rest. Come in your
Word. Come in your Sacrament. Come and connect us forever more to the
blessings of Jesus. Amen.
