The Feast of Pentecost
Dear friends in Christ! Today the Church celebrates Pentecost. Pentecost comes from the Greek word that means “50”. Pentecost was 50 days from the Passover. Pentecost was originally an OT harvest festival in which the first of the new grain was brought to the Lord. We read in today’s Epistle: Now when the day of Pentecost had fully come...This Pentecost would be different. This Pentecost was after the great fulfillment of the Passover had come—Jesus’ death and resurrection. Now, as a result of Jesus’ work, there would be a true and great harvest of souls: many people, both Jew and Gentile, would come to faith in Jesus and receive the blessing and benefit of Jesus’ saving work. And this would take place all throughout the NT era! It’s happening now! But the first fruits, the first in this harvest of souls, this great entrance of people into the NT Church, took place on the 1st Pentecost as 3000 people were baptized and brought into the NT Church.
That’s why that first Pentecost is often called “the birthday of the NT Church.” Even today when a baby is born, the baby is given all kinds of gifts to help give it a good start—clothes, blankets, diapers, etc. The NT Church, on her birthday, was given the greatest gift—the Holy Spirit. It was not as if the Holy Spirit was not around and active in the world before Pentecost; He was! Wherever there was a believer in Jesus, in the Messiah, the Holy Spirit had worked that faith. But before that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit had worked primarily among the Israelites and could only work faith in the coming Savior. But now it was different! Just as the OT prophets had prophesied: And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, so also Peter proclaimed its fulfillment that first Pentecost. Now the Holy Spirit would come for all people and could give all people the blessings and benefits Jesus had brought about for us by His life, suffering and death. The work for our salvation was now complete—Jesus’ resurrection and ascension shows us that—and now the Holy Spirit brings those blessings into all the world through the word and sacrament proclaimed and administered by the Church, by our Lord’s dear Christians.
As we examine our text this morning we will see Christ’s gracious gift on Pentecost: the Holy Spirit. We will first see that the Holy Spirit is true God, the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity; and then we will see the work of the Holy Spirit.
1. Jesus speaks the words of our text to His disciples on Maundy Thursday evening, the night in which He was betrayed. He speaks all these things to warn and to comfort them before the events of His death and crucifixion. And one of the things Jesus tells them and promises them is that the Holy Spirit would come to comfort them. In fact, Jesus says in our text: And I will pray the Father, and as a result He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. Here in these words, we find out who the Holy Spirit really is: the true God for Jesus describes Him as another Comforter and the Spirit of truth. If the Holy Spirit is another Comforter, that means that there already is a Comforter. Who is that Comforter? Jesus! In his epistle [1 John 2.1] St. John gives Jesus the same title. And St. Paul writes [2 Cor. 7.6]: God, who comforts the downcast comforted us. This comfort is a divine thing, a divine working. The Holy Spirit is true God, like Jesus, the Son, is true God; but they are not the same Person. The Holy Spirit is God, the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity; Jesus is God, the Son, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity. There is one divine being, God, but three distinct Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Notice as well what the Holy Spirit is called: the Spirit of truth. Here, too, we see that the Holy Spirit is God, just as the Father and Son are God. He is truth because He is the holy, sinless God. He is the eternal and unchangeable truth because God is eternal and absolute Truth. We see from His divine names and titles, another Comforter and the Spirit of truth, that the Holy Spirit is true God.
Our text gives us a marvelous look into the great mystery of God. Jesus says: And I will pray—and it is vital to note that the word Jesus uses here is the request of an equal to an equal, not like a slave asking his master for something, thus showing that equality between the Father and the Son—the Father, and as a result He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit came that first Pentecost because of the request of the Son to the Father. This is Jesus’ guardian care of His Church—He doesn’t forsake His Church but together with the Father sends the Holy Spirit to be with the Church, to be with His dear Christians forever. He asks, the Father sends. Because of this close work, that beautiful harmonious inner working and life within the holy Trinity, we confess in the Creed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
The Holy Spirit came that first Pentecost because of the prayer of Jesus: And I will pray the Father, and as a result He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. Notice, we do not pray the Holy Spirit on ourselves; He only comes at the request of Jesus, the risen and ascended Savior. It’s not our worthiness that determines whether the Holy Spirit comes—and comes to us. It’s not as if somehow we can make ourselves worthy, prepare ourselves, so that the Holy Spirit comes, as if we can manipulate or entice Him. Instead, He comes as a result of Jesus’ prayer. He comes to us because we need Him. We need Him to come to do a work only God can do: create faith in Christ in our hearts so that in that faith we may receive the gifts and blessings Jesus brought about for us; we need Him so that we may continue to remain in the faith and live a life of faith and good works. We need Him because we are sinners who on our own cannot come to faith or remain in the faith. And in grace upon grace, He comes because our Savior, Christ Jesus, asked the Father to send Him. What a gracious gift Christ gave His Church that first Pentecost and continues to grant His Church.
2. The state, the condition of all people as we are born into this world is one of being lost and condemned sinners; nothing but slavery to sin, devil and death. But God saw our wretched state; He had mercy on us and planned for our salvation. That’s why Father sent the Son, Jesus, who by His holy life, and innocent suffering and death brought about our salvation—forgiveness of sin and eternal life. By His glorious resurrection and ascension He opened the kingdom of heaven.
Now Holy Spirit Whom Jesus sent on Pentecost comes with His glorious, divine work to enable us to receive these gifts and blessings Jesus obtained! The Holy Spirit, true God, 3rd Person of the blessed and Holy Trinity brings us to faith in Jesus and keeps us in that one true saving faith! That’s why Jesus calls Him another Comforter. When the Holy Spirit comes and by His mighty work creates faith in our hearts, He makes us absolutely certain that what we believe is true, He is the Spirit of truth; and He is the Comforter comforting us with the word and work of Jesus. That’s why when our conscience dredges up all sorts of past sin to make us question whether we are truly Christians, saved and forgiven—which is really the devil’s attempt to lead us into despair— the Holy Spirit leads us back to the absolution, to the word and to the sacraments and here He gives us the certainty that our sins are indeed forgiven: the word that promises that forgiveness is true; with the absolution, I cannot doubt that by it my sins are indeed forgiven before God in heaven; the holy Supper, I receive the forgiveness of sins as I eat and drink Christ’s very body and blood that was cursed for my sin and shed for my forgiveness; my baptism where each day as I daily drown my old sinful nature and all evil desires I am clothed anew in the holiness of Christ. Truth and comfort!
The Holy Spirit is the Comforter we need every day of our life. Notice what Jesus prays in our text: And I will pray the Father, and as a result He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit is our constant companion. Because He is true God, He is omnipresent—present everywhere and with you and me and each of our Lord’s dear Christians comforting us, always being our constant source and fountain of strength. The Holy Spirit is with us—in fact, He is in us: you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. He is in us assuring us of Jesus and His saving work; that it is for me!
The Holy Spirit is our Comforter precisely because He is the Spirit of Truth. Outside of Christ Jesus, there is no comfort; outside of Christ there is only death, damnation, divine wrath; but in Christ, there is peace, joy, forgiveness and life. That’s why the Holy Spirit always points to the truth—Jesus and His accomplished saving work.
Because the Holy Spirit came to the Church that first Pentecost, He then led the Apostles to write the NT books. He guided them to write the very things that He wanted them to write; as the Spirit of truth He kept them free from any error in doing in their preaching and writing. This is just as Jesus promised shortly after our text [16.13]: When, He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth reveals to us what is hidden to us, what we by our sin corrupted reason could never figure out—Jesus and His saving work; the forgiveness of sins by God’s grace through faith in Christ. He reveals it/ He brings it to us in the Gospel—that very word that He had the apostles write, that very word which He has preserved down to us this very day. On the first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on all flesh; that is, by the preaching of the apostles and their successors and by the word of Scripture going out into the world, He is ready and at hand for all. But sadly, even though the Spirit is everywhere and by the Word, in the Church, revealing the truth, making known the Gospel—not all will receive Him and His saving Truth: the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.
But to us in whom He has worked faith and who now in that faith receive Him, the Holy Spirit grants a great grace: not only does He dwell within us, in our hearts but so does Christ. Jesus promises in our text: you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. The great glory and blessing of Pentecost is that until the Last Day the Holy Spirit abides with the Church and through her—the Word she teaches and the sacraments she gives—the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ. Where the Holy Spirit is, there is Christ coming to His Church in the word and sacraments; and there He comes into our hearts and reveals Himself and gives us the blessing of His saving work. Not only does Jesus reveal Himself but because He rose from the dead, He gives us new spiritual life. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me, because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. By the Holy Spirit’s work we now share in new spiritual life of the risen and ascended Christ. Where the Holy Spirit is and has worked faith, we are gloriously united with the Son, Christ Jesus; He is in us and we are in Him. This is the glorious saving work of the Holy Spirit Whom Jesus poured out in full measure that first Pentecost! What a day/ event for us to celebrate! INJ Amen