The Festival Of Pentecost
Dear friends in Christ. Today Christ’s holy Church celebrates the Festival of Pentecost. Pentecost comes from the Greek word meaning “50.” It is actually an OT harvest festival also called “The Feast of Weeks”. Once Greek became the dominant language, this festival was called “Pentecost”, 50. According to the Lord’s command in the OT [Leviticus 23], it was celebrated on the day after the seven full weeks after the second day of Passover week—in other words 50 days after the day after Passover. But this Pentecost in our text is different—the way things fell that year, this OT harvest festival was also on the 50th day after the very first Easter.
The way St. Luke introduces our account is so fascinating: When the Day of Pentecost had been fulfilled, they were all with one accord in one place. Notice, the OT harvest festival had found its fulfillment; that OT harvest festival was a sign to the OT people pointing ahead to the day of the Messiah’s kingdom: in the day when the Messiah comes, there would be a great harvest of souls—many people being brought into His kingdom. On that day of Pentecost, this OT sign would be fulfilled and is now still being fulfilled down through ages, even down to our very own— by the Holy Spirit’s working faith in Jesus and His work in people’s hearts through the word and baptism, many from all over the world would come into Messiah’s kingdom.
That’s why Pentecost is often called the “birthday of the NT Church.” Although throughout all previous ages—from Adam and Eve on—the Lord had given His Holy Spirit and always had His faithful believers, now the crucified, risen and ascended Lord was sending His Holy Spirit in full measure into the world offering and giving the full blessings He had won on the cross—the completed salvation.
How blessed we are to live in the days when our salvation is a completed fact—brought about by Jesus and its fruits and blessings being offered to us now in the word and sacraments! For the OT saints, it was for them something in the future; for us it is a certain historical fact—the events we especially recently remembered in Lent and Easter.
When we celebrate Pentecost as the birthday of the NT Church, we are making that wonderful connection we find in the creed: I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy Christian Church. Our text this morning teaches us this connection between the Holy Spirit—Whose coming in full measure we celebrate today—and the Church. As we examine the Pentecost account, we will see that the Church is the work/ creation of Holy Spirit; that she is the instrument of the Holy Spirit; and that she is the workplace of the Holy Spirit.
1. Our text: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Notice it was a sound… as of a rushing mighty wind. It was not just a strong wind, a natural phenomenon that could be explained. But the Lord was marking His coming in a mighty way. He was making His presence known in a dramatic way. And why? So that people would come, a crowd attracted, to hear Peter’s Pentecost sermon so that through the word He might work faith in the hearts of people.
But the sound of a wind? The wind is an image, picture of the Holy Spirit—like we will hear Jesus tell us in next week’s Gospel reading [John 3:8 NKJV]: The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. There’s that picture of the Spirit and His work being compared with the wind—none of us tells the wind where to go and how strong to be, etc.—so Jesus sends His Holy Spirit who works faith in the hearts of people when and where He pleases. And here by the Holy Spirit making His coming known by that sound of rushing mighty wind and by it drawing a crowd, He is teaching us that—like the wind goes seemingly where it wills—the Church is all the result of His work: we can’t dictate to the Holy Spirit where and in whom He must work faith, nor do we prepare ourselves and make ourselves Christians. After all, where would the people that first Pentecost be unless the Spirit had gathered them by announcing His arrival with that sound as of a rushing mighty wind and creating faith through Peter’s sermon and baptism? That we are Christians is the Spirit’s work; that there’s a Church that’s His work.
On top of that, we next read: And tongues as of fire appeared to them, distributed among them, and rested on each one of them. The Holy Spirit marks His arrival and here appears “physically” as tongues as of fire. But why fire? First off, it was a sign to the disciples, a reminder to them of what John the Baptizer said/ prophesied about Jesus [Luke 3:16 NKJV]: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire; and of what Jesus Himself had told them not long before [Acts 1:5 NKJV]: you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. There’s that connection between the Holy Spirit and fire. But why? Fire points to the purifying and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit; it points to what He does in us! Like the refiner’s fire removes all the dross, impurities from gold. When gold or silver when it is mined, it doesn’t come out of the ground beautiful—but the refiner, by fire, gets rid of all the impurities and makes it beautiful. That’s like the fire/ the purifying power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to us and works in us and on us, all the more purifying and cleansing us and making us His temples in which He dwells. Will His purifying work on us ever end? Hardly! It is ongoing; throughout our lives He is working on us to cleanse us from sin, to lead us to fight sin and to live a life in accord with the holy Ten Commandments. He is strengthening and empowering us. That’s the purifying and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, who has come also on us.
That day, as He came upon the disciples, it was for a cleansing and purifying. Before they were full of fear and all sorts of wrong notions about Jesus and His kingdom, but now after the day of Pentecost, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, they were bold; they knew rightly Jesus’ work and kingdom. Yes, they still sinned but the Holy Spirit had cleansed and purified them to carry out His work through them. Here we see the outward—the fire—showing the true inner miracle—the purifying and sanctifying of the Holy Spirit.
Before we move on—let us not skip over some important and comforting words: tongues as of fire appeared to them, distributed among them, and rested on each one of them. The Holy Spirit was distributed among them; the image of is a gift being passed out. Let us never forget that the Holy Spirit is a gift—a gracious gift of God to us; a gift sent by the crucified but risen and ascended Christ to us. We don’t earn, deserve, merit the Holy Spirit and the gifts He brings; we can’t make Him come to us. He’s a gift—a gracious gift to us. May we then treasure that gift, follow His leadings and promptings, thank Christ for sending Him. It’s all the work of the Holy Spirit that there even is a Church and that we are Christians, part of her.
2. Not only is the Church the work/ creation of the Holy Spirit but the Church is also the instrument of the Holy Spirit; that is, the Holy Spirit uses the Church to bring that saving word to the nations, to give and offer to all the forgiveness of sin, peace with God and the righteousness of Christ.
On that first day of Pentecost, the birthday of the NT Church, the Holy Spirit came and equipped the disciples, the Church, to carry out the work that Jesus had given His Church to do—to make disciples of all the nations. He came on them that day and equipped them to carry out their role as witnesses—just as Jesus told them [Acts 1:8 NKJV]: you will be witnesses to Me…to the end of the earth. Again, what does that show? It shows that only by the working and equipping of the Holy Spirit do we and can we be witnesses/ tell others that Good News about Jesus. How blessed we are—Christ wants to and does use us to expand His kingdom.
What does Christ do here on Pentecost? He sends His Church His Holy Spirit. To be sure, He worked in a wonderful and special way on the disciples that day as He set up the NT Church. He gave them the Holy Spirit in extra and full measure as they would be the ones to go out into the world and establish the NT Church. But after that day of Pentecost, Christ didn’t take away His Holy Spirit; after the days of the apostles Jesus didn’t withdraw His Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit Jesus poured out on His Church that first Pentecost is still with His Church; He is still with you and me. To be sure, the Holy Spirit may not show His presence with such extraordinary outward gifts and miracles today like He did with the apostles—nor should He have to, after all, He has already established the NT Church for almost two millennia now—but He is still with us with His graces and blessings.
Are you a Christian? That means that the Holy Spirit is still active today. He’s the one who brought you to faith and is keeping you in the faith. He is enlightening the hearts of the faithful—your heart—and filling them with the true knowledge of God and love toward Him; He is bringing us new spiritual life. He dwells in our hearts, enlightens us and gives us holy courage and joy to tell others that Good News about Jesus so that through the word we share others may come to know Jesus as their Savior and be brought into His kingdom, the Church, and be given every heavenly and spiritual blessing. Just as the Holy Spirit used the Christians on that first Pentecost as His instrument to gather people into the Church, so He does using us today. Let us not fear or be daunted—the Holy Spirit does the work; we are merely the instruments He uses and He equips us for the task!
3. Finally, not only is the Church the instrument of the Holy Spirit, but she is also the place where the Holy Spirit works. What did Christ do? He entrusted His word and sacraments to His Church! And what else did Christ do? He bound Himself to work through His word and sacrament. So what does that mean? It means that if anyone is to receive the gifts and blessings Jesus won for us by His life, suffering and death they have to be around our Lord’s word and Sacraments. That’s where the Holy Spirit is! Through these the Spirit works, preserves and strengthens faith.
No person can just on their own come to the true, right and saving knowledge of God and Christ; no person on their own can believe in Christ and come to Him. Instead, the Church—with the word and Sacrament entrusted to her—is the workplace of the Holy Spirit. Notice what the Holy Spirit does on Pentecost: He marks His arrival by the sound of a mighty rushing wind filling the whole house where the disciples [the NT Church] were sitting. And by that He attracts a crowd. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. And then, so that the people listen and pay attention to the right ones, He marks the disciples with tongues like flames of fire—these were the ones to be listened to; they had the Holy Spirit; they would speak truth and divine wisdom. On that first Pentecost and all through the NT era Jesus and His saving work are put into the proper light—namely that through Him God brought about the salvation of the world. In the Holy Scriptures that the Holy Spirit wrote through these men and which we faithfully teach and pass on, and in the holy Sacraments, the Holy Spirit is mightily at work—in the Church, His workplace—gathering people into her.
So today, as we remember the Holy Spirit being poured out on the NT Church, we say “Happy Birthday” to her—for she is the work of the Holy Spirit, the instrument of the Holy Spirit and the workplace of the Holy Spirit. INJ Amen