Pentecost
Dear friends in Christ. Today we celebrate the visible coming, the visible outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church. What we learn first glance from today’s readings, both the Epistle, which is the account of that first Christian day of Pentecost, and from today’s Gospel reading is that the Holy Spirit is a distinct, divine personal being. He is true God, together with the Father and the Son. He is not just another manifestation of the Father or the Son, nor is He a “force.” Instead the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity; true God together with the Father and the Son. That’s why in the Creed we call Him The Lord [that is, true God] and Giver of life [doing something only God can do—give life]; and also in the Creed we say He is due the same divine honor, glory and majesty: Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified. It was He, the Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus sent and visibly poured out on His Church that first Pentecost.
But what is it that we remember and give God thanks for that first Pentecost day? On Pentecost we praise God for blessing us, His Church, with the Holy Spirit. We remember that great miracle of God as He visibly poured out the Holy Spirit on the Apostles with new, extraordinary signs and works, marking them as ones that should be listened to for all time. But although the Holy Spirit’s coming that day to the disciples was marked by great outward signs—the sound like a rushing mighty wind and tongues like flames of fire on the disciples’ heads—we should in no way conclude from that that from then on His coming, the coming of God’s kingdom would always come with outward, visible signs; for Jesus says [Lk. 17.21], …the kingdom of God is within you. But, although unlike on the first day of Pentecost with all those miraculous signs and wonders, God’s kingdom now only comes to us invisibly; and although Jesus’ Church is in its true essence invisible to the human eye, yet it is no less a miracle today in a heart when the Holy Spirit comes to it and it becomes a Pentecost for that person. For most of us, our day of Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit came to us, was as our baptism as a baby.
As we celebrate Pentecost, yes, it is a time to give Jesus thanks that He sent the Holy Spirit to His Church, as He promised His disciples [Ac 1.8]: You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. But as we celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, let us not just think of that first Pentecost day, but let us also remember and rejoice in our own day of Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit came to us personally in the waters of Holy Baptism, bringing us to faith. For the thing is, the gracious work of the Holy Spirit did not end with that glorious first Pentecost but He continues to work in the holy Christian Church. Each time He comes to a Person in the waters of holy Baptism or when a person hears the Gospel and believes it, the Holy Spirit is there and comes to dwell in the person making the person a member of the Church and a temple of God, as Jesus says in our text: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
As we examine our text, we will see that the Christian’s heart is a temple of God, a temple which the Holy Spirit builds, consecrates and preserves.
1. To say that our hearts, dear Christian, are temples of God built by the Holy Spirit is a very humble thing. By this we are recognizing that the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit alone makes us Christians. It is not something that we can do or choose to do for ourselves. Luther rightly confesses in the explanation to the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed: 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 by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. Left to ourselves, there’s no way we would become temples of God. By nature, as we come into the world, we wouldn’t want to. We are already conceived and born as sinners, which means that we do not love the Lord and strive to do His will but that we serve self; we are slaves to sin and to the devil. At best we are pagan temples, but certainly not temples of the one true holy God. And that’s how we would all remain.
That’s why the Holy Spirit has to work with in each of us. And that’s why it is such a miracle of grace, such a miracle of the Holy Spirit when He brings a person to faith. That’s why it was a miracle that He brought you and me to faith. The miracles of Pentecost, His gracious work of Pentecost did not stop then but continues down the ages—to you and me.
But unlike that first Pentecost day, when the Holy Spirit’s coming was unmistakable, marked by the sound of a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire, when He comes to us today to build our hearts into temples of God, He does come visibly—but in the simple quiet waters of Holy Baptism; He comes in the still, small voice of the word of God. But what He works/ creates is a mighty thing! He creates faith in Jesus in us. He teaches us to know Jesus and the depth of His love. The Holy Spirit works that true faith and love of God so that we love Him and want to keep His word. By this He makes our hearts into the temple of God: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Through the Apostle, the Holy Spirit makes it clear that the holy God, whom the heavens cannot contain, dwells in the heart of each of His dear Christians. He says [2 Co 6.16; 1 Co 3.16]: For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, ‘I will dwell in them…; and Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
O, how this must change how we regard and treat our fellow Christians—especially those of our congregation and those we deal with. Their hearts, too, are temples of God. The Holy Triune God is in them. What dignity we then must see in them, in spite of all their weakness—God condescends to dwell in them just like He does in us. How, then, do Jesus’ words must ring in our ears [Mt. 25.40]: Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.
2. Not only does the Holy Spirit build our hearts into temples of God but He consecrates our hearts to serve as temples of God. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He consecrates our hearts as temples of God as He adorns them with love, the love of God so that we love the Lord. Again, left to ourselves we would never know and love the Lord. But the Holy Spirit points us to and assures us of God’s love for us in Christ; His love for us first, a love that caused Him to rescue us from our sins and hell. The holy apostle [1 John 4.19] put it this way: We love Him because He first loved us. Now there is faith and love of God in our hearts—a faith and love the Holy Spirit has worked and by which He has consecrated our hearts. He has prepared our hearts to welcome and receive the Holy Triune God dwelling in them as His temple.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. In that Spirit-worked love we will keep/ guard Jesus’ word, that very word through which we know Jesus; that very word through which He gives us His graces and blessings He won for us on the cross and by His holy life. If that word is rejected, how can the Father reveal the Son? How can we know the true God rightly? The Holy Spirit adorns the heart with love of Jesus and His saving word.
But there is more. Not only has the Holy Spirit prepared and consecrated our hearts as a temple of God, by adorning them with faith and love, but now with the holy Triune God dwelling in our hearts as His temple, He lives there as a master and adorns us with virtues as He leads us into lives of faith and good works. The holy Triune God dwelling in our hearts as His temple is no idle spectator but His essence flows and permeates our hearts and works holy works in us. Our lives will show/ reflect that the Holy Triune God has come to us and made His home with us.
3. By His quiet, invisible coming to us today, not only does the Holy Spirit build our hearts into temples of God and consecrate our hearts to serve as temples of God, but the Holy Spirit also preserves our hearts as God’s temple.
Our text: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Here Jesus refers, first of all, to the apostles and their blessed work. That first Christian day of Pentecost specifically marked the apostles for all to see that theirs was a special, unique office. To them was promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to speak, teach, and write as apostles without any error. To them was granted that special gift and grace to know and understand rightly/ infallibly all about Jesus and to teach it. The Holy Spirit was with the apostles in a very special and wonderful way as they preached and wrote and established the NT Church. He taught them all things and caused them to remember rightly everything Jesus said. Why? So that through them and the word they would leave behind in the NT, Jesus would still continue His prophetic office and teach His Church, teach His Christians down through the ages until the end of the world. With that first dramatic day of Pentecost, there could be no doubt that before the eyes of all the apostles were marked for their blessed task as the teachers of the Church, through whom Jesus is teaching.
Why is that important? Because through the word and sacrament Jesus left behind to His Church, through the Apostles, the Holy Spirit would work first to bring us and then to keep and preserve us in the faith; to build and then to preserve our hearts as God’s temple.
Although Jesus’ words, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you, apply first and primarily to the apostles and their role as the infallible teachers of the Church, they also apply to us. The reason is this: through the word of the Scriptures, the very word that the Holy Spirit had first the prophets and then the apostles write, preserving them from any error—through that word, the Holy Spirit works to create and preserve faith. The Holy Spirit is with us teaching us the word; teaching us to recognize who Jesus is; drawing us deeper and deeper into the faith; helping us “connect the dots” between various doctrines and various bible passages—this all through our lives.
And what great need we have for this work of the Holy Spirit preserving us! Very often we see only our weakness and sin; very often we feel ourselves at the point of despair; very often we feel nothing of God’s love, nothing of His dwelling in us. But the Lord does what? Drives us back to His holy word and sacrament and there the Holy Spirit teach[es] you all things and bring[s] to your remembrance all that I have said to you. There is true comfort! There is Jesus! There faith is strengthened and preserved. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. There the Holy Spirit preserves our hearts as God’s temple—the continuation of the Holy Spirit’s work from that first Pentecost, that blessed day. INJ Amen