Pentecost (Acts 2.1-11 & John 14.23-31)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Forty days after He rose from the dead Christ ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father almighty. Ten days later the Feast of Pentecost began. Pentecost was the Greek name for the Feast of Weeks, one of the three times a year the Lord commanded all men of Israel to appear before Him (Dt 16:16). Israel had dispersed and lived among the nations for centuries, but many had come back for Passover and then Pentecost. That’s why there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. They had problem been dwelling in Jerusalem for Passover which was only fifty days before. Luke tells us that on that day the apostles were all with one accord in one place, when three things happened. There came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Everyone in multitude hears the wonderful works of God—the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus—preached in their own native tongue. They’re amazed. Rightly so. They’re perplexed. Rightly so. The apostles are all Galileans, and yet here they are speaking in languages they had never studied, and speaking the gospel in their own language clearly and confidently. 

That’s the point of it all, after all, that they hear the gospel, the word of Jesus, so that they might believe it, keep it, and abide in it unto everlasting life. The signs all point to the importance of the word. There came a sound from heaven that fills the house. The sound is like that of a rushing, mighty wind, but note that there isn’t a rushing, mighty wind, but its sound. You cannot see the Spirit. He is only known through the sound of preaching. Tongues as of fire appeared and sat on each one of the apostles. Why fire? Because the Holy Spirit descends on the twelve to speak God’s word, and God’s word is like fire. The Lord told Jeremiah, “Because you speak this word, Behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, And this people wood, And it shall devour them” (Jer 5:14). The prophet later said, “His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not” (Jer 20:9). It is not an impotent word. It is a creative. It is living. It is active. It accomplishes the thing for which God sends it, as it convicts sinners of their transgressions and guilt and as it creates faith in the gospel in human hearts that consoles and comforts convicted consciences. Tongues as of fire point to the new tongues in their mouths. The apostles were uneducated and untrained men (Acts 4:13) who had never studied these languages, but even the different tongues are not the point of Pentecost, but what they speak with the tongues the Spirit gave them.

What they speak with the the tongues the Spirit gave them at that time was Jesus. He had told them, “When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27). In today’s appointed gospel He tells them, “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 things that I said to you.” The Holy Spirit descends on the apostles in this new way so that they might testify of Jesus. The Holy Spirit descends on them to teach them all things by bringing to their remembrance everything Jesus had taught them. The Holy Spirit condemns their unbelief, “You have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” (Acts 2:23), but God has raised Him up. It the same Jesus whom they crucified that God has raised up and exalted to His right hand, so that “ God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Those whose hearts are devoured by this consuming fire and repent, asking what they should do about all this, hear the gospel: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38-39). The signs were given so that these men might hear the gospel so that the Holy Spirit might do His greatest work: creating faith in their hearts through the word and baptism. 

It is the Holy Spirit’s work that we believe in Jesus. “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). It’s the Holy Spirit’s work that we are born again in the waters of Holy Baptism. It is the Holy Spirit’s work that the inward man—the new man in us—is being renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16), and this renewal He begins when He rebirths us in baptism. This is why Paul calls baptism the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit in Titus 3:5. The Holy Spirit’s work in all this is that we love the Lord Jesus who gave Himself for us, who washes in baptism, and daily forgives us, who gives us His Holy Spirit, and regularly feeds us with His very body and blood. Jesus tells us in today’s appointed gospel, “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 who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.” The Holy Spirit is given to us to kindle in our hearts a love of Christ, and fan into flame that love of Christ so that we keep His Word. To keep His word means to hear it as often as we have opportunity, since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17). Keeping His word means abiding in it, reading it, meditating upon it day and night, since His words are spirit and life (John 6:63). Keeping His word means living according to His Word, being doers of the word and not hearers only. James says, “He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25).

And look at the blessings Christ promises to those who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, love Him and keep His word. He says, “My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” The Holy Ghost prepares our hearts as dwelling places, not for Himself only, for the three persons of the Godhead work inseparably due to the one nature. He washes us in Holy Baptism and gives us new hearts so that God the Father and Jesus Himself will come and well within us. God’s presence isn’t something we feel or sense in some mystical way. Christ dwells in our hearts through faith, Paul says in Ephesians 3:17. The Holy Spirit makes us temples of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, so that the Triune God is with us always as long as we are keeping Jesus’ word in faith. If we choose to sin we grieve the Holy Ghost and He departs from us just as the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul (1 Sam 16:14) after His deliberate sinning. If let sin reign in us so that we obey its desires, the Holy Spirit will not abide when unrighteousness comes in” (Wisdom 1:5) because He dwells in us—as well as the Father and the Son—so that He may rule over us with His mercy and train us in godliness. He dwells in us to keep us from false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. The Holy Spirit dwells in us—as well as the Father and the Son—so that we do not sin, but also so that if we do sin, He may lead us immediately back to the word of the gospel to receive forgiveness and the joy that comes with it, as well as newness of life.

For where the Triune God dwells, there is peace. Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” The peach of Jesus is the peace of sins forgiven and guilt removed as far as the east is from the west. The peace of Jesus is the peace of knowing that if the Father did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with [Christ] also freely give us all things? (Ro8:32). The peace of Jesus is the peace of knowing that He has secured victory for us in every temptation as long as we keep His word and practice it. The peace of Jesus is is the peace of mind that knows, no matter how wicked the world gets, no matter how evil the world is, the final victory is ours because He has already conquered the sin, death, the world, and the power of the devil. There is no reason for our hearts to be troubled and weighed down with the cares of this life. When we find our hearts heavy laden with troubles, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in our hearts by faith, wants to bring to your remembrance all things that Jesus has said to you, all the promises He has made to you in His word and at your baptism. He could gives us great signs as He did on that Pentecost fifty days after Christ’s resurrection, but He doesn’t promise to that for everyone, nor in every age of the church. But He does promise to work through the word of Jesus, which was what those signs pointed to anyway, so that you might firmly believe and in no wise doubt His word, but keep it so that God dwells with you and gives you His peace. Amen.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.