The
Day of Pentecost / Year B
Acts 2:1-11; Romans 8:22-27; John
15:26-27;16:4b-15
Pastor
Gayle M. Pope
The
Spirit Shows Us Jesus
Before Jesus died he told the disciples that, after he left
them, he would send an Advocate – the Spirit of Truth. This Advocate, or
helper, would testify on behalf of Jesus – would guide them into all the truth
– would teach them the things they weren’t yet ready to hear and understand.
Forty days after Jesus was raised from the dead, his body
ascended from the earth. And ten days
after that – 50 days after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit arrived, just as
Jesus promised.
The Spirit of God came to the upper room and filled the
disciples, just as we heard in the Scriptures Tawnya read from Acts.
And what happened after that? The disciples immediately
began to speak in other languages about God’s deeds of power. This was not the
same thing as “speaking in tongues.” That expression refers to a different sign
of the Holy Spirit that requires an interpreter. On the feast of Pentecost, the disciples spoke in the
languages of the people who were present so that they could understand.
This morning’s reading from Acts ended with the beginning of
Peter’s sermon. The sermon continued as Peter explained that Jesus was God’s
promised Savior who was killed by God’s people.
And when the people heard this, “This, they were cut to the heart and
said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we
do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your
children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to
him." … So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day
about three thousand persons were added.”
It was not just a miracle of speaking, it was a miracle of
HEARING. It was a miracle of communication
from God to God’s people. God communicates with words. Think about what a word
is – it’s an expression of what is in our hearts – carried on our breath when
we speak, or through a pen when we write.
God’s word is God’s expression of what is in God’s heart and
Jesus is God’s Word made flesh. When
Jesus spoke in the flesh, things happened. People were healed, sins were
forgiven, minds were opened, hearts were changed, and the dead were brought to life.
Jesus is no longer here in the flesh, so now these same
things happen by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s breath – God’s
life. The word for spirit in Hebrew is ruach and in Greek is pneuma – the word means breath or wind
or spirit or life.
When Peter spoke to the people who were in Jerusalem that
day, the Holy Spirit was in the words Peter spoke and, just as Jesus said would
happen, the Spirit testified to Jesus and taught the hearers and stirred faith
in their hearts so that they received not just words, but life -- new life in
Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Today, almost 2000 years later, that same Spirit is still
within us and among us.
How do I know this?
Because we are here together and the gospel is being proclaimed. We are hearing about Jesus. And as God’s Word
is expressed here in words and in the transformation of bread and wine into
Christ’s body and blood, sins are forgiven; minds are opened, hearts are
changed and new life is received and nurtured.
The words I am speaking – the words Jesus poke – sound vague
and fuzzy in a way, but the message is not.
The Holy Spirit makes REAL what sounds vague and fuzzy because the Holy
Spirit points to Jesus, who was very real.
Whenever you hear or see or KNOW something of Jesus, that is the work of
the Holy Spirit.
Like yesterday sitting on the hill listening to the group
sing about Jesus. That was the Holy
Spirit at work.
When I sit with someone in the hospital or a nursing home
and I tell them Jesus loves them and forgives them, the Holy Spirit is there.
Not only does the Holy Spirit bring God’s expression to US,
it returns the expression of OUR HEARTS to God.
As Paul wrote, “Likewise the
Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who
searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit
intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
After all, communication is always a
And not only does the Spirit come to each of us as
individuals that we may receive God’s life through faith in God’s Word; we also
share this life of the Spirit corporately.
Martin Luther’s explanation of the Holy Spirit in the small
catechism says,
“I believe that I
cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come
to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me
by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the
true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth,
and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church
He forgives daily and richly all sins to me
and all believers, and at the last
day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life.”
Just as breath or wind is not still, neither is the life of
the Spirit. It has to move. It has to flow. That’s why it is essential to our
lives as believers that God’s life flow THROUGH us -- through our connections
with other believers and through our expression of God’s Word to unbelievers.
We are vessels of God’s Spirit and channels of it to
one another and to the world. That is
what we are going to sing about in the sermon hymn – “Make me a Channel of Your Peace” -- about
being channels of God’s Spirit, bringing peace, love, pardon, faith, hope,
light, joy, consolation, understanding and eternal life”