THE SPIRIT OF PROCLAMATION’
The Day of Pentecost
May 24, 2015
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one
place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty
rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of
them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to
speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:1-4 (ESV)
Today is the Feast of Pentecost, which is the last of the three great
feasts of the Christian liturgical year (the other two, as I’m sure
you already know, are Christmas and Easter). The forty-nine days of
the Easter season (or the “week of weeks,” as some have called it) is
now completed. We have finished the first half of the Church year in
which we have commemorated the great events in the life of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ and have heard the Biblical witness concerning
these events and now, during the long season of Pentecost, we
Christians turn to the Scriptures to sort it all out. Knowing that
Jesus was born and lived and suffered and died and rose again and
ascended into heaven, we now seek to discover what it all means to us
and what kind of impact it should have on us. How does all of this
change things in our lives and in the life of the Church?
At the beginning of this non-festival half of the Church year it is
fitting that we should celebrate the Person and work of the Holy
Spirit, since He is the One who, according to Jesus Himself, “will
teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have
said to you” (John 14:26). Were it not for the Holy Spirit, there
could be no Church and no salvation for us because we would know
nothing about our sin or our Savior. The title that I have chosen for
this sermon is “The Spirit of Proclamation.” I chose that title
because from our perspective, that is the function of the Holy Spirit:
He proclaims to us the Good News of forgiveness and salvation through
Jesus Christ and He moves us to proclaim that same Good News to
others. He also equips us with all of the gifts that we need to carry
out this task. We will spend these few minutes this morning looking
at the Biblical account of the Pentecost miracle, focusing
specifically on the Spirit’s power and on the purpose of the Spirit’s
power.
The power of the Holy Spirit was evident to the disciples who were
gathered together at Pentecost, first of all, because they heard it.
It is described in the text before us as “a sound like a mighty
rushing wind that filled the entire house where they were sitting.”
Most people who read this description assume that it was actually a
rush of wind that made the sound, but the Scripture doesn’t really say
that. We are told only that there was “a sound like a mighty rushing
wind.” Neither are we told whether or not anyone other than the
disciples heard this sound. This power of the Holy Spirit can still
be heard today--not in a wind-like sound perhaps, but certainly in the
preached Word of God. Whenever and wherever that Word is proclaimed
and heard, the Holy Spirit is at work with all of His power. It may
not be apparent to everyone, and there certainly are those to whom the
Word is preached who choose not to listen to it or to believe it. But
the power of the Spirit is there in the Word nevertheless.
Not only were the disciples of Jesus able to hear the power of the
Holy Spirit that their Lord had promised to send; they were able to
see the presence of the Spirit’s power as well. We read in the text:
“Divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of
them.” Once again, we aren’t told that there actually was a physical
flame hovering over each of them, but only that “tongues as of fire
appeared to them and rested on each of them.” And we are not told
whether or not anyone else witnessed this strange phenomenon other
than the disciples themselves. The power of that same Spirit is
visible today as well to believers in Jesus. We may not see the
strange sights that the Pentecost disciples saw but we do see all
around us the evidence of Christian faith--faith that can exist only
through the power of the Holy Spirit as He works in the hearts and
lives of sinners through God’s means of grace: the Word and the
Sacraments.
But the amazing power of the Holy Spirit doesn’t exist without
reason. There is a goal and purpose behind it. The purpose of the
Spirit’s power at Pentecost can be seen, first of all, in the
disciples’ ability to speak. Because they were equipped with the
power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were given the ability to
preach the Gospel in foreign languages that they had never studied or
learned. You and I have been blessed with the power of that same
Spirit. Maybe we aren’t able to speak in languages unknown to us like
the disciples did at Pentecost, but we are able to speak to people who
are different than we are and to tell them about the riches of God’s
redeeming grace in Jesus Christ. We can use our God-given intellect
and the educational resources available to us to proclaim God’s grace
to those who don’t know it and therefore cannot benefit from it. We
can also speak as the disciples did at Pentecost by supporting the
various ministries of the Church that are dedicated to the cause of
making God’s Word available to those who as yet do not have that Word
in their own language.
Not only were the Pentecost disciples able to speak by the power of
the Holy Spirit; they were also able to communicate. A lot of people
don’t realize it, but there is a very big difference between speaking
and communicating. There are a lot of people in the world who talk
all of the time but don’t really communicate anything. You and I
might have this same problem if we contradict our words with our
actions even as we speak those words. If, for example, we speak about
the New Life in Jesus Christ that has been given to us by the Holy
Spirit in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism but say it as if we were on
our deathbed, our hearers will not get the message that what we are
talking about is a vibrant thing. If we talk about the all-embracing
love of Jesus while we hold others in contempt, people will conclude
that our words about Jesus’ love are less than sincere. Speaking in
the Lord’s name is a great and awesome privilege, but it is not
complete unless we are communicating as we speak.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of proclamation, since it is He who
proclaims, through Word and Sacrament, the Good News of forgiveness
and everlasting life through the perfect life, innocent suffering and
death, and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. His power is not
dependent on people or places; it rests solely in the Word. The Lord
has promised through His prophet: “My Word that goes out from My
mouth . . . will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I
desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11
NIV). Whenever and wherever and by whomever that Word of God is
proclaimed, the Spirit is at work, convicting the complacent of sin
and comforting those overburdened with guilt by giving them
forgiveness and hope. The Savior’s promise to us is that the Spirit
is with us always and works through us all as we proclaim His Word of
Law and Gospel, through which He comforts the afflicted and afflicts
the comfortable, bringing them all to repentance and faith according
to the will of God.
Amen.
May the God who has so graciously poured out His Holy Spirit upon His
Church cause you to use the power of that Spirit in the service of
your Savior. To this end may He preserve you in His grace and bring
your faith to completion in heaven. He who calls you is faithful, and
He will do it. Amen.