The Day of Pentecost

Good morning.

Welcome to our Redeemer.

Today is the festival of the Pentecost, the day that we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost day, and see how God continues to pour out his spirit on his people to this very day.

We'll begin now with our opening hymn number 477.

Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

It seems no one could see Pentecost coming, that it would come as a shock and a surprise to every observer of that time.

Surely the Romans would not have seen something like this coming.

The Romans considered power to be the kind of men that they followed, merciless, ruthless men who would use their power and their might to enact their will.

The Romans thought of powerful people the way they thought of their gods.

They would conceive of them as great and mighty people wielding all sorts of power.

They would never think of a Galilean Jew like Jesus to be one of those kinds of mighty men.

The Romans were the ones who perfected the craft of crucifixion, so that when they would drive home those nails, they were also driving home a point, that anyone who would stand in the way or oppose or in any way just be in the general vicinity of Roman power when it was in its full force would be erased and turned into nothing.

And yet, so it happened that the one they crucified, the one that they would normally expect to stay dead when Rome put him to death, was raised to life, and was hailed by thousands, and not in the sense of they got together and they had a kind of vigil where they remembered how Jesus was a good man who got a bad deal, but that this Jesus they put to death rose to life and appeared before many people.

This was something that would be so unexpected that if anyone heard about it, they probably assumed it was some kind of madness.

Such was the surprise to the Roman point of view in that day.

This surely was something the Jews would not have expected either, for they had a carefully cultivated religious sensibility that said God had created certain boundaries, and indeed he had in the Old Testament, but that these boundaries, these cultural and national boundaries, were the very boundaries of the kingdom of God in the minds of a first century Jew.

And that yes, they were persecuted, and yes, they had a difficult time often, but this was because they were different.

And that if anyone wanted to come into that status as God's favored people, they would first need to learn what it meant to be a Jew and to put into practice those things in the Jewish life.

There were certain people that in their mindset were definitely on the outside the outcast, the sinner, the Samaritan.

Then one of their own, a rabbi, went through the region, kind of flipping the whole thing on its head.

A man named Jesus went around and he ate and drank with those very outcasts.

He told stories where the Samaritan was the good guy and not the bad guy.

And more and more people, the outcast, the downtrodden, flocked to Jesus, and he began to speak about a kingdom that would transcend some of the limits that most people had in their mind for the work of God.

Not only that, this kind of teaching earned Jesus enemies, enemies who were more than willing to hand him over to those Roman powers of death, to put him to silence and to stop this upsetting of their apple cart.

And yet it happened.

The same Jesus rose, the same Jesus had many people see him alive.

And not only that, then more and more good upstanding Jews started to say, you know, maybe this Jesus is actually God.

This Jesus who did these things is surely the coming of God's Messiah, the one we've actually been waiting for.

And so this kind of view to many Jews would have been indistinguishable from madness or insanity.

And yet here it is.

Even the apostles, I think, could probably not have seen the gift of Pentecost coming, at least not with the way they might normally expect things to go in the world.

After all, they had spent so much time with Jesus, three years.

They knew him, they walked with him, they heard all of his teaching.

And they were the ones who, because of this, had made quite a lot of loud and strong commitments.

The ones who would say things like, We're never going to leave you, Jesus.

Even if everyone else were to abandon you, I never will.

Jesus, we're here with you until you inaugurate your kingdom.

We're here with you through thick and thin.

But then, of course, we know that when the going got tough, they got going to different places, to lock rooms, to fleeing, to getting away.

They who had such strong ideals for themselves and their teacher were the ones who could hardly stay awake when it was time to keep watch, who could hardly keep their courage and their focus and their patience when endurance was called on.

And of course, we know of Peter in particular who made some of the most loud promises of all, who then found himself terrified to speak and to be identified with Jesus in front of a servant girl near a burning fire as Jesus was on trial.

And normally, what happens when you fail that miserably and that spectacularly, the person whom you have let down, when he is vindicated, when he has power and might, and has, in the case of Jesus, shown that everything he had said all along was true and worth following.

Normally, someone like that, a failure, is not quickly reinstated.

So they probably would expect scolding, a wagging finger, maybe a that was nice, but you are no longer worthy for the next phase of what my kingdom is up to.

And yet they receive no such thing.

They receive from Jesus throughout the weeks after Easter assurance, peace, forgiveness.

Peter is reinstated.

And then on Pentecost, Jesus delivers to them even more.

He hands them the reins, as it were, to his whole church as he establishes it with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

And he says, These men, these failed, flawed men, they are the ones through whom I am going to do my work.

So it seems as if, no matter where you look, in that day and age, this great event called Pentecost would surely come as a surprise, something unexpected, something that could seem like an utter madness to people, that God would in the end do such a thing.

No one could see it coming.

Of course, we know that our God did intend this and he did see it coming.

In fact, we know that the prophets foretold it, those scrolls that the people of God unrolled and rolled up again as they read it over and over again did indeed talk about a time when the Spirit would come, and that the kingdom of God would extend and extend and extend to where people from all nations of all ages would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and would come into this great kingdom that God was planning all along.

So God, of course, saw this coming.

We know the Lord Jesus spoke about it very frequently as well.

He would talk again and again about the this coming day when the helper would come, this spirit who would be sent from him and proceed from the Father, who would empower them and would teach them and would call to remembrance everything that Jesus had said.

So Jesus sees it coming.

He talks about it.

But perhaps the reason this didn't always land for people who heard it is just how different this idea of the spirit and the power of God is from the way we often think of power.

Indeed, this can be a bit of a challenge as we read and hear the account of Pentecost.

Because we see this great spectacle.

There is the sound of the wind, there is the appearance of these tongues of fire, there's the speaking in languages, some kind of language, a miracle miracle occurs here.

And so this seems like the power.

But for you and me, and especially it seems in this day and age, but I suppose this has been true for quite some time, we usually think that power is wherever the spectacle is, wherever the biggest audience is, wherever the most flashy, amazing, eye-catching, attention-grabbing spectacle is, that's where the power is at.

And so it can be tempting sometimes to think that what we need to do in order to enjoy the gift of the Spirit here as we hear about on Pentecost, is to find some way to have that spectacle again.

To have some way that we are going to rekindle this kind of fire and flame so that as this momentum gets building, more and more are attracted to it, and then others will see it and think that must be where all the action is at.

That must be where the Spirit of God is moving.

But here we have to see the kind of central heart to the account of Pentecost and start to realize that the thing that endures in this account is not that great spectacle of the day, but it is this moment when, because of the gift of the Spirit, this fisherman who had so miserably failed in keeping his own word stands up and in great power and conviction and confidence preaches forth the word of God to those people.

And in that moment, as Peter preaches, there is that moment when the spirit of that day is on full display.

That in a sense, that is where the wind and the fire is really coming to bear.

That's where the strength is at.

That it comes down to, in the end, a sermon, a speech that a man gave in front of this crowd.

Peter, who just weeks earlier could hardly say the truth in front of that servant girl, is now standing up and saying, I declare to you the wonders of God.

I declare to you that this Jesus who was crucified is the Lord.

He is risen and he is the great God and Savior that the whole world has been waiting for since the very foundation of the world.

Now, for some, this idea can be a bit of a letdown, that there won't always be a great sense of emotion, or some great sense of success, or some kind of spectacle that makes us perhaps see and feel that the Spirit is at work.

And yet, look how enduring this is.

Because of all the signs that occurred on that day, what is the one thing that still happens week in and week out at every Christian gathering across the globe?

It is that the word of God is preached and proclaimed and delivered to people, and in those people their heart is cut open by the word and healed by the gospel, just as it occurred on this day of Pentecost.

That preached word has been going out and carrying out the work of God in his power ever since.

In fact, I think that's part of the reason why we can look through history and see that God's church, as Jesus promised, would continue to endure through all things.

Because the thing about spectacle and eye-popping things is that they often have a short life span.

But this kind of spirit-given conviction that turns into a kind of enduring perseverance as well, that is the kind of thing that can really stand.

In fact, it's neat to trace as you continue to read the book of Acts how this gift of the Spirit continued to play out, sometimes in ordinary ways.

You know, the same Peter, the same apostles were later hauled before the same council that put uh that condemned Jesus to death or handed him over to the authorities.

And they tried to get the apostles to stop preaching and teaching the name of Jesus.

And the apostles, these ordinary men, were filled with great conviction.

They were not intimidated.

And they said, No, we will continue to preach the name of Jesus, for we have seen him risen.

And that council was stunned and amazed, and they recognized that these men had clearly encountered something and had received something that could give them this kind of great power.

There was nothing spectacular about that.

It wasn't in front of thousands of people, it was the conviction displayed in an ordinary committee meeting.

And that was one of the many times, surely, that the apostles needed to endure, to stay true to their convictions, and to keep plugging away in perseverance to say, yes, yes, yes, this Jesus is risen, and yes, yes, yes, this will shape our life and conduct.

You see, that's another one of the great delights of the work of the Spirit, that it's not as if he only doles out this power for the big moments, but he is there with each and every one of his people, even in those ordinary moments, simple conversations, obscure situations of life, all the times where what we need is simply that confidence to say the word or be the person that God has called us to be in that moment.

And believers across the generations have received this same gift as the same preaching that the apostles delivered, hands over the same spirit that they received, that every Christian across the generations has received as well.

And that word has continued to move and sweep across the globe from nation to nation, language to language, to surprise of all surprises, it has come down to us.

People far, far removed from this day, both in terms of miles and years.

And yet we have this stunning continuity with this same word, this same spirit.

That you and I, who, if we were to examine our lives, would surely say, we're not the kind of people that God would select to receive such a gift, just as the apostles would examine their own lives and say, Who are we to have received such a thing?

And yet we have.

That we would look across the years and say, Is it really through something so ordinary that God could do such great things?

We who who love a good spectacle and would be happy to have high degrees of emotion or success still finally realize that the only thing that really brought us in was word, water and word applied to us in baptism, something so remarkably simple that is accessible to so many people across the years.

That something like the preaching of the word could encourage us and shape us and fashion us to be the people of God seems like such an insignificant thing, and yet through this pattern of again and again being shaped by this word, we leave here each time more and more equipped and encouraged for that path ahead.

And that the Lord again and again comes to us with his true body and blood in the Lord's Supper to strengthen us, to preserve us.

Nothing flashy, nothing super spectacular.

And yet through these most ordinary things, the gift of the Spirit is poured out again and again and again and again on each of us.

And yeah, we might say, is this really it?

Perhaps that same honest question that people would have been asking for across all these generations.

And the answer is yes, this is the way that God has worked.

He has said that it's not by might and not by power, but by his spirit.

And that that spirit carries forth all the words and works of Christ right down to you and to me this very day, to bless us and keep us and hold us sure in his gifts, in this new kingdom that he has inaugurated, and this kingdom that will have no end.

This is the gift that our God has given us.

And this current began long ago on the day of Pentecost, and it has traveled through so many people, through missionaries, through apostles, through pastors, teachers, parents, grandparents, through every ordinary Sunday, every ordinary sermon, every ordinary class, every ordinary moment where you or I have carried this flame on.

That is the wind and that is the fire of the Spirit carrying on across the generations.

That the Spirit has delivered to you and to me the gifts of forgiveness, new life, identity in Christ, that our life is hidden in him.

And it may not always look like the most, it may not always feel like the most.

In fact, sometimes you might just look at it all and think, this is a delightful surprise of all things me, us, this place, this way.

And yet through it all is this one thread that this has and will remain the work of God to bring you his son, to bring you his savior, and to keep you in this kingdom now and always.

Amen.

Once again, good morning to you, and great to see you here today.

You're invited to stick around after our service for our ministry forum, which is a quarterly opportunity, to learn more about the work that we carry out together here at Our Redeemer.

That'll be taking place in our community room right after the service, out the doors and to the left.

So I hope you can stick around for that.

Also note that next week begins our summer Bible reading and the hour between the services, 9 15 to 1015.

Throughout the summer, we'll have a Bible study, and uh, we simply read through one of the books of the Bible chapter by chapter.

This year we're going through the second half of the book of Exodus.

Again, that will begin next Sunday, so keep that in mind as well.

Those are the announcements I have as you head out today.

Take a moment and greet those who are worshiping with you, and may God be with you and bless you.