05/24/2026

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

Amen.

Well, happy Feast of Pentecost.

Or as some Christians call it, happy birthday to the church.

Well, now, Lutherans have always been a little bit cautious about seeing Pentecost as the birthday of the church.

Not because we dislike birthdays, we like birthdays.

Come to the prime ring party right afterwards, and we will prove it to you.

We like birthdays a lot.

But we do get just a little bit nervous when people start trying to fix a date for the church's birthday.

It depends on your definition of the church, I suppose, because the called-out people of God weren't exactly a brand new idea introduced in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Going way back, Adam and Eve were given the promise of a coming Savior.

Noah, Abraham, and the patriarchs were all called upon by God thousands of years before this special day in Acts chapter 2 took place.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And then you also had the whole nation of Israel expressly chosen by God in the Old Testament.

Moses led God's people through the wilderness after escaping their Egyptian enslavement.

The prophets preached repentance and promise to the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom.

The Psalms taught God's people how to pray, how to sing, lament, confess, and how to trust in God.

All this God's people were taught, though they were oftentimes slow learners.

So Pentecost is not exactly the day God first fought up the church.

But it is the day when the crucified, risen, and ascended Christ poured out his promised Holy Spirit upon his church in a new and a world-rattling way.

Pentecost is not the start of God having a people.

Pentecost is the great empowering and preparing of God's people to proclaim the gospel to a lost world.

Even as we see Peter preaching so boldly in our Acts chapter 2 lesson today.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Pentecost is not the first act of salvation history either, but it is the day when the saving work of Christ begins to be proclaimed to the gathered nations there in Jerusalem.

I imagine if all those Pentecost pilgrims paraded their nation's flags, what do you think?

It be something like the spectacle of the grand opening of Olympic Games.

That uh it's always so colorful and mesmerizing.

It's no coincidence that in the fullness of time, when the Romans built all the roads and the Greeks supplied a common language, Corne, God chose this time to pour out his spirit.

And that is why today I'd like to walk us through our Acts 2 passage and do so in four Acts or four scenes, if you will.

It's the dramatic unveiling of a power play that we call Pentecost.

And I'll give you the spoiler alert right here.

The final line will be the one Peter gives from the prophet Joel.

And I want you to hold tight to this.

Quote: Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

First, a few introductory notes concerning the big three.

Pentecost was already one of three great pilgrimage feasts of ancient Israel.

Three times a year, scattered Jews would travel to Jerusalem for these great feasts: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Booths.

Passover, of course, remembered the blood of the Lamb, the rescue from Egypt, the night when death passed over the people of God.

Pentecost came 50 days later, and it was connected to the harvest, to first fruits, and also, in later Jewish tradition, it was connected to the giving of the law at Sinai.

And then you got the feast of booths.

That remembered the wilderness journey for 40 years when God made his people dwell in tents or booths, and he taught them himself and he accompanied them, and moreover, he was their faithful shelter.

So on that day in Acts chapter 2, Jerusalem was swollen to maybe two or even three times its normal size, full of these Pentecost pilgrims, Jews from every nation in the then known world.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They all went up to the holy city.

Now one of our seminary professors, Dr.

Carl Fekenscher, he makes some very interesting comparisons between these three great Jewish feasts and the three biggest festival times for Christians today.

We have Christmas, Christ born in human flesh, to later die for us.

We have Easter, Jesus rising from the grave victorious.

But our Christmas and our Easter still need Pentecost.

Why?

Not because Christ's work was incomplete, no, when Jesus said it is finished, he meant it.

His saving work was indeed finished, his sacrifice was complete, his blood was shed for the remission of our sins.

His tomb was empty, death had been defeated, sin had been answered, Satan had been disarmed, praise God for his mighty works.

But who would benefit from that finished work of Christ if the gospel were never preached?

If the gospel was never heard, if it was never believed and received.

And all that could never happen without the Holy Spirit.

See, it's the Holy Spirit who moves the preacher to preach.

It's the Holy Spirit who comes through the word that is spoken.

And it's the Holy Spirit who awakens spiritually dead hearts to embrace the gospel.

It's the Holy Spirit who gives faith where there is nothing but unbelief.

The Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life, as we confess in the creed together.

He gives life where there was only death, and he gives comfort where there was only fear.

So Pentecost does not add something that was missing to the cross and the resurrection, no.

Pentecost delivers what Christ has already won for us.

The Holy Spirit delivers all the gifts of Christ, forgiveness, life, salvation, and even saving faith, saving faith that the Holy Spirit would spark in the most remote places on the planet, no extra charge.

So Act 1, the Spirit comes from heaven.

Act one is the first four verses from our text, where the Holy Spirit shows up and in a big way.

It's also a clue that this could not be the birthday of the church because everybody knows you take a big huge breath to blow out all the candles on your birthday cake, right?

But here, the ruach, that is the mighty breath of God, rushes in and doesn't extinguish a thing, but rather in reverse, ignites tongues of fire over each believer that was gathered there in the upper room.

And even if it went the other way, it would practically take an act of God to blow out 120 candles.

Imagine.

But on a more serious note, these tongues of fire gave way to tongues of languages from all the nations gathered at this Pentecost pilgrimage.

That leads us to Acts 2.

Act 2.

Quote, now there were dwelling in Jerusalem devout Jews from every nation under heaven.

They were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

The spirit-filled believers were praising God and declaring his mighty works of salvation with most likely perfect linguistic tone and inflection, like they themselves were native speakers.

But they were not.

They were unlearned, backward Galileans, and that was the bewildering part that drew so much attention and drew a crowd.

Act 3.

Now, where there is a crowd, there are usually mockers.

Despite this obvious miracle taking place right before their very eyes and being heard with their own ears, some will still find a way to not believe it or not receive God's great gifts that come down to us from heaven.

Act 3 then is the tragic point of the drama.

Some are amazed and they ask, probably Lutherans or pre-Lutherans, what does this mean?

A good catechism question.

But others mock, and that has always been the sad mystery of unbelief, hasn't it?

Even when God gives signs, even when Christ rises from the dead, even when the gospel is preached plainly, some still harden their hearts.

And that's why Peter does not merely explain the miracle, he preaches repentance.

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

So he sends his word.

Luke puts it this way, and divided tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

That word rested is a very rich one.

It comes from the same word family that gives us our word cathedral.

The Holy Spirit does not merely brush past the believers, he rests upon them.

He takes his seat on each individual.

He takes his place, a holy place, where he now resides.

God, the third person of the Holy Trinity.

So it's his seat, it's his cathedral for the Most High God.

And the fire itself is no random element either.

In Scripture, fire often marks the presence of God.

The Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush.

The Lord led Israel by night in a pillar of fire, right?

Fire descended upon Mount Sinai.

Fire filled the imagination of the prophets when they spoke of God's holiness, his judgment, and presence.

We even call this red candle here in the altar area the eternal flame, reminding us all of God's continual presence among us.

So here then is the marvel of Pentecost.

The fire does not stay on Mount Sinai or just the high places.

The fire does not remain hidden behind a veil in a temple.

The fire rests on each one of us.

What Moses once longed for in our Old Testament reading now begins to happen.

Would, said Moses, would that all the people were the Lord's prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them all.

Act 4.

At Pentecost, this longing on the part of Moses comes to pass.

The spirit who rested on the seventy elders in Moses' day now rests upon the apostles of Christ.

And through their preaching, like the bold preaching of Peter that starts in verse 14, this promise is extended forward and outward.

Peter, along with the other disciples, who were just a few weeks ago hiding themselves behind locked doors, they are now empowered and emboldened by the Holy Spirit.

Peter, once frightened away by a little servant girl, now doesn't hesitate to take on the mockers.

These people are not drunk, as you suppose.

It's only the third hour of the day.

That would be nine o'clock in the morning.

Later in Acts 2, Peter will speak very directly with this crowd, saying, Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Unquote.

Acts 241 tells us that about 3,000 converts that Pentecost day received Peter's message and accepted the invitation to get baptized.

By virtue of this being the very same sacrament today as it was back then, and by virtue of it being attached to the same promise, Eleanor's baptism therefore also confers upon her the same Holy Spirit of God who now makes little Eleanor's body his temple in which to dwell.

Is that not a radical thought?

I think maybe that's why she was smiling.

The Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life, who comes through the promise of Christ, joins sinners to Jesus, grants forgiveness of sins, and makes the baptized into temples of the living God.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians, for we are the temple of the living God.

Imagine that.

Elsewhere in 1 Corinthians, he says, Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you.

Do you see the historic moment here?

God dwelt with his people in the tabernacle as they journeyed through the wilderness.

Then he made his presence known in the Jerusalem temple.

Then the true temple came in the flesh of Jesus Christ.

And now by the Spirit, the church becomes the body of Christ.

And you, my baptized brothers and sisters, you yourselves become a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

The flame that marks God's presence, excuse me, that marks God's presence is no longer simply up there, back then, over there.

In Christ by the Spirit, God has come to dwell in you.

Therefore, let your light so shine that men may see your good works, the fruit of the Spirit, and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Sometimes your good works speak louder than words, and they are a universal language.

Even if you're not granted a miracle by God to instantly master another language, God can still give you the love for the lost to learn a language or support those who are already on that mission.

The gospel will never stay in just one language, one culture, one neighborhood, one nation, one tribe, or even just one generation, no.

At the Tower of Babel, human pride led to confusion and scattering.

At Pentecost, God does not erase the languages, He sanctifies them all for proclamation.

The miracle is not that everybody suddenly heard this one heavenly language spoken in the garden.

The miracle is that each hears now the mighty works of God in his own tongue, his dialect.

That is deeply comforting when the word of God comes right to you in your own heart language.

The efforts of gifted Christian translators are achieving this more and more, putting God's word into the little dialects of those in the remote places on the planet.

These missionaries are not waiting for these language groups to come to them.

They're responding to God's call to go into all the world and make disciples.

Go to the unreached peoples and the highways and the byways and put your God-given gifts to use for the sake of the gospel.

These missionaries are exemplary in this fashion.

God does not save people by telling them they must claw and climb a stairway to heaven.

Pentecost reminds us that God descends.

He comes down to us.

He speaks our language so that he may be heard.

He sends preachers with human voices to speak his words.

He still attaches his spoken promises to earthly water.

He still gives the body and blood under the bread and the wine.

That is what the Holy Spirit does.

He's quite active.

He takes the finished work of Christ and He delivers it into the ears, hearts, mouths, hands, homes, and congregations of his people.

And what do the people hear?

Luke tells us.

We hear them telling in their own tongues the mighty works of God.

This is the content of Pentecost.

This is the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

This is the glory of our triune God.

And on a personal note, if you'll permit me, just one.

On a day like today, with a birthday, a baptism, and a final sermon before retiring, all aligning at the same time, it'd be easy to let our focus slip a bit.

But Pentecost will not let us do that.

Pentecost does not say, look what the preacher has done.

Pentecost says, look what the Holy Spirit is doing through the Word of Christ.

The pastors come and go.

Seasons of ministry begin and end.

But Christ remains.

God's word endures forever.

The Spirit keeps moving.

And the church holds steady because she belongs to Christ Jesus.

The same spirit who hovered over the waters at creation, who spoke through the prophets, who descended upon Christ at his baptism, who raised Jesus from the dead, this same spirit who came with wind and fire at Pentecost, he is still the Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

So if Christmas and Easter still need Pentecost, so do we.

Not because Christ left something unfinished, but because the finished work of Christ must be delivered.

And delivered it is to the nations, to Jerusalem, to Ventura County, to Peace Lutheran Church here, to your lips and gums, Christ has died for you.

Christ is risen for you.

Christ has poured out his spirit for you.

And by that spirit, through the word, in that baptismal promise that you've received, you may call upon the name of the Lord with confidence.

For it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And now the peace of God that passes all understanding guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.