Pentecost, The Day of Pentecost
Pentecost • Sermon • Submitted
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My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today is Pentecost, the 50th day after the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and on this most blessed Day, the Holy Spirit which proceeds from the Father and the Son descended upon the disciples and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and gave to the disciples a great and wonderful gift.
Now on this day, the Holy Spirit comes to rest upon the heads of the disciples and it says, And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:4) Now there are some religions who twist to be something else, and if you ever listen to it sounds like gibberish or baby talk, and they will say that this is a gift of the Holy Spirit. This is because they misunderstand the text. The Bible says they began to speak in other tongues. Not that they began to speak in strange tongues, not that they were unintelligible, but that they began to speak in other tongues. Now what that is referring to are other languages, for you can tell by the very end when the crowd says, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. (Acts 2.11)
This gift is given again later in the book of Acts to a group of Gentiles but then this gift of speaking in different languages is given with a purpose. It is meant to show to doubting disciples that the Gentiles really are part of the Christian Church, and here on the day of Pentecost it is given so that everyone who is in Jerusalem might hear the wonderful news of Salvation accomplished by Christ our Lord.
The list of regions tells us that folks have come from all over and the Holy Spirit wanted everyone to hear the good news of Salvation and head out from Jersualem and share with their friends and their families the Gospel that Jesus is Risen from the Dead, and the death he died, he died for sinners, that we might be Forgiven and have life and Salvation in, and that He has conquered the powers of sin death and hell for our sake. So if you are a sinner, then Jesus has died for you.
So they learned on Pentecost how to share with their friends and family the good news of salvation in their own language. We don’t think about this too much as we live in a land that has a widely spoken language, you can get by with just English from the east coast to the west coast. We don’t appreciate how great a blessing that is. English is tricky and we are blessed to learn it as children. There is much we take for granted, if someone says hit the road, you don’t take out a stick and hit. If someone says they are a baby sitter, you aren’t horrified.
Countless Christians have benefitted from this throughout the centuries, even you have. People focus so much on the speaking in tongues that they forget about the true blessing that we have on Pentecost. Were the Lessons read in Greek? Did you respond to the Psalm in Hebrew? No! It is in English, if I was a betting man, I would wager that you have at your home a Bible that isn’t in Greek, Hebrew, or Aramiac, but one that is in English! The reason that you don’t have to learn those Language is because of what God did here on Pentecost, because God wanted you to know the Gospel to be proclaimed and known by all people in their native tongues. So that everyone can know what Jesus, His Son, has done.
When the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the New Testament to record the Gospels and their Epistles which we know as the New Testament they did it in a language that although foreign to us, was known across the land. A language that was shared by all. For God desires that everyone knows and receives the Good News of Salvation.
The tragedy that we must also confess is that for most folks there is a bit of fear in approaching the Scriptures, and even though we have Bibles in our own language, we are often too scared to open the pages of that Book and learn what God has done.
Look at Pentecost God wants you to know what is in that Book, not only for yoru own benefit, but also so you can share the Truth that is found therein with others. You can’t share what ya don’t know, so you have listen to the Word, read the word and treasure the Word. For God desires that you share this with everyone just as someone shared it with you. Now I don’t know who that was, that shared with you what Christ had done, but it was someone, a Sunday School Teacher, a VBS instructor, your mom, dad, grandma or grandpa, or even your Pastor.
You can share that same wonderful news with others, but to do that we need to be where the Spirit of God works, in the Word of God. For the Scriptures are God-breathed, God-Spirited as it says in 2 Timothy, that is how the Holy Spirit came to you, through the Word. So why not share that with someone else that they might know the same hope, life and forgiveness we have in Christ. For like the disciples we want everyone to know what is in the Word that we might share it with others, and that we might continue to share the Message of Salvation with all the World.
Now if you are afraid because you don’t know where to start. Come talk to me, and I will give you a list of Bible Passages to start reading, and it won’t be the difficult or strange passages in Scripture or a long list of genealogies, but it will equip you to read the Word at home. On the day of Pentecost we see that God wants you and everyone to know who He is and what He has done for you through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is the hope and comfort that the world needs today. Many people look at the world and they wonder where is God, how can they know what God is thinking or what God is doing to take care of it, or are they all alone? There are people out there who will point them in the wrong direction, or they will blindly fall into the errors that have existed for centuries.
Someone who goes out to have time with God in the woods or on the lake, is doing what the germans who sought God in nature and were worshiping trees or , or the greeks who saw the earth as the mother of the gods who created us.
There are those who will point people back into themselves to find the answers they need on the inside, through meditation and yoga, and other such practices, when these things fail, and they throw up their hands, they will then try to trust in their own works, to fix the world by their own hands figuring that perhaps there was never a god to begin with. This is the struggle that mankind has faced for centuries these things aren’t new, and that is why Christ wanted us to go out and make disciples of all nations, that in Him they might have peace, and why He gave to us the Holy Spirit and the Word through which the Spirit works. You O Christian must be equipped to share it.
For people still need to hear this message today, and God has richly blessed you. You have the Word of God at home that you can read it, learn it and then share this rich treasure with others who already speak your language.
Then as Lutherans, you have your Small Catechism Explanation which will provide you with the answers that many people want to know. In addition to that Pastors who are trained for years to know the Word that we might unpack difficult or troubling passages. Finally and most importantly, you have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, that was given to you on the day of your baptism and has come to you again and again through the Word..
The Holy Spirit who created faith in you through the Word, will create faith inside of others, but He does it where and when he wills. That is why Evangelism for us should not be terrifying. So what if someone doesn’t believe the first time they hear. The only thing that means is that today was not the day that they were meant to be called to faith. So we will wait and listen and share with them again the Good News we have in Christ.
That is how the Church has grown throughout the centuries, by sharing the Word of God with others, it is something every Christian is called to do, often the best place to starts is speaking with friends and family, and if you are hesitant, because you don’t know enough. Who can answer every question that comes up? You know where to find answers and you can do that for them, as others have done that for you.
So my brothers and sisters in Christ, this day as we celebrate Pentecost give thanks to God that we can hear the Gospel in our own native tongue, and go out this week and share it with someone else. That Jesus Christ came into this world to die for sinners, that we might have a clean conscience in God’s sight, and that even though one day we will die, we will live again. In Jesus name. Amen.