Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21; St John 14:23-31
Confirmation of Mike, Teri, and Maralise Smith
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It was on this day, the fiftieth day from the first Easter that our Lord Jesus kept His promise and poured out His Holy Spirit. In a mighty roar of wind and crackle of flame, the Spirit descended and filled the disciples with power. Miraculously they began to speak in languages they had never learned, preaching the mighty deeds of God in Jesus Christ.
When the crowds began to think they were drunk, Peter took to the pulpit and preached the first Pentecost Day sermon. From St Peter’s preaching that day 3,000 souls repented and were baptized! And they continued to devout themselves to the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, to the Eucharist and petitions; that is, to the Word of the Lord in the Divine Service. That’s why Pentecost is usually called the birthday of the Christian Church.
But if the work of God the Holy Spirit in Christ’s Church began with great fireworks and drew attention to itself, it has continued quiet and almost unobserved. When the Holy Spirit comes at Baptism there is no wind, no flame. Merely the splash of water and the quiet promise from the Word of God that forgiveness has been given and a kingdom bestowed, together with new birth in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Likewise when the Spirit comes to us through the Word, read and preached, proclaimed in the Absolution, or attached to the Bread and Wine, there is no impressive display. Only the quiet and in-depth work of imparting faith and forgiveness, bringing the comfort and consolation of Christ Jesus.
It is the quiet, but in-depth, work of the Spirit that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel. Remember the context. This is Jesus’ farewell to His disciples. They are in the Upper Room that night He washed their feet. This is taking place at the Last Supper and as they sing a hymn and walk their way to the Garden where He will be betrayed. He says to them that night, If anyone loves Me, He will keep My Word; and My Father will love him and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me, does not keep My words. And the Word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
Those are not words of manipulation or intimidation. They are words of comfort and of indisputable fact. We love Jesus as we keep His words. But first, He loved us and gave Himself up for us, an Atoning Sacrifice for our sins. And then, you love Him. And because you love Him, you keep His words. They find a home in your hearts. And as they do, you will know the love of the Father. And the Father and Jesus Himself will come and live in you. This is all because the Words of Jesus are the Words that His Father gave Him to give to you. Not that you need to make tower and a name for yourself, but that He came down to you and gives you His Name, and that by His Name and through His Word, your God lives in your hearts by faith. You are actually His temples on earth.
Still, that sad night, did those words move the disciples to despair? For how wonderful the promise that the Lord Jesus and the Father would dwell in them by the words of Jesus! But oh how hard to remember the words! How difficult to let them sink in and find a home in the soul! To go from the ear to the heart, the heart to the lip and the lip to the life. And now He’s talking about leaving? A little while, and you will see Me no longer? He has the Words of everlasting life, but what will become of those words when He is no longer there? Speaking them to comfort and cheer their hearts? What then?
So Jesus promises them more. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. What they could not do on their own - not by the reason or strength, neither remember, nor believe the words of Jesus - the Holy Spirit will enable them to do. He will take the words of Jesus and He will call them again to their minds.
And that He did! Already hear the power of Peter’s preaching on the Day of Pentecost! He boldly cites the prophet Joel and announces this is what’s happening this very day! The Spirit is being poured out on all flesh. On young and old, men and women.
But the Holy Spirit did more than just remind the Apostles of what Jesus had said. He enabled them to understand what Jesus said with penetrating insight. He opened up the Old Testament to them and showed them how it is full of Jesus Christ. How it all points to Him and to His finished word of redemption.
And more, He cause their preaching of the Word to be with power. Not a power and might feared in the awe of the world. But one hidden in the preaching of the scandal of the Cross and the foolishness of the Crucified One. For this is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes (Rom 1:16). Thus, through their preached words He convicted the world of sin and then showed them the righteousness of Christ as God’s remedy for our pardon.
Dear people loved by God, in the precious words of the Bible you have the fulfillment of Christ’s promise to the disciples. The Spirit came on them as promised. The Spirit proved to be a Helper indeed. By His work in their lives they were divinely helped to remember the very words that Jesus Christ Himself had spoken and taught.
And they wrote those words down - again by the same Spirit. They are His words as well as theirs. And He is powerfully active in them. Through the preaching of His Word, God the Holy Spirit still calls and gathers Himself a Church, enlarging it from every tribe and nation and people and language. You are witnesses of this mighty work today in the Confirmation of Mike, Teri and Maralise. He has undone the curse of Babel and gathers His people together in the Strong Tower of Christ’s Church. And He sustains the very life of that Church through the forgiveness of sins for as long as the Church is in this world with the very gates of hell arrayed against her.
That’s why you can take all the programs for fixing this or that that’s gone wrong in the Church and throw them away. They are utterly worthless. That’s also why you can do away with sermons that deal with you and your problems. People like relevant sermons about parenting and marital problems, finances and aging. Dear Christians, if we adjust our preaching and our services so that they tell us about ourselves and no longer about God, Christ, and salvation, are we still the Church of Jesus Christ established through the Holy Spirit? The only thing that sustains and keeps the Church going is the Word of God alone. For there the Spirit of God alone speaks, confronting your sin and giving you forgiveness through Christ’s blood.
Christianity is not so much a religion that tells you about how to get along in this world. It is the truth that tells you who God is, that He created heaven and earth, that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, as the sacrificial atonement for your sins. That He reveals Himself to you through the Holy Spirit. That He is forever Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Christianity tells you about a world that is beyond anything you can experience in your ordinary environment. Of Life that comes to you from outside of you, that can only be believed by faith, and which speaks of a reality that was here before you were born and will exist after you die. Christianity is a reality in your life when all other realities are being destroyed. Christianity is in fact the only reality in heaven and earth. Everything else are but passing shadows.
In the Scriptures the Holy Spirit has given you a record of what is utterly reliable, absolutely inerrant and infallible, and what it is really real. He will reveal to you that you are a sinner. But He will also, through the Scriptures, read and preached, witness to Jesus Christ Himself, who doesn’t so much give you a better life, but Life itself. Your life being absorbed into the eternal fellowship of the Blessed Holy Trinity.
Fitting indeed, then, for Christ to ends today’s Gospel with these words, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Trouble and fear. Two things you have in spades all around you in and within you in this world. Trouble and fear. Two things that can’t hang around where the Holy Trinity makes His dwelling. Where the Father and the Son abide in those who live in the Spirit’s Word, letting that Word find a home in them. There trouble and fear disappear. Not that that won’t come in this world. Of course they will. The catechumen pledges they would rather be martyred than deny the faith!
But in the midst of worldly trouble, God’s people know a heavenly peace. The peace that can only come from the Spirit Himself, filling your hearts. The Spirit who dwells in you as the words of Jesus dwell in your heart. A peace that the world cannot give. A peace that will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, who together with His Father, + in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be glory now and forever. Amen.
Confirmation of Mike, Teri, and Maralise Smith
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It was on this day, the fiftieth day from the first Easter that our Lord Jesus kept His promise and poured out His Holy Spirit. In a mighty roar of wind and crackle of flame, the Spirit descended and filled the disciples with power. Miraculously they began to speak in languages they had never learned, preaching the mighty deeds of God in Jesus Christ.
When the crowds began to think they were drunk, Peter took to the pulpit and preached the first Pentecost Day sermon. From St Peter’s preaching that day 3,000 souls repented and were baptized! And they continued to devout themselves to the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, to the Eucharist and petitions; that is, to the Word of the Lord in the Divine Service. That’s why Pentecost is usually called the birthday of the Christian Church.
But if the work of God the Holy Spirit in Christ’s Church began with great fireworks and drew attention to itself, it has continued quiet and almost unobserved. When the Holy Spirit comes at Baptism there is no wind, no flame. Merely the splash of water and the quiet promise from the Word of God that forgiveness has been given and a kingdom bestowed, together with new birth in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Likewise when the Spirit comes to us through the Word, read and preached, proclaimed in the Absolution, or attached to the Bread and Wine, there is no impressive display. Only the quiet and in-depth work of imparting faith and forgiveness, bringing the comfort and consolation of Christ Jesus.
It is the quiet, but in-depth, work of the Spirit that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel. Remember the context. This is Jesus’ farewell to His disciples. They are in the Upper Room that night He washed their feet. This is taking place at the Last Supper and as they sing a hymn and walk their way to the Garden where He will be betrayed. He says to them that night, If anyone loves Me, He will keep My Word; and My Father will love him and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me, does not keep My words. And the Word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
Those are not words of manipulation or intimidation. They are words of comfort and of indisputable fact. We love Jesus as we keep His words. But first, He loved us and gave Himself up for us, an Atoning Sacrifice for our sins. And then, you love Him. And because you love Him, you keep His words. They find a home in your hearts. And as they do, you will know the love of the Father. And the Father and Jesus Himself will come and live in you. This is all because the Words of Jesus are the Words that His Father gave Him to give to you. Not that you need to make tower and a name for yourself, but that He came down to you and gives you His Name, and that by His Name and through His Word, your God lives in your hearts by faith. You are actually His temples on earth.
Still, that sad night, did those words move the disciples to despair? For how wonderful the promise that the Lord Jesus and the Father would dwell in them by the words of Jesus! But oh how hard to remember the words! How difficult to let them sink in and find a home in the soul! To go from the ear to the heart, the heart to the lip and the lip to the life. And now He’s talking about leaving? A little while, and you will see Me no longer? He has the Words of everlasting life, but what will become of those words when He is no longer there? Speaking them to comfort and cheer their hearts? What then?
So Jesus promises them more. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. What they could not do on their own - not by the reason or strength, neither remember, nor believe the words of Jesus - the Holy Spirit will enable them to do. He will take the words of Jesus and He will call them again to their minds.
And that He did! Already hear the power of Peter’s preaching on the Day of Pentecost! He boldly cites the prophet Joel and announces this is what’s happening this very day! The Spirit is being poured out on all flesh. On young and old, men and women.
But the Holy Spirit did more than just remind the Apostles of what Jesus had said. He enabled them to understand what Jesus said with penetrating insight. He opened up the Old Testament to them and showed them how it is full of Jesus Christ. How it all points to Him and to His finished word of redemption.
And more, He cause their preaching of the Word to be with power. Not a power and might feared in the awe of the world. But one hidden in the preaching of the scandal of the Cross and the foolishness of the Crucified One. For this is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes (Rom 1:16). Thus, through their preached words He convicted the world of sin and then showed them the righteousness of Christ as God’s remedy for our pardon.
Dear people loved by God, in the precious words of the Bible you have the fulfillment of Christ’s promise to the disciples. The Spirit came on them as promised. The Spirit proved to be a Helper indeed. By His work in their lives they were divinely helped to remember the very words that Jesus Christ Himself had spoken and taught.
And they wrote those words down - again by the same Spirit. They are His words as well as theirs. And He is powerfully active in them. Through the preaching of His Word, God the Holy Spirit still calls and gathers Himself a Church, enlarging it from every tribe and nation and people and language. You are witnesses of this mighty work today in the Confirmation of Mike, Teri and Maralise. He has undone the curse of Babel and gathers His people together in the Strong Tower of Christ’s Church. And He sustains the very life of that Church through the forgiveness of sins for as long as the Church is in this world with the very gates of hell arrayed against her.
That’s why you can take all the programs for fixing this or that that’s gone wrong in the Church and throw them away. They are utterly worthless. That’s also why you can do away with sermons that deal with you and your problems. People like relevant sermons about parenting and marital problems, finances and aging. Dear Christians, if we adjust our preaching and our services so that they tell us about ourselves and no longer about God, Christ, and salvation, are we still the Church of Jesus Christ established through the Holy Spirit? The only thing that sustains and keeps the Church going is the Word of God alone. For there the Spirit of God alone speaks, confronting your sin and giving you forgiveness through Christ’s blood.
Christianity is not so much a religion that tells you about how to get along in this world. It is the truth that tells you who God is, that He created heaven and earth, that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, as the sacrificial atonement for your sins. That He reveals Himself to you through the Holy Spirit. That He is forever Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Christianity tells you about a world that is beyond anything you can experience in your ordinary environment. Of Life that comes to you from outside of you, that can only be believed by faith, and which speaks of a reality that was here before you were born and will exist after you die. Christianity is a reality in your life when all other realities are being destroyed. Christianity is in fact the only reality in heaven and earth. Everything else are but passing shadows.
In the Scriptures the Holy Spirit has given you a record of what is utterly reliable, absolutely inerrant and infallible, and what it is really real. He will reveal to you that you are a sinner. But He will also, through the Scriptures, read and preached, witness to Jesus Christ Himself, who doesn’t so much give you a better life, but Life itself. Your life being absorbed into the eternal fellowship of the Blessed Holy Trinity.
Fitting indeed, then, for Christ to ends today’s Gospel with these words, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Trouble and fear. Two things you have in spades all around you in and within you in this world. Trouble and fear. Two things that can’t hang around where the Holy Trinity makes His dwelling. Where the Father and the Son abide in those who live in the Spirit’s Word, letting that Word find a home in them. There trouble and fear disappear. Not that that won’t come in this world. Of course they will. The catechumen pledges they would rather be martyred than deny the faith!
But in the midst of worldly trouble, God’s people know a heavenly peace. The peace that can only come from the Spirit Himself, filling your hearts. The Spirit who dwells in you as the words of Jesus dwell in your heart. A peace that the world cannot give. A peace that will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, who together with His Father, + in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be glory now and forever. Amen.
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