Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21; St John 14:23-31
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord, with all Your graces now outpoured on each believer’s mind and heart; Your fervent love to them impart (LSB 497:1). You cannot, by your own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. Therefore God the Holy Spirit comes to you, by way of the Father and the Son, who with the Father and Son together is worshipped and glorified. He who spoke by the prophets to our fathers, now, in these last days of great distress, speaks to you by the only Son of the Father, Jesus Christ the Word-made-Flesh. He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies you by His gifts.
All of this is to say, the Holy Spirit comes to you by and in and through the Word; for these two - the Word and Spirit - are inseparable. You cannot have a wordless spirit or a spiritless word. They cannot be divorced.
Though we celebrate today with one accord the so-called birth of the holy, Christian Church. The indivisible relationship, the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, did not begin at Pentecost. Rather, it began at our Lord Jesus’ incarnation when the angel answered St Mary’s query concerning her conception though she was a virgin. Gabriel said, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the Child to be born will be called the Holy One - the Son of God (Lk 1:35).
This relationship between the Word and Spirit continued when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Word at His Baptism in the Jordan, whence the Father declared, This is My beloved Son. Then the self-same Spirit drove the Word into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil according to the Father’s will (Mt 3:16-4:1).
The Spirit remained with the Word-made-Flesh throughout His earthly ministry until He was handed over at the crucifixion and death of the Word (Jn 19:30-31). For in this way the Son goes to the Father, who is greater than He, by way of His Cross and Passion. This is how the Son’s love for the Father is made manifest to the world: He does as the Father commands. He is obedient unto death, even death upon a Cross. This is also the way in which the Father’s love for you is made manifest to the world: in the obedient suffering and death of the Son.
But God the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father, raised the Word from the dead (Rm 8:11) and after His resurrection, the Word exspirated the Holy Spirit upon His chosen Apostles, sending them, as the Father sent Him, to forgive and retain sins in His Name (Jn 20:21-23).
In every case, Christ Jesus, the Word-made-Flesh, and the Holy Spirit are together, according to the will of the Father. It is as Jesus says to Nicodemus, The Spirit breathes were He wishes you hear His sound [in the Word]. So it is with those begotten of the Spirit (Jn 3:8; my translation). This is also why, when you read the epistolary greetings of St Paul or the other Apostles, you need not be concerned that he neglects the Holy Spirit when saying, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Rm 1:7). For where the gracious benediction of the eternal Father is present, together with the victorious peace of the sole-begotten Son, there the Holy Spirit is proceeding, carrying, as it were, this self-same grace and peace of the Blessed Holy Trinity to you in and through the Word; a peace not as the world gives.
So too here, at Pentecost, Christ the Word inaugurates His Office of the Holy Gospel by the outpouring of His Spirit, the promise of His Father, upon His Apostles and gives them utterance to speak in other, intelligible languages. And the content of their speech? St Peter goes back to the Old Testament, the promise of the coming Messiah, through the prophet Joel - wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood - the Rock is proclaiming Christ the Word, His Incarnation, His Cross and Passion, His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension which is the great and magnificent day of the Lord.
But we cannot stop there. If ever there was a time for the continuation of a reading, it is today. The lectionary cuts St Peter’s sermon in half! You lose some good parts! St Peter, by the Holy Spirit, proclaims with confidence that Jesus of Nazareth was delivered up to be crucified according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of the Father. But the Father and the Spirit raised Him from the dead! And He ascended, now seated at the Lord’s right hand, His enemies having been made His footstool.
Let all the house of Israel - and the inner-city of Indianapolis - therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
For you are the descendants of Noah; you have sought your own way. Endeavored to make a name for yourself. You have lived as if God did not matter and as if you mattered most. The Lord’s name you have not honored as you should; your worship and prayers have faltered. You have not let His love have its way with you and so your love for others has failed. There are those whom you have hurt and those whom you have failed to help. Your thoughts and desires have been soiled with sin.
Repent. Everyone of you. For the Spirit-Sword of the Word penetrates between joint and marrow, bone and sinew to cut you to the quick. Repent, but do not despair. For the Lord God who came down at Babel and cursed His creation with the diversity of languages on account of idolatry and sin, dispersing the people over the face of the earth, has come down again in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Word-made-Flesh. And by His Word and Spirit He desires to gather all men to Himself under the banner of His holy Name in the City of His new Jerusalem, the Church, under the Tower of the Cross, which stretches from heaven and touches earth.
For He who descended from heaven, Christ the Word, also ascended into heaven, and He leads a host of captives in His train. The ruler of this world has no claim on Him. Neither does he have any claim on you. Satan has been cast down. His accusations silenced in the blood of the Lamb. And by virtue of your Holy Baptism into Christ the Word, by His Spirit, you are given to dwell with the Father in love. Beloved, you have heard and received the Word, the Word of the love of the Father, by which and in which you live. Your home is in Him and He has made His home with you. He does not undo the curse of the languages, but now turns the plurality of tongues into a blessing for His New Israel of the Church.
But there’s more: the sermon of St Peter does not end here, and neither does ours. For those who received his Word were baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise was for them and their children. So too is it for you and your children. As it is today for Sebastian, who by the grace of the Father through the Son, by the Holy Spirit, shall make the good confession and be received into the communion fellowship of the one, holy, Christian and apostolic Church.
And this is exactly as the 3000 did that Day of Pentecost! Following which they devoted themselves to the doctrine of the apostles and the Eucharist and the prayers in the life together with Jesus Christ the Word-made-Flesh who came from the Father and has bestowed His Spirit.
This, dear people loved by God, is why we grieve over false doctrine. It is idolatrous and leads one away from the true Christ, enslaving you to a false master. Against such things you prayed in the collect, saying, “grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation.” You are praying that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ the Word, keep you free from error, because by right teaching and preaching, through the pure Word of Christ, the Holy Spirit teaches you to know God aright while from exile home you are wending. Again, this is what Jesus means when He says, 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.
Dear Christians, He has heard your prayer and given ear to your pleas for mercy. He sets before you this day the bountiful harvest of this Pentecost Festival: grain, into which is made Bread that by virtue of His Word is His Body. The new, sweet wine of the Gospel, His very Blood, poured out for you and for your children and for all those who are far off for the forgiveness of all your sins. Come. Call upon the Name of the Lord and take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. You shall not be condemned; but you shall be saved.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord, with all Your graces now outpoured on each believer’s mind and heart; Your fervent love to them impart (LSB 497:1). You cannot, by your own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. Therefore God the Holy Spirit comes to you, by way of the Father and the Son, who with the Father and Son together is worshipped and glorified. He who spoke by the prophets to our fathers, now, in these last days of great distress, speaks to you by the only Son of the Father, Jesus Christ the Word-made-Flesh. He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies you by His gifts.
All of this is to say, the Holy Spirit comes to you by and in and through the Word; for these two - the Word and Spirit - are inseparable. You cannot have a wordless spirit or a spiritless word. They cannot be divorced.
Though we celebrate today with one accord the so-called birth of the holy, Christian Church. The indivisible relationship, the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, did not begin at Pentecost. Rather, it began at our Lord Jesus’ incarnation when the angel answered St Mary’s query concerning her conception though she was a virgin. Gabriel said, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the Child to be born will be called the Holy One - the Son of God (Lk 1:35).
This relationship between the Word and Spirit continued when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Word at His Baptism in the Jordan, whence the Father declared, This is My beloved Son. Then the self-same Spirit drove the Word into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil according to the Father’s will (Mt 3:16-4:1).
The Spirit remained with the Word-made-Flesh throughout His earthly ministry until He was handed over at the crucifixion and death of the Word (Jn 19:30-31). For in this way the Son goes to the Father, who is greater than He, by way of His Cross and Passion. This is how the Son’s love for the Father is made manifest to the world: He does as the Father commands. He is obedient unto death, even death upon a Cross. This is also the way in which the Father’s love for you is made manifest to the world: in the obedient suffering and death of the Son.
But God the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father, raised the Word from the dead (Rm 8:11) and after His resurrection, the Word exspirated the Holy Spirit upon His chosen Apostles, sending them, as the Father sent Him, to forgive and retain sins in His Name (Jn 20:21-23).
In every case, Christ Jesus, the Word-made-Flesh, and the Holy Spirit are together, according to the will of the Father. It is as Jesus says to Nicodemus, The Spirit breathes were He wishes you hear His sound [in the Word]. So it is with those begotten of the Spirit (Jn 3:8; my translation). This is also why, when you read the epistolary greetings of St Paul or the other Apostles, you need not be concerned that he neglects the Holy Spirit when saying, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Rm 1:7). For where the gracious benediction of the eternal Father is present, together with the victorious peace of the sole-begotten Son, there the Holy Spirit is proceeding, carrying, as it were, this self-same grace and peace of the Blessed Holy Trinity to you in and through the Word; a peace not as the world gives.
So too here, at Pentecost, Christ the Word inaugurates His Office of the Holy Gospel by the outpouring of His Spirit, the promise of His Father, upon His Apostles and gives them utterance to speak in other, intelligible languages. And the content of their speech? St Peter goes back to the Old Testament, the promise of the coming Messiah, through the prophet Joel - wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood - the Rock is proclaiming Christ the Word, His Incarnation, His Cross and Passion, His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension which is the great and magnificent day of the Lord.
But we cannot stop there. If ever there was a time for the continuation of a reading, it is today. The lectionary cuts St Peter’s sermon in half! You lose some good parts! St Peter, by the Holy Spirit, proclaims with confidence that Jesus of Nazareth was delivered up to be crucified according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of the Father. But the Father and the Spirit raised Him from the dead! And He ascended, now seated at the Lord’s right hand, His enemies having been made His footstool.
Let all the house of Israel - and the inner-city of Indianapolis - therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
For you are the descendants of Noah; you have sought your own way. Endeavored to make a name for yourself. You have lived as if God did not matter and as if you mattered most. The Lord’s name you have not honored as you should; your worship and prayers have faltered. You have not let His love have its way with you and so your love for others has failed. There are those whom you have hurt and those whom you have failed to help. Your thoughts and desires have been soiled with sin.
Repent. Everyone of you. For the Spirit-Sword of the Word penetrates between joint and marrow, bone and sinew to cut you to the quick. Repent, but do not despair. For the Lord God who came down at Babel and cursed His creation with the diversity of languages on account of idolatry and sin, dispersing the people over the face of the earth, has come down again in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Word-made-Flesh. And by His Word and Spirit He desires to gather all men to Himself under the banner of His holy Name in the City of His new Jerusalem, the Church, under the Tower of the Cross, which stretches from heaven and touches earth.
For He who descended from heaven, Christ the Word, also ascended into heaven, and He leads a host of captives in His train. The ruler of this world has no claim on Him. Neither does he have any claim on you. Satan has been cast down. His accusations silenced in the blood of the Lamb. And by virtue of your Holy Baptism into Christ the Word, by His Spirit, you are given to dwell with the Father in love. Beloved, you have heard and received the Word, the Word of the love of the Father, by which and in which you live. Your home is in Him and He has made His home with you. He does not undo the curse of the languages, but now turns the plurality of tongues into a blessing for His New Israel of the Church.
But there’s more: the sermon of St Peter does not end here, and neither does ours. For those who received his Word were baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise was for them and their children. So too is it for you and your children. As it is today for Sebastian, who by the grace of the Father through the Son, by the Holy Spirit, shall make the good confession and be received into the communion fellowship of the one, holy, Christian and apostolic Church.
And this is exactly as the 3000 did that Day of Pentecost! Following which they devoted themselves to the doctrine of the apostles and the Eucharist and the prayers in the life together with Jesus Christ the Word-made-Flesh who came from the Father and has bestowed His Spirit.
This, dear people loved by God, is why we grieve over false doctrine. It is idolatrous and leads one away from the true Christ, enslaving you to a false master. Against such things you prayed in the collect, saying, “grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation.” You are praying that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ the Word, keep you free from error, because by right teaching and preaching, through the pure Word of Christ, the Holy Spirit teaches you to know God aright while from exile home you are wending. Again, this is what Jesus means when He says, 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.
Dear Christians, He has heard your prayer and given ear to your pleas for mercy. He sets before you this day the bountiful harvest of this Pentecost Festival: grain, into which is made Bread that by virtue of His Word is His Body. The new, sweet wine of the Gospel, His very Blood, poured out for you and for your children and for all those who are far off for the forgiveness of all your sins. Come. Call upon the Name of the Lord and take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. You shall not be condemned; but you shall be saved.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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