Your Very Own Personal Pentecost
Text: Genesis 11:1-7 & Acts 2:1-21
In
the name of Jesus: Amen.
There
was something like fire and wind and a loud noise that day. It was a mighty rushing wind, not a nice
gentle breeze. Think of a tornado or
gale force winds. And then there was the
fire - flames that divided and rested on each of the Apostles!
What
am I talking about? I am talking about
that day of Pentecost long ago. I am
talking about 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead, the day that the Holy
Spirit was poured out on the Apostle who had come together, just as Jesus had
promised.
It
is a day that the Holy Spirit rushed into human history like never before, with
a startling suddenness that was impossible to miss.
The
crowds who heard and felt the roar of the wind came rushing together, utterly
confused about what was happening. And
what did they find? They found the Tower
of Babel reversed! Yes, the confusion of
Babel had been reversed.
In
our Old Testament lesson from this morning we read about mankind coming
together at the place called Babel.
Mankind had gathered together to build a city for themselves and to make
a name for themselves. The people who
had gathered were prideful and egotistical.
God had called mankind to multiple and fill the whole earth, but not
these people. Nope, not them. They were going to stay put and make their own
buildings and their own city, not to glorify God but to glorify
themselves. It was about glory to man in
the highest.
As a
result, it should not surprise us that God intervened in judgment. He cursed them by twisting their tongues and
giving them a bunch of different languages.
Yes, He foiled their egotistical and prideful plans by confusing their
language. He actually applied a divine judgment that led to confusion,
suspicion, and even hatred among the people. There is no doubt about it, since
the Tower of Babel, we have had the confusion of language, which has led to
mankind being humbled ever since. The
confusion of language has broken and driven mankind into disorder and weakness.
I
mention all of this because God cursed the people at the Tower of Babel because
they were coming together in the name of mankind. However, in today’s reading from the book of
Acts, we hear about a reversal of Babel, where the Apostles were given the
ability to proclaim about Jesus in languages they had never learned. Instead of language dividing people - this
person from that person – the people
from all the nations, heard each of the Apostles speaking and testifying to the
great works of God – and each person heard them preaching in their own
language. Just like native speakers. The confusion of language was undone for the
sake of salvation and for unifying mankind in the name of Jesus.
When
some in the crowd tried to explain away this mighty miracle of the Spirit by
saying they were babbling because they had drank too much, well… Peter took to
the pulpit and began to preach and set things right.
There
was no doubt that day that the Spirit was present in Peter's preaching as he
charged the Jews with guilt in Christ's suffering and death and yet showed how
by the Father's eternal plan the death of Christ was overturned and He was
raised and exalted to the Father's right hand, as the one who pours out the
Spirit.
By
the time Peter was through, the crowds were in a panic. The Spirit's witness had convicted them. You heard part of Peter’s sermon in our reading
from Acts. But a little further on we
hear the result of Peter’s preaching:
“Now when they heard this,
they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,
'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'"
Peter's
answer is one of the most comforting words of all Scripture. He doesn't give them a list of to-dos they need
to perform before God will forgive them.
No.
Listen:
"Then Peter said to
them, 'Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins; and YOU will receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit. For the promise is to you and to
your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will
call." (Acts 2:38-39)
That's
it. Turn, he says, toward the Lord and
receive what He wants to give you in the waters of baptism: forgiveness and the
Holy Spirit. Peter lets them know that
this gift isn't just for some of them, but for all. "Let everyone of you be baptized"
he says. "The promise is for you and for your children" he says.
And
no less than 3,000 took him up on the invitation on Pentecost Day. They ended up in the water, where their sins
were washed away and the Spirit of God was given to them.
So
even though on Pentecost morning the Holy Spirit arrived with a mighty rushing
wind and what seemed to be fireworks, by the afternoon He was entering people’s
lives in a far less spectacular way, in fact in what became the ordinary way:
through Holy Baptism. In other words, only
some of the people got the pyrotechnic display of the wind and fire; but 3,000
received the exact same Spirit with the splash of water and the power of the
Word. Just like you received the Holy
Spirit; just like I received the Holy Spirit.
Now,
do you realize what that means? It means
the day you were baptized was your personal Pentecost. It was the day that your life was turned
around. It was the day that the
forgiveness which Christ won on His cross for the whole world was given to you
as your very own. It was the day that
the Holy Spirit Himself was poured into your life by the Risen and Ascended
Lord. The Holy Spirit has been given to
you. He is a complete and total gift!
That's
why we are filled with joy on this day.
To us who could never believe on our own, never come to faith in Jesus
by all our struggling and striving, to us our Risen and Ascended Lord has sent
a Helper!
He
has sent the One who not only gives faith, but keeps us in faith, and
strengthens that faith until our last hour comes. And then our Helper will not leave us. No way.
He will sustain us through death and bring us with Christ into the life
that never ends.
He
will be the one who raises our bodies from the dead and transfigures them –
“the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come!” That's the Holy Spirit's work!
Dear
friends, what all of this means is this: the Spirit poured out upon the chosen Apostles
on this day landed on YOU too. It
happened in your Baptism (just as it did for the 3,000)! Your Baptism is your personal Pentecost. But there is even more.
Jesus
Christ doesn’t just pour out His Spirit once and that’s it. Not at all.
A couple chapters after our second reading today, Luke records that the
house where they were gathered was shaken and the Spirit descended afresh on
the same apostles.
You
receive the Holy Spirit and all of Him and yet there is always more. Your Lord wants to keep pouring the Spirit
into you. Not just through your Baptism,
but through your hearing of the Word (where He is always at work to strengthen
your faith) and through the Supper, where by the Spirit’s power Christ feeds
you with His body and blood, constantly renewing the forgiveness of sins.
Because
the Spirit is the gift Christ keeps on giving us, the holy Church rejoices this
day to cry out over and over again – in hymns and prayers to the Blessed Third
Person of the Trinity.
In
the name of Jesus: Amen.
The sermon is indebted to Rev. Joshua Reimche from Our Savior Lutheran Church of Bottineau, ND.
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