May 19, 2024 Acts 2:1-21 Series B Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loves you with his very life. Amen.
Today is Pentescost and this is an amazing day to have confirmation Sunday, to celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit in calling all to faith, as we celebrate today, The Spirit calling these three young men to faith. The church is dressed in red, remembering the fire that fell from heaven and dwelt over the heads of the apostles so that they would make bold confession of what they witnessed, of Jesus Christ dying on the cross and rising again for the forgiveness of our sins.
After Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for a little while until he sent them the Holy Spirit. Jesus wanted people to see the evidence of his presence and be comforted. God is powerful, and whenever the Lord would interact with his creation, especially with his crown of creation, humans, something extraordinary happens.
Acts 2 gives that long list of people gathered in Jerusalem from all over the Roman world. Why were they in Jerusalem in the first place? Pentecost was one of the major Jewish feasts, and people from all over the Jewish Diaspora would converge on Jerusalem to worship the Lord during this feast.
It's interesting that Pentecost was the occasion to thank God for the harvest of crops, especially wheat. The point of the feast was to emphasize that the Lord was the one who gave the ability to work. This is all laid out for us in Deut 8:. Additionally, the Jews reminded themselves that it was God who made crops to grow and yield the harvest, that the Lord was responsible for everything. Perhaps the Jews were tempted to view only the physical blessings on Pentecost, but God sent the Holy Spirit to focus on his desire to save the souls of people as well as the apostle Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2, "God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (see 1 Tim 2:4). A festival of harvest would now become a festival of God harvesting souls!
So the Holy Spirit gave to his small band of believers special abilities to speak in different languages. Obviously a remarkable miracle! These men of Galilee were able to speak their messages not only in the Greek language, which all those visitors to Jerusalem could already understand, but in the local "heart" languages of these people from all the various regions of the Roman Empire and beyond. An amazing miracle! How sweet for all those listeners! It's the part of the Pentecost story many remember best. It is important to note, that in our age of American Christianity, the focus of speaking in tongues isn’t about the person speaking. It’s about the people hearing, and most importantly, it’s about the Gospel of Jesus Christ being proclaimed to all people, of every tribe, culture, and language.
After hearing these languages, what were the reactions of the people? Some were amazed. But some started to mock that these Galileans were drunk. Peter, a disciple who had denied Christ three times to save his skin, now stood up courageously and defended these brothers by reminding all those gathered of the words spoken by the prophet Joel. God made the promise to pour out his Spirit on all people. Pentecost is the time when his promise was fulfilled. The Old Testament believers trusted that the Lord would follow through on what he said.
How is the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy relevant to us? The Holy Spirit continues to convert to faith people of all nations and continues to preserve people in the faith, just the way he did in the first century, with both Jews and Gentiles, males and females, slaves and free. These faithful people of God then carried out the "Great Commission" themselves; they truly became the witnesses of the love of Christ, and the Gospel of Christ was proclaimed in many places.
We are the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit done by the voices of those faithful Christians. Somehow the Gospel has reached our ears and hearts. We've heard what brought these first few believers together: Jesus-his death on the cross, his rising from the grave, that has taken away our sins. The Holy Spirit has ever since been announcing Christ crucified. That's the reason we now know Christ as our Savior. God's desire to save started from the beginning of time, and he's still at work. The Holy Spirit is strengthening our faith through the Gospel and Sacraments. The Word of God is the power of God for salvation to all who believe (Rom 1:16).
That same assurance then energizes us to be the people of Pentecost. As Paul says, "We are the jars of clay bearing the treasure" (see 2 Cor 4:7). The Lord uses people like us, sinful and weak, to speak the Gospel to others. How can we do this? It is the Holy Spirit living in us who is saving people, and he alone is enabling us to proclaim his Gospel.
And today, we celebrate the Holy Spirit again. God the Holy Spirit has called out to three young men in our conjugation. For the past years, they have been undergoing instruction, learning the stories of the Bible. Learning about God’s plan for salvation that started way back in Genesis and continues to God’s plan to save them, specifically them, from their sins. They learned the chief parts of the catechism. Yesterday they made a public confession of what they had learned and bore witness in front of one of our elders. They are ready to participate in all the rites, all the sacraments of the church and to receive from the LORD great and abundant mercy and blessings.
Which they know the need. Which we all know we need. During confirmation instruction we explored our sinfulness. And we explore what to do when we are burdened by sin. Whenever we are disappointed at our frailties and sins, we remember our gracious God, who sacrificed himself for us on the cross. He did not remain dead there but kept his promise by conquering death. And he has forgiven us. United himself to us in baptism. He speaks to us through his written word. He forgives us through the Lord’s Supper. And By his conquering power, given to us by the Holy Spirit, our God will accomplish his will through us, just the way those lowly Galileans became the proclaimers of the almighty God on Pentecost.
This will be the mission of the Church until that other day the prophet Joel foresaw, that Peter preached about on Pentecost: "The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day" (Acts 2:20).Jesus is coming back again. Our Lord Jesus Christ will come back to judge the living and the dead. Because of his sacrifice and forgiveness proclaimed to us at Pentecost, proclaimed by us since Pentecost we and countless others will welcome that Last Day with praises of Christ that will never end. Amen.
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