Pentecost, 2024

Rev. Thomas Van Hemert

Acts 2:1-21

Pentecost

May 19, 2024

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

When God gave the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, He said, “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at year’s end. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year” (Exodus 34:21-24).

There are three major feasts that the Old Testament Israelites were to observe: Passover, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Booths, and the Feast of Weeks. The Feast of Weeks fell exactly seven weeks after the Passover. It was observed as a festival of thanksgiving for the completed harvest, when two loaves, made from the wheat of the harvest that was first gathered, were offered to the Lord. However, it also marked the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai and thus, the institution of the Old Testament Church. This is important to notice. Because the Feast of Weeks was also called Pentecost.

Here we are, seven weeks after Easter, the Resurrection of our Lord when He passed over from death to life. Today is Pentecost. The same day the Israelites celebrated and remembered the giving of the Law on Sinai, we celebrate the sending of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus says, “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 which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.” Even still to this day, we are privileged and blessed to be able to hear this very word—the Father’s word—because that word, His word is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So shall God’s word not return to Him empty, but it shall accomplish that which He purposes, and it will succeed in the thing for which He sent it.

So if you love Jesus, you keep His word. That is, you obey His Commandments. You believe in Him and have faith in His name. Therefore, the Father loves you. And God Himself will make his dwelling within you. This can only happen if you are part of the Church—the place where God’s word is taught in its truth and purity and where God’s Sacraments are rightly administered. Because through these things, through these means, the Holy Spirit is given and faith is kindled within you.

On this Day of Pentecost, what we’re also doing, even though it’s something that often falls to the backburner, is celebrating the birth of the Church. This happened at Pentecost. The Church came into being when the Disciples were all with one accord in one place. Suddenly a sound came from heaven and it filled the whole place. Then divided tongues as of fire sat upon each of them. And as they were filled with the Holy Spirit, each one began to speak with other tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them the ability to do so. So we see the time and place where the Church is established. Believers, Christians, the followers of Jesus were all together in one place. No one was missing. Everyone was together. It was time for the Holy Spirit to come dwell among them. They all shared the same faith. They all believed that Jesus was crucified for their sins and raised from the dead for their justification. This takes place Jesus’ Ascension, where He told them He would send them the Holy Spirit.

The manner in which this happens is impressive. The Holy Spirit is often compared to fire. The Holy Spirit warms the cold and chilly heart. The Holy Spirit lightens men’s darkness, softens men’s hardness of heart, burns away men’s dross, and kindles faith and livens that which was spiritually dead. So of course, He comes as fire and stands upon the heads of the disciples. There is one fire but many tongues, many tongues but one fire. There is one Holy Spirit who is sent from the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit does not come to force us to do anything, as if we could not resist Him. We can resist the calling of the Holy Spirit to faith in Jesus. He can be rejected. And so He comes not to force us, but to persuade us through actual things we can such as language—when He allowed the disciples to speak in tongues. He came and appeared as tongues to persuade. He persuades not by human eloquence, but by divine inspiration.

This was a supernatural event—the sound coming from heaven as a mighty rushing wind, filling the whole house where they were sitting, the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. The division of languages is, in a sense, the punishment for the sin at Babel. But now all are together, in one place, hearing in their own language the mighty works of God. This is because the Church is made up of believers of all races, languages, and nations. There is no longer division between Jew and Gentile. Ancient Hebrew is no longer the required liturgical language. Believers all around the world now gather together in their own places of worship and hear the Gospel proclaimed to them in German, English, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian and the like. And yet, just as a body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body are many, they are part of the one body, so it is with Jesus. For by the Holy Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, which includes Jews, Gentiles, slaves, free and the like. And all were made to drink of the one Spirit. The Gospel addresses man as man. The Gospel tells us of a universal need, a universal grace, and of how peoples of all races, languages, and nations have this need for grace, which of course, was won by Christ for all, and delivered to us by the Holy Spirit.

No doubt, Martin Luther had in mind much of what St. Paul wrote about the work of the Holy Spirit when he was writing his Small Catechism. In his explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed, Luther explains this concerning the work of the Holy Spirit, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.        In the same way, He calls gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.    In this Christian church, He daily and richly forgives all my sin and the sins of all believers.         On the Last Day, He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.” So it is the Holy Spirit alone that brings us in to this church, into this saving faith. It also is the Holy Spirit alone that keeps us in this faith and, in fact, will even do so through death. Because it’s the Holy Spirit Who will raise us up on the Last Day and give eternal life to all who believe in Christ.

Give thanks and praise to God this day that we have the Holy Spirit now dwelling in us, given to us in our Baptisms, and Who keeps forgiving all of our sins.

Speaking in Tongues

At the risk of taking too long, I do want to address the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift given by the Holy Spirit, which is the ability for someone who has no prior knowledge of a real language to spontaneously speak and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in that language.

The act of speaking in tongues is not “feeling an emotional, spiritual high,” flopping around on the floor, and speaking gibberish. Speaking in tongues is actually speaking a real, worldly language to those who can understand it. St. Paul says that there needs to be an interpreter for the one speaking to make sure it’s truly speaking in tongues, which, in my mind, means it needs to be spoken to those who understand. This is precisely why those who heard the disciples speaking in tongues on the Day of Pentecost said, “Are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born—which means real languages. Parthians, and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own language the wonderful works of God.”

So what this would look like in our day, is if we had visitors from another country here at church and all of a sudden I, who have no knowledge of the Russian language would spontaneously proclaim the Gospel in Russian to Russians, or Swahili to an African, or Mandarin to a Chinese or something like that, for the sake of proclaiming the Gospel.

Speaking in tongues is not to be understood as something someone must do to prove that he has the Holy Spirit or to prove that he’s a Christian. In fact, there is no promise that God has given that I or anyone will be able to do that or will be given that gift. It seems to me that this spiritual gift has been ceased to have been given after the New Testament Church was established because God has promised to come to us and dwell among us in other ways, such as through His Word and in the Sacraments. That’s where we look. That’s what we hold on to as true and faithful. That’s what God has actually promised us.

He has sent us His Holy Spirit to quicken faith in us by means of the Word, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the Absolution. This is what He has promised.

In +Jesus’ name.