11 May 2008 St. Athanasius Lutheran Church
The Feast of Pentecost
“A Continuous
Outpouring”
Text: Acts
2:1-21; John 7:37-39; Numbers 11:24-30
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God
our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has kept His Word
and promise to send another Helper to be with us always. (Jn 14:16) A Helper to
teach us of Christ, and to give us Christ.
This Helper is the Spirit of the Lord Himself – the third person of the
Holy Trinity. The Spirit active at
creation, the Spirit that worked through Moses and the elders, the Spirit that
descended upon Jesus in His Baptism – is now given to all of God’s people, just
as Moses had wished. He is the Spirit of
wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and the fear of
the Lord. (Is
11:2) Truly, our Lord has withheld nothing from
us! For He who shed His blood for us now
gives us this gift also. Today His
Spirit is outpoured, to be with us forever.
We heard of this outpouring in the
reading from the book of Acts, and we heard of many things that happened that
day – signs that the Spirit had
come. But we must be careful not to
confuse the signs of the Spirit’s
coming with the work of the Spirit who
has come. For, yes, the signs were great
– but they were not the greatest miracle that happened that day. There was a mighty rushing wind, but God had
used such winds before – for example, to part the
And this something greater is what the
Spirit would now do through Peter and the eleven. For now, with the Spirit of the Lord poured
out upon them, no longer timid and frightened and confused, they stand and
preach, and through their preaching the words of the prophet Joel are fulfilled
– the Spirit of the Lord is poured out: on men and women, sons and daughters,
people of all ages and races – so that at the end of Peter’s sermon . . . there is the great miracle of
Pentecost! Three thousand souls believe
and are baptized (Acts
And so we celebrate the Day of Pentecost
today not just as an historical event, and not hoping to repeat the wind and
fire and tongues that happened at the first Pentecost – we celebrate because
the outpouring of the Spirit that began
on that day, continues among us still today.
That the prophet Joel’s promise is for us too! That through the preaching of the Gospel and
through the water of Holy Baptism, we too are given the Spirit of the Lord, and
we are joined to the church. For the church
is not our work, but the Spirit’s work.
The church is not something we join, but to which the Spirit calls us
and joins us. The church is the
gathering and miracle of the Spirit, which is still happening among us today,
and why we are here.
That is why we call the preaching of the
Word and the giving of the Sacraments the signs
(or marks) of the church today. They
are the visible signs today. For through the Word and the Sacraments, we
have the promise of the Spirit to come and to work. And
where the Spirit is, there is Christ, and there is the church. And the order is important. It’s not that we know where the church is
because the church does the marks! We
know where the church is because the marks do the church. The marks are the means through which the
Spirit is poured out upon us –
whether it is through the preaching and baptizing of Peter and the eleven, or
the preaching and baptizing of pastors today.
It is through the Word and the Sacraments that our crucified, risen, and
ascended Christ is still working among us today, sending His Spirit, forgiving
sins, giving faith, and giving life. We
have His promise, and so we can be sure.
And so we witnessed Pentecost today as
George was baptized. Our Lord fulfilled
His Word and made George His own, His son, through water and the Word. But some of you may be wondering why George
needed to be baptized at all. For, after
all, through the preaching of the Gospel the Spirit came to him, and he’s been
coming to our church . . . he’s a “believer,” so why baptize him? Why is this necessary? The answer is not just because Jesus
commanded baptism – that would be changing baptism from Gospel into Law! From a gift into an obligation! No, this Baptism was for George’s
benefit. For did George believe? Yes . .
. but . . . but how could he be sure
he believed enough? Or strong
enough? Or good enough? How could he be sure that his faith today
would be his faith tomorrow? He would be
constantly looking at himself and his heart, and trying to measure his faith
and basing the certainty of his salvation in himself. And how easy it is for the devil then to
cause us to doubt, when we fall into sin, when we are anxious or worried, that
we ever really believed at all. It was
just an illusion, a charade. Just a
wishful fantasy. See George, you’re no Christian!
You’re not good enough!
But today, George was baptized! Baptism is not something George did, but what
was done to him. Today, George did not
come to Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ came to George, sent His Spirit, and said you are mine. I
join you to my death and resurrection. I forgive you all your
sins. I make you my child. I give you a place in my
Heavenly home. And when Christ speaks
there is no doubt! And so George’s faith
is not in his faith, in the fact that he believes, but in the baptismal work of
Christ for him. And so when he sins,
when he falls into doubt and despair, when he is anxious or worried, when satan attacks and assails him, he is able to say not “But I believe . . . I think”, but “I am baptized! I am a child of God! My Saviour does not lie! I am His!”
And what wonderful confidence that gives
not only George, but all of us who have been baptized! Those three thousand baptized on the Day of
Pentecost, and you and me today.
Confidence. Certainty. Comfort.
That is the “living water” of which
Jesus spoke in the Holy Gospel. For when
we live by the Law – or in other words, when we live by looking at ourselves
and what we do and our own believing and our own efforts, we dry up. All our working and struggling to do and
believe right drives us to thirst – like working outside on a hot sunny
day. And what is worse, all our work
does not satisfy, does not give us what we’re looking for, but makes us thirst
. . . and the more we work the more we thirst! A vicious, unending, unsatisfying, demonic
cycle.
But to us who are oppressed and dying of
thirst, we have this promise: that Jesus
gives the living water of His Spirit. And
all who drink of this water will never thirst again (Jn
For Christ came and traded lives with
us. Or better to say, He came and took
our death and gave us His life. He came
and took the heat for us – the heat of the Law and its demands, the heat of our
sin and its punishment, the heat of our iniquity and guilt, Jesus took it all upon
Himself on the cross . . . and thirsted (Jn 19:28) . . . so that
by taking our place under the Law and into death, He could overwhelm them with His
flood of life. That in His resurrection,
He could pour out His life-giving Spirit upon us. And this He did – by handing over His Spirit
as He breathed His last (Jn
And now we are invited to eat the Body
and drink the Blood of the crucified one, who came to serve us with His death,
and now comes to serve us with Himself.
That as He lives we too may live.
That we who hunger and thirst for righteousness may be filled. That we who sin be forgiven. That the Holy Spirit continue His work in us
and join us to Christ. That we be
absolutely sure, that we live in Christ and that Christ lives in us. For the work is His, not ours. The Holy Spirit given and working in the
hearts of those on that first Pentecost, is the same Spirit given and working
to us and in us. Yes, the outpouring of
the Spirit continuing still today. Still
building His church. Still gathering and
washing and feeding children of God here today.
Come,
Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of
Your love. Alleluia!
(Introit)
In the name of the Father and of the +
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. Amen.