Sermon - Pentecost 2021 - John 14:23-31

"Pentecost Sermon" by Gebhard Fugel, 1863-1939

 A blessed feast of Pentecost to you my friends in Christ! The word pentecost means very simply the “fiftieth” day after Easter. Today, the 50th day after Easter, we celebrate that the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles as tongues of fire, because the Spirit put into their mouths fiery tongues, which boldly preached of Jesus Christ in various languages as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Pentecost was an exciting and thrilling day! Seeing the change within the Apostles after receiving the Spirit is remarkable! Previously these men were cowards. They’d been hiding in a house for fear of the Jews. Peter, the one who had spoken that mighty confession that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, was even a coward at Jesus’ trial. When he was confronted by a servant girl, he denied any acquaintance with Jesus. Peter, a grown man, was terrified of speaking the truth in front of a little servant girl! But now having received the Spirit, Peter and all the apostles were bold in the faith!

They stood up in the public marketplace and began preaching of Jesus Christ! Not everyone was a fan of what they said; some mocked and ridiculed them. The apostles were accused of being crazy drunks, the kind of drunks that are drunk by 9am! Peter and the Apostles didn’t shy away from speaking, even when they were ridiculed, but they lifted up their voices all the more! 

Peter preached a powerful sermon. He rebuked those who ridiculed him, and then He preached of Jesus Christ. He even accused those in front of him of killing Jesus who is Christ the Lord. Peter concluded his sermon saying: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 

Peter, now emboldened by the Spirit, stood up, declared Jesus to be God and Lord who had risen from the dead, and called the people to repentance. How did the people respond? They could’ve decided to stone him, but instead the Spirit worked repentance in their hearts. “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

That’s the excitement of Pentecost! The preachers preach God’s Word with all boldness, and the hearers receive it with repentance! The excitement of Pentecost is not over, it didn’t end on that 50th day after Easter, but it continues even now. We continue to live in the season of Pentecost. Pentecost becomes new among us when the Spirit gives us boldness of faith. 

Friends, we have every reason to be bold in the faith because Jesus has given us this promise: “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. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” What a glorious promise! The Father Himself loves us! He comes to us and makes His home with us! He, by the working of the Spirit, dwells within us and makes our hearts His home.

Who among us doesn’t desire to be loved by God and to have Him dwell among us! That’s heaven! Truly, heaven is to be with God, and here Jesus has given us that promise of heaven. So let us love the Lord our God, let us long for and desire His presence and power in our lives. Let us long for heaven.

How is it that we love the Lord our God? By keeping His Word. Of course, by our own powers, we cannot love the Lord nor keep His Word. So thank heavens, we live in the season of Pentecost, and have received the Holy Spirit. Like the great crowd Peter preached to, we’ve received the Word, we’ve repented of our sins, we’ve been baptized for the forgiveness of our sins, and we’ve received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

What does the Holy Spirit give us? “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Peace and boldness are gifts of the Spirit. When the Spirit gives us faith, we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we believe in Him who was crucified, risen, and ascended. We believe that by His death and resurrection we are forgiven our guilt of sin, and that by His ascension we shall ascend to heaven with Him. We believe that God is preserving us amidst this crooked generation and shall guard us from passing away with this world. When we believe and hope in these things, we have peace which the world cannot give us.

It’s a false misleading dream that we can have peace and security here on earth by means of worldly treasures. We labor and toil, we are so busy, because we are trying to gain some peace in this world. We want heaven and so we try to build our heaven here. But such an endeavor will always be fruitless. We may gain some worldly treasure and comfort, but it won’t last. Jesus on the other hand gives us peace and security which does last.

When all the world is trembling, Christ’s Church will stand firmly. Our heaven is not in this life but is found in the next. Heaven on earth is very fragile and so easy to lose because all it takes is one accident to ruin the whole thing. Heaven on earth can be destroyed by a little virus, a heart attack, losing a job, a storm, or an economic downturn. But our true heaven cannot be lost! Though all the universe be burned up our heaven shall endure! 

Faith in that reality and truth, given us by the Spirit, gives us peace. Because faith in the truth means that no matter how much we lose in this life, we cannot lose our true treasure and our true heaven. That calmness of heart and fearlessness is the true lasting peace given us by the Spirit. Having that peace through faith also gives us boldness.

This peace and boldness, as a gift of the Holy Spirit, is what enabled Peter to stand up in front of that massive crowd and speak the truth while they were ridiculing him. He could’ve lost everything in this life, they could’ve killed him, but he was at peace with that and so boldly preached. If had been too scared, and just went back home quietly; if he had never been bold and preached, then that great crowd of 3,000 people would’ve never believed the Gospel and would’ve died in their sins.

Dear people of God, the Holy Spirit has descended from heaven and rests upon you. Within your mouths the Spirit has planted a fiery tongue which cannot but speak the Gospel. You aren’t all pastors, but you are all Christians. To you, to every Christian, has been given the responsibility to love God by keeping His Word. What does that mean? First, it means that you observe His Word and gladly listen to it. Second, it means that you preserve it from error. Third, it means that you keep God’s word intact in your lives. By keeping God’s Word, the Holy Spirit will work and grow His church.

We live in a great time. Things are changing rapidly in our world, generally not in a good way. But this also means that we have an incredible opportunity! This is our shot to be faithful and bold, to keep God’s word with zeal and enthusiasm, and to show the world that we have peace which they so desperately want but can’t find! 

Now is the time to be unapologetically Lutheran in what we believe and in how we live. The world is already ridiculing us and Christ has already overcome the world, so we have nothing to lose and everything to gain! We have the Spirit, we have God’s Word, God loves us and dwells among us, we have peace and boldness, and the devil has no claim on us. Let us do what the Father has commanded us, let us keep God’s Word, so that the world may know that we love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.