In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

The Third Sunday of Easter (2011) (Mother’s Day)

The Miracle of Pentecost Rev. Toby Byrd

Acts 2:38-39 (ESV)

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. [39] 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."

Today the world celebrates Mother’s Day. From one side of the earth to the other, families are celebrating living, growing, and being nurtured in loving homes with moms who willing give of themselves to ensure their loved ones are bathed in their affection and warmth. Moms such as these naturally make their children feel safe and protected from the dangers of the world. However, there is another place where this same affection and warmth can also be found; that is within the Body of Christ, the Church. Church families are made up of brothers and sisters in Christ who led by the Holy Spirit are nurtured with the love of Christ and bathed in His affection and warmth for eternity in His heavenly home. To be the recipient of a mother’s love is extraordinary, but to be the recipient of both loves; moms and Jesus’ is nothing short of a miraculous.

On this mother’s day we are six Sunday’s away from celebrating Pentecost; however, today’s Reading from the Acts of the Apostles places us with St. Peter as he addresses the men of Jerusalem on that first Christian Pentecost; a day filled with the outpouring of God’s love upon the world. Following our Lord’s command, St. Peter steps forward and boldly testifies concerning Jesus; telling these men that He was both Lord and Christ and that it was their indifference to this truth that led to His crucifixion. Thus these men were guilty of killing the Lord. Convicted of their sin through the preaching of St. Peter, the men of Jerusalem ask, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (v. 37).

Alarmed that it was their sin that had led to the death of an innocent man; and not just any ordinary man, but the promised Messiah, these men of Jerusalem are beside themselves with grief. Their hearts are cut to the quick by St. Peter’s words and they have no remedy for their situation. Thus they beg him, tell us what we should do. Where does the answer lie?

To understand St. Peter answer we must go back a little earlier in the day to the morning of that first Christian Pentecost and review what happened to the apostles as they waited for the promised Helper (John 14:26 ESV). St. Luke tells us, “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4 ESV). Herein lays the beginning of what would transpire on this day. It’s not the rushing wind or the tongues of fire, but the filling of each apostle by the Holy Spirit that is of great importance. For in this filling our Lord Jesus kept His promise to send the Helper who would lead the apostles in bearing witness of our Lord, Jesus Christ (John 15:26 ESV). Their witness would convict men of their sin and open men’s hearts and minds to God’s answer for reconciliation and pardon; faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin.

Think of the overwhelming challenge that has been given to these apostles. At His ascension to the right hand of God, Jesus told them to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19 ESV). Convert the world! How could this be, they were so very few? Beside, they were only ordinary men with ordinary abilities, including ordinary weaknesses and sins. Hadn’t they failed the Lord in the past? Weren’t they certain to fail Him in the future? However, this was a new day, the Lord had ascended into heaven and they were on their own, but they were no longer ordinary men, something miraculous had happened, they had been changed; they had been filled with the Holy Spirit. Now there was courage and strength where before there had been cowardice and weakness. Now there was a spiritual understanding and mature faith where before there had been doubts and uncertainty.

Thus on this day St. Peter is an excellent example of this new-found courage and strength. St. Peter, on this first Christian Pentecost, is so much different than he was just a few weeks earlier when he shamelessly denied the Lord three times. On this day we find him standing before a large crowd of strange men in Jerusalem, proclaiming the resurrection of the crucified Christ with courage and conviction. In fact, on this day no less than 3,000 souls are converted and made members of the Body of Christ through baptism. Without question the Holy Spirit was working through Peter and the others to ensure a good beginning to our Lord’s command to “make disciples of all nations.”

This first Christian Pentecost was only the beginning. Filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, these apostles followed the command of Jesus and they went everywhere, fearlessly proclaiming the saving Gospel to a lost and condemned world. Nothing could stop them, not even persecution or death. They set out to turn the world upside down for Jesus, and they did it. By the power of the Holy Spirit, twelve men became a multitude; first thousands, then millions, and today billions throughout the world have eagerly received the call to faith to rely on the saving work of our Lord, Jesus Christ for their salvation. However, the enthusiasm of the apostles has not always been the history of God’s church.

From the beginning, God had established His Church as an oasis of love, but the first priest of the Church, Adam, fell into sin and corrupted man for all times. Despite this betrayal of His love, God’s love never wavered. Time and again, through the centuries, God provided for His people, showering them with His love, but man, corrupted by sin, constantly rejected God’s love. Then, on that first Christian Pentecost, God performed a miracle. Through the Holy Spirit inspired efforts of twelve men, God reformed His church turning it from a religion based on Law and works to a Holy Church who rightly taught that a sinner is saved solely by faith in the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ and not by the feeble attempts of men to save themselves. However, because all men are sinners man corrupted God’s Church once again. Then, as He had done in the past, God called upon men, whom He filled with the Holy Spirit, to reform His church once again. The Reformation led by Martin Luther and the theologians who followed him focused once again on the truth of that first Christian Pentecost, that man’s justification before God was accomplished solely by the efforts of Jesus Christ. Once again, from all appearances, the condition of the church today needs a rebirth of that power, zeal, and energy the Holy Spirit gave the Church on that first Christian Pentecost; the church needs a Holy Spirit led Reformation so it can return to Christian orthodoxy.

Although St. Paul warns the church time and again against following false teachers, he also says that it is really inevitable that it will happen. Writing to Timothy, St. Paul said, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Tim. 4:3 ESV). Teachers who engage in myths and speculations abound within the church today. Such teachers create false hope, or worse, they teach the people to be listless and indifferent to God’s Word, much like the condition of the church which sat by idly as the Messiah was brutally killed on Calvary’s Cross.

After having been on the receiving end of God’s mercy for all these centuries, the church has grown fat and complacent, and sadly, pretty satisfied with the way things are. The current attitude of many congregations seems to offer the maximum amount of spiritual security with a minimum amount of effort. Congregations today, are all too eager to embrace secular values, incorporating them into their worship structure, even creating false doctrine in order to turn God into the image of man. This is more than simple complacency and indifference; instead, it is out-and-out opposition to the Gospel. The church needs to be shaken out of its easy, comfortable, soul destroying rut that’s it’s made for itself. It needs to be aroused and fired with a new zeal. It needs a rebirth of the Spirit of God, who will fill it with the same power and courage and burning conviction which filled the apostles. The church needs the Miracle of Pentecost once again.

Happily, for the saints here at Grace and for the church worldwide, the promise of our text is that the power of Pentecost is not just something of the past; it is a reality of the present. St. Peter, in responding to the question of the men of Jerusalem, who ask, “Brothers, what shall we do?” tells them to “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” (vv. 38-39).

This is indeed great news, people can receive the Holy Spirit and have their sins forgiven, but how does it happen? How does the Holy Spirit come into the lives of people? First, we need only listen to the words of St. Peter; the Holy Spirit comes to us through the waters of Baptism. From the very first moment of your Baptism, God begins to make you a new person. As the waters of Baptism pour over you, God pours His grace and the Holy Spirit into your heart. Immediately, the Holy Spirit begins the process of sanctification, slaying your old nature and sin, preparing you for death and the resurrection on the Last Day by giving you the gift of faith; creating in you a new spiritual life with the power to overcome sin. Moreover, this miraculous gift is given to everyone who is baptized; including infants. The Holy Spirit also comes to us through Word and Sacrament, the means of Grace. The Holy Spirit calls us through the Gospel inviting us to partake of the spiritual blessings of Christ, thereby converting and regenerating us to believe in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. Therefore, every time you read Holy Scripture, join in worship, or bow your head in prayer, you are experiencing a Pentecost moment; the Holy Spirit is at work in you filling you with the same faith and courage that He gave to the apostles on that first Christian Pentecost.

Just as He did for the apostles, something miraculous now happens to you, you are changed; you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Spirit, you now have His courage and strength to overcome your meekness and timidity. You are given a spiritual understanding you never had before and your faith matures, giving you confidence to overcome your doubts and uncertainty, emboldening you to follow the lead of the apostles to go and make disciples of every nation by bringing your neighbor and friends to church where they, too, may eagerly receive the call to faith and rely on the saving work of our Lord, Jesus Christ for their salvation. This is the Miracle of Pentecost; this is the miracle of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.