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In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Saints, and especially to the dear confirmands, I want to see if I can find you. Ashley, Christian, Allie, I think I saw, there’s Allie. Bailey, I’m preaching to you guys, there’s Bailey. Kay, I saw Kay. Caroline, and you, Yang.
We rejoice together with you that you will confess the Lord’s name and join us at the Lord’s altar for the great gift of his body and blood, and we most especially this day thank God the Holy Spirit for doing this work in us.
It’s on Pentecost that we remember that the Holy Spirit is living and active, that we confess that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or come to him, but the Holy Spirit calls us, gathers us, enlightens us, sanctifies us, and keeps us in the true faith. The Holy Spirit is the one who cracks open our cold hearts, who makes them hearts of flesh that believe and trust in the Lord’s Word. It’s the Holy Spirit who calls us forth from the grave, from death to life, first spiritually in this life, and then on the last day when He’ll raise all flesh, like we heard in the story of Ezekiel, and give us a life that never ends.
We thank God that we are part of the Holy Spirit’s work. In fact, it’s today on Pentecost that we especially think about this, the third article of the Apostles Creed, where we confess the Holy Spirit, and I think it’s important to remember that the Holy Spirit is, that those six things that we confess in the sixth articles are not just sort of the grab bag of things to add on to the end of what we believe. I believe in the Holy Spirit, and also the church, and the communion of saints, and the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection, no, all of that is a description of the work of the Holy Spirit.
So we could say it like this: I believe in the Holy Spirit who creates and sustains the Holy Christian Church, which is nothing else than the communion of saints made holy by the Holy Spirit through the forgiveness of sins. And that same Holy Spirit will, on the last day, give to me and all the dead the resurrection of the body and bring me and all believers in Christ to an everlasting life. We give thanks to God for the Holy Spirit.
And realize that everything in our lives, especially in the church, but in all of our lives, everything is the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s easy for us to forget this. In fact, I think, and we’re going to talk about this a little bit, in fact there’s three things that I want to talk about in the sermon today. I want to talk about the boldness of Pentecost. I want to talk about the right versus the wrong idea of the Holy Spirit. I want to talk about, most especially, what Jesus says the threefold work of the Holy Spirit is.
But we want to remember that all of the benefits that the Lord Jesus brings to us, that God the Father gives to us, all of these come through the Spirit. There’s this line in Luther, he says it in the large catechism, he says it in a couple of places, and every time I read it I’m kind of shocked by it, because it is, well, because it’s shocking. I guess that’s what you do when you read something shocking. Luther says the death of Jesus would be no benefit at all to us if it weren’t for the work of the Holy Spirit. The resurrection of Jesus would be no benefit at all to us if it were not for the work of the Holy Spirit because it’s God the Holy Spirit who brings what Christ has done and what he has accomplished, and he presses that into our ears and into our hearts and into our consciences and into our lives and gives us faith to believe it so that our salvation and our hope and our faith and our life and the forgiveness of sins is all because God the Holy Spirit is doing His work.
In fact, this is behind the thanksgiving and the joy that runs through the church. Whenever Paul starts writing one of his letters, he begins with this, thanks to God. Why? Because people are reading the letters that he wrote. I think that’s really what it is. And Paul realizes that if the Holy Spirit didn’t do his work, there would be no one who would believe. No one would come to church. Not only would people not have the opportunity to fall asleep in the middle of the sermon because they wouldn’t even come to listen to the sermon, but they want nothing to do with the gifts and the works of God. So that, even that is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Even if you just wandered in here off the street and you’re a little bit curious about what happens in the church, that’s the Holy Spirit who is drawing us all to Himself, to His life, to His joy, to His peace, and giving us boldness to confess.
That’s part one. But remember, and really quickly, on the story of Pentecost, because we’re here today on the 1,991st anniversary of this first event when the disciples were in the upper room and the Holy Spirit came upon them, remember, the reason why they were in the upper room was because they were afraid. It starts when you read the end of the Gospels and the beginning of the book of Acts. They’re always, even after the death of Jesus, even after the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples are afraid that the same people who arrested Jesus were going to arrest them, that the same thing that happened to Jesus was going to happen to them. They’re afraid until the promise is kept. Jesus says, I will send the Holy Spirit, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And it happened.
On that first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down, and the disciples just almost, it seems like they tumble over themselves to get out of the room so that they can begin preaching. And all the people who were gathered into Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost start hearing them preach in all these different languages. I mean, from every corner of the world, the list goes all the way west, east, north, south. Everybody was there, and they’re all hearing them preach the marvelous works of God in their own languages. And some of them are listening, they’re marveled. This must be a miracle. Others are listening, and they say, what’s wrong with these guys? They must be drunk.
And Peter answers that accusation and says they’re not drunk, it’s only 9 in the morning. This is the prophecy of the Holy Spirit from Joel chapter 2, that on the last days I’ll pour out my spirit on all flesh—young and old, maidservants, manservants—all will dream dreams and have visions and see the counsel of God and know the will of God from the least to the greatest. This is the gift of the Holy Spirit, and Peter continues to preach with that power, and this is the point, unafraid of anything.
The Holy Spirit, and this is one of the works that the Holy Spirit does in our own hearts, that the Holy Spirit is doing in our hearts right now as we consider this text on Pentecost, is the Holy Spirit is freeing us from the fear of the world and our own flesh and giving us a boldness to confess His name, no matter the consequences. I mean, the consequences for the Apostles were dire. We have them in the windows. We’ve talked about it just recently how they were crucified upside down and had their heads cut off and were speared to death and were boiled and had their skin cut off. I mean, all sorts of terrible things happened to them. It didn’t matter because they knew that Jesus had rescued them.
The Holy Spirit had pressed the benefit of the death and resurrection into their hearts and into their minds just like he does for us. This confidence that God is not mad at you, this confidence that the Son of God has saved you, this confidence that heaven is open and you will live forever because of all the things that the Lord has done, and that gives us a boldness that the devil and the world cannot take away.
Now that’s the first part, but it’s related to the second part because I want to also talk about how do we rightly understand the work of the Holy Spirit. And I think this is important because I’ve heard this accusation before, and I don’t know if you’ve heard it from your friends if they’re evangelical or Baptist or maybe especially if they’re Pentecostal or charismatic, if you’ve heard this accusation that the Lutherans never talk about the Holy Spirit. I remember hearing that before I went to seminary. I remember hearing it in seminary. I hear it all the time now that the Lutherans don’t talk enough about the Holy Spirit.
And you know what the normal answer is? Well, the Holy Spirit doesn’t talk that much about the Holy Spirit, which is kind of a trick, but I suppose there’s some truth to it because the Holy Spirit’s job is not to hold himself forward but rather to hold forth Christ. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will teach you everything that I’ve taught you. He will give you all the gifts that I have because the Father has given them to me. In other words, as I heard one preacher say one time, the Holy Spirit is the shy person of the Holy Trinity. He never puts himself forward. He’s always putting the Father, and most especially, He’s putting Jesus forward.
And that’s true. We come to church to hear about Christ, but it is the Holy Spirit who brings us Christ. And here is where I think there’s a little bit of truth to the accusation that the Lutherans don’t speak enough about the Holy Spirit. I think we need to speak more about the Holy Spirit. I think I need to preach more about the Holy Spirit. But there’s a hesitancy, and I think the hesitancy has to do with the reputation of the Holy Spirit in the church today.
The reputation of the Holy Spirit has mostly been shaped by the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches who want to teach all the time that what the Holy Spirit does is cause people to lose their minds. You’ve seen it. I mean, it’s really bad when you watch TV and you see the kind of faith, like Benny Hinn, you know, like swinging his jacket around, knocking people over and breathing on them and people are falling on their faces and barking like dogs and all this crazy stuff. But it’s even, it’s just, it’s not that, you don’t even have to go that far. It’s this idea that the Holy Spirit works in spontaneity. In fact, you know, some people will come and visit the liturgy and they’ll say, well obviously you don’t have a spiritual form of worship because you pray prayers that are written down, because you read a sermon that’s written down, because you follow a book that’s printed, and so it’s not spontaneous, and so it’s not spiritual, as if the fruit of the Spirit—and this is the idea—it’s as if the fruit of the Spirit is causing you in one way or another to lose control or to enter into some sort of disorder.
I was remembering this morning, I told the story of when Carrie and I, back in the old evangelical days, we were at a house, we had a Bible study and a prayer group, and we were sitting around, and one of the ladies who was, or girls who were part of the group, she kind of rushes in one night, and we’re all sitting around, and she comes in with this guy we’d never seen before, and she said, this is, this guy, introduced him. Said, we met yesterday, we started dating, we decided we’re gonna get married, we’re getting married tomorrow, and off they went. And we were like, whoa, that’s fast.
And I remember someone said, well, it must be the Holy Spirit. Now think about that, isn’t that interesting? In other words, if something is like wildly irrational, that’s the Spirit’s fault. If something is not planned, it’s the Spirit’s work. If something is spontaneous, that’s an indication that the Spirit is there. And this shows up to us in this question. People ask me all the time, are Lutherans cessationists? Do you know this word cessationism? It’s a technical theological term, and it means that the signed gifts that belong to the early church, like the gifts of prophecy, the gift of direct knowledge by the Holy Spirit, the gift of tongues, the gift of public miracles, all of those gifts, do they continue in the church or have they stopped in the church?
But here’s the problem with that question. There’s an assumption with that question, is that what is happening in the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches is just like what was happening in the early church, and they say those things are still happening, and we say those things stop happening, and you realize that the question is in fact a trick, because those things that are happening now in the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches are not what was happening in the early church. We don’t believe that those gifts stopped, because we believe those gifts never started. We believe what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, and namely this, that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and self-control. That the Holy Spirit is present not in losing control of yourself, but the Holy Spirit gives us control of ourselves.
Paul says it like this to the Corinthians, the Spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. And again, talking to the Corinthians, which were kind of wildly disordered, he said, God is not a God of disorder, but a God of order. So we can—and you see, this is the problem. It’s like—I was thinking about it between services—it’s like if you’ve heard of a person, and you haven’t ever met that person, but your friends are telling you about that person, and they say, oh man, they’re really bad, they’re crazy, they’re always doing all sorts of wild stuff, and you’re a little bit nervous to meet that person, because you’ve heard of their reputation. I think that’s how we are with the Holy Spirit. We’ve heard that the Holy Spirit is wild and crazy, and so we’re like, I’m not sure I want to spend that much time with the Holy Spirit.
This is wrong. The Holy Spirit comes along with God’s gift of calling, of vocation, and of order. The Holy Spirit comes to strengthen us in those callings that the Lord has done. The Holy Spirit comes, and he doesn’t take away control. He gives self-control. That’s the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So that if you’re talking in a language that you don’t know and it’s not even a real human language, that is not the gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s not the gift of tongues, remember? They were preaching in languages that the people knew and understood. That’s why Paul says if there’s anyone speaking in tongues then someone needs to interpret, because it’s not some sort of disordered thing but a very orderly thing.
And that’s why when we put a pastor into the office, we put the church in red with banners like it is today, and we call them up and we pray for the Holy Spirit because we say, you now have an office. God has ordered it, and now you need the gift of the Holy Spirit for strength to live in the office. It’s the reason why when you comfort mans are coming up here and you’re going to confess your faith that we’ll lay our hands on you and pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit so that the Lord will give you strength to fulfill your calling as a public confessor of the faith. It’s the same reason we lay our hands on the children who are being baptized and the parents and the godparents and bless them for the work that God has called them to do in the ordering of His church.
And it’s why I’ve talked to the elders about we need to have another blessing when the kids become teenagers and lay our hands on the parents then for the work of the calling that the Lord has given to you. When Sam and Audrey are here at the altar next Sunday afternoon and we’ll lay our hands on them and pray for the Holy Spirit, because the Lord is putting them into an office, into His ordered office of husband and wife, and we will rejoice in that and know that we can’t do it on our own, but that the Holy Spirit comes to support us in our callings.
And for this reason, we need to speak much more about the Holy Spirit, because if we are trying to do the works that the Lord has called us to do by our own strength or with our own resources, apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit, it’ll all come to nothing. It’ll all fall apart. It’ll all end up worse than it started. So we need to pray daily and constantly for the Lord to fill us with the Holy Spirit, trusting this promise from Jesus. Remember what he says in Luke 11, after he teaches the disciples to pray the Lord’s prayer, he says, the Father will give the Holy Spirit to all who ask.
So if you don’t hear anything else, just take this home with you. The Father always answers this prayer, Lord send me your spirit. And the Holy Spirit comes to give you strength and perseverance and endurance and wisdom for the tasks that the Lord has called us to.
Now the third and quick thing, what is the chief work of the Holy Spirit? This beautifully Jesus outlines for us in the text that you heard read from John 16. He says, I’ll send the Holy Spirit and He will convict the world of three things: sin and righteousness and judgment.
Now, this is the main work of the Holy Spirit, and that is to reveal to us the wisdom of God which we can otherwise never attain. So there are three things that you cannot know apart from the Holy Spirit. But when the Holy Spirit is working, you know these things. And the first thing is sin. Now, you can know that you’re a sinner and that you’ve made mistakes, but you cannot know the depth of your sin, and you cannot know how bad your sin is to God in heaven.
So the Holy Spirit has to come and convict you of the depth of your sin and God’s anger over your sin. He will convict the world of sin because they haven’t believed in me. If you know that you’re a sinner that’s deserved God’s wrath, that’s because the Holy Spirit has taught that to you. The second thing the Holy Spirit comes to reveal is righteousness. And this is the confidence that God, the Son, has carried all of your sins and sorrows and forgives you all of your sins.
That you are declared righteous by God and holy. You can’t know it any other way than by the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit comes to convict you or to convince you of this truth, that all of your sins are in fact forgiven. All of them are died for. All of them are covered. All of them are forgotten. All of them are cast into the depth of the sea. All of them are divided as far as the east is from the west. Even if your sins be as scarlet, the Lord will make them as white as snow, for Jesus is the Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world, and that includes yours. Your sins are forgiven. That also is the work of the Holy Spirit.
And then the third thing that the Holy Spirit teaches us that we can’t otherwise know, Jesus says it like this: it is judgment. And this at first seems scary to us because you hear the word judgment and automatically your conscience says, yeah, I deserve to be judged. But here’s the thing that the Holy Spirit wants to teach us—remember how Jesus says it? He will convict the world of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.
Now what that means is this: the Holy Spirit does this work in you by convincing you that the devil has no authority over you, that the devil has been judged, that the devil is defeated, that the devil, if you resist him, flees from you. I think that sometimes we think that we have to flee from the devil. That’s never commanded by the Scripture, in fact, the opposite. The Bible says that when we resist the devil, he, if you can believe it, runs from us. He’s been judged, he’s been condemned, and He will soon be destroyed.
So this is the work of the Holy Spirit, to teach us these three truths, to work in us, to love our neighbor, and to trust in God, and to give us boldness to confess His name no matter what the consequences. May God, the Holy Spirit, bring this work to completion in each of you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
