The Coming of the Holy Spirit: The Day of Pentecost May 27, 2012 at 8:00 a.m. & 10:30 a.m. May 30, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. Opening Hymn CW 177:1-4 Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest M: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. M: Come, Holy Spirit, renew our hearts C: and kindle in us the fire of your love. M: Beloved in the Lord: let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins to God our Father, asking him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness. All: I confess to God Almighty, before the whole company of heaven, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned in thought, word, and deed by my fault, by my own fault, by my own grievous fault; wherefore I pray God Almighty to have mercy on me, forgive all my sins, and bring me to everlasting life. M: The Lord is merciful and compassionate. God has heard and answered your prayer. He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been declared not guilty by his undeserved love, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying (Titus 3:4-8). Therefore, as a called servant of Christ and by his authority, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Hymn CW 183:1,3 Holy Spirit, Light Divine Vs 1 Vs 3 Holy Spirit, Light divine, Shine upon this heart of mine; Chase the gloom of night away; Turn the darkness into day. Holy Spirit, Joy divine, Cheer this saddened heart of mine; Fill me with your heav nly peace; Let it grow and still increase. M: The Lord be with you. C: And also with you. (spoken) M: Let us pray. Holy Spirit, God and Lord, come to us this joyful day with your sevenfold gift of grace. Rekindle in our hearts the holy fire of your love that in a true and living faith we may tell abroad the glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Father, one God, now and forever. 1
First Lesson Isaiah 44:1-6 But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. 2 This is what the LORD says he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. 5 One will say, I belong to the LORD ; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, The LORD s, and will take the name Israel. 6 This is what the LORD says Israel s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Hymn Response CW 177:5-6 Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest Second Lesson Acts 2:1-21 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues! 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, What does this mean? 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, They have had too much wine. 14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Psalm of the Day Psalm 51b (CW, page 87) Gospel John 14:25-27 25 All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Children s Sermon Hymn of the Day CW 186 O Spirit of Life, O Spirit of God 2
Sermon Isaiah 44:1-6 We Need the Holy Spirit Come, Holy Spirit, renew our hearts and kindle in us the fire of your love. Amen. Dear friends in Christ, Without it, we could not live. It is necessary for life. Yet, I know I don t often think about how important it is. We have been richly blessed with it and have easy access to it. Can you guess what it is? It s water of course. We need water. Without water our bodies will die. Water makes food grow. We are greatly blessed to live in a land where we have easy access to pure drinking water. We need water. But the same words I started with could also describe God the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we could not live spiritually, believe the true God and have eternal life. We have been richly blessed with wonderful access to where the Holy Spirit has told us He will come to us: in the Word the Bible, and in Baptism and Holy Communion, the Sacraments. Our first lesson tells us just as we need water, We Need the Holy Spirit. The words of our lesson were first written for God s believers living about 500 years before Jesus was born. This was a hard time for the people of Israel, God s Old Testament church. Most of the nation had turned its back on the true God. As a result, their enemies had defeated them and carried them hundreds of miles away from home into exile in the land of Babylon. Now things looked hopeless for the church. War and unbelief had reduced their numbers. They were cut off from the temple where they learned about God s promised Savior through the sacrifices that foretold the Lamb of God who would take away the world s sin. They had been removed from the land where the Savior would be born in Bethlehem. And if they ceased to exist as a nation, how could the promised Savior come from the descendants of Abraham? To them the hope and future of God s church was dried up and dead. But not to God who specializes in the impossible! And so through Isaiah He said: But now listen Israel whom I have chosen: Do not be afraid For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams One will say, I belong to the LORD The Lord would not leave his church dried up and hopeless. God would pour out his blessings on his people like water on dry ground. He would do what had never before happened in history: instead of disappearing, a nation that had been carried away into exile would continue to exist! Israel would be released and returned to the promised land. But God would do something even more important. He would pour out the Holy Spirit to do his chief work of creating faith so that just as a rain storm makes grass spring up, so there would be many who trusted God s promises. Bible books like Ezra and Nehemiah speak about how these words came true when many believers returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and worshipped the Lord looking forward to the coming Savior. In our second lesson, we heard another way these words of Isaiah came true in an even bigger way on the day of Pentecost. The future didn t look so bright for the Christian faith. There were only a few hundred believers, mostly in Galilee who believe Jesus as the Son of God who died, rose and ascended to heaven to save them. There were only 12 called workers, 12 apostles charged by Jesus to lead the church to bring His word to the world. With a population at that time of around 170 million, there was only one worker to every 14 million people! Pretty hopeless by human standards. 3
But look what God did! I will pour water on the thirsty land I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring. God the Holy Spirit came on those apostles that had once deserted Jesus, and equipped them to speak about Jesus boldly. And the believers sprang up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing springs! That day the Holy Spirit brought 3,000 people to believe and be baptized through the Apostles preaching. And despite persecution, false teachers and ten thousand other attacks by the devil throughout the centuries, the Holy Spirit has made His Church of believers in Christ grow to millions upon millions on every continent and every country! How awesome is the Holy Spirit! Of course this also tells us something important. The Church needs the Holy Spirit. Just as only water can bring living grass to dried out ground and make it grow, so only the Holy Spirit can bring life to the church and make the church grow. What is true of God s church as a whole is also true for individuals. We need the Holy Spirit. Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit we are thirsty land and dry ground. What Isaiah says with this picture language of dried out, lifeless ground, Paul says like this in 1 Corinthians: no one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. Ever seen a picture of Death Valley in Nevada? It is the hottest and driest spot in the United States. Pictures of Death Valley often show bare dusty ground, cracked and split open from the extreme dryness, shimmering in the blistering heat. Yet even that thirsty land occasionally gets rain. Can you imagine ground that had never had any rain, ever? Though hard to imagine, that s what you and I once were. Bone dry dead land, just as Ephesians says: you were dead in your sins. And dead in unbelief is how we would have remained all the way to the endless thirst of hell s furnace. And just as dead, dry land can t water itself, God tells us we can t bring ourselves to living faith in our Savior. That is God s work. Only He can say: For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit. We often take water that gives us life for granted. Let us never take the Holy Spirit for granted, but ever rejoice that God did for you and me in Holy Baptism what Titus 3 says: He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. In God s promises of mercy and forgiveness and mercy in Baptism and the Word, the Holy Spirit connects us personally to perfect life Jesus lived and the innocent death He died to pay for the sins of the world. He brought us to trust Christ as our Savior and know we are forgiven, we belong to the Lord! Even Death Valley can produce flowers when it rains! Praise God the Holy Spirit, because like dry ground that receives rain He has made us alive through faith in Christ! And praise Him, because We need the Holy Spirit. Now plants need water not only to sprout up but also to continue to grow and stay alive. So we still need the Holy Spirit to continue to work in us to keep our faith alive and growing. Need proof? Take something relatively simple that the Holy Spirit has led us to believe: who the true God is. What verse 6 of our lesson says: This is what the LORD says Israel s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. There is only one God, the one LORD who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The God who was there before the beginning of the world, made all things, who gave his saving promises in the Bible and will be there to rescue His people when this world comes to an end. There is no God apart from Him. Then why don t we act more like we know the Only God who made all things and never worry, which really is doubting His existence and power? Since God is our maker and ruler, who can compare to no one, why don t we always do what He says, obey his commandments perfectly and without question? Why do we so often doubt what he s told us or forget it all together? Since He s the first and last, the source of every good thing, why don t we thank and praise him so much more with our prayers and lives? Why does he often get the leftovers of our time, attention and treasure instead of the first and the best? Why do we even sometimes think 4
that it s not even all that bad when we do fail to put him first? It turns out we do need the Holy Spirit to continually remind us who our God is, and what it means that He is the only Holy Perfect God and help us see our sin! But even more than that, we need the Holy Spirit to bring us forgiveness and peace as we see our sins or wonder if God could ever forgive us for our failures. And Peace is what the Holy Spirit gives us as He leads us to hear and believe these words: This is what the LORD says Do not be afraid. Sin. Guilt. God s well earned anger. Death. Hell. We have a reason to fear all these. But the Lord who is before and bigger than everything says to you and me: Do not be afraid. Words He spoke to us on Christmas Eve when God s angel added the reason to lay fear aside: A Savior has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord. Jesus, the Savior who as God and Man in One always lived like there is only one true God, and did it to give us the credit for that life! Do not be afraid. Words spoken on Easter morning inside the empty tomb that used to hold the body of Jesus who had died because He took our sins and our place on the cross to forgive us. Do not be afraid because Jesus who died lives again and now not even death will hurt God s people. Do not be afraid is what Jesus said as He held up nail pierced hands to forgive his disciples and teach us we too have peace. Do not be afraid: Words spoken by Jesus in the glory of heaven as He gave the Apostle John the book of Revelation to comfort you and me with some of the neatest pictures of the heaven Jesus has prepared for you and me and all believers, where we will live with Him forever. We do need to hear those beautiful words of our God don t we? And hear them again and again. Words that say: Don t be afraid in order to forgive, comfort us and encourage us to go and joyfully live for God in all we think, say and do. And the only reason we can believe and enjoy those words is because the Holy Spirit lovingly strengthens our faith through the Word of God heard, read and remembered. Since We do Need the Holy Spirit even more than dry land needs water, let us always go to that Word where He promises to do His work of bringing us to Jesus and Jesus to us. Amen. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Responsive Prayer M: Praise to you, Holy Spirit. We worship and glorify you as the Lord and the giver of life. As you were present at the beginning of the world to shed life on all created things, as you gave a new life of understanding to the disciples in your Pentecost baptism of fire, so by the baptism of water with the Word, you have made the light of faith shine in our hearts to know Jesus as our Lord. In thanksgiving for your gifts to us, we confess: C: I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing 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. M: Holy Spirit, all-seeing Counselor and fountain of all spiritual gifts, stand by us in the weakness of our sinful flesh. Grant us a right understanding of the truths that Jesus taught. Give us strength to endure with patience whatever afflictions God may send into our lives. Help us, intercede for us, train us that we may pray to the Father with boldness and confidence. Preserve us by the power of your Word in our most holy faith as members of the Church, the body of Jesus, where there is forgiveness for all. C: In this Christian Church he daily and fully forgives all sins to me and all believers. 5
M: Holy Spirit, highest comfort in every need, in these gray and last days of the world, strengthen our feeble hands, steady our weak knees, encourage our fearful hearts. Remind us of your Word and promises: Be strong; do not fear. Your Lord will come again. He will come to save you. And in your final, mighty, creative act, O Holy Spirit, raise up our bodies so that we, together with all the saints, may lift up our heads and with glorified eyes see our Savior drawing near. C: 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. Amen. Lord s Prayer (CW, page 42) Prayer M: O Holy Spirit, enter our hearts and strengthen us through your gifts of God s Word, Baptism, and the Lord s Supper. Erase our doubts and lead us to trust in Jesus as the only Savior from sin. Through your Word, open our eyes to see God s great love for us. Strengthen us, that we may attract others to Jesus through lives of Christian service and love. As you equipped the disciples that first Pentecost to be your witnesses, so equip us, that we may boldly share our faith with a world that needs to know the Savior. We ask it for the sake of Jesus our Savior, who lives and rules with You and the Father one God, now and forever. Blessing M: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Closing Hymn CW 176 Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord 6