Whitsunday – Sunday 28 May A✠D 2023
✠ Psalmody: Wisdom 1:7a, Psalm 68:3;1 ,4a, c, 11a, 33b, 35a;104:30
✠ Lection: Genesis 11:1-9;Acts 2:1-11;St. John 14:23-31a
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We are not to be confused about the work of the Holy Spirit. Too many have come to either deny that He is truly the Third Person of the Blessed Holy Trinity or that His work among us is one divine life coach, crystal-ball-ish revealer, or frenzy-causing motivator. St. John is clear, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, of what the Third Person comes to do for us, in us, and to us. The Holy Spirit comes to bring to our remembrance what Christ has said so that we keep His Word and come to love Him as both Lord and Christ. Every bit of the Spirit’s activity in the world since He was sent forth from the Father in the Name of the Son is connected to this most-important truth.
In our Gospel text, the Lord Jesus gives the promise of the Holy Spirit being sent and we heard in the Acts of the Apostles the promise being fulfilled. But the Spirit didn’t have one Pentecost Day’s worth of activity to tend to. His goals and aim remain to this day and are actively being done in the hearts of many. This does not mean that we are to expect to hear the sound of a mighty rushing wind, nor may we think that we will see tongues of fire descend upon us and we all start speaking in with other tongues as the Spirit gives us utterance. Those specific events were for that day of fulfillment, but the eternal work that was driving them is that which we receive even in this very moment.
Jesus spoke of it in saying that the Holy Spirit will teach you all things. He was here in John 14 speaking to His Disciples, of course, but the truth of His words carry on to today in what the Spirit does for you. In saying that He will teach you all things, this doesn’t mean that by divine download you will learn from Him how to successfully change out an oil pump, or how to keep pests away from your garden plants, how to win a bike race, or how to track down the source of every funky smell that you encounter in your home. Those aren’t the all things of which our Lord speaks. Those are matters dealing with temporal life, but the Spirit was to teach the Apostles, and thus you, all things pertaining to eternal life, namely the truths about the Son of God, His life, His death, His resurrection, and ascension and the glorious implications that those acts of God have on the eternity of the souls of man.
This doesn’t mean that God isn’t active in being omnipotent Overseer of your entire life through providential actions too numerous for you to comprehend. He is at work on your behalf even while you sleep. His mind is on you even while yours isn’t on Him. The second-by-second activity of God that is hidden from us is also an act of mercy on His part in keeping us uninformed. Because, if He allowed us to see all that He does for us throughout the day, we would in turn neglect any and all duties and neighbors that we are given to serve for the sake of spending every bit of our time doing only one thing in response to Him: falling down on our faces in endless thanks, praise, and adoration of Him because of Who He is and for all that He does. We would justifiably get nothing else done, because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are truly worthy to have us do this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But God knows this world and He knows that it needs us to serve one another in His Name; He knows that His Spirit has much work to do in and through us all.
Thus, He continues in the work of faithfully teaching us all things, the things which Jesus spoke and did. The Spirit not only teaches them, but He brings them to remembrance, which is more than simply to churn them over in our thoughts and memories. We have thought upon remembrance multiple times this year and it’s good to refresh our own minds and hearts as to what this means. To help, bring to your mind, remember, a loved one that is no longer alive in this world. To do something in remembrance of that person is to take action in some way. It could involve visiting the cemetery gravesite or on a sunny, warm day going to a place that was special to the two of you. But to further remember the person, especially for the sake of others, the remembrance would also involve words, it would involve speaking, it would involve telling good things about the one being remembered, such as, “Mister Pastor, that special piece of rain gutter that you noticed my dear Werner did it himself because he was so good at making things out of metal that made our life more enjoyable together.” Or, “Pastor, Clarke worked and prayed hard for you so that you would be taken care of and that the Ministry to which you are called may be faithfully fulfilled at our church.” Telling is remembering. In joyous remembrance we say such things, because we are not restricted to remembering only the painful memories, like those of the loved one dying. Besides, all such troubling thoughts are but for a time, for the tears those memories stir up will be wiped away forever in the life to come. God has given us all so much more in remembrance of our loved ones; treasured memories of joy and life; and love, care, and thoughtfulness; all characteristics of God bestowed upon us by His Holy Spirit. Those treasured memories, born out a life of faith together, are lasting gifts from God that shall endure and we have them now to remember and enjoy also.
Even greater still do we have a Savior to remember in such a way and His gift of the Holy Spirit to bring it about in us for our sake and for others’ who need to hear as we recount the wonderful works of God. The remembrance of Christ and His Word that the Spirit seeks to bring about in us is all to the glory of Jesus for the salvation He has procured. The Spirit brings this about by bringing you to the One Who was born, died, rose again and ascended for you, for you cannot believe in Jesus Christ your Lord or come to Him by your own reason or strength. The Holy Spirit has done this. He has called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, sanctified and kept you in the true faith. In His bringing you to Jesus, He brings about in you a love for Christ, and to that Jesus says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.” Loving Him and keeping His Word means that you believe and trust in Him as Lord and Christ; as Lord, for He is truly the King of Kings or lives and reigns over all things, all places, all peoples, all nations unto all eternity; and as Christ, for He is the One Anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit to carry out the work of salvation in His own undefiled flesh that He laid down as your perfect sacrifice for sin. To this the Spirit testifies. This is the truth that the Holy Spirit teaches you so that you may believe, so that you may have the peace that Christ has left for you in His undoing of death, so that your heart not be troubled.
There is more beautiful detail in what the Holy Spirit accomplishes in hearts that He regenerates by grace through faith. Jesus said “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.” Be careful not to allow your ears to hear this as an if-then statement, as in if you do this, then God will do that, because it is the Spirit Who is the cause Himself of you loving Jesus and keeping His Word. He is the Lord and Giver of Life. No one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, hear now the glorious works of Almighty God Who has seen to it by His Spirit that you love the Son, that you believe, hold fast to, and remember the trustworthy Word as taught, and that in doing so have been reconciled to your Father in Heaven Who now loves you for Jesus’ sake. These are His mighty works in you from beginning to no-end, for there is no end to the bliss of life and salvation when God says, “and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” That’s you. That’s what God the Holy Spirit has worked in you through the Gospel, gifts, and faith that He teaches you and causes you to remember.
As you live in the reality of this vile world, blessed with truth about the priceless work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit now calling you home, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Let it be the opposite actually, for it has every reason to be. You can neither hear nor believe too much the value of what God does in your midst when you gather in His house. We don’t have the spectacular signs of tongues of fire on this celebration of the Feast of Pentecost, but we do have and remember the bestowal of heavenly fire upon all who believe in Jesus’ Name; come Holy Spirit, God and Lord! Rejoice in this, because if God calls you home, then you are numbered among His people. You are God’s people, by the work of the Spirit, so come eagerly with all joy to the communion of saints every time the Spirit draws you here to Jesus. Loathe not what your flesh wants to distract you with, even if it’s just two of us here, or if it’s pews and chairs full of folks, because the wonderful works of God are the same in either setting. Neither your salvation nor your joy in it depend upon our membership or attendance numbers, but rather upon the Christ Whom you love, by the work of the promised Holy Spirit Who has come to you for that very reason.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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