Bible Passage: Acts 2:1-21
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: June 5, 2022

Bulletin June 5, 2022 

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Pentecost was a busy day!  I don’t know what time those early Christians woke up, but by 9:00 a.m. they are all gathered together in one place.  Then things get really busy.  They hear that sound like a rushing wind…think tornado.  Then they see those little flames separating and coming to rest on their heads.  Then as they begin to speak, they are speaking languages they never learned or studied!  Imagine if right now you looked at the person next to you and they started speaking perfect Mandarin Chinese.  And when you open your mouth you begin speaking Swahili, using perfect grammar and vocabulary.

Predictably, this oddity draws a crowd.  Peter stands up to preach.  And Peter preaches to the gathered crowd.  Now, preachers will tell you, preaching is exhausting.  There is a reason there is this thing called the “preacher’s nap” that generally takes place on Sunday afternoons.  But when Peter is done preaching, there’s no time for a nap.  There are people to baptize.  So they begin baptizing people.  When they finally have baptized the last person on that day, 3,000 people have been added to the rolls of Christianity.  I wonder how long it takes to baptize 3,000 people!  That’s a busy day!

Not only was it busy for Peter and the early Christians, more importantly it was a busy day for the Holy Spirit of God.  Because in back of all that was going on that day…the tongue-speaking, the preaching, the conversions, the baptism…all the “busy-ness”…was the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, on Pentecost, he was The Busy Spirit.  And to this day, he remains the busy Spirit.

Perhaps Pentecost is best known for that first thing we mentioned, the Christians speaking in “tongues,” or speaking other languages.  This is what Jesus said was going to happen.  Before he ascended into heaven, Jesus had told his disciples, You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. (Acts 1:5).  And Jesus even told the disciples why the Holy Spirit was going to be given to them in this way, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

 The first thing the Holy Spirit was busy doing on Pentecost was EMPOWERING Jesus’ followers to be his witnesses.  No small task, mind you!  How else would this little band of followers, this timid little  group who ran away from Jesus on Maundy Thursday night, find the courage and conviction to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations?  On Pentecost the Holy Spirit was busy giving the Church her voice to confess and proclaim Christ!

The Holy Spirit is still busy doing that work in the Church.  When Peter stood up and preached on Pentecost, because the Holy Spirit empowered him to do so, Peter quoted from the Old Testament of Joel.  He began:  This is what God says will happen in the last days:  I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh….I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. (Acts 2: 17, 18)  Friends, we are living in the “last days.”  The last days began when Jesus ascended into heaven and they end when he comes back.

And in these “last days” the Holy Spirit is busy in the people of God, giving them the voice to proclaim God’s Word.  The Holy Spirit is busy HERE this morning.  Only the power of the Holy Spirit can explain what is happening at this moment.  This timid, inept, incompetent, sinful man could not stand here and preach unless power was given from above.  And so the Spirit is given that Jesus might be proclaimed.  And the Spirit is not just given to preachers.  The prophecy from Joel foretold that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all God’s people.  The Holy Spirit is busy empowering you to be Jesus’ witnesses your little corner of the world.  Trust that!  Rely on that!

The Holy Spirit was busy doing even more on Pentecost.  Not only did the Holy Spirit empower the proclamation of the Word.  The Holy Spirit was also at the “receiving end” of the proclamation.  If we go back to the prophecy from Joel, it ends with these words:  And this will happen:  Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Acts 2:21)   To “call on the name of the Lord” is to believe in Jesus.  And there is a little verse in 1 Corinthians that tells us how it is that a person believes in Jesus:  No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3)  Here’s how it all works:  The Holy Spirit empowers the proclamation, and then works through the proclaimed Word to work faith in the heart of the hearer.  The Holy Spirit does everything!

It has to be so.  Did you catch the first words of 1 Corinthians 12:3?  “No one can…”  No one can bring themself to believe in Jesus.  No one can “choose” Jesus to be their Lord and Savior.  No one has the capacity to turn from sin and unbelief to life and salvation in Jesus.  We have lost that ability because of the fall into sin.  And so we confess:  “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 one, true faith.”  Boy, the Holy Spirit is busy!

Busy using the Gospel to do his work of calling, enlightening, and sanctifying.  That means the Holy Spirit is busy every time you open your Bible!  As you pour over God’s Word, that testifies about Jesus, God the Holy Spirit is busy as you read, using that Word to sanctify and strengthen and keep you in the faith.  The Holy Spirit is busy at this font each time a Baptism takes place as the good news of Jesus is connected to water and Christ is brought to the baptized and the baptized to Christ.  The Holy Spirit is busy at the Supper, where the promised good news of forgiveness through Jesus’ body and blood is hand-delivered to each and every person who eats and drinks.

The Holy Spirit was busy on Pentecost!  And he remains busy today!  Through Word and Sacrament, tirelessly empowering proclamation and working faith.  Empowering proclamation and working faith.  An endless, saving circuit repeated day after day in all the world. Sounds exhausting.  But it is the delight of the busy Spirit!

Amen.