Pentecost – May 23, 2010

Grace, mercy and peace to you from the giver of every good and perfect gift – our Lord and God. Amen.

Joel 2:²⁸“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. ²⁹Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

That’s the difficulty in giving gifts, isn’t it? You want the gift to be practical, but you also want it to be fun. You want it to be something necessary, but at the same time great. And truth be told, we probably haven’t always succeeded in giving a gift that falls into both categories.

Our Lord doesn’t have this problem though! And we see just how true that is as we contemplate the gift of the Holy Spirit on this festival of Pentecost. This gift falls into both categories: it is a gift that is absolutely necessary and one we can’t live without – and it is a gift that is great and glorious. Praise God for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The work of the Holy Spirit was not something unfamiliar to God’s Old Testament believers. They were aware of God’s words concerning the creation of the world: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Likewise, King David spoke of the undeniable importance of the Spirit of God when in repentance he prayed to the Lord in Psalm 51; “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).

Yet, while God’s Old Testament people were familiar with the Holy Spirit, they also knew that when it came to revealing himself and his will to his people, God did so by means of dreams and visions - and then only to select men. But what we have before us this morning is the prophet Joel looking forward to a time when the Lord would reveal himself and his will and pour out the Holy Spirit in special ways not just selected men, but on all his people. This is something Moses wished for when in Numbers he said, “I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29) Joel tells us this will happen.

But why is it so necessary for God to pour out his Spirit? To answer that, let us look closely at the word of God that Joel records. “Afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” The word translated “people” in this verse is literally the word that means flesh. That is important because that is the word that the Bible consistently uses to describe the sinful condition in which all people are born since Adam fell into sin. Understanding this helps us understand the absolute need for God to pour out his Spirit to all people.

The dreams and visions God used in the Old Testament he used to reveal his will to men. That included not only the promise of Jesus their Savior, but also his will that they obey him perfectly. Without a doubt, if they would examine their lives according to his will, they would see that they were not perfect. Worse than that, they would recognize that they were men and women who constantly did what was wrong in God’s sight and deserved whatever punishment the Lord gave. Simply put, they were flesh and needed the Spirit.

Recall Isaiah’s ministry and what God told him about the people he would serve, “[God] said, ‘Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ ¹⁰Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed’” (Isaiah 6:9,10) Do not be mistaken, God wanted his prophet to preach the beautiful message of the Messiah, and he did. It is Isaiah who writes of the Suffering Servant who would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. It is Isaiah who tells us that Jesus is the Lamb of God whose wounds would heal us from the disease of sin. However, that message falls on deaf ears unless one is aware of their own sinfulness, aware of the seriousness of sin, and aware of their need for a Savior. In this way, we see that God’s words through his prophets are the same message he pours out to us today, law and gospel, sin and grace. The two must be taught in truth.

This brings us then, to you and to me. Fellow Christians, we must recognize how serious our sin is. We must realize that it is not just a blemish on our otherwise relatively clean body. Sins are not just simple mistakes we make throughout our lives. Sin is poison. Sin is death. That’s what God tells us. You and I are guilty. There is no way around it. A sin is more than a bad habit. It’s disobedience to God. Sin is not just an inevitable fact that we learn to deal with; it’s an inevitable fact that is worthy of hell. Paul’s words are to be our words, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). Yet, neither Paul, nor you, nor I could ever see ourselves as sinners in need of Savior if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit’s convicting work. This is what Jesus said to his disciples, “When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). It is only when the Holy Spirit leads us to understand our natural condition, that we are flesh, and that all flesh is spiritually lifeless, helpless, and worthless, do we begin to realize the magnitude of our guilt, and then realize the necessity of this gift. And then, awakened to our condemning guilt we can see our need for a Savior.

So, now that you see how necessary this gift is, let us see why it is so great and glorious. “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. ²⁹Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” These words are a prophecy fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost – the day we celebrate today. Peter repeats them in his Pentecost sermon, “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem…These men are not drunk as you suppose…No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:14-16). This was the beginning of the afterward of which Joel spoke.

Pentecost confirms that Joel, like all the prophets, pointed ahead to Christ. It is in Christ that God reveals himself to us. In Christ that he makes evident his love for us. Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets, speaking for God, pointed his people ahead to something greater. The sacrifices, the Passover, the lambs, bulls, and offerings were all signs, symbols and shadows of something far better; of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; Jesus, our Savior who died for sins, once for all; Jesus, whose death paid for your sins and mine.

You see, not only does the Holy Spirit convict us of our sins, but it convinces us of what Jesus has done for us. It is this Jesus who came as the little child in Bethlehem; this Jesus whose sinless life God now credits to our account; this Jesus whose death takes the place of our death, and whose resurrection tells us that we can live with him in heaven knowing that because he lives, we will live too. Yet, none of this would be ours, none of us would be here, none of us could face death without fear if God had not granted the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into our hearts through his Word to convince us that Jesus is our Savior.

And this outpouring of the Holy Spirit still continues today. Not in visions or dreams, not in the swinging and swaying of hands, or in the babbling of words that cannot be understood. But God today reveals himself through the words of his Old Testament prophets and his New Testament apostles. All of God’s people can read this revelation as Joel said. Through the Word of God that points us to Jesus and his self-sacrificing love on the cross God pours out his Spirit, creates faith, and strengthens faith. Remember what Isaiah points us to when tempted to look somewhere else besides God’s Word, “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn” (Isaiah 8:20). So too when the rich man in hell wanted a special revelation given to his brothers still on earth what was the response he was given, “‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them’…‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’” (Luke 16:29,31). We have the one thing needful, God’s word. In the Word, God graciously promises that the Holy Spirit works. He has in your hearts. Working through God’s Word and the Sacraments he has opened your eyes to see things that God’s Old Testament people could only dream of seeing. We’ve seen Jesus, our Savior, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary. We’ve seen Jesus, our Savior, speaking “It is finished” as he endured our punishment on the cross in our place. By grace he has etched into our hearts and minds for eternity the truth of our salvation. Praise God for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen.