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In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Saints of God, Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ has ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father, and Christ has sent forth his Holy Spirit as he promised. Now this is good. In fact, Jesus has been telling his disciples and us for the last few weeks and right before his crucifixion that it’s good for him to go away because, when he leaves, a greater gift will follow, and that gift is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, “Wait in Jerusalem and not many days from now the Holy Spirit will come upon you with power, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and all the way to the ends of the earth.” In fact, in the gospel lesson we just heard, Jesus says that all who thirst should come to me, and out of their hearts will flow rivers of living water. He spoke this about the Holy Spirit. But then John tells us the Holy Spirit had not been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
So we rejoice on this day, Pentecost, that the Holy Spirit is given to the church, to you, to me, as we consider what that means: the work, the person of the Holy Spirit, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now, the first Pentecost happened on the feast of Pentecost, which was already a Jewish feast. In fact, this Jewish festival was 50 days after the Passover, and it was, in the Old Testament, a commemoration of the giving of the Ten Commandments. It was 50 days after the first Passover when they put the lamb’s blood on the door, and the angel of death passed over, and the people escaped out of Egypt. It was 50 days later that they arrived at Mount Sinai, where the Lord covered the mountain with fire and smoke and gave to Moses and the people the gift of the Ten Commandments.
Now, this is a marvelous thing to celebrate. And think about this: in the Old Testament, these two great feasts—the gift of the Passover and the gift of the Ten Commandments—every year, the people are remembering these great works of God. But just like Jesus takes the preaching of the Passover and brings it to its fullness in his own death and resurrection, so now Jesus takes the gift, the Feast of the Passover, the Feast of Pentecost, and fills it up with the great gift of the giving of the Holy Spirit.
Now, does this mean that the Holy Spirit wasn’t around before Pentecost? Does this mean that in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was locked away in heaven? No. In fact, as we read through the Old Testament, we see the Holy Spirit working. In Genesis 1, the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters. In the Old Testament lesson, the first lesson that we heard today, the Holy Spirit came upon the 70 elders and they prophesied. In Psalm 51, David says, “Take not your Holy Spirit from me.” In fact, Peter, the Apostle Peter, tells us that the prophets spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So we confess in the Creed that the prophets spoke by the Spirit.
And think of it like this: just as Jesus himself was at work in the world even before his incarnation in the womb of the Virgin Mary, even before his life and his death, even before that, Jesus was at work; so the Holy Spirit was at work from the beginning of time to the end of time. But just as Jesus in his incarnation comes into the fullness of the work appointed for him by God the Father, so the Holy Spirit at Pentecost comes into the fullness of the work appointed to him, the work promised by the prophets. For example, the beautiful text from Joel that Peter preaches on that first Pentecost when he says, “The day is coming when I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.”
In fact, in one way, in a beautiful way, Pentecost is the restoration, a part of the restoration of the fall. Adam and Eve had lost the Holy Spirit, but now in Christ the Holy Spirit is given back to us.
Now we want to make sure that as we consider the Holy Spirit, we confess first the full divinity of God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is co-eternal and co-majestic with God the Father and God the Son. Perhaps the clearest passage in the scripture that describes this is in the book of Acts when Ananias and Sapphira had sold all their stuff, and they brought a big portion of it to the apostles, but they held back some for themselves. Peter knew it, and he says, “Why have you lied? You have not lied to men but to God. Why have you lied to the Holy Spirit?” So the Holy Spirit is God.
And just like God the Father and just like God the Son, the Holy Spirit loves you. I don’t know if I have heard that preached; at least it hasn’t struck my ears. But I think it’s important for us to say this: that God is love. The Father loves you, as he loves the world and sent forth his Son to die for you. The Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, loves you and gives up his life for you, and the Holy Spirit loves you. His work is all directed towards your salvation, towards your eternal life.
Now, what is that work of God the Holy Spirit? A few, maybe the best—there’s a lot of texts here, but perhaps the best is the gospel reading we heard a few weeks ago from John 16, where Jesus simply outlines the work of the Holy Spirit: “I will send the Holy Spirit, and he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.” That’s probably the best summary of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does convicting work, that is, teaching work or enlightening work. The Holy Spirit brings the things that Jesus said to remembrance.
The Holy Spirit works through the Word to show us and to teach us what we could never know and see on our own—that we are sinners who deserve God’s wrath. He convicts the world of sin, that God is a gracious Heavenly Father, that Jesus’ death on the cross atones for all of our sin. He convicts the world of righteousness and that Jesus’ death has trampled under his feet the power of the devil. He convicts the world of judgment, that the ruler of this world has been judged.
Now the Holy Spirit has a number of names, or maybe we say a number of titles that are given to him in the Holy Scripture. In these texts that we’re looking at—John 16 and 17 and 14—the Holy Spirit is given the name Comforter, which is wonderful, Advocate, Helper, Paraclete. He’s called the Free Spirit, sometimes simply the Spirit of God, but by far the most common title of the Holy Spirit is that word, holy.
And this is an important thing to describe his work. The Holy Spirit makes us holy. And he does this in two ways: first, by the gospel, and second, by his strength for good works. First, the Holy Spirit makes us holy by bringing to us the benefit of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is appointed this work of bringing the atoning work of Christ, which happened in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago; he brings that all across the world, right to us, and he presses it into our ears and into our hearts.
The Holy Spirit is who brings us the gift of baptism, the washing of water and the Word. The Holy Spirit brings to us the power of the absolution, the forgiveness of sins. The Holy Spirit works so that the Lord’s Supper is a sanctifying gift where all of our sins are forgiven. The Holy Spirit, in other words, brings the benefit of the work of God, the work of Jesus Christ. He brings it right to us, and he gives us, in that word, the faith to believe it. The Holy Spirit not only gives us the promise, but he gives us faith to believe the promise so that we rejoice that we are saved by God’s grace through faith, and that’s not even of our own; it’s the gift of God. If you believe in Jesus, it is because the Holy Spirit has worked through the Word of God to give you that faith.
And by that faith, you are accounted to be righteous, to be holy, to be perfect in the sight of God, to be clean, to be absolved. The Lord looks at you, and there is no sin to condemn; there is no sin to judge. God has reckoned you to be perfect, as perfect and as righteous as Jesus. And that is what it means to be holy, to be sanctified. That’s the first work of sanctification that the Holy Spirit does, and it’s done, it’s complete, it’s finished. There’s nothing lacking in this. You, who believe in Jesus, will stand before God on Judgment Day, and there will be nothing to judge, nothing to condemn. There’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You’ve passed already from death to life. You belong to God, the Holy Spirit. That is why the Holy Spirit calls you holy ones or saints, because by his work you are completely sanctified.
And there’s a second work of sanctification. This is probably normally what we think about when we talk about sanctification: the growth and good works that’s inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is also an incredible gift, that God the Holy Spirit works in us and works with us so that we might manage to do a good work every now and again. So the Holy Spirit is inside of you fighting against your flesh. The Holy Spirit is taking all of those things that you want to do—I mean, this is one of the big problems of sinful humanity: we’re born wanting to do all of the wrong stuff, desiring the stuff that kills us, desiring the stuff that hurts our neighbor, wanting all of these things for ourselves. We’d rather have an easy life rather than suffer.
We have these crooked desires, and the Holy Spirit is inside of us fighting against our flesh, fighting against the wrong things. He makes those things repulsive to us. And the Holy Spirit gives us the strength to begin, to begin to love our neighbor, to curb our sinful flesh, and to manage to be useful every now and again to the kingdom of God.
Now it’s important when we talk about this second sanctification that we talk about it in the way that the scripture speaks about it, and that is that it’s always beginning but never finished. The first sanctification is complete. The second sanctification is only just begun, and it won’t be finished until the resurrection. We’re just beginning to love God; we’re just beginning to love our neighbor; we’re just beginning to fight against our flesh; we’re just beginning to do something good and helpful. But at the same time, we are completely perfected. You are completely forgiven. You are completely holy. You are holy ones because God the Holy Spirit has brought the word of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and he has pressed that holy word into your ears and into your hearts, forgiving all of your sins.
So, God be praised for this Feast of Pentecost, for the gift and the work of God the Holy Spirit. And we pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to come and to fill our hearts with his joy and his peace, and that he would continue to do his sanctifying work among us. Amen.
Come, Holy Spirit. Amen.
And now, may the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.