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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Dear saints, our work today that the Lord has joyfully given us is to consider the Holy Spirit and the gift of the Holy Spirit that descended upon the upper room those 1,992 years ago today. That Holy Spirit who descended and gave the apostles—who, even though they had seen Jesus raised for 40 days and had talked to him and been blessed by him and prayed with him—were still in this upper room waiting, trying to not be afraid, until the Holy Spirit came. And then out they went, with boldness and with wisdom to preach the Word of God.
We want to consider how the same Holy Spirit is working also in us today, in our church, in our lives as well; to give us wisdom, to give us faith, to give us the knowledge of our sin, to give us confidence in His presence and strength, and wisdom for the vocations that He’s given to us.
Now, I want to start out by thinking about the Lutheran problem with the Holy Spirit. I think this— I don’t know if you’ve heard this before; I’m kind of curious. You can tell me after church, “I have,” or “I haven’t,” but I hear it a lot. Don’t you, Lutherans, neglect the doctrine of the Holy Spirit? Fail to teach about the Holy Spirit. You don’t talk enough about the Holy Spirit.
The standard Lutheran answer to that— I don’t know if you’ve heard this also— is, well, the Holy Spirit doesn’t talk that much about himself. So the Holy Spirit— and this is true— Jesus, we heard it in the text in John chapter 14, that the Holy Spirit comes to bring us to all truth; the things that belong to Jesus, the Holy Spirit makes known to us. So the Holy Spirit is busy preaching Christ. If you hear Christ preached, then the Holy Spirit is there at work.
In fact, I remember one time, I was trying to remember where this was. I cannot. Somewhere, sometimes, somewhere, this happened: that some pastor was teaching about the Holy Spirit, and he said, “The Holy Spirit works like this,” and he got a volunteer to come up. He stood behind the volunteer and kept moving the volunteer in front of him like this. He says, “This is the work of the Holy Spirit, to hide behind Jesus and always to preach Christ.”
Okay, now, while there’s a truth to that, I don’t think that’s sufficient. In fact, I think the critique still stands that we do not— and I’ll just, I’m the preacher here, so it’s my fault— that I don’t preach enough about the Holy Spirit, that we as Lutherans don’t think enough about the Holy Spirit. But I think there’s a reason for it. I think that our imaginations are kind of haunted with the wrong idea about who the Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit does.
Right? Now, I blame for this haunting the charismatic movement of the last 150 years and all the craziness that’s shown up on TV. You’ve no doubt seen it, where there’ll be some TV preacher who will blow on people, and they fall over backwards, or he’ll wave his jacket, and they go tumbling down. Or you’ve seen the services where people will… the Holy Spirit will come upon them, and they totally lose control. They can’t stop laughing or they start barking like dogs or all this sort of stuff.
But that’s the extreme. Even the less extreme— which is where the gift of tongues is understood to be a manifestation of the Holy Spirit— and people start speaking in languages that they themselves don’t know and they can’t control that speech. It just is going from them. Maybe even to step back from that extreme, there’s something else. Whenever the Holy Spirit comes up, he causes people to, in some ways, lose control of themselves. He takes control of people; he causes them to say something or to do something. There’s a compulsion of the Holy Spirit.
Even if we don’t articulate it, this is the idea of what the Holy Spirit does. It’s kind of in the back of our own minds. I’ll give you an example. I remember one time when Carrie and I— this is in the old evangelical days when we were in college— and we were in a group that was a small Bible study, maybe a prayer group or something. Into the door of this group bursts one of the girls who was in the group with a guy that we’d never seen before. They kind of burst into the room, and she says, “Okay. This is so-and-so. We met yesterday. We’re getting married tomorrow.” Boom, they leave. And we’re like, “Whoa, what was that about?” I remember one person in this group, as we were trying to sit there and process, said, “Well, must be the Holy Spirit.”
Now, I think that’s… Now, this is so interesting because this is the idea of the Holy Spirit that’s maybe even in the back of our minds: if it’s spontaneous, it’s spiritual. If it’s maybe unthought— if it’s unthought out, it must be spiritual. If it’s something that overcomes you, as if the Holy Spirit would possess us and cause us to do things that we otherwise would not do.
I think because that idea is in the back of our minds, we just sort of avoid talking about the Holy Spirit. We just kind of push it aside because we’re uncomfortable with that. I’ll tell you where this really comes up is in regard to the question of cessationism. I don’t know if you’ve been asked this before, but you know the Pentecostals and the Baptists and maybe even the evangelicals will ask, “Well, are Lutherans cessationist?” And what they mean by that— cessation means to stop. What they mean is, has the Holy Spirit stopped? Do you believe that the Holy Spirit has stopped giving the gifts that he was giving in the beginning, like he was in the Book of Acts?
Now, here’s the problem with that question. If you ask me what’s going on at the Pentecostal Church and the charismatic church and all the kind of crazy loss of control and speaking in tongues and all this sort of stuff, I don’t think that that stopped. I don’t think that ever started.
The way that the Holy Spirit is presented by the charismatic churches today is never how the Holy Spirit was working. Maybe it was what was happening in Corinth, which is why Paul had to write them this letter and say, “Quit it.” He says, “If there’s someone who’s speaking in tongues, there has to be an interpretation. And if someone is speaking in tongues, then nobody else should be speaking at the same time. If one, two people, maybe a third person speaks in tongues and it’s interpreted, let it be enough and stop.” In fact, Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 14— and this is so important— Paul says, “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.”
I want us to make sure that we have this. Because we normally think of it the other way around. This is what I’m getting. It’s not that the prophet is subject to the Spirit; that’s not what Paul says. Paul says the opposite. He says the Spirit is subject to the prophet. That means, as he’s talking to the Corinthians, even if someone has the Holy Spirit and the supernatural gift of tongues, they can decide whether they want to use it or not. They have not lost self-control.
And here’s the chief verse that we need to have in mind for our own consideration of the Holy Spirit. When St. Paul lists the fruits of the Holy Spirit— the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit— he lists love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and last, and most important for this conversation, he says self-control. Self-control.
The Holy Spirit does not come to us to destroy our self-control or to take control of us or to override our self-control. The Holy Spirit comes to us to give self-control, do you see? So that we know what we’re doing; so that we have strength and wisdom to do that thing which is right.
Now, Paul goes on to say— so back to 1 Corinthians 14— that the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets, and then he says this in the very next verse. He says, “God is not a God of disorder, but of peace.” So the Holy Spirit does not bring about disorder in the church. If things are chaotic and flailing around everywhere and spontaneous and all this sort of stuff, we want to say, “Oh, look, it looks very spiritual.” Paul says, “That is not spiritual. That is not what the Holy Spirit does.” The Holy Spirit comes with gifts according to the order that he’s instituted.
Right? Now, there’s so much wonder in this and so much comfort in this, but I just think we have to get to that understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit and get rid of that weird idea of the Spirit that just kind of lives in the back of our imaginations and say, “No, that’s not how the Holy Spirit works.” The Holy Spirit comes in conjunction with the gifts that God gives, and chiefly with the word.
Now, Jesus calls in the text in John chapter 14, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the helper or the comforter, or the Greek word there is the paraclete. He’s the one who comes to first work in our own hearts and consciences. Amen. His work there we talked about a couple of weeks ago. The Holy Spirit convinces us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. The Holy Spirit shows us that we’ve broken God’s law and that Christ is crucified for us and that the devil is condemned so that he cannot condemn us.
This is the first and chief work of the Holy Spirit: to call us by the gospel, to convince us first of our sinfulness and second of the sinless perfection of Christ, which is for us. So that the Holy Spirit institutes the church so that we receive here in this church nothing but the unending daily forgiveness of all of our sins. That’s the first work of the Holy Spirit.
And then the Holy Spirit comes upon us to give us confidence in that work. It’s an amazing thing, again, when the apostles were in the upper room afraid to go out, and then the Holy Spirit comes on them. And there’s no more fear. There’s no more fear of what can happen to them. They’re willing to confess the name of Jesus boldly. Even if they’re put to death, it doesn’t matter. They’re going to bear the name of Jesus before the world with confidence.
Not only do they have the confidence to leave the upper room and preach the name of Jesus, but they also have the wisdom for what to say. We had the very first part of Peter’s sermon in Acts chapter 2, where he quotes Joel 2. It’s beautiful. But the sermon goes on; it’s a marvelous sermon. Amen. Peter says, “You crucified Christ, but he’s risen from the dead.” And they say, “What must we do?” And he says, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you.” And they were all baptized that day, and they all received the promise of the Holy Spirit.
So that Peter not only had the boldness to preach, but he had the wisdom for what to say. So the Holy Spirit comes upon us to give us this boldness and wisdom to say what we need to say, especially in regards to the Word of God and especially in regards to the office.
This is why, when you’ve seen a pastor ordained or installed and all the other pastors come and lay their hands on them and pray for the Holy Spirit… You remember my joke about that? About the boy in the back seat with his dad who says, “Dad, what are they doing laying their hands on the pastor?” And the dad says, “Well, they’re praying that he will have the Holy Spirit.” And the boy says, “We should have got a pastor who had the Holy Spirit already.”
Well, how about this marvelous truth that all of us are given the Holy Spirit in baptism to confess Christ? But then when the Lord calls you to a new office, especially the office of the Word— but this applies to all the offices that the Lord gives— He gives us His Holy Spirit so that we can do the work that He’s called us to do in that office. Amen.
It’s what happens when a couple is married and they receive the blessing of Adam and Eve in paradise. The Lord is giving to them— and listen, if you’re married, the Lord has given to you His Holy Spirit specifically for the work of being husband and wife. The Holy Spirit comes to you— you parents!— specifically for the work of being father and mother. The Holy Spirit comes to you— children!— specifically for the work of being children and grandchildren. Amen.
The Holy Spirit comes to you according to your calling to give you the wisdom and the strength that is needed for that calling. And so we lean on the Holy Spirit and trust the Holy Spirit and pray constantly that the Lord would fill us with the Holy Spirit.
Here’s one of the most marvelous promises about prayer that Jesus has given. It’s in Luke chapter 11. It’s after he’s taught the disciples the Lord’s Prayer, and then he says to them this, and this is for you: “So your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to all who ask.” This means whenever you ask God the Father for the gift of the Holy Spirit, he has promised that he will answer. And he will send the Holy Spirit to you for strength, for courage, for wisdom to do what he’s called you to do.
Now, this is especially comforting for all of us who have hard things to do in life. So if your life is pretty easy, then you don’t need to listen to this next part. But for the rest of you, there’s a lot of hard things in this life. Your calling, the thing that the Lord has set you to do, is difficult. In the home— parent, spouse, child, grandchild, grandparent— it’s hard. It’s hard. In your neighborhood, being a good neighbor and a good friend, it’s hard. A good citizen at work; being a good coworker, being a good boss, being a good follower, being a faithful servant— it’s hard.
And in the church— listening to sermons— it’s hard. I feel your pain. Listening to the Word of God, being a good friend to the people who are around you, being consistent with what the Lord has called us all to; hard things. And just living in this sinful world with bodies that are subject to corruption and sickness and friends that are full of sorrow— it’s hard.
But the Lord does not expect you or ask you to do it on your own. He’s promised a helper, the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, sent from the right hand of the Father by Jesus who was crucified, buried, and raised and now ascended— sent from heaven to help you, to believe the promises of God and to love your neighbor and to suffer with patience.
So let us today, this Pentecost, wrap our hearts around this promise of Jesus. The Father gives the Holy Spirit to all who ask. Let us ask every day when we wake up: first thing, that the Father would send to us the Holy Spirit so that we would believe and love and suffer and hope.
And let us trust that God answers this; that you have the Holy Spirit. You are filled and covered by the Holy Spirit, and that He is calling you, gathering you, enlightening you with His gifts, and He will keep you to the end. May God grant us this faith and this comfort by the Comforter in the name of Jesus. Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.