Pentecost, The Day of Pentecost (2025)

John 14:23-31

My Brothers and sisters in Christ, what a blessed day as we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church that was promised to the Apostles and continues to work to this very day in our midst that the Gospel of Salvation may be proclaimed throughout the entire world. For this same helper that was promised to the Apostles by Christ has been given to all who are baptized and is at work in us as He creates faith inside of our hearts that clings to and keeps the Word of God.

His Law is Love

If you love Jesus, you keep His word.

Jesus himself teaches this to HIs disciples. Our world tries to define love as a positive feeling, a general warm wish for all people, or at least those we like, but here Jesus narrows it down to keeping, which includes guarding, watching over, preserving, to pay full attention to his word. So if you love Christ, you treasure the Word of God. For Christ himself is the Word made flesh. So how can any one love Jesus, yet not love the Word of God? But

What if you don’t?

Well Christ makes it clear that it’s not just him that you reject, but also the Father in heaven. For how can you claim to love the Father if you reject Jesus whom the Father sent? Now he speaks this to His disciples who are subject to increasing hatred and persecution because they are His Disciples. In our day we see it flipped, people love Jesus but aren’t so sure about the Father. Here’s the big question.

Who has kept the word?

The Scriptures tell us that we are to meditate upon the Word day and night, and it wasn’t talking about the Zen Meditation or Yoga practices, those are different religions. But the word meditate comes from the word to mutter, to chew on it and to repeat it and hear like a cow chewing cud, that we might inwardly digest it and take it to heart, that we might keep it. Who’s doing it?

What If You Reject the Word?

Well you are saying God is wrong.

Now you might be able to say that to your neighbor, your spouse, or even a judge in court, and that last one ought to make su all hesitate, but they are human and they make errors, what about God? If there is a passage you look at in the Scriptures and say you don’t like it, you don’t believe it, it’s not for you, what type of Bible do you have if you only read the parts you like?

We can all make excuses.

We’re good at that and we can find any number of reasons why we shouldn’t have to listen to this part, or that command, we try to slip past it and get in the clear so that we aren’t in any real trouble, but

That only works with people.

We can’t dodge our creator. So the Law brings each of us before the throne of God, and we must admit that we have not loved Christ nor the Father, for we have not loved nor cherished the Word as we have been commanded. We have let ourselves be distracted, we have valued the creation more than the creator as we chased after money, recreation or fun, or even just been too lazy to priortize God’s Word. That’s why we

We Need A Paraclete.

Our helper, encourager, and comforter.

The word helper doesn’t quite do Justice to everything the Holy Spirit does, there’s so much more tied up in that one word that it’s worth learning a bit of greek to appreciate why Christ calls the Holy Spirit the Paraclete. He isn’t just going to help us with our chores, our homework, our relationships, or our finances. We poor sinners are in need of help, encouragement and comfort for how can we stand before the throne of God as we are?

This is done by teaching and reminding.

This is the help that we desperately need. For the Word is outside of us and the Word comes from God, and we need to know the Word, we need to know about the promises that God has given, for it is by this Word that we hear, be it proclaimed, be it attached to water, or bread and wine, it saves us. We need to be taught that and reminded of that on a regular basis, did you know that

He, the Holy Spirit, opens our minds to the Bible.

WIthout the Holy Spirit you cannot understand what is taught inside of these pages. The Bible remains to you a closed book this is talked about in 1 Corinthians 2:13–14 “And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

It shouldn’t surprise us then that the unbelieving world has trouble understanding, nor should it surprise us that the teachings of Scripture can be difficult especially if we haven’t been in it. It’s like a person who has never worked out and they go into the gym, they want to start off benching 250, and you’re like dear brother, maybe just lift the bar first. This is not all that the Spirit does, for the Father and the Son gave the Spirit as gift. For

The Gift of the Spirit

The Spirit sanctifies, i.e. makes us holy.

But what does it mean to be holy? Well it means we are set apart from that which is common, which is to say the world. Just as God breathed life into the clay of adam, we who were dead in our trespasses and sisns have been been brought to life by the Spirit which has not only brought us to life, but also made us sons of the living God and heirs of His kingdom. He

He also brings to us peace.

This is that peace which surpasses all understanding and trusts God’s promises spoken in the Word, that’s what faith is, trust in God’s promises, and knowing that no matter what the world might send at us that Jesus has overcome the world. Now this is

Not worldly peace, but peace that carries us.

Worldly peace is found only when the stressors are all gone, well of course you are at peace then, who wouldn’t be? But to be at peace in the midst of the storm of this world when all around us we see uncertainty, death, pain, and loss. The Spirit encourages us that this is not our home, but a place that we will be for a time, before we enter into Christ’s everlasting Kingdom. There’s something better than this life, and that helps us endure. Now the big question is

Do You Have the Spirit?

This has caused much tension.

Especially in the last century, where some groups claimed that only true Christians received a baptism of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by the speaking in tongues. There are others who seek the evidence of the Spirit in their feelings, and that worship was uplifting, exciting, etc then truly the Spirit must be there, and if you feel that way he must be in you too. The Scriptures teach neither of these things, but with how prevalent those views are it is good for us to know where the Spirit si present.

The Word is God-Spirited (2 Tim 3:16)

Now our english translation says God-breathed, but the word for breath and spirit are one and the same, and the Prophets were carried along by the Spirit, so where the Word is, there is the Spirit at work. So is the Spirit present here? Yes. It’s why we read the Word, its why our Liturgy is built on the Word, even though the Serivce may not seem exciting, the Spirit is richly present with us here each Sunday morning. On top of that,

The Spirit convicts us of 3 things.

Now to convict means to convince us of 3 things, what are they? First of sin, then righteous, and finally judgment.

So dear Christian, are you a sinner? Have you sinned in thought word and deed by what you’ve done and left undone? Well yes. You already confessed that didn’t you? As long as they weren’t just idle words passing over your lips.

Do you believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord who died for you, rose for you, and ascended into heaven that you might be declared righteous in God’s sight not based upon what you’ve done, but what Jesus did for you?

Finally, do you believe that Satan has been defeated, and that we now await the day of Jesus return when the dead in Christ are raised victorious?

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, our services may not be as exciting or lively as as other church, but the Spirit is at work here teaching us and reminding us of all that God has taught so that we might love and cherish God’s Holy Word. Let us not cast aside this precious gift or minimize His work and the role he plays in our lives, and may we continually be in the Word that our love for the Word might be strengthened by the Holy Spirit as fix our eyes on Jesus. In his Holy name, Amen.