Day of Pentecost Year C, 2025

Day of Pentecost Year C

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

This morning, I want to focus on our Gospel lesson, specifically John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

Throughout most of our church year, our lessons, our attention, and our worship are focused on the Second Person of the Holy Trinity - the Son. But today, this Day of Pentecost, we take the time to focus on the Second Person, who Jesus calls “the Helper” in verse 26.

What do we know about the Holy Spirit? To answer that question, we should always start with the 3rd article of the Apostles’ Creed, which describes what we believe about the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. Say it with me:

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic (Christian) church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Let’s review the explanation from Luther’s Small Catechism - what every member of this church who was confirmed as a Lutheran has studied:

The good Lutheran question: What does this mean? I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church he daily and abundantly forgives all my sins, and the sins of all believers, and on the last day he will raise me and all the dead and will grant eternal life to me and to all who believe in Christ. This is most certainly true. [Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 345.]

That was the Small Catechism, which is helpful, but let’s dig in a little deeper, with some more help from Dr. Luther’s Large Catechism:

“As the Father is called Creator and the Son is called Redeemer, so on account of his work the Holy Spirit must be called Sanctifier, the One who makes holy.

How does this sanctifying take place? Answer: Just as the Son obtains dominion by purchasing us through his birth, death, and resurrection, etc., so the Holy Spirit effects our sanctification through the following: the communion of saints or Christian church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. In other words, he first leads us into his holy community, placing us upon the bosom of the church, where he preaches to us and brings us to Christ.” [Tappert, 415]

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would be sent in His name, teach them all things, and help them remember all that Jesus had said to them. Luther’s explanation isn’t much different, but he categorizes it under one heading: Sanctification … which is just a fancy word for “making things holy”. So what does it mean to be made “holy”? I’m concerned that most of the time we hear this word in the negative sense that the world uses it: “holier than thou”, which is meant to insinuate arrogance and self-righteousness. What does the word really mean?

If you do a word study on just this word - kadesh (קִדֵּשׁ) in Hebrew, and ἅγιος (hagios) in Greek - you’d find 4-5 pages on the qualities of God: His might, His glory, His awesome-ness. This word, in fact, is the word used consistently in the Old Testament prophets to refer to the person of God. “[This word] contains the innermost description of God’s nature...”, such as in Isaiah 6:3 “And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’” [Kittel, 100] Any time in Scripture, or in the Liturgy when the word “holy” is used three times like that (as we will do after I chant the Preface), that is called the Trisagion, which means “3 times holy” in Greek.

So if “holy” is the very quality and nature of God Himself, how can we be made holy? If holy is the adjective, what is the noun? In Greek, it’s easy: hagios is the adjective and hagioi is the noun. In English, we get “holy one”… but we have a separate word for it: saint(s). Now this isn’t referring only to people who have been canonized by the historic church: Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint Timothy… this is the gathering of God’s holy people… which we call “the church”. You are hagioi… saints.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints… let’s pause right there. Luther says that the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith. So we know that He works through the Gospel. He has called us together to hear this same Gospel, so that He can continue to work on us. He is enlightening us in this gathering. Yes, through the reading and proclamation of God’s Word… but also in our interactions with other saints.

Paul - the writer of most of the New Testament - spends much of his writings describing the work of the church and the service of the saints:

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 5. The Holy Life of Christians.

We are:

- to receive the ἅγιοι [saints] suitably (

Holy is a moral state of being. [ibid.] It is being “like” God. This makes sense, right? If Jesus was sent to take on flesh, and He became the perfect human being… he lived the life we were all created to live. He showed us what the life of a child of God is supposed to be. Part of His time among us was to be an example for us to follow. So if we are to “conform our lives to his”, and we become more like him, we become more holy - sanctified. (That’s from the Latin word for holy - sanctus.)

The Holy Spirit is making us holy through the church, in the communion of saints. Luther tells us that “holy Christian church” and “communion of saints” mean the same thing. He would prefer the phrase “holy community”, which to him means this:

The Book of Concord The Third Article

I believe that there is on earth a little holy flock or community of pure saints under one head, Christ. It is called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith, mind, and understanding. It possesses a variety of gifts, yet is united in love without sect or schism.

Of this community I also am a part and member, a participant and co-partner in all the blessings it possesses. I was brought to it by the Holy Spirit and incorporated into it through the fact that I have heard and still hear God’s Word, which is the first step in entering it. Before we had advanced this far, we were entirely of the devil, knowing nothing of God and of Christ.

Until the last day the Holy Spirit remains with the holy community or Christian people. Through it he gathers us, using it to teach and preach the Word. By it he creates and increases sanctification, causing it daily to grow and become strong in the faith and in the fruits of the Spirit.

...the forgiveness of sins… - What does the Holy Spirit have to do with that? This happens in the church:

The Book of Concord The Third Article

in this Christian church we have the forgiveness of sins, which is granted through the holy sacraments and absolution as well as through all the comforting words of the entire Gospel. Toward forgiveness is directed everything that is to be preached concerning the sacraments and, in short, the entire Gospel and all the duties of Christianity. Forgiveness is needed constantly, for although God’s grace has been won by Christ, and holiness has been wrought by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word in the unity of the Christian church, yet because we are encumbered with our flesh we are never without sin.

Therefore everything in the Christian church is so ordered that we may daily obtain full forgiveness of sins through the Word and through signs appointed to comfort and revive our consciences as long as we live. Although we have sin, the Holy Spirit sees to it that it does not harm us because we are in the Christian church, where there is full forgiveness of sin. God forgives us, and we forgive, bear with, and aid one another.

And that right there is why I pushed so hard when I got here to have the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper more frequently - more forgiveness. I can only speak for myself, but I could hear God’s forgiveness every day. I could taste it every day, and it would never be too often. I am painfully aware of my own sins, and I look forward to each Sunday when I can hear it, and even more so when I can taste God’s forgiveness in the precious body and blood of His Son.

Luther continues as he explains “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting”:

The Book of Concord The Third Article

...since holiness has begun and is growing daily, we await the time when our flesh will be put to death, will be buried with all its uncleanness, and will come forth gloriously and arise to complete and perfect holiness in a new, eternal life.

Now we are only halfway pure and holy. The Holy Spirit must continue to work in us through the Word, daily granting forgiveness until we attain to that life where there will be no more forgiveness. In that life are only perfectly pure and holy people, full of goodness and righteousness, completely freed from sin, death, and all evil, living in new, immortal and glorified bodies.

All this, then, is the office and work of the Holy Spirit, to begin and daily to increase holiness on earth through these two means, the Christian church and the forgiveness of sins. Then, when we pass from this life, he will instantly perfect our holiness and will eternally preserve us in it by means of the last two parts of this article.

The work of the Holy Spirit will be complete in the resurrection of the dead, when we are given our resurrected and glorified bodies. In Christ we will be judged “not guilty” and welcomed into “the life everlasting” where we will enjoy the Feast of Victory for our God with Him forever. That is the end goal.

But in the here-and-now, the Holy Spirit has work to do, and that work happens in the holy catholic (or Christian) church. When you hear someone tell you “I can worship at home, I don’t need a church” or “I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious” - now you can explain to them why they’re wrong. By not participating in the communion/community of saints, they deprive themselves of the Holy Spirit’s work. They are missing out on the opportunity to be made more holy. “Creation is past and redemption is accomplished, but the Holy Spirit carries on his work unceasingly until the last day. For this purpose he has appointed a community on earth, through which he speaks and does all his work.” [Tappert, 419]

When the creeds were written 17 or 18 centuries ago, they were written to codify what we truly believe, and to teach new Christians more about who God is. Luther’s summary wraps it up nicely:

The Book of Concord The Third Article

God gives himself completely to us, with all his gifts and his power, to help us keep the Ten Commandments: the Father gives us all creation, Christ all his works, the Holy Spirit all his gifts.

God gives so much to us, and that includes, perhaps most of all, Himself. We have received much from Him for which we can be thankful.

So, church, I hope when you go out these doors today, you have a good sense of what you take with you. The Holy Spirit has been working on you. You have the Word of God and His Gospel. You will have received the precious Body and Blood of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. You will have been among the saints of God and shared with each other the worship and praise of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Today, you have been made holy. More holy than you were yesterday. And now you are being sent to serve. How will you do that? Let’s all pray that as the Holy Spirit has worked on us now, He will continue to work and guide us so that we’ll know exactly how we are to serve. Let Him keep working on us in the days ahead, so that others will know His love and enjoy His gifts as we have.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.