Sermon Tone Analysis

The Day of Pentecost, June 4, 2006

The Continuing Miracle of Pentecost

*Text:* Acts 2:22–36

*Other Lessons:* Psalm 143; Ezekiel 37:1–14; John 7:37–39a

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*Sermon Theme:* This is the greater miracle we celebrate on the Day of Pentecost: God uses the words of men, in the preaching of his Law, to turn people to the Gospel and the Church.

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*Goal:* That hearers would learn of and be strengthened in faith by the working of God the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the Word of the Lord.

1.

On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came, as described in Acts 2, and when he came, two amazing things happened!

a.

He came in a manner completely unique and unrepeated.

He came in the roaring of a mighty wind and descended upon the disciples as cloven tongues of fire.

They began to speak the message of salvation in languages that they otherwise did not know.

By this means, God the Holy Spirit made it possible for the devout Jews who had gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost to hear the Gospel in their own native tongues.

This is indeed a great miracle.

b.

He came also in another way, also totally unique (that is to say, there is nothing like it in human nature or experience).

He continues to come in this manner day after day and week after week.

He causes God’s Word to be uttered in human speech, and around it, and by means of it, he gathers a multitude of people, reveals their sin and need, and offers them the gift of faith, hope, and new life in Christ.

(1)     This, too, is a great miracle, an even greater miracle than the first.

By means of it, God the Holy Spirit works through simple human words to open the wounds we ordinarily hide (even from ourselves), exposing unbelief, disbelief, and every form of unfaithfulness and sin.

(2)     All this he does that sinners may be brought to the waters of Baptism and the daily repentance that flows from believing hearts into our minds, members, and hands.

He invites sinners to hear the word of forgiveness spoken over them in gracious Absolution and receive the foretaste of the heavenly banquet in the Supper, in which Christ is both host and food.

2.

These two miracles each had a vital role in God’s Pentecost plans.

a.

It was the first miracle that immediately captured the attention of those who had come to the feast.

They could not understand what they were seeing or comprehend its significance.

(1)     Some thought that the disciples were drunken babblers.

(2)     Peter, in the name of all, explained the miracle as the fulfillment of the promise given through the prophet Joel, the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: “He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (v 33 ESV).

b.

But the first miracle prepares the way for the second, the miracle by which first Peter and, after him, an innumerable host of preachers, have been used by God the Holy Spirit to gather the holy Christian Church, extend it throughout the world, and preserve it until the coming again in glory of our Lord.

(1)     First, Peter tells who Jesus is in terms that the crowd can understand: Jesus is a man through whom God did miracles, wonders, and signs among you (v 22).

(2)     Second, Peter reproves the people for having rejected this man of God, as the Father in heaven had known they would, for that is what sinners do (v 23).

The sinner sets himself against God, whether by his open sin or by his supposed holiness.

When faced by God, sinners seek to drive him away—and do away with him altogether.

(3)     Christ Jesus could not be driven away or done away with (vv 24–32).

Death could not keep him in its power, as David had prophesied in Psalm 16, where he speaks with the voice of the coming Christ: “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay” (v 10).

God loosed him from the pains of death and raised him from the dead.

3.

This second work of the Holy Spirit, to bring people to repentance and into the Church, is indeed miraculous, because Peter’s message is not what we could call “user-friendly.”

Peter leaves his hearers no possibility of slipping out of the full significance of their rejection and its consequences.

a.

Where there is no confession of sin, there is no acceptance of forgiveness.

Where there is no recognition of falseness and past pretensions, there is no chance for a changed future.

b.

But it is not in us to know, except if we are told, or to confess, except if we are taught.

And when we come to know what we have been and done, what we have failed to be and do, we will likely either attempt to silence the accuser by disregarding the judgment or attempt to silence the person through whom the judgment has been spoken upon us.

Peter and the others knew how the world would react to their preaching; they knew what cross lay before them.

c.

But by the grace and mercy of God, not all turn away in arrogance and disgust (v 37).

Some will hear, some will repent and be baptized, and they will be added to the Church before the day of God’s grace comes to an end and the end of all days is upon us.

This Is the Greater Miracle We Celebrate on the Day of Pentecost: \\ God Uses the Words of Men, in the Preaching of His Law, \\ to Turn People to the Gospel and the Church.

4.

And, yes, the Holy Spirit still performs this miracle today.

a.

As on the Day of Pentecost, God has gathered us today around the proclamation of his pure Word, inviting to Baptism, the Word of forgiveness, and the Supper of Christ’s body and blood—all of us whom he has led to know and confess our sin and need.

b.

We need no new Day of Pentecost, for that first Day of Pentecost is still upon us.

May you continue in it, and so continue in Christ, through all your days, until it gives way to the day of the Lord’s coming.

\\ Liturgical Setting

On the day of his ascension, our Lord instructed his apostles to return to Jerusalem and await the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to fit them for the work to which he had called them.

That promised outpouring happened ten days later, on the fiftieth day after Christ’s resurrection.

That day, called Pentecost, was already a festival among the Jewish people.

From its inception, it had been for them a feast of thanksgiving for the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, but in the course of time, the rabbis had made it a time of special remembrance of God’s giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai.

The possession of this Law and their obligation to observe it was the special mark of God’s Old Testament people.

Here, on Pentecost, the Law will be preached for its highest and holiest purpose: to name and expose sin, to show the sinner his urgent need, and to drive him to Christ.

Relevant Context

The Holy Spirit was poured out as tongues of fire on the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, making it possible for them to address the international assembly gathered for the Feast of Pentecost in the native languages of those who heard them, and to announce to them what God had accomplished for them and for the redemption of Israel.

The crowds were amazed to hear the apostles speaking in their own tongues and wondered how this could happen (Acts 2:1–12).

Speaking in the name of all the apostles, Peter announced that what they were proclaiming was the fulfillment of the prophecy given through Joel (Joel 2:28–32), and that, just as Joel had promised, those who took this proclamation to heart and called on the name of the Lord would be saved (Acts 2:14–21).

The words of Peter included in vv 22–36 have within them hard words, a strong articulation of Law, spoken clearly and boldly, without fear or hesitation: “This [Jesus] was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (v 23).

For those who will receive these words and take them to heart, God offers hope through the proclamation of the Gospel and the Sacraments, as we learn in the verses that immediately follow this text (2:37–39).

It is perhaps unfortunate that they are not included in this preaching text, for the convicted sinner must not be left without the invitation to faith and new life, which faith in the Gospel brings.

In our preaching we must proclaim that Gospel.

However, we are not to attempt to turn the Law itself into Gospel, so as to deprive it of its power, or to preach from the assumption that the Law contains the heart of the Gospel within it.

Let the Law retain its right, theological purpose, but do not slight the Gospel.

The Law works death; the Gospel alone works saving faith and life.

Textual Notes

/V 22:/ /apodedeigmenon/, from /apodeiknumi/, to show, to prove by arguments, to demonstrate.

/V 24:/ /krateisthai/, from /krateō/, to become master, to hold fast.

/V 27:/ /egkataleipseis/, from /egkataleipō/, to leave helpless, to totally abandon and forsake.

/diaphthoran/, from /diaphthora/, the corruption that ensues when a dead body decays.

/V 29:/ /parrēsias/, from /parrēsia/, to speak frankly, openly, and with confidence.

/V 36:/ /asphalōs/, from /asphalēs/, safely, assuredly; here “inescapably.”

Sermon Outline