Text: John 7:37-39
The Day of Pentecost
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Sermon from the LCC – Written Sermons.
From one end to the other, the Holy Scriptures are ultimately and always all about Jesus. That is why, generally speaking, it is the Gospel Reading – the accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus – that drive the theme of the day. But at Pentecost . . . the account of the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the church as we read in Acts, chapter 2 – that seems to take centre stage because it is the story.
It is kind of familiar, you know, the story from Acts, chapter 2. Pentecost was a major Old Testament festival also known as the Feast of Weeks because it was 50 days after Passover . . . thus seven weeks, seven weeks of seven days, a week of weeks. It celebrated the first fruits – the first of the wheat harvest. It was a big deal, and people would come from afar for the Passover and stay on during those fifty days for Pentecost before going home. They came with lots of anticipation, but could not have imagined what they were going to receive this one particular year.
The Church was small at that time – only 120 believers. There was the sound of a rushing wind. Tongues as of fire rested on the apostles, and they preached Christ in many different languages that they did not know. People were amazed. They heard about the promised Saviour. The Holy Spirit called them by the Gospel, and many came to faith in Jesus. Then, they took that saving faith to their homes in various far-off places and proclaimed Christ to their families and neighbours. And so, the Church took a major leap forward.
That is what we usually hear about on Pentecost Sunday . . . and, it’s a good thing . . . good to know. The Holy Spirit is given and active, and the Church grows . . . and continues to grow through the centuries until it is right here, right now, including you and me gathered here today. It’s a good story to know because it ends up being our story. But then, there are the other readings appointed for this day. And the Gospel Reading from St. John seems a little out of place . . . a bit of an oddity. And yet, it isn’t that at all, for it fits right in with the big events that we normally think of on Pentecost Sunday.
St. John tells about Jesus at a feast – a different feast at a different time and place. So we read: “On the last and great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
Jesus is at The Feast of Booths or The Feast of Tabernacles – also an important religious Jewish feast which recalls the time of the Exodus and Moses when the people lived in booths, in shelters, in tents, while they sojourned in the wilderness for 40 years. On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus speaks about living water flowing out of the heart of believers. And then, St. John tells us this rather important detail – that Jesus said this about the Spirit, who believers were to receive, but had not received because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
And this little comment of Jesus about the Spirit fits in nicely with this the Day of Pentecost – the day we remember the full, unlimited outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is telling us something important here – that the Spirit is like water that He gives us to drink so that we will never thirst again . . . because it is in fact the Spirit who gives us Christ, who gives us faith in Christ in our hearts. So we thus say in the catechism: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.
In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.” That is who the Holy Spirit is and that is what He does.
But here in John, chapter 7, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given. We’re not quite to Acts, chapter 2, because Jesus was not yet glorified. That Jesus was not yet glorified is what holds this all together. And here is where we often stumble and our thinking gets all messed up. Being glorified is not to be big, magnificent, and impressive. When Jesus talks about Him being glorified, He is, instead, talking about His crucifixion, about His hanging right on the cross . . . abandoned, suffering, and dying. It’s not beautiful but rather gory, ugly, and shameful. His resurrection and ascension? Well, those seem like glory; but not the cross, not suffering and death. We don’t see any glory in that.
And yet, there is, as Jesus Himself says. St. John tells us that when Jesus is glorified on the cross that the Holy Spirit will be given in great and wondrous ways . . . as we see on the Day of Pentecost. Good thing that we have just gone through the seasons of Lent and Easter and are reminded of some of these things. So, do you remember the last words of Jesus on the cross to commit His spirit into the hands of His heavenly Father? He commits His spirit to the Father, so that the Father can now send the Holy Spirit as a result of Jesus’ accomplishing His work of being glorified on the cross. Then, too, when Jesus is raised from the dead, He appears to His frightened disciples in the upper room and breathes on them the Holy Spirit.
Yes, once Jesus finishes His work, the flood gates are thrown wide open – the Holy Spirit is now given and poured out abundantly – not only to the apostles in the locked upper room on the evening of that first Easter Day; but now in a fuller way as we hear about 50 days later on that first Pentecost. Now that Jesus has been glorified, the Holy Spirit is given without limit. He works anywhere and in anyone, wherever He pleases . . . not like in the days of Moses when the elders had the Spirit, but only for a short time. No, now, the Holy Spirit is poured out in abundance and goes out to all people, to men and women, to the Parthians, Medes and Elamites, to people of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Cretans and Arabs, and everywhere else too.
And do you know what? In time, the Holy Spirit has come all the way to us here and now in this simple little church, to you who are gathered together right here and now. He comes to call us by the Gospel that we might have faith and be sustained in that saving faith in Jesus Christ . . . and that we might then take that same faith home with us and share it with our family and friends and neighbours so that “streams of living water” might flow within them, too.
Think about it – anywhere we now go, the Holy Spirit is not only sending us out to others as witnesses to Christ in word and in deed . . . but is the One who empowers that word to bring people to faith in Christ who was glorified on the cross where alone we and others have forgiveness, life, and salvation. It’s His work – the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s His Word – a good word . . . a promising word . . . a word of hope and life . . . a powerful, creating word to bring to all those around us so that they might have the same faith, the same hope, and the same eternal destiny that we have Jesus Christ and who has promised: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from him.”
Amen.
"If God is for us, who is against us?" 