Sunday, May 24, 2026
The Day of Pentecost
Text: Acts 2:1-21
Sermon Audio
As we gather… The apostles began to speak on the day of Pentecost after the Holy Spirit came upon them. They miraculously spoke in other languages so that the whole world would be able to understand them. The people heard about the mighty works of God. This was, is, and always will be the message of the Holy Spirit. To make known the mighty works of God that bring salvation to mankind. The Holy Spirit proclaims to the world, through the mouths of the apostles, that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Holy Scripture. All people have been delivered from sin through His death on the cross and given new life through His resurrection. You were given the Holy Spirit in your baptism and His words have been put in your mouth. In these last days, God continues to make His mighty works known through the telling of the gospel of Christ. Those who have received the Holy Spirit can’t help but let the world know that they can find salvation in Christ. Thank God that He continues to use us so that His mercy can be known until He comes again in great glory.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
What does this mean? This question that the people were asking one another on the day of Pentecost is a valid one. They gathered together because they heard a sound. A sound of a great and mighty rushing wind came upon the apostles accompanied by tongues of fire. Imagine you heard a tornado rushing through the streets of La Crosse, yet there was no damage. You would certainly investigate it. This was the sound of the Holy Spirit, the very breath of God, equipping the tongues and filling the lungs of the men that God had chosen to distribute His Spirit to the world. Just as His breath brought life to the world in creation, His breath now brings new life to the world through the mouths of those that He has given His Spirit. In a great reversal of Babel, our Lord opens the mouths of His apostles to proclaim His mighty works in the languages of the world. He intends to unify the world in the language of faith. The faith that comes from hearing the words of Christ that bring eternal life.
The crowds that gathered that day were devout Jewish men. They would have been familiar with the mighty works of salvation that God had worked in the Old Testament. God often pointed the Israelites back to the fact that He was the God that delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians when making new covenants with them. He always was reminding them of His mighty deeds of deliverance. He reminded them that their households were covered by the blood of the lamb so that death would pass over them in the Exodus. He brought to their remembrance that they were once delivered through the waters of the Red Sea and their enemies were drowned in the same waters.
The mighty work of God has always been the work of delivering His people from their enemy. The people that were gathered on Pentecost heard the mighty works of God in their own languages. The Holy Spirit has one job, to point the world to where they can find deliverance from sin. This day, the act that the Spirit pointed to in the preaching of the apostles was to a different deliverance. The Holy Spirit is being let loose into the world to proclaim that Jesus is the final passover Lamb that was sacrificed so that death would pass over all people. He is proclaiming that death has eternally been defeated in the resurrection of Jesus. He is proclaiming that you are saved and your enemies are drowned behind you when you pass through the waters of Holy Baptism. You who hear and gladly receive the words of Christ and are baptized are given the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit, you have joined in His work of proclaiming to the world that there is deliverance and new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
To quote Moses from Numbers today, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” The job of a prophet is to faithfully relay God’s words exactly as He gives them. You don’t have to be a pastor to speak the Gospel of Christ to people. The pastoral office was instituted by God to be the public office by which His people would continually be served His Word and His body and blood to strengthen their Spirit that they received in their baptism. You have been filled with His Spirit. Your Spirit is strengthened here in His house where He continues to shower you with His gifts from one of His called and ordained servants. You now join in the mission of the Spirit. He has come upon the earth at Pentecost to point the nations to Christ. We are in the last days as Peter says, quoting Joel, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” God intends to use you to tell the people the mighty works of Christ.
The message of the cross sounds foolish to those who have not received the Spirit. I find it interesting that the mockers on the day of Pentecost accused the apostles of being drunk on new wine. They certainly intended this to mean that they were a bunch of drunkards. There is a certain sense in which they were right about what the apostles had been drinking. They have drunk of the new wine that is the new covenant in the blood of Christ. The old wine has expired. Jesus drank the old wine on the cross when He fulfilled the old covenant and declared that it is finished. The new wine poured from His side and is continued to be poured into the chalice for the faithful who have received the Holy Spirit. Those who drink this new wine proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes again. They partake in Christ, even today, as those who have been united to Him.
Those who hear you faithfully proclaim the truth of Jesus may presume that you are drunk as the people who mocked the apostles on Pentecost did. You who have drunk the new wine of Christ’s blood for the remission of your sins can follow Peter’s lead in the face of mocking. He gently teaches what the signs of Pentecost mean. He explains, through Scripture, how it was necessary for the Christ to suffer, be crucified, and be raised on the third day so that all can have salvation in Him. He was raised for our justification and ascended so that the whole world can receive faith through His Spirit. Only the words of the Spirit proclaiming Christ can work repentance in the heart of man and bring people to faith. The Holy Spirit is making all things new in His church.
Conversion is the work of the Spirit. He gives gifts to different people in different ways. You are given to be faithful to the truth of Christ crucified for the sins of the world. If the Lord has blessed you the ability to eloquently give a reason for the hope that is within you to your neighbor, God be praised. If you can hear your neighbors plight and simply tell them that Christ died for that, God be praised. Either way, you can point them to assemble with God’s people here where the public proclamation about what Christ has done to deliver them from sin continues. Whether or not they hear you and believe or continue to mock, you did your job as a faithful servant of Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that works through your words to create faith. Do not be discouraged. Faithfully do what God has given you to do according to the gifts that He has given you. He knows you, He loves you, and He will work through you in ways that you can’t even fathom because you have His Spirit in you. You have been added to His number in His church and He will continue to add to it those whom He chooses to call by the Gospel.
The faithful proclamation of Christ crucified for the sins of the world may not sound like a tornado running though the pews at Faith, but it is the very breath of God. The Holy Spirit is still at work drawing attention to the sound that leaves the mouths of God’s people who have received His Spirit. Whether you speak loudly to a crowd of friends or are whispering at a coffee shop, the words of Christ rush through the air as a mighty wind. Continue to hear the words of the apostles, read your Bibles, gather together in His church, partake in the Lord’s Supper, and attend Bible Studies. All of these things equip you in the Spirit that you received at the font. The Holy Spirit will continue to add to the number of Christ’s church through the mouths of the men and women who are prophesying in these last days until Jesus returns to gather all of those who receive His words gladly to Him eternally. Christ’s words bring the breath of eternal life to all who have His Spirit. Thanks be to God!
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen. Alleluia! Christ is risen!