50 days … then fire, wind and words

Acts 2:1-21 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. ⁵ Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶ When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷ Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? ⁹ Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" ¹² Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" ¹³ Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." ¹⁴ Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. ¹⁵ These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ¹⁷ "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. ¹⁸ Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. ¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. ²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. ²¹ And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

Fifty days after wiping Egyptian door posts with the blood of the Lamb, the God of Israel’s deliverance filled Mt. Sinai with thunder and lightning. His voice howled through the air as He gathered His people under the promises of His covenant and as He spoke His Law into their ears.

Fifty days after the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Jews celebrated the harvest festival. It was the gathering of the winter wheat. The people were bringing the firstfruits of their crops to dedicate them to the Lord.

Fifty days after the perfect Passover Lamb was sacrificed, fifty days since the Lord’s firstborn surrendered to the angel of death and was crucified, dead and buried. Fifty days since the Firstfruits of the resurrection stepped forth from the grave, having conquered the underworld’s Pharaoh and his legion of soldiers.

The Lord had once descended upon Mt. Sinai with the sound of thunder, with lightning displaying His presence. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended upon Jerusalem with the sound of wind, with tongues of fire displaying His presence. The Lord descended upon Mt. Sinai in fire and spoke to Moses. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jerusalem and filled Peter and the disciples with the ability to speak in other languages. Those gathered around Mt. Sinai trembled in fear and stood in place. Those gathered in Jerusalem came together in bewilderment.

The Old Testament Feast of Pentecost was a harvest of wheat and firstfruits. The New Testament Festival of Pentecost was a harvest of souls with the firstfruits being 3,000 baptized that day.

Pentecost means fifty. Fifty days … and then fire, wind and words.

There was fire. Tongues of fire were seen resting on each of the 120 gathered disciples, including Mary, the mother of Jesus. John the Baptist had told them, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come ... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:16).

We are so often lukewarm, tepid, apathetic Christians. We pay lip-service to the Lord in our prayers. We cheat God out of the firstfruits of our offerings. We give God the bare minimum of effort in our various vocations. We despise the preaching and His Word with our infrequent worship attendance.

We need the Holy Spirit to descend on us in fire. It is a fire that motivated Peter who had fifty days earlier been afraid to open his mouth when asked by a servant girl if he was one of Jesus’ disciples. But now with the fire of the Holy Spirit, Peter speaks openly and boldly before thousands. Two things embolden Peter. He had seen the risen Lord. And He had the Holy Spirit.

With the eyes of faith we have been granted sight of our risen Lord. He is risen! He is risen indeed! And we have had the Holy Spirit poured out on us in our baptisms, which by the way, also connects us with Jesus’ baptism. It is a baptism of water and the spirit, just as John had prophesied. We have also had the Holy Spirit conferred on us in the laying on of hands at our confirmation, as the pastor placed his hand on our heads and spoke the Lord’s blessing upon us.

There was wind. The Hebrew word ruach or the Greek word pneuma can both mean Spirit or wind or breath. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God. God breathed into Adam and gave him life. The wind blew over the valley of dry bones and brought them to life. In many paintings of Pentecost, artists focus on the tongues of fire, but leave out the sound of a violent wind. Instead the painters insert the image of a dove to display the visible presence of the Holy Spirit. But the dove was at Jesus’ baptism. The ruach, the pneuma, the wind of the Holy Spirit was the audible presence of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Those who heard it were bewildered, amazed, astonished and even perplexed. They asked a very Lutheran question, “What does this mean?” The sound of the Holy Spirit’s presence had called them all to the apostles’ meeting place.

The wind of the Holy Spirit still blows, calling us to the meeting place of the prophets and the apostles here at church. But sadly, many of us choose to ignore the sound of the Holy Spirit calling us to gather in His presence. The wind of the Holy Spirit blows in the sermon, Scripture lessons, sacraments, liturgy and hymns, but we so often block ourselves from the wind and ignore the Holy Spirit’s message.

Thankfully we are living in the last days that Joel prophesied when God will pour out His Holy Spirit upon all people. As God breathed into the first man and made him a “living being,” so the Holy Spirit breathes life wherever and whenever He blows like the wind. The Spirit raised up the dry bones of Israel in Ezekiel’s vision. They came to life because God had promised, “I will put my breath in you, and you will come to life” (Ezekiel 37:6). Now these last days are also the Holy Spirit’s days – when He blows life eternal upon the earth. You can’t see the wind, but you can hear it. You can’t see the Spirit, but you can hear the Word, and where the Word is preached and heard, there the Spirit is at work. You cannot anticipate the wind, but you can experience its almighty power.

There were words. The people who gathered in Jerusalem for the Pentecost festival were from all over the Mediterranean world. But they heard the good news of Jesus spoken by the disciples in their very own language and dialect. This is precisely how the Holy Spirit works. He always works through ordinary means, in this case words. Nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives. Human language. It is one of the most amazing gifts of the Spirit that the Word of God that kills and makes alive, that tears down and builds up, that is sharper than any two-edged sword, can be conveyed in ordinary human language.

Our Old Testament reading spoke of a different language event – the tower of Babel where God intervened in the ambitious plans of men to stay in one place and make a name for themselves. God turned the tower of Babel into a bunch of babbling fools. That Old Testament lesson reminds us that the ambitions of men without God will result in nothing but confusion and chaos. All of our attempts to be united, to be “one people,” will be nothing more than tower building without the Lord. We always hear people talk about everyone being together as one and how great that would be. The Lord doesn’t agree that one world anything is a good idea. God knows the mischief that sinners will make if they “all get together.”

At Pentecost, the confusion of Babel is not undone. The diversity of languages remains. Instead, God uses the diversity of tongues as a sign of His Spirit, and He brings people together not by giving them a common language, but by giving them a common Savior. “There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called— ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). Though we are very different people – different skin tones, different talents, different interests, different ideas – still God unites all together in the common bond of His Christian Church. Not united with a common language, but united around a common Savior.

The world remains skeptical. Some thought the disciples were drunk at nine in the morning, though I’ve never met anyone whose language skills improved much less expanded with drinking. As the Last Days play out, the skepticism is bound to increase, as will false teaching and teachers, deceptive spirits and spiritualities, any distraction from Jesus and His cross. The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy: “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). Our day is one of many spirits and many beliefs. It’s a religious Babel out there, and sometimes that babbling confusion even leaks into the church.

We, too, are susceptible to this babbling and confusion. It comes when we listen to what our “itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3) want to hear, instead of coming to the “knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4), by which we are saved.

The Holy Spirit has the antidote for our itching ears. It is the cooling salve of His Gospel whispered into our ears – whispered, spoken, preached and proclaimed with the breath of His voice. By God’s grace we hear the voice of the Spirit in our very own language. This is God’s way of saying, “This Gospel is for you. This life, death and resurrection of Jesus, this Baptism, this absolution, this benediction is for you.” Take it personally and trust it. Claim it. Own it. Hear it. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 3:22).

In the eyes of the world, nothing so plain as the Gospel should be so powerful. Nothing so ordinary as the Gospel should be so life-changing. Nothing so routine as the Gospel should have such an impact on so many souls.

But look at what this Gospel did. Peter had been afraid to speak about his relationship to Jesus in front of a servant girl. The disciples had run away when Jesus was arrested. They hid in a locked room. Now fifty days later, they are no longer afraid. They are preaching to thousands. And three thousand are converted on that single day of Pentecost.

That is the power of this wind, fire, and words – “it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Our baptized children are not afraid of illness. Our confirmed teenagers are not afraid to live boldly in a non-Christian environment. Our faithful members are not afraid to give a clear witness of their faith in the workplace. Our devoted elderly are not afraid to die. But that’s the thing about the message of full forgiveness through faith in Christ Jesus. It is the very tool the Holy Spirit uses to convert hearts, change lives and alter eternal destinations.

Leo the Great preached about this already in 5^th century: It has been fifty days and “from this day the trumpet of the gospel teaching resounds. From this day showers of graces and streams of benedictions irrigate all the desert and every wasteland, to renew the face of the earth. God’s Spirit hovered over the water. To take away the old darkness, beams of light flash out, when by the splendor of those glowing tongues, the Word of the Lord becomes clear and speech takes fire” (Leo the Great, Sermon 75).

It has been fifty days, and where Mt. Sinai brought terror to the Israelites, Pentecost in Jerusalem brings comfort and joy. Where the mount of Sinai dare not be touched, the Pentecost in Jerusalem is to be embraced with the heart. Where Sinai led to fear and great trembling, Pentecost in Jerusalem brings forgiveness and peace which surpasses all understanding. It has been fifty days since the firstfruits of Christ have risen from the grave and now we witness the firstfruits of the message of the resurrection converting 3,000 in one day. The fifty days marked the bringing in of the harvest of winter wheat. Today the fifty days marks the harvest of souls in the children in our school, the teenagers in our high school, the members in our congregation, and the saints who are being gathered in glory everlasting.

It has been fifty days, and by God’s grace, the Holy Spirit continues to come to us in wind, fire and word. Amen.