This Sunday, June 5, is Pentecost Sunday. (Wear red to church.)
This week’s sermon will be: Come, Holy Spirit!
This week’s readings are:
Message: Pentecost
Birthday of the Church – Not really!
- The Church consists of all believers of all times.
- What we call the Old Testament is the Scriptures of the people who awaited God’s promise of a Savior, now fulfilled in Jesus.
- We, with them, live and trust in God’s promises – fulfilled and yet-to-be fulfilled.
Pentecost is a fulfillment.
- This was a festival of Israel with two themes
o
One of three Jewish harvest festivals.
o
It also served as an annual observation of the
giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai.
- A Great Harvest
o
Matthew 9:37 – The harvest is great … pray to
the Lord of harvest …
o
About 3000 souls
o
John Chrysostom said that, “the time was come to
put in the sickle of the word; and here, as the sickle, keen-edged, came the
Spirit down.”
- The Law on Our Hearts
o
Jeremiah 31:33 - For this is the covenant that I
will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares
the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on
their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
o
Acts 2:37 – “Now when [the people] heard
[Peter’s sermon] they were cut to the heart …
o
As Peter preached about Jesus’s death and
resurrection, the people
§
Were convicted of their sin.
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Also, received faith to believe in their savior.
- Wind, Fire, and Voices
o
The three “miracles of Pentecost”
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Great wind
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Tongues of fire
§
Preaching in different tongues
o
A description of Mt. Sinai at the giving of the
Law - For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and
darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a
voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken
to them. (Heb 12:18-19)
o As with fire, wind, and voice God the Holy Spirit delivered the condemning Law, he here with fire, wind, and voices proclaims forgiveness and life in Christ’s death and resurrection.
Pentecost is about Jesus
- Yes, the Holy Spirit (they are not at odds!)
- This work continues, perhaps not as outwardly dramatic, but with all the mystery and power of that day as we proclaim Jesus by the power of the Spirit and the Spirit brings faith and eternal life to those who hear.
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