Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today, we remember the awesome outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit like flames of fire descended on the disciples and they preached in different languages. God the Holy Spirit used their words to bring 3000 people to the waters of Holy Baptism, trusting in Christ as their Savior.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit gets a bad rap. Even though the Holy Spirit is true God, equal in power and majesty with the Father and the Son, we think too little of the Holy Spirit’s grace and love that “calls us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all one God and work together in every way to bring their blessings for us, but God’s truth is without the Holy Spirit it would all be lost. It’s definitely true that God the Father judged our sins and damned them at the cross. It’s true that Jesus was obedient to His Father even to death for us, but none of that would help us today without the Holy Spirit. And that’s why Pentecost is a good day!
Consider this: Imagine I gave you a billion dollars and put it in the bank for you. You would think that was very nice, I’m sure. But until you can access that, I’ve done you no good. Until I give a check book or bank card or some way for you to get the money, you will be really bummed out. You won’t perceive it as good at all. You’ll be frustrated.
Now imagine I give you a billion dollars, but instead of locking it up in the vault I bring a million dollars to you every morning and put it into your hand. Which would you rather have? A billion dollars locked away that you can’t touch or put right into your hand?
This is my point, and this is why Pentecost is such an awesome day and why we praise God the Holy Spirit for His love. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead salvation was won for the whole world. Praise God, “It is finished!” He doesn’t need to die again and rise again and again to save us. Hebrews 7 says, “He sacrificed for our sins once for all when He offered Himself.” Done. Finished. Over. Mission accomplished. Praise God! But… there’s one little problem! Unless the Holy Spirit comes, what Jesus did perfectly for you and me and the world at the cross is like getting a billion dollars you can’t touch. Jesus died on the cross outside Jerusalem but you can’t go back 2000 years and thousands of miles to get it.
This is the great thing about Pentecost and why today we praise God the Father, Son and THE HOLY SPIRIT. You can’t get back to the cross. But God the Holy Spirit brings the cross and grave to you. Jesus won forgiveness, life and salvation and doesn’t lock it up in the tomb, the Holy Spirit brings to your forehead the treasure of God’s rich grace. In Baptism’s water and Word, the Holy Spirit pours His extravagant love into your life. With Christ’s Body and Blood, the Holy Spirit brings Calvary’s cross-won conquest and places it on your tongue – “This is for you! And for your sins! You are forgiven.” The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of God’s Holy Word and He still uses that pure Word of Life to whisper love and forgiveness into your ears – bringing Calvary’s cross and Easter’s tomb to your ears: “It is finished.”
Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment… The Holy Spirit takes from what is mine and makes it known to you.” Got it? The Holy Spirit kills us. He shows us our sin and how we deserve to die. He makes us cry out with the Pentecost crowd: “Brothers, what should we do?” And then the Holy Spirit makes us paupers rich. We’re tattered, dying bums lost in spiritual bankruptcy, and He clothes us in Jesus by bringing us to faith. He makes us eternally rich with a treasure that’s beyond any this world offers – a heavenly mansion by grace through faith for Jesus’ sake.
Abby and Kahre, Pentecost is a good day for confirmation. A few years ago, the Holy Spirit joined you to Jesus in your Baptism. Today, as you confess the faith into which you were baptized, the Holy Spirit puts Christ into you – His life, His strength, His forgiveness, His body and blood. God has His own miraculous ways to feed our faith and Christ’s body and blood you receive today is an infusion of life and power from Christ the Vine to you, the branches.
Abby’s confirmation verse says, “Fight the good fight of the faith.” Abby and Kahre, all your lives you’ve put up with loving but pesky big brothers, and my guess is it works both ways. Your parents probably remember endlessly pleading, “Stop fighting!” From the earliest age, you’ve been told not to fight. You may have been told it’s good to fight for the defenseless and those who can’t help themselves, but for the most part, you’ve been told fighting is bad. Don’t do it.
Today, God is telling you to fight – not with Adam and Tyler, and not out of meanness – but to “fight the good fight of the faith.” All of us suffer from the fear and anxiety of living our faith. There are times when the world will jump up and loudly shout against God’s Word of truth. They’ll say we must tolerate sin. They’ll excuse it and even glamorize it with teen magazines and Hollywood movie stars and television shows that make sin look like the true path to happiness. While God has and will bless your lives with dear friends and family, there will be lots of times when standing for what’s right and holding on to God’s Word will not make you popular. There may even be times when it hurts your heart to know you can’t go follow the choices others are making.
That’s why Paul says, “Fight the good fight.” There are some fights worth having. God’s Word is His gift to you. When the world says, compromise it – fight the good fight. When the world says soften it or look the other way, God says, “Fight the good fight.” When the devil says, you’ll be happier doing it my way – fight the good fight.
If that all sounds kind of militaristic, that’s not a bad thing. You are Christian soldiers, called to put on the full armor of God. But while you prepare to fight the good fight of faith, remember that Christ has already won your victory. In Jesus, God has taken your side and declared you winners. The Holy Spirit fights for you, bringing you strength and forgiveness from heaven You and I are loved by God. We don’t deserve it, but Christ brought us peace with God and made us part of His eternal family through faith. When you receive the Lord’s Supper, Jesus brings peace to us soldiers of the cross.
No matter what the world thinks, you need never doubt how God thinks toward you, as He gives into your lips Himself, His very body and blood for your forgiveness. Resting in Jesus through faith, you can be confident of your heavenly home.
Some might think it’s cocky or prideful to know you’ve got a place in heaven. Kahre’s confirmation verse reads: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Christians are never boastful. Because we know God’s Word, we know better than anyone else what we are, and we can say with St. Paul, “In me there is no good thing.” We can’t boast, because God’s Word says even the best things we can do are still sinful and weak. True Christian humility is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in us and causes us to see how unworthy we are of God’s love.
But it doesn’t end there. When the Holy Spirit shows us how deeply we deserve God’s wrath, He leads us to understand how amazing God’s grace is – that to redeem slaves, He sent His Son. So we have a boast after all – but not in ourselves. We boast that our God is so perfect in power that He crushed the devil’s head for us. We boast that Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross is the perfect, payment for our sins. We boast that there’s nothing here on earth worth comparing to the joy that will be revealed in us. We boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to us, and we to the world.
Like fighting, boasting is usually a bad thing. But here again, God’s Word gives you permission to boast in Jesus – your Big Brother in human flesh and true God from eternity. That’s worth fighting for, and it’s worth boasting about. May God the Holy Spirit who has called you to this heavenly hope, strengthen and preserve you in His truth until we and all His Church go home. Amen.
And now may the peace of God which surpasses human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.