The Feast of Pentecost
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship
Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Daylight Time
The melodies are linked in the hymn name.
The lyrics are linked in the hymn number.
The Hymn # 236 Creator Spirit
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual
The Gospel
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #237 All Glory Be
The Holy Spirit Shall Teach You
The Communion Hymn # 234 Holy Ghost with Light Divine
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #246 Holy, Holy, Holy
KJV Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? 8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. 12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
KJV John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. 25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
Pentecost
O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou almighty Son of God: We beseech Thee, send Thy Holy Spirit into our hearts, through Thy word, that He may rule and govern us according to Thy will, comfort us in every temptation and misfortune, and defend us by Thy truth against every error, so that we may continue steadfast in the faith, increase in love and all good works, and firmly trusting in Thy grace, which through death Thou hast purchased for us, obtain eternal salvation, Thou who reignest, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
The Holy Spirit Shall Teach You
KJV John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
This is a Gospel lesson full of promises and blessings. The sermons of Jesus always gave the disciples Gospel Promises and often warnings as well. As Lewis said, the scariest words in the Bible come from Jesus. But that is because He knew what abandoning the Gospel meant, not only for individuals, but also for entire nations.
Loving Jesus includes guarding His Words. Too many want to pick and choose what they will believe. This week we heard a famous Reformed Old Testament teacher, Bruce Waltke. He was speaking about Proverbs and politics. He said God's Word needs no defense. The Word defends itself - which is so true. He spoke about the two regiments and used Luther's language about that, even though the professor is a Calvinist. But he is also famous for saying that Christians have to give up Creation because there is so much going for Evolution.
Mrs. Ichabod was rather upset when I looked up his statement on Evolution, after we got back from Oklahoma City. But I thought it was typical of the erosion of Calvinistic teaching. When human reason judges the Word, as Waltke was clearly doing, then one article after another will be given up until nothing is left. The saying is true - "Young Calvinist, old Unitarian."
If man love Me, he will guard my Words. Because the Scriptures are perfectly harmonious, with no errors or contradictions, pulling one article of faith away means throwing the rest into confusion.
If God cannot create the universe through His Creating Word, then how can God forgiven sins through the Word? The second is really a greater marvel, and man should recognize that. After all, they imagine that all the elements can gather themselves into life and live in perfect balance with each other. I let the bugs go loose and have their fun in the garden. That only attracts the creatures that live on those bugs. On earth, land, and in the air, I have beneficial creatures that hunt down the pests. And they imagine this all evolved over billions of years.
But how does God's peace and forgiveness come about? Once Creation is discarded, how can a Word or Words create faith and take away sin? One must eventually conclude that a moral life is necessary - man must do this himself. And from that, as human reason runs away with all topics. Man must live for himself and no other.
The Promise is Real - and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
The individual who loves Jesus and keeps His Words will experience the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity remaining with him. The power of the Gospel creating faith is also the energy of the believer moving that person to love the Word even more, to trust in God, and to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God.
God is not divided. God is One, and yet there are Three Persons in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the Word of God teaches us about the particular nature of the Persons. Jesus taught the change in Gospel ministry, from His personal visits to various areas and people to the Holy Spirit directing the apostles to teach and often to flee - across the world.
The Word is not simply Jesus, but the Word from the Father and the Son, the Spirit revealing this truth. Those who reject any Word of Jesus are also rejecting God the Father and blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
The Unitarians in their pious unbelief said they believed in the Father alone, and not in the Son and the Holy Spirit. But rejecting the Son is rejecting the Father. Rejecting the Spirit is rejecting the Father. Thus it is no surprise that the Unitarians moved from emphasizing God the Father alone to being complete atheists, working with other atheistic but very moral (in their opinion) groups - like the Would-Be-Goods, the Ethics Society. (See the delightful E. Nesbit books for the Would-Be-Goods)
As I mentioned earlier, certain articles of faith are death-traps for believers, unless they see the Word in its entirety. Then they realize all of the Word goes together and all is in harmony. Jesus warned about the cross, persecution, and hatred, and He bore the cross Himself as our Savior and as our example.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
By teaching these things to the disciples in person, Jesus fixed the lessons in their minds so they would doubly remember them later. The Holy Spirit would bring these lessons to their minds and they would also recall the moments with Jesus in His earthly ministry and after His resurrection. These were powerful points of anchorage for the disciples - knowing, remembering, reliving those hours.
We have the ministry of Jesus from the perspective of four human writers with one divine inspiration from the Spirit. Those who would mislead the sheep make it appear that there are many contradictions. The more we study the Word, the more we see there are infinite contradictions...among the human writers, but no contradictions in the Word itself. So what will we trust?
The Word is not like the synodical leaders who cannot bear a critical word. The Scriptures can be studied alongside any commentary and that commentary will be judged by the Word, not vice versa, if someone reads with sincere faith, trusting it is God's Word, belonging to Him alone.
I was a bit disappointed that the Calvinist professor gave up on Creation, but not shocked. He could defend Evolution all day and it would not move me. I garden and I read John 1 and Genesis 1. I even respect Darwin in certain respects, not for his theories, but for his diligence in certain areas. However, nothing written by man trumps God's Word.
The false teachers like to say "Oh, Lenski is wrong about that." or "Hoenecke agrees with us," hoping to pry people away from the Word and follow them. Whether we agree with one book or another, the Spirit judges them all.
Many have contacted me to say, "I don't agree with everything you write." I always respond, "The issue is - do you agree with the Scriptures and the Confessions?" They have nothing to say after that.
- He shall teach you all things,
- and bring all things to your remembrance,
- whatsoever I have said unto you.
We know how 66 books of the Bible can be in perfect harmony and provide us with a unified Truth. The human authors have one divine Voice.
The Holy Spirit will teach the apostles all things. What Jesus taught them will be remembered vividly and kept alive and vibrant in their preaching and teaching.
This will not be here and there, but with all things He taught - and to make this especially clear - every single thing Jesus taught.
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
 |
| Looking for UOJ somewhere, as some claim. Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? |
16. But in addition to what is thus preached, something else is needed; for even though I hear the preaching, I do not at once believe Therefore, God adds his Holy Spirit, who impresses this preaching upon the heart, so that it abides there and lives, It is a faithful saying that Christ has accomplished everything, has removed sin and overcome every enemy, so that through him we are lords over all things. But the treasure lies yet in one pile; it is not yet distributed nor Invested. Consequently, if we are to possess it, the Holy Spirit must come and teach our hearts to believe and say: I, too, am one of those who are to have this treasure. When we feel that God has thus helped us and given the treasure to us, everything goes well, and it cannot be otherwise than that man’s heart rejoices in God and lifts itself up, saying Dear Father, if it is thy will to show toward me such great love and faithfulness, which I cannot fully fathom, then will I also love thee with all my heart and be joyful, and cheerfully do what pleases thee. Thus, the heart does not now look at God with evil eyes, does not imagine he will cast us into hell, as it did before the Holy Spirit came, when it felt none of the goodness, love, or faithfulness of God, but only his wrath and disfavor.
 |
| Justification by faith is taught throughout the Book of Concord. |
The peace of God can only come from the forgiveness of sin. Jesus did not promise His disciples earthly peace, which is so easily taken away, but eternal peace. Their short span of turmoil would have to develop because the enemies of God's Word are easily stirred up by the truth.
In contrast, the engines of apostasy all work together, honor each other, reward each other, and work in harmony against the Gospel. They may attack one article of faith or another, and some specialize in one attack or another. But they log-roll effectively, helping out each other's causes knowing they have one great cause, helping their Father Below, often by mouthing the words of faith.
But when we are allies of God's Word and trust His promises, the fruit of the Spirit has to develop. We are in another week of rain, which gave us rain beetles last night. The flowers and vegetables planted are simply bursting with life as the rain feeds their infrastructure (microbes, worms) and fills everything with natural nitrogen compounds. The roses are just one example.
This is God's will, that we have life in abundance through the Gospel, and that begins with the peace that passes all human understanding.
