Dear Christian friends:

Pentecost is not just some great event that happened a long time ago to which we look back and celebrate such as the Fourth of July. It is that, but it is much more. It is something that goes on and on until the end of time. Our text which is the Second Lesson for this Sunday, which has been read, illustrates this on-going nature of Pentecost. Are we aware of this?

Rev. M. Russell: "Pentecost happens for someone everyday. Sometimes it happens in the most unlikely places and to the strangest people and at the most inopportune times but it happens just the same. Pentecost happens because we so often allow our bonfire faith to dwindle down to a mess of dying embers and ashes. Pentecost happens because people who meet Jesus are mandated to tell other people about him. Pentecost happens because we lack "boldness" and we hide our lamps under bushel baskets. Pentecost happens because we are called to be witnesses of Jesus moving in our lives and in our world: we're not called to be indifferent bystanders." (Rev. M. Russell, paster of Greenwood, Delaware United Methodist Church)

We should be grateful that Pentecost is ongoing. If it weren't where would we be? We wouldn't be here this morning.


I. If Pentecost is to be ongoing for us, we need to repent, to live a life of repentance.

A. This was true of God's people that first Pentecost as our text shows.

1. Repentance comprises three steps: conviction of one's sin; turning with faith to Jesus the Savior and walking in the new and godly way with the Spirit's help.

2. The Spirit through Peter convicted God's people that first Pentecost. Peter, speaking for all the Apostles that first Pentecost Sunday, had just finished giving a rousing sermon in which he showed that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Christ promised by God through the prophets and so proved himself this by signs and wonders which he had done among them. From David's writings in the Psalms Peter showed that the Christ must suffer and die and then arise from death and ascend up into heaven to sit at God's right hand.

He concluded this powerful sermon by saying to the people: "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." (Acts 2:14-16) So powerful, so Spirit filled was Peters sermon that many who heard it were convicted of their terrible sin before God. We read in our text: "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" (verse 37)

3. Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off - for all whom the Lord our God will call." (verses 38-39) There you have the second step of repentance, being directed to Jesus Christ and his saving work, and then believing in Jesus by the Spirits urging.

4. Now we come to the third step of repentance. Peter continued warning them and pleading with them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." (verse 40) He means to say: "Turn from the evil ways of this world and follow the ways of God.

B. We, God's people today, need also to repent if there is to be an ongoing Pentecost in us and with us.

1. God's Word also convicts us of sin. The Spirit, working through the Word accomplishes this. (The Gospel Lesson) Peter could just as well say to us what he said to Israel that first Pentecost: "Let all the members of First Lutheran be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." True, we were not the direct, physical, instruments of Christ's crucifixion as were some of the Jews in Peter's audience that day, yet it was for our sinfulness and for our sins that he was crucified that Good Friday. Our lovelessness, our hatred, our prejudices, our inhumanity to our fellow man, our indifference to God's will, not to mention our innate original corruption and concupiscence was the reason for his agony on Calvary. We need to say with the hymnist: "I was there on Calvary; I crucified the Christ of God, I nailed him to the tree." "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" You can bet your life on it that you were. You were there all right, all guilty and blood stained.

2. We, too, need to be "cut to the heart"! Then we need desperately to hear the messenger of the Lord say to us: "Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." We need daily remember our baptism and its significance, for it signifies that the old Adam is us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts, and again a new man daily come forth and arise who shall live before God in righteousness and true holiness. (Martin Luther, Fourthly of The Sacrament of Holy Baptism)

3. We also need to be admonished as Peter admonished God's people that first Pentecost: "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." And believe me our generation is indeed corrupt and we and our children may easily be led astray from the traditions and values of the people of God. Vice President Dan Quale, was right on when he recently cited the writers and producers of such television shows as Murphy Brown for contributing to the moral decline of our nation. We need to be concerned and zealous about turning away from the bad and following the good.

If there is to be an ongoing Pentecost in lives we need to daily repent and especially on Sundays as a family of God in the public worship service.

II. This means that we need to be faithful in the use of the means of grace and in our practice of fellowship.

A. The faithful, regular, salutary use of the means of grace.

1. In our text we read that this was true of God's people after the first Pentecost. It says, "They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (verse 42) There can be no ongoing Pentecost without the Spirit and there can be no Spirit without the Word and the Sacraments.

2. I am a bit dismayed with all the loose talk we hear these days regarding the Holy Spirit. To hear some talk, you would imagine that they expect to receive the Holy Spirit as an injection of some kind of spiritual heebie- jeebies, which will set them afire with new life, dancing and clapping in the aisles. For them it is a matter of reaching a level of emotionalism which they have not heretofore experienced. I wonder just how different they are from those who get their high in other ways - through alcohol, drugs and a good roller coaster ride. Others imagine that if somehow they will get together with the right people, pray hard enough, do all the right things, and be the right kind of people, the Spirit is their reward.

3. I find no basis for such talk and thinking in the Bible. Rather, what we find in the Bible, and more specifically from the words of Jesus himself is that the Holy Spirit cannot be received apart from His cross. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit does not speak independently of Himself: He glorifies Jesus! He receives of Jesus and shows Jesus unto us - that he is the eternal Son of God incarnate; that he willingly and innocently took upon himself the sin and damnation of the whole world and suffered that upon Calvary's cross for the forgiveness of sins; that he arose victoriously on Easter morning and forty days later ascended into heaven to sit down at the right hand of God. There is no ongoing Pentecost without the Spirit and there is no receiving of the Spirit without Law and Gospel, confession of sins and the forgiveness which happens with the regular, salutary use of the Word and the Sacraments. Thank God that First Lutheran has been carrying on a Word and Sacrament ministry for 100 years! On this One Hundredth Anniversary resolve to continue this God appointed, traditional, dignified, Spirit giving ministry! This will assure an ongoing Pentecost at First Lutheran.

B. The ongoing Pentecost also requires or results in the practice of Christian love and fellowship.

1. After the first Pentecost God's people participated in Spirit made fellowship our text tells us. We read, "All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people." (verses 44-47a)

2. They set up a kind of socialistic society, "having everything in common." This does not mean that Christians today must set up such a society. But it does mean that Christians who are led by the Spirit truly love one another and be concerned about each others well being, both the spiritual well being and the physical.

3. Richard W. Patt, pastor of Sherman Park Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin says it very well: "The opening verse of the Old Testament Lesson for Pentecost revives the dream of Pentecost: "At first, the people of the whole world had only one language and used the same words. What is the universal language all can understand? Music comes pretty close. During last years three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, this master's music was played extensively for the first time in many places of the world. And the people understood it. Music, having a universality about it, cannot be denied anywhere in the world. That is part of the power of all music - its language is absorbable." Patt continues: "A language even more universal is love. That is why love will always be the secret ingredient in our dreams about Pentecost. Love is not only universal in character, but it begets unity as well. Our dreams for Pentecost oneness must result in Christian love."

So goes the folk song:

"We Are One In The Spirit
We Are One In The Lord
And We Pray That All Unity
May One Day Be Restored
And They’ll Know We Are
Christians By Our Love, By Our Love;
Yes, They’ll Know We Are Christians
By Our Love!"

We Are One In The Spirit-Hymn

Conclusion: May God give us a Spirit-led, ongoing Pentecost here at First Lutheran.

Amen.