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Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord with all your graces nowoutpoured. Amen.

Christians celebrate three major festivals. Christmas is thecelebration of Jesus’s birth. Easter is the celebration of Jesus’sresurrection. Today’s festival is Pentecost. It doesn’t get the hype that theother two get. Christians usually have a good grasp of the importance ofChristmas and Easter; less so with Pentecost. So today we will speak about theimportance of Pentecost, but before that we should speak about what happened.

We will begin with Good Friday and Easter. Jesus’s death onGood Friday and his Resurrection on Easter changed everything. Jesus died forsin and was raised with power. The Gospels describe how things were with Jesusafter the resurrection, and things were a bit strange. Oftentimes people didnot immediately recognize who Jesus was. Mary Magdalene didn’t immediatelyrecognize Jesus on Easter morning at the tomb. On Easter evening the discipleswho were traveling to the village of Emmaus didn’t immediately recognize him.

In addition to Jesus not being immediately recognized, he woulddo things with his body that he hadn’t done before. He suddenly disappearedfrom the Emmaus disciples after they recognized him. He suddenly appeared tothe disciples in the upper room, even though the doors were locked. Jesus madethese different appearances, speaking somewhat briefly—it seems—to hisdisciples, but the things he would say during these appearances were extremelyimportant.

In Matthew 28 he appeared to his disciples and told them tomake disciples of all nations. Christians should baptize, teach what Jesustaught, and Jesus would be with them until the end of the age. In John chapter20, in that upper room, Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whosoever’s sins you forgive, theyare forgiven. Whosoever’s sins you retain, they are retained.” Withthose words Jesus commanded his Christians to forgive the sins of all whorepent, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant so long as they do notrepent. These are extremely important instructions that continue to be carriedout in the Christian Church.

Jesus appeared and spoke with his disciples, here and there,over the course of 40 days. Then Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at the righthand of God the Father. We had a church service to commemorate that ten daysago, on a Thursday evening. Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father toreign and rule over all things. The way that he reigns and rules in hisspiritual kingdom is through his Christian disciples. Jesus’s disciples continueto do what Jesus commanded them before he ascended into heaven. Christiansbaptize, forgive and retain sins, teach, have the Lord’s Supper together and soon. Through these things sinners who otherwise believe in false gods are turnedto the true God, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is nothing more important than believing in the LordJesus Christ, and this is where Pentecost comes in with its great importance. About50 days after Easter and 10 days after Jesus’s Ascension, the Jews weregathered together for one of their Old Testament harvest festivals. While theywere gathered together there was the sound of a mighty rushing wind, tongues offlame appeared over the disciples, and the disciples spoke with their fellowJews about the mighty works of God. Some of these Jews came from far flungplaces and spoke different languages.

Our reading from Acts gives us the first part of Peter’s speakingto those who were gathered. He speaks with courage and enthusiasm about JesusChrist being Lord. He vigorously argues that Jesus is the fulfillment of whatwas prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus is God’s Son, and they had crucifiedhim! But he concluded his message in this inclusive way: “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of JesusChrist for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of theHoly Spirit.” He assures them that despite their murdering of God’s ownSon that the promise was for them and for their children. It was for those whowere near and for those who were far off. It was for everyone whom the Lord ourGod calls to himself. Those who believed that day were baptized, and 3,000 soulswere added.

The most important thing that happened on Pentecost was thework of the Holy Spirit. People repented of all that was false, and believed thetruth: Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners. Faith in Jesus is what makes aperson a Christian. Faith in Jesus is the sole and indispensable requirementfor being a member of the Holy Christian Church. It doesn’t matter where aperson comes from. They could be from Mesopotamia, Judea or Cappadocia. Theycould be of any race, any skin color. They could be poor or rich, well dressedor poorly dressed. They could come from any background—they could have beenwild, inhabited by many demons, or they could be stuck-up Pharisees. Everyone whobelieves in Jesus the Christ turns away from their false and worthless ways andembraces the forgiveness, life, and salvation that come from Jesus.

Pentecost is a festival about the Holy Spirit, who createsfaith. Pentecost is also a festival about the Christian Church. It is thebeginning of the Christian Church, so to speak, because from Pentecost onwardthe Gospel, the good news about Jesus, spread. Those who heard the Gospelbelieved it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Since they believed it, they alsospoke it. Since they spoke it, still more believed it.

There is a direct line from Pentecost to us being gatheringhere today. This is not some accident of history. God the Holy Spirit has beenat work creating faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus causes those who believe in himto speak the Gospel.

But as we consider that direct line from Pentecost to today,we might want to ask ourselves, “Are we still speaking the Gospel?” Before weanswer too quickly with a, “Well of course we are still preaching the Gospel!”we might want to consider something. Jesus tells all those who want to be hisdisciples that they must bear the cross. The cross means to suffer and to sacrifice.Speaking the Gospel will always carry with it suffering and sacrifice.

Even on Pentecost there was suffering. The Christians weremade fun of. Some bystanders laughed at them and said that they had gottendrunk on grape juice. Already at Pentecost there was sacrifice. Immediatelyafter Pentecost the book of Acts tells us that the Christians sold what theyhad so that they could provide for whoever was in need. The story of sufferingand sacrifice is repeated over and over in the book of Acts. Wherever theGospel went it caused trouble. Paul was kicked out of one town after anotheruntil he was finally carted off to Rome in chains. According to legend, elevenout of the twelve apostles were violently put to death.

So, again, we might ask, “Are we still speaking the Gospel?”It seems to me that we are in trouble, and we’ve been in trouble for a longtime. The trouble we have is that we want to come up with a Gospel that doesn’trequire suffering and sacrifice. We don’t want to live how Jesus commanded andas the book of Acts puts on display. We want a Christian life where we get tolive just like the rest of the world with all their selfishness, comfort, andease, but we like to believe that we won’t go to hell for it. We’ll get a freepass. Why will we get a free pass? Maybe because we went to church all thetime. Maybe we even gave a lot of money in offerings. That’s not a bad deal isit?

It’s also not the Gospel. It is a false Gospel that pretendsto be the true Gospel. This false Gospel was identified by the LutheranReformers. The Catholic Church is as good at this false Gospel as anybody is.They had figured out a way for Christians to have their cake and eat it too. Allthat was really necessary to be a good Catholic was to show up at church andgive them some money. Depending on how much you gave it might even make youdown right exemplary.

Luther saw through this comfortable and convenient Christianity.It was, in fact, a cheap Christianity even if millions were given in offeringsbecause it laid no claim on the person. As we all know it is not hard for thosewho are wealthy to write a check. Eventually those who are so filthy rich thatthey don’t know what to do with all of their money start to write checkswithout even being asked. They want this or that building to be named afterthem.

Christianity is much deeper than that. It requires much moresuffering and sacrifice than that. Luther learned this from Jesus and hepreached it. The very first of Luther’s 95 theses from October 31, 1517 said,“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entirelife of believers to be one of repentance.”

Another way of saying this is that if you do not want torepent, then you do not want to be a Christian. Repentance is hard! It requireshumility. A life of repentance and faith will be one of suffering and sacrificeaccording to Jesus’s own words.

Why should anyone live this life? We naturally don’t like tosuffer or sacrifice. The answer is that loving to the point of suffering andsacrifice is beautiful and divine. Such a life is good and beautiful like Jesus’slife was good and beautiful with his suffering and his sacrificing.

Now you might think, “I can’t do that.” I’m glad that youare honest enough to admit that. I can’t do it either. So also neither you norI can raise ourselves from the dead can we? But today is Pentecost. The HolySpirit is God. When a person is converted, and reconverted, and converted yetagain to faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit is given to that person. The HolySpirit dwells in us.

Furthermore, Jesus is Lord. He reigns and rules in hiskingdom and we are following his lead. He is on the warpath, beating back thedevil, sin, death, selfishness, apathy, strife, and whatever else is evil.

Repent, believe, and you will receive the gift of the HolySpirit. This is the Gospel. It was the Gospel at Pentecost. It is the Gospel thatgives eternal life today.

Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord, with all your graces nowoutpoured. Amen.