Pentecost Explained: The Holy Spirit, Means of Grace, and Living Water | Lutheran Sermon
Scripture Reading: John 7:37-39
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Pentecost Sunday Sermon: The Work of the Holy Spirit
By Pastor James Huenink
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today we are celebrating the great and glorious day of Pentecost — that after Jesus ascended into heaven, He sends the Holy Spirit to His disciples gathered in Jerusalem, and we see the amazing spectacle of these Galilean men, who probably knew Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic, but not much else, going out and speaking in all sorts of languages. This way, the word of God goes out into all those people who came to Jerusalem, people from all over the world. We get that really long list of all the different groups that we don't recognize, like the Parthians and the Medes and the Elamites, and all of that. No longer nations today.
The focus of this is the work of the Holy Spirit to gather the church, to share the message of the gospel. And today what I want to do is focus on that work. What does the Holy Spirit do? What does he do among us? How does he work?
"Rivers of Living Water": Jesus Speaks About the Holy Spirit
The Gospel of John today doesn't give us a whole lot to go on, just a few sentences. Jesus stands up, and he cries out:
"If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
If that were the only thing that John gave us, we'd go, "Well, thanks, Jesus, that's really nice. What does that mean?" But John helps explain it when he says, "Now he said this about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."
Jesus is talking about the work of the Holy Spirit in his church. And when I read this and saw what the text was about, what immediately popped into mind was Martin Luther's explanation to the Second Petition of the Lord's Prayer, which is "Thy kingdom come." He asked the question, "How does God's kingdom come?" And this is what Luther writes:
"God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity."
It's all about the work of the Holy Spirit — how those who believe in Christ receive the Spirit, and the Spirit does His work among us.
The Cross: Where the Holy Spirit's Work Begins
The Spirit's work begins with the cross and with Christ. This is why John talks about being glorified. He says, "Now this is what he said about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."
In the Gospel of John, the glorification of Jesus is his death on the cross. The hour of his glorification is the hour of his raising up onto the cross, where he would save all people. That is what John means when he says Jesus is about to be glorified. And while that may not seem like glory to us — a terrible suffering and death — it certainly is glory for the church, because it's because of this death on the cross that we are saved.
Jesus' glorification, his death on the cross, and then his resurrection is what brings the Holy Spirit to his church. In fact, what happens after Jesus rises from the dead — he appears to his disciples in John, and he breathes on them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness, it is withheld."
The Spirit is given after this glorification, and the Holy Spirit empowers the work of the church.
The Means of Grace: How the Holy Spirit Works Among Us
When we see this here in the normal things that we do all the time, we call them the means of grace. The Holy Spirit's work among us is hidden in what seems to be average, everyday, normal acts of the church. And we've got four of them. Anyone who's been through my new members class knows that I repeat this a lot, and I ask you to repeat it back to me — so maybe you've forgotten, but I'm going to give it to you again.
It is baptism, confession and absolution, holy communion, and the word of God.
These are the ways that the Holy Spirit works on us. He comes to us through these things because God has established them. He has given His promise and power and connected them to the cross of Christ, that the Holy Spirit may work on us to give us this grace, this peace that God wants all of us to have.
And the great thing about this way of the Holy Spirit's work is that you always know when it happens to you. There is no questioning, there is no wondering, there is no worry. Did the Spirit come today? He is always at work behind the means that he has established.
So when you hear the word, you know the Holy Spirit comes to you. When you see a baptism, you know the kingdom of God has come to that person. When you confess your sins and receive absolution, you know the Holy Spirit does the forgiveness that has been promised. And when you eat Christ's body and drink His blood, you know the Spirit is working on you to bind you together, gather you together as one — just as the Spirit gathered the people on that first Pentecost.
There's no questioning, no worry, no fear, no wondering whether the lights are doing their work or the smoke machines have really brought the Spirit, or whether the music is feeling it right. You don't have to wonder or question. God has established something that you can trust every single time.
So when we pray "Thy kingdom come," we ask for God to give us the Holy Spirit. He has already established a way for it to happen to you every single time. Just come here, where you hear the word, receive the sacrament, and enjoy the blessings of forgiveness.
So if you want Pentecost in your life, an anointing of the Holy Spirit, the outpouring, the rivers of living water — we've got nice padded pews, and you can get it. It's wonderful right here in this place.
What the Holy Spirit Does for You
And then, what does the Spirit do for you when you receive Him?
Luther writes that the kingdom of heaven comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy word. The Holy Spirit is the one who causes you to have faith in Christ, to believe in the Holy Word. And Lutherans and many Christians historically have divided this into two parts. There is the fides qua and the fides quae— and you're all going, "Yes, Pastor, I completely understand what you said. You're allowed to move on now." No, of course not. You can't throw Latin out without explaining it.
Faith That Believes, and the Faith Which We Believe
The fides qua is the faith that believes in Jesus. The fides quae is the faith which we believe — that is, the content. Faith is used in two ways: it's the gift that allows us and causes us to believe in Jesus, and it's also the doctrinal content of the faith, what we believe — the ideas and teachings. And the Holy Spirit does both.
Cool, right?
The fides qua — the faith that causes us to believe — is a very simple gift. A gift that happens to every Christian the moment they switch from unbeliever to believer. So for the child who is baptized, the squirming little infant, they receive that great gift of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit — this mystical regeneration that is given completely as a gift of grace. And it is no different for the infant than for the 90-year-old who has been a Lutheran their entire life. That amazing gift of grace is the same. It is the simple, active faith that says, "Jesus is my Savior." That's the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian.
This amazing gift of the Spirit. But we also have the word that gives us content as well — that says, now that I'm a believer, what do I do? What do I believe in? How do I live? Who is Jesus? Who is the Father and the Holy Spirit, and what do they do, and how do they work, and all of that stuff? That's a gift of the word, as we study and hear the doctrines, so that we can understand God's will for us, who Jesus is, and what He has done, and all of the things that are important in understanding what it means to be a Christian.
And the Holy Spirit's work is to build on that foundation of that simple faith that believes in Jesus, so that we grow in understanding what it means — who Jesus is, what we do as a church, how we live, how we grow, and how we serve out in the world. It's why we have a sermon. It's why we talk about the things that God wants us to do, and we describe faithfulness, so that we can understand God's will for our lives.
The Holy Spirit Changes the Heart, Not Just the Mind
And then to actually do it — that's the next step. "So that by His grace we believe His holy word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity," because the Christian faith is not just something that happens in the heart, it is a life that is to be lived.
When the Holy Spirit comes to us, he doesn't just change our minds — he changes us to make us desire to live as God wills us to live. And this is why doctrine is so important, because you don't know what to do unless you know what to do — which is kind of funny, right? The doctrine of the church teaches us how to live a faithful and good life, explains to us what it means to be a Christian, so that when you go out into the world and you hear all the confused voices, all the people who say otherwise, who turn away from the gospel, you know what is good, right, and true.
It also teaches us what to expect from our Savior, what His salvation means. When we go out into a world where there are things that challenge our faith and cause us to question, the doctrine helps us to understand what we should expect from God and the salvation that He gives us. And this is so important, because so many people's faith has been shipwrecked on the rocks of reality, when the promises their church gives them run in conflict with the world and reality — when the church promises that life is always good for Christians, or that having the Holy Spirit means you never question or worry or doubt, or any number of things. We need to know how to live in the world and what to expect from God to be able to live a faithful life.
And then we need to do it. Because the Holy Spirit's work is not just the knowledge of what is right and wrong, but also the desire and the empowerment to do it. He comes to change your heart to make you want to do what God wills — and actually to do it.
It wasn't terribly long ago that college classes and programs started adding ethics courses to their curriculum. I would see these things pop up in MBA programs, CPA programs, all sorts of certifications, because different approving boards decided that everybody needed to be more ethical. They looked out in the world and they saw cheaters doing cheater things, and they said, "Here's what we need to do: we will teach them right from wrong in a class." And some of you are laughing, because what that meant was they knew exactly what they were doing when they did the wrong thing — because education doesn't change that. Education doesn't teach people to do the right thing, it just helps them understand what is right and wrong. So when they do the wrong thing, they know for sure. That's the difference between just knowing something and having the desire to do it.
And the Holy Spirit isn't just an educator. He changes our hearts and our minds too. He causes us to desire the good, to desire God's will, and to know what is right and true, and to actually accomplish it. He gives us character and not just knowledge. He causes our hearts to flow with this living water that Jesus promises, so that we want to do the good and the right things that He asks us to do, because He makes us to be like Christ. He makes us to love the gifts that Christ gives us.
Conclusion: All of Grace, All of the Spirit
All of this, from beginning to end, is a gift of grace by the power of the Holy Spirit. This beautiful work of the Holy Spirit comes to us — He comes to us here, where He gives us the living water that flows from Christ into our hearts and into the world, so that, as Luther says, we can believe His holy word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. All through the means of grace.
In Jesus' name. Amen.