May 11, 2008

The Coming of the Holy Spirit

The Day of Pentecost

Joel 2:28-29

Grace and peace be to you from our Comforter, God the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear fellow redeemed sinners,

Most visionaries are not worth paying attention to because their visions are wrong. Fortunately I’m guessing that most of us here today know any bona fide visionaries personally, but they are all over television and the internet.

Don’t even get me started on sport visionaries and experts. But at least they acknowledge they’re just guessing.

On the “scientific” TV channels the experts talk about all kinds of stuff. They sound off on what tomorrow’s car is going to use for fuel. They speculate on how soon the world’s population is going to hit 9 billion people in such-and-such a year. They tell us that the climate’s going to grow colder. Then they tell us that the climate’s going to get hotter.

But visionaires on the religious TV channels and websites (like TBN, CBN, CTN, and the rest) are the worst. They attempt to prophecy about the future when they don’t even understand the present. They talk and talk and talk and all the while misuse the name of the Lord our God in vain. They claim to have extra secret knowledge of God while they reject the truths that God has revealed.

The Holy Spirit makes us visionaries by faith in Christ. By faith we are visionaries because the Holy Spirit has revealed to us in the Law and in the Gospel the present situation of mankind and our future.

Dear believers, the prophet Joel tells you that through faith in Jesus Christ you are visionaries. The vision that God the Holy Spirit pours out on us is the Gospel revealed in Baptism and in the Holy Supper and in His Word. We now prophecy with confidence about the present and the future.

The present situation of mankind is sin. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit “will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). The continents and their inhabitants stand guilty as charged. Guilty of what? Hating God.

With gracious exceptions, the people of Europe calls God a pipe dream and mocks the faithful. Their ridicule is the same as the false slander against the Pentecost preachers—just a bunch of drunks holding court.

The people of the Third World are told to believe in a stomach god. Many false preachers from the First World go to Africa or Asia or South America and preach a false gospel of heaven on earth. By God’s grace many reject these lies and through the work of the Holy Spirit trust in their Savior Jesus.

But America is better, right? Not at all. We are much worse. But 80% of America believes in god, the polls say. We are a God-fearing nation, we protest. But by this definition we are “God-fearing” if we worship the Easter bunny or Mother Earth or the Jolly Green Giant. Even those who call themselves Evangelicals allow themselves to be taught an empty Gospel that emphasizes human deeds over Christ’s finished work.

Peter and his fellow believers boldly proclaimed a rich and full message on Pentecost. The message didn’t pull any punches. True Christian prophets and dreamers and visionaries call sin sin. Dear friends, we are all condemned worthless sinners.

But even we are tempted to ignore the depth of sin. We often flirt with the notion that if it would be possible to avoid actual sins, we could get to heaven. In other words if you never swore or cursed or lusted or hated or lied or took someone’s words in the worst possible way or were jealous and all the rest, you’d be without sin.

You’d be dead wrong. This twisted way of thinking underestimates how deep sin goes. Even if it were possible to avoid actual sins (which is impossible), you still haven’t dealt with your original sin. This is the sinful condition which you inherited from your parents. Anyone who tells you that perfection is attainable in your lifetime is lying and is a false prophet. We are born into sin and sin will be a part of us until we die.

Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are proved right when You speak and justified when You judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:4-5)

To put it clearly so that false visionaries can’t trick you, allow me to put it another way. The Holy Spirit convinces us that we are conceived in sin that is deserving of damnation. (Does this mean unbaptized babies go to hell? The answer is that we do not know.) The point is that true visionaries and prophets of God never water down sin.

That’s the Bible truth. But here’s the Good News. In Holy Baptism we die to the power of sin. With His holy blood Christ breaks the chains of sin that once held us in slavery. And with the Gospel in Word and Sacrament the Holy Spirit daily drownes our sinful natures as it tries to throw us back onto the death row of sin.

And then when Christ comes for you and takes you home, the fight is over. And like true visionaries you already know why He will do this—because He did die for you.

This is what is going to happen. Because of Christ’s perfect life and innocent death you are going to heaven. The Holy Spirit takes the worst and that is us and makes us acceptable in His sight. This is a dream that will come true. Amen.

Create in Me (page 20)

 Thank-Offering and Hymn 550: Behold a Host, Arrayed in White

Pastor Luke Boehringer

Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church

Owosso, Michigan