1. Corinthians 2,12-16. Pentecost Sunday

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠ 

1. Corinthians 2,12-16  3212

Pfingstsonntag  043  

The Venerable Bede, Pastor, May 26, 735  

27. May 2012

1.  O God, who upon this day has taught the hearts of Your faithful people, by sending to them the light of Your Holy Spirit; grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior (The Book of Common Prayer 147).  Amen. 

2. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. „For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?“ But we have the mind of Christ.  

3. The Apostle Peter preached to the Jews: »in those days I will pour out My Spirit, and they will prophesy« (Acts 2,18). The apostle proclaimed this on the Feast of Pentecost, AD 33, ten days after Jesus had ascended to heaven. The Apostle Peter was not speaking his own words. He was quoting the Prophet Joel. The prophet, likewise, was not prophesying his own words, but was in fact speaking the very words of Yahweh: »in those days I will pour out My Spirit, and they will prophesy«. 

4. To prophesy is the proclaim, and to proclaim is to preach. Such words are not the individual’s, for these words belong to Yahweh. The words are inspired, God-breathed the Apostle Paul declares (2. Timothy 3,16), by the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son. 

5. Not every word that is claimed to be from Yahweh is from Yahweh. Many religions claim to speak for God, but only Christianity truly does speak for God. Many false teachers and heretics exist in the Church, and only those churches whose words are faithful to Holy Scripture can truthfully claim to speak for God. Human wisdom and natural reason often masquerade themselves as Divine words, and the orthodox pastor and theologian exposes such human words for what they are. Sometimes God’s words are thought to be the foolish words of man. Such was the case in Acts 2 on Pentecost. Some Jews mocked the words of the apostles: these men are drunk (Acts 2,13)! The Apostle Paul thus exhorts us to judge the words and test them against the Bible. 

6. The words of God are spiritually discerned, and they are only understood by those who have the Holy Spirit, namely, Christians. How is one Spirit-born? How do you know if the Holy Spirit dwells within you? Some argue that the mark of the Spirit is if you can speak in an ecstatic tongue. Others argue that the mark of the Spirit is if you can perform signs and wonders. These claims are often made by televangelists and faith healers, but the discerning Christian sees through the false marks they present as proof of the Spirit’s presence. 

7. The true mark of the Holy Spirit is mundane and simple: have you had water poured upon you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? Have you been baptized? By this Sacrament, the Holy Spirit enters in. Jesus spoke of it this way: »Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you« (Matthew 28,19-20). Thus the apostles were tasked to baptize and teach. They baptized, taught and then ordained pastors to continue this work in the Church until Christ’s return. 

8. The arrival of the Holy Spirit not only involves the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, but it also involves teaching, preaching and prophesying. By the Holy Spirit, the words of God are spoken. The chief word of God is: „ego te absolvo; ich spreche dich los (I absolve you)“. „The word of forgiveness is a word of prophecy and proclamation. God’s will announces itself not merely in general within His promise, but makes itself available within it; indeed, God defines Himself in the truest sense of the word in this promissio of the absolution. The promissio is in this sense a legally binding promise with an immediate effect; it is not merely a distant promise (Verheißung), nor merely declaratory, but effective“ (Martens § 6). 

9. The gospel is about forgiveness. The preached Word proclaims forgiveness. Holy Baptism immerses you in forgiveness. Holy Absolution looses your sins. You eat Christ’s body and drink His blood in the Lord’s Supper which was given and shed for you and the remission of your sin. On Pentecost, the Jews asked what must be done for them to be saved. The apostles point them to the Word and Sacraments. They need do nothing to merit salvation; they are told to receive what Christ had already accomplished for them. They repent, believe the gospel and are baptized. By the Word and the Sacraments 3000 Jews received the gift of the Holy Spirit and became Christians (Acts 2,38). 

10. It is no different today, for the Holy Spirit works the same way as He did for the apostles. Whoever calls upon Christ will be saved. No doubts. No in-betweens. Just pure and complete salvation. The Word and Sacraments give this salvation in full. The Holy Spirit gives you the mind of Christ through these means of grace. The mind of Christ is that Jesus has purchased your salvation on the cross. You are freed by the Holy Spirit from your debt of sin through the preaching of the gospel, for Jesus proclaims: »Receive the Holy Spirit; whosoever’s sin you forgive, they are forgiven« (Gerhard 448 § 3). Through the preaching of the gospel, you are called back into the true motherland of the holy Church and unto everlasting life by the Holy Spirit (Gerhard 449 § 5). The inheritance of holiness, righteousness and salvation which Adam and Eve had shamefully lost through sin is put into place for you again by the Holy Spirit, because through Him you are born again and are children of our Heavenly Father (Gerhard 449 § 6). This is the mind of Christ, and the Holy Spirit delights in giving this gift to you.  Amen. 

11. Let us pray. O Holy Spirit, Creator of faith, fill the hearts of Your faithful and ignite in them the fire of Your Divine love so that we trust on Christ for our salvation.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 1549 Cambridge University Press. 

   ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Gerhard, Johann. Postilla. Vol. 1. Copyright © 2001 The Center for the Study of Lutheran Orthodoxy.

Martens, Gottfried. Certainty of Salvation. Copyright © 2000.