Day of Pentecost (1905)

John 14:23-31 As we rightly sing at Christmas: " O how joyfully, o how blessedly, comes the glory of Christmastime!" so the same words are used about "Pentecost time" in another song. Even there rightly. Joyful, because blessed and grace-bringing is the feast of Pentecost already in terms of what once happened on the first Christian Pentecost. But inasmuch as the opened flow of blessings still flow today. Pentecost: a joyful, inasmuch as a blessed and grace-bringing festival. 1. A blessed festival, because the Holy Spirit makes men's hearts into dwelling places of God . a. That this is so . God walked among men at creation and had His pleasure in them 1 and they had their pleasure in Him. Man is separated from God through sin and the curse lies on him. 2 . But here it means: God does not reject, but love, not only to live with and among, but in people.3 God carries about according to His ubiquity everything; but here He wants to live, i.e. in another way to be present as usual.4 b. Who are the people whose hearts the Holy Spirit makes into dwelling places of God. . Not everyone's5, but those who love Christ and keep His Word, NB, not the Law, but the Gospel: believers; only them6, however all of them.7 . The faith by which we keep the word of Christ is the Holy Spirit's work. c. Therefore Pentecost is a joyful and blessed festival. . Where God dwells, there is heaven and salvation. . And you should be partakers of this salvation. 2. A grace-bringing festival, because the Holy Spirit imparts His gifts of grace . a. Certainly not, as the enthusiasts expect, particular and extraordinary miraculous gifts, but nonetheless glorious gifts of grace. b. These are . growth in the knowledge of Christ 8; . Peace against all temptation from within and without9; . Joy in Christ that then proves to be active in His service in warm gratitude10; . Strength in faith.11 The disciples believed, but the Lord speaks to them of a future faith that also remains in the danger of the test.12 c. These are gifts that the Holy Spirit imparts to believers through the Word of the Gospel.13 You hear this Word. Pentecost should be a joyful and grace-bringing festival also to you. E.A.M.

Proverbs 8:30-31. Romans 5:12, 8:5-8; Ephesians 2:12; Colossians 1:21. 3 John 14:23. 4 Ephesians 3:17; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16. Cf. Baier-Walther III:293ff. 5 John 14:22. 6 John 14:24. 7 John 14:23. 8 John 14:26. 9 John 14:27. 10 John 14:28. 11 John 14:29. 12 ibid. 13 John 14:26.
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