May 11, 2008 Joel 2:28-29

And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

When you read through the Old Testament it is interesting when you see the context of where God made predictions. Did you know that He made His first prediction to save the world while speaking to a demon possessed snake? He predicted how Jesus would be born through a virgin birth in speaking with a hard hearted king of Israel by the name of Ahaz. These predictions were made to people who didn’t even want them. But God gave them to them anyway. Prophecies sometimes came in strange places at strange times.

The same is true of the prediction of Pentecost. The prophet Joel had just finished predicted that a locust plague would come in and destroy the crops of the Israelites as punishment for their sins to bring them to repentance. But then after the land of Israel was devastated and the Israelites were brought to repentance, God promised He would mercifully restore the land’s crops. Joel writes in 2:25-27 ‘I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed. In mercy and grace God promised He would restore the Israelites after devastating them. What more could they ask for? In mercy, God promised them much more. Today’s text has another one of those predictions that comes to the Israelites out of the blue - which wouldn’t actually happen until centuries later. Like a buried city waiting to be uncovered by future archeologists, this prophecy was waiting to be uncovered. Pentecost was that time. Peter uncovered this gem in order to prove to the Jews that these Christians were not some wing nut and rebellious group of people. They were the fulfillment of the what God predicted long ago in the Old Testament through the prophet Joel.

The Pentecost Prophecy

I. Was poured on all types people

Let’s look at what Joel exactly prophesied. What did Joel say? Afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. Back in the Old Testament prophecy was reserved for the prophets - men like Moses, Isaiah, David and Elijah. Not just anyone could put on the prophet’s hat and claim to have a vision or a dream. At one time while the Israelites were in the desert on the way to the Promised Land, God gave the Spirit of prophesy to the elders of Israel. When this happened, Numbers 11:28-29 says that, “Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” In Joshua’s mind it didn’t seem that the Holy Spirit would be so generous with his gifts. Moses liked it.

In line with that idea, the focus of this prophecy seems to be on the generosity of God - how He would be so generous as to pour out his spirit on ALL people - regardless of age, gender, or status in the world. This is what happened at Pentecost. In Acts chapter 1 the disciples were told to return to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit. When they did the Holy Spirit came in a very generous way. Acts 2:1-4 says, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” This is even more amazing when you see who was there. It wasn’t just the 12 disciples. Acts 1:13-15 says, “When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty).” Every believer - no matter what age, race, or sex - all 120 in the room at that time were enabled to speak in different languages so that people of all cultures were clearly able to hear them proclaiming the wonders of God in their own native tongues. The Holy Spirit was extremely generous in the giving of this gift.

The Holy Spirit is still generous yet today. He is not limited by age, or race, or intelligence or status. Peter says later on in His speech in Acts 2:38-39, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” We believe that the Holy Spirit can and does work and strengthen faith in baptism - even in the baptism of infants. The Holy Spirit can work faith in the special needs people as well with developmental disabilities.

We have evidence of the Holy Spirit’s generosity within this congregation as He has brought together people of different status and intellect and age. We believe that the Holy Spirit is in the youngest infant of our congregation as well as in the oldest member. How can we be so confident of this? Because we believe God’s promise to us through Peter. We believe what God says in Isaiah 55:10-11, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” As long as our members are here listening to God’s Word and being exposed to His sacraments, the Holy Spirit promises to work.

When the Holy Spirit entered these men, women, and servants, he did not change their status or their persons. They remained the same gender and the same people, but He did change their language and their tongues. So we expect people to be different and remain different yet to be filled with the Holy Spirit while remaining in their different status. This teaches us to not have the intellectuals look down on the simple nor the young to assume that the elderly have nothing to offer. God’s Holy Spirit has entered each and every one of us from young to old. This teaches the elderly not to get angry if a little child makes a little noise during the service - don’t look at him as a nuisance. We are patient with these little projects of the Holy Spirit. If a fellow member has very bazaar personality quirks, we who think we are “normal” do not for that reason either try to chase him or her away or decide to leave the church - for we know that the Holy Spirit can work through anyone - even strange people. When our older members begin to lose their hearing or their memory we do not laugh at them or disrespect them because we know that the Holy Spirit can still keep them as Christians. The Holy Spirit is not a respecter of persons - he enters young, old, slave and free. He enables all of us to say and believe that Jesus is our Savior. This is what unites us as a congregation. The last thing the Holy Spirit wants is for us to get divided over the skin color or the gender or the age of who we are.

It boggles me how the pastors on the television can refer to their churches as “the black church.” I don’t understand that terminology. We are a Christian church. If you happen to believe in the Gospel of Christ who comes to us in Word and sacrament as taught in Bible and found in the catechism, you are more definitively a Lutheran Christian, regardless of how old you are or what your skin color is. Do we really want people coming to us because we have a “young church” or a “hip church” or a “cross-cultural church” or a church with the contemporary service - or even with a liturgy for that matter? We want to be united because the Holy Spirit has brought us all to know that we are sinners who have a Savior in Jesus who died for our sins and rose from the dead. The Pentecost prophecy shows that the Holy Spirit comes on all types of people.

II. Is meant to be given to all types of people

Since all of these Christians were already united together in the upper room by their common faith in Christ, what was the purpose of the Holy Spirit coming on all of them? Listen to what happened. Acts 2:6-11 says, When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Through the sound of the wind a crowd of people from all kinds of nations gathered all around. The Holy Spirit made this sound to give those present an opportunity to share their faith. Each of the 120 used it as an opportunity to confess their faith in different languages. It was so different and incredible that some people just couldn’t believe what was happening. They denied it and said that the people were drunk. (Now, I’ve seen drunk people do some pretty dumb things and heard them say things nobody could understand - but I’ve never heard one start speaking in an intelligible foreign language.)

Peter took advantage of the situation to give a specific message to all who were there. Making references to the Old Testament he said in Acts 2:22-36, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. . . . God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. . . . Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Peter used the moment to convict the people of their sins and then to show them their Savior. It was in response to this message of Christ that 3,000 people were brought to faith and baptized. In one day God provided a huge growth in the Church with all kinds of people from all different nations. More importantly He used this time to save 3,000 people from the fires of hell. This was the ultimate purpose for giving these disciples this gift of the Holy Spirit - so that they too would be empowered and enabled to spread the message of Christ crucified and risen. The focus of Pentecost was not to be on the Holy Spirit - but on the Son.

So you and I sit here. All of us have been blessed with the Holy Spirit in our baptism. We know and believe according to the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit powerfully comes into each one of us through this washing of rebirth. We know and believe that all of our sins have been buried with Christ. We treasure this washing every day of our lives. We’ve been strengthened through reading and studying the Bible for years. We know that the Holy Spirit works through this book. We’ve been given the Lord’s Supper in which the Holy Spirit tells us that Jesus died for our sins and gives us the living Christ. Why - out of all of the rotten sinners in this world - did God choose to give you the Holy Spirit? Was it only so that we would sit in this little church in Topeka Kansas and tell each other about what a wonderful Savior we have? Was it so we would only confine ourselves to our own little club of Christians and keep all the heathens out? Or was it also so we would also take this message outside of the safe confines of this church to our neighbors and friends?

Through the sound of wind God brought people to where the disciples were. They didn’t just talk to each other in tongues. They took advantage of the audience and used it to spread the gospel. When the devil directed a wind to blow down a house and kill Job’s children, people came from all around to comfort him. Job used the opportunity to profess his faith. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. What kind of winds have been produced in your life or other peoples’ lives to bring you together with unbelievers? Was it the wind of war? The wind of college? The wind of death? The wind of birth? The winds of friendship? Did you ever stop to consider that God put you in that situation in order to give you an opportunity to share your faith? Have you taken advantage of these situations?

When a man and a woman come and visit with their children and all sit nice in the pews, do we think, “they will be good prospects,” while the man with disheveled hair and mental problems is somewhat ignored?

Do we think that the Holy Spirit can’t work with broken families or mentally disabled people? Do we limit our evangelism efforts based on the social status of our co-workers or neighbors? Do we not tell someone about our church because we are afraid that this person might embarrass us or cause us a lot of extra work to try and bring them a long in Christ?

Jeremiah said in 20:8-9 Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. If we do not have that desire, what has happened? Are we slipping in our faith; less thankful for our forgiveness and salvation from hell; or are we actively working pretty hard to keep the Holy Spirit quiet within us - treating him in our hearts like a loud mouthed friend we are embarrassed to introduce to anyone? OR have we lost our first love? Who are we to be so seclusive, when we see how generous the Holy Spirit within this congregation? May the Holy Spirit work through this message to bring sorrow to your heart. May He then remind you that He is a persistent Spirit - that since He washed you and bathed you in Christ and adopted you, that He wants to work with you yet. He wants you to find comfort in Jesus - to remember that your sins have been paid for. He wants you to go back to the cross today and dive into Jesus’ wounds. May the gift of peace in Christ be yours.

May the gift of the Holy Spirit’s tongue be yours as well. We don’t have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit - but we do have His tools. We have the message of a free and full salvation in Christ - as found in the Word and sacraments. If we really believe that the Holy Spirit actively works through the Word and sacrament to bring people Christ; that what we have is good and right and powerful and effective; why don’t we want to share it? Why would be tentative in using it? If what we have is able to save people from the fires of hell, should we be shy in spreading it?

Some days this spring have been very windy and blown some tiles off of the roof. Personally, I don’t like the winds of Kansas. I’d rather stay out of it. But like it or not, we all have to deal with it - it’s part of living in Kansas. We can’t control the wind - it blows when and where it pleases. We either have to live with it or move.

This is the way Joel predicted the Holy Spirit would work on Pentecost. That’s the way the Holy Spirit works today. He isn’t picky or limited by who He can blow on. He blew on 120 disciples and gave them all His Spirit - which then led to an additional 3,000 Christians on Pentecost. The Christians were all given the Holy Spirit to speak with. They weren’t picky in whom they told. No matter what race was there, the message of Christ was spread.

The Holy Spirit has been generous with us as well. The wind has blown on us, and we live in it. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us spiritual life and breath, and He wants to blow through us. So let the wind blow where it may. Don’t be ashamed to proclaim Christ. Don’t be afraid to spread the mighty Word to anyone. Don’t try to hold back the Wind of God. Let it blow through your mouth and in your life today. Fulfill the prophecy of Pentecost to anyone you can. Amen.