Pentecost Sunday 5/27/12

Pentecost 5/27/12 Text: Acts 2:1-21 Title: What Does the Holy Spirit Have to do With My Life? In 1984 Tina Turner recorded a song that became one of her biggest hits. It was titled What’s love got to do with it? While I liked a lot of her songs that song I did not like. To me it was an offensive song, one in which she told people that they didn’t have to love a person to have an intimate relationship with someone; just use each other to satisfy your wants and you will be happy. Who cares about this thing called love? You don’t need it! That is the attitude of many people today; use someone and discard them when you are through with them. I could preach a whole series of sermons on that topic, but this morning I have mentioned the song because many Christians, without even realizing it, live a version of that song that could be titled, “What’s the Holy Spirit got to do with it?” The disciples needed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, for we all know they had never really got the meaning of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension until that day when the Holy Spirit came in a most wonderful manner enlightening them and enabling them to speak in languages that they would not have known. This outpouring of the Holy Spirit enabled them to go out into the known world where they preached, witnessed, testified, and finally died for Christ. Thus, we believe the Day of Pentecost was for them and not for us, for we aren’t going to do those things. After all, even though most would probably deny it, they would have to admit that they don’t believe that what they do and say Sunday morning in the worship service has much or anything to do with the lives they live during the week. They are really not troubled by that, for they are pretty content living their lives as superficial Christians resting on the grace of God; ignoring the fact that how a person lives their life cannot be separated from their being forgiven. It is after all my life they would say. Being saved from damnation, is of course the number one reason why Jesus died on that bloody cross, but if we do not value a deeper relationship with Christ and his love, by reading his Word to us, or for that matter, if we do not desire growing in love for each other we have missed the point in our being forgiven. The problem is that most Christians just don’t want to develop a closer relationship with God, for they know that when a person is in a close relationship that demands are made on one’s time and energy. Being in a close relationship means that a person has to give of themselves to the other, as they put the needs of the one they love above their own needs. But that is not how we like it. It is much better to be served and loved than to serve and love. And because of this self-loving attitude our relationship with each other and God are quite often shallow at best. That way there is no obligation and we can discard the Word of God like we do so many relationships when they no longer meet our immediate needs. We are great at superficial relationships. This is shown when we greet someone; asking them how they are doing and then not listening to see how they are doing. We have become so used to that question, knowing that the person asking the question doesn’t really care how things are going with us that we respond with an equally shallow answer, “Everything is fine.” even when everything is not find. I cannot begin to count the times that I have gone into a hospital room where the patient is in pain and hooked up to all kinds of equipment, where after I asked the patient how they were doing, they said, “I am doing fine.” They were not doing fine. I could tell that. They knew it, but yet they were so accustomed to keeping relationships shallow that they would not tell me their true feelings. That shallowness in relationships comes from the shallowness of our relationship with God. How can I say that, you might be asking? Well, for most Christians an hour and fifteen minutes on Sunday morning is about as deep in the relationship with God that they want to go. I have been told in the past by a member of the congregation that I should thank them for being in church because they were so busy. And I do give thanks, for if they were not there, as so many are not, they would not hear the Word of God at all. The problem is that when you doing the pastor, congregation, or God a favor by being in church on Sunday morning you are saying that it is all about me instead of God. And when you believe that it is all about you, you are hampering the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. The Holy Spirit, as we believe and confess brings you into the relationship with God. As, much as you might believe that you made the decision to have a relationship with God you didn’t start the relationship for God’s Word tells us in Romans 5, verse 10 that while we still enemies of God he died for us. You cannot make the decision to become a believer. You can only respond to the call of the Holy Spirit, as he says through God’s Holy Word, “Come to me you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” We cannot live as Christians by our own power. You can’t say, “Now that I have become a Christian, I will just do it my way.” You can’t, for when you are doing it your way you are walking away from God. That is just the way it is. To be able to walk behind Jesus, as he prepares the way for you, you need a helper, someone who has your best interest at heart who will keep you focused on the Word of God, for it is only in the Word that you can know the true Triune God who became one of us, so that he could save us from ourselves, sinful people that we are. That helper is the Holy Spirit who is “the Lord and giver of life,” as you daily die to sin rising to new life in Christ. Martin Luther best describes the work of the Holy Spirit in his explanation of the third article of the Apostle’s Creed where he states, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe; that is to also continue to believe, in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.” That, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ is just how important the Holy Spirit is to our lives now and in the future. The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God where he has called you into the faith, gathers you into fellowship with other Christians, opens up the Word of God to you, and changes your life. That is why pastors get so frustrated when the members of the congregation they are pastoring don’t attend Bible Classes even while they struggle with living a Christian life. That frustration, by the way is usually the main reason a pastor burns out and quits the ministry. They know that it is only through God’s Word that the Holy Spirit works to bring us into an intimate relationship with God, for God’s Word, as I mentioned last week the Word of God; that is Bible is a love letter from God to you. It is in God’s Word that you find the depth of God’s love and are given the ability to live the life he desires you to live, even though you will live that godly life imperfectly. The Holy Spirit through the Word of God brings you to faith in your baptism, where you are given faith and united to Jesus, as Saint Paul tells us in Romans 6:3, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” And then he continues to keep you in your faith through the Word of God. He also continues to keep you in the faith through the gift of the Lord’s Supper where you receive the actual body and blood of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, so that you too, just like the prophet Simeon when he held the baby Jesus can say, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." It is in that body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine that you buy the work of the Holy Spirit have taken into yourself forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. The Holy Spirit also works through the words of forgiveness that I speak to you each Sunday when you hear through your ears of faith, not my words, but Jesus’ words, “You are forgiven.” The Holy Spirit also takes your sinful prayers, just as he does mine and makes them presentable to God. He also uses your conscience to prod you into doing the work of God that you have been given to do during your life time. This enables you, just as the growth of new cells produce healthy bodies, spiritual growth produces healthy faith, so that we, as Martin Luther once said, “We become little Christs” who are overflowing with love toward others. While Tina Turner and others like her, and there are many, believe that love has nothing to do with having an intimate relationship with another, we, as Christians through the work of the Holy Spirit know that love has everything to do with having a loving relationship both with God and others, for God first loved us, so that we can love others. Amen.