PENTECOST MONDAY

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus.

Christians were not the first to celebrate a Pentecost. In yesterday's Epistle we heard that, during these days the Jews celebrated a festival by this name. At that time it was one of the three great festivals of the year during which all men had to appear before the Lord in the temple at Jerusalem.

The Pentecost of the Jews was observed to remember the important event that on the fiftieth day after the exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt God had given them the Law upon two tables of stone on Mt. Sinai.

As important as this work of God was, it was in no way a comforting or happy one, whether we examine the circumstances under which God had given the Law, or the contents of the Law itself. God himself appeared on Mt. Sinai amid nothing but revelations of his wrath. Moses had to erect a fence around the mountain with the threat that he who would touch merely the foot of the mountain would be dashed to pieces by God himself and die. Only Moses dared to ascend the mountain. When the day of the revelation dawned, a fearful lightning and thundering sprang up early in the morning on the mountain; a thick cloud covered its peak; and the sound of a very loud trumpet was heard. The people who had set up camp a distance away heard this with terror and horror. Thereupon Moses led them out of the camp to meet God at the foot of the mountain, and behold! the entire mountain smoked like a huge furnace and its foundations trembled. Then God spoke to Moses and God answered him loudly so that all the hundreds of thousands assembled could hear. But terror-stricken, everyone fled away and cried to Moses, "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." Ex 20:19.

However, these frightening outward circumstances were nothing else but the expression of the content of the doctrine which was revealed at that time. For the Law is a teaching which can do nothing else but frighten, alarm, and kill, sinners. The Law indeed reveals our sickness but does not heal it; it shows us our failings but does not correct them; it says, "Thou shalt, thou shalt," but it gives no power so that we wish and are able to do it; the more the sternness of the Law is revealed to us, the more we hate God in our hearts.

Ah, my friends, if we would still have no other Pentecost than the Jewish one, our Pentecost would not be a day of joy but of sorrow. But praised be the name of our Lord! the Pentecost of the New Testament reminds us of the revelation of an entirely different teaching, and this teaching is the gracious Gospel of Christ; that is the preaching which the Holy Spirit glorified in the souls of the apostles and placed into their mouth and through which he founded the Church of the New Testament. Therefore the author of the Letter to the Hebrews says to the Christians, "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet. But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Heb 12:18,19a.

22-24. Oh, let us now hear this preaching which resounds in the new city of God; let us hear how on the Pentecostal Feast of the New Testament Sinai's thunder has died away, how as the thick clouds have moved away the heavens brighten and Christ has appeared as the bright Morning Star of the church of the new covenant.

The text. John 3:16-21.

The subject of our meditation during these festival days is: The building of the Church, of the new covenant as a work of the Holy Spirit. Now that yesterday we considered the miraculous equipping of the workers for this work, let us today on the basis of the Gospel just read ponder:

WHICH IS THE PREACHING THROUGH WHICH THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH WILL BE BUILT?

It is the preaching:

I. Of God's Inexpressible Love Toward the World, and

II. Of the Salvation of Man by Grace Through Faith.

God, you say in your Word: How beautiful are the feet of them that the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! Oh, help me now to be such a good messenger to these my hearers. Let my mouth speak of your love, so that it may press into their hearts with sweet power and we all become and remain your possession. Do this for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I.

My dearly beloved, as we heard yesterday, during these days the apostles spoke of the great deeds of God. This very fact tells us that the Gospel revealed and preached at Pentecost does not concern itself with our works which we should do but only with God* s great works. If we ask which these are, we hear of them in our today's Gospel from Christ's own mouth. He says, "God so loved the world."

That is it which God's Holy Spirit has revealed through the apostles! Oh great, blessed mystery! For who is "God"? who is the "world"? and what does "love" mean?

God is the Creator of all things, the Most High, the Almighty, the Omnipresent, the Righteous, the Holy, the eternal Light, and in him is no darkness. The world is mankind, dust, the sinner, the born enemies and haters of God, the transgressors of his Law, the rebels in his holy kingdom, the dwellers of the earth who have fallen from God. And to love means: to regard something as precious, to cherish, to value highly, to wish someone every good, to desire his temporal welfare and eternal salvation, to be sympathetic toward his trouble and to yearn eagerly to be eternally associated with him.

These three points Christ now united and says, "God loved the world!" - Oh heavenly sweet doctrine! God indeed hates sin but he loves the sinner so much? He wants to erase sin, but he wants to preserve the sinner? He wants to kill hatred in men's hearts, but he wants to be united with his very enemy and give him life, eternal life? Oh precious message! Wherever the preachers of Pentecost go, and though they preach in all the world, there they should loudly announce the message of Pentecost: God loves you! - Ah, today as well, yes, also to you I should announce: God loves us! Oh precious word: God loves us!

But still more. Christ says, "God LOVED the world." He does not say, God loves it, or, he will love it, but, he has loved it long ago. Oh tell me: when did God begin to love the world? When we talk about the past as far as God is concerned, this points into eternity. God therefore loved the world from eternity. From eternity itself God saw all men; they all stood therefore before his eyes as though they were created; there he also saw all of us who are gathered here. But God hated no one, none had he destined to damnation, none had he wanted to reject, but he loved them all from eternity; all who were to be created he regarded as precious, desired the temporal welfare and eternal salvation of all, had pity on their misery which he foresaw, yearned to be united eternally with them. Oh divine, fatherly heart, how sweet your are! You embraced also our souls from eternity, loved also us from eternity.

But how, how did God love the world? God's Son answered in our text, "So, that he gave his only begotten Son." He therefore does not say: God loved the world very much, he loved it dearly, from his heart; no, all this would have said much too little; the greatness of this love cannot be expressed in such words; he merely says, "So." Thus God's Son wishes to express his own astonishment and surprise with which even he was filled. He means to say: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: "So, so!" Hear it, oh man, notice, oh sinner and fall down in adoration in the dust; for at these words all the angels strike their harps and sing throughout all the heaven of heavens in holy harmonies even to the throne of the Father, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." Is 6:3.. "Hallelujah, hallelujah, forever and ever." For "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son."

If our heart is not made of stone, then our heart must laugh just to hear that God loved the world and therefore loved also us from eternity; for if we actually believe this, what else can we expect but good things from God? If he loves us, he cannot give us anything bad, but he must be only of a friendly mind toward us. However, the doctrine of the Gospel, whereby the Christian Church should be built and which was glorified in the disciples on that first Pentecost through the Holy Spirit; reads still differently, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." Ah, my dearly beloved hearers, what a picture of God this is! If we see how the earth is full of his goodness, how he has adorned the heavens for us men and made the earth fruitful, we must exclaim: God, how great is your love! If in trouble we experience unexpected help from God, we truly say with tears of joy: Oh, how good God is! Now when we hear that God so loved the world that he gives his only begotten Son, what should we say to that?

The whole world has fallen into sin, has become God's enemy, and has joined Satan, hates, despises, and flees from God. .Instead of burning with wrath, God burns with love and eternal pity and gives his dear, only, begotten Son into the death of the cross just to redeem, deliver, and saved the fallen world. Therefore, though a person may now have all the sins of the world upon his conscience, he still would not for that reason be lost, for this is the extent of. God's love, that he sacrificed his Son for the sake of the sins of the entire world.

This love is infinite. If I would say: it is as great as an entire ocean, I would have described only one drop of this love; if I would say: it is as intense as a fire-storm which reaches from earth to the skies, I would have shown you only a little spark of this love; if I would have said: it is as vast as heaven and earth, I would have pictured to you only one little ray of this love. For as God himself is much greater than all creatures, so is his love also much greater than anything else, for out of love to the sinful world God's gift was not the earth, nor the sun, moon, and stars, nor the entire world, nor merely heaven, but his own dear Son himself.

Oh, what a glorious, wonderful, adorable, and loving God is pictured to us in this doctrine! If this doctrine does not awaken trust in God, which doctrine should? If this doctrine does not incite us to go confidently to God, which should incite us? If this doctrine should not remove all fear and terror of God, which should remove it? God gives us his dear Son as a gift; how many million times greater than our sin must God's love be? God gives us his dear Son; who still wants to be afraid of death? Christ is death's master; who still wants to be afraid of hell and damnation? Christ has the keys of hell, who wants to doubt his salvation, who wants to doubt that heaven stands open to him? If the Lord of heaven has been given us as a gift, then heaven itself has been given as a gift with all its treasures and with all its eternal eternal pleasures, delights, and glory.

Behold, this is the Pentecostal sermon of the New Testament with which Christ publicly begins his kingdom in the world; this is the preaching with which the Holy Spirit reveals himself in the world by which the Christian Church is to be built and all men be helped. It does not speak of our works but of God's great deeds; it does not hold before us our duties but the treasures which God offers us; it does not tell us that we must give something to God but what God has given us. It draws away the veil by which God's countenance is hidden from us and cries to us: Behold, God is love! It pulls away the veil hanging before heaven and says: Behold, this blessed place is prepared also for you, for God has so loved you that he gave his only begotten Son.

Oh, what an entirely different Pentecost we therefore have who live in the times of the New Covenant than the Church of the Old Covenant had! In those days the damning Law was revealed; under the New Covenant the gracious Gospel; then the mountain trembled and quaked before God's frightening majesty, under the New Covenant all mountains and hills skip for joy; then God appeared as a consuming fire, under the New Covenant God appears as a boundless fire of love; then everyone had to flee from God, under the New Covenant, on the other hand, we read: Come, come to God, be not afraid, he loves you, he has loved you from eternity; God's Son is yours; sin, death, and hell have been swallowed up. Therefore rejoice, sing praises, and be joyful all the earth!

II.

My friends, though God's love would be presented to us in all its greatness in the pentecostal sermon of the New Testament, this preaching still would not comfort us if we were not immediately told how we can seize God's love, gifts, riches, and treasures which he offers to us.

What would it profit us if a person described the greatest treasure to us which should be ours, if at the close he would say: this treasure lies in the depths of the sea? or in the center of the earth? If God' s love, in Christ Jesus is preached to us, our soul asks: But how should I get this love? God dwells in a light which no one can approach, but I lie here in the darkness, of . my sins. Christ has ascended above the heaven of heavens, but I am here upon earth. How can I press forward into that unapproachable light? how can I ascend into heaven and grasp him who has loved me unto death? Where would I find wings to ascend to the throne of eternal Love? where would I find the ladder on which I a sinner can climb to the eternal fount of mercy and grace?

But be confident, be confident! my dear hearers; the Pentecostal sermon of the New Covenant does not leave this question unanswered. Permit me in the second place to speak to you of this.

My friends, as great as God's love is which is revealed during these days, so near to us is it also; as near to us as the Word is, so near is also everything which is promised in it. For Christ continues in our Gospel, "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Faith, faith, therefore, gives us the wings with which we can rise over sin and the world and death and hell and damnation to the bosom of eternal Love; faith is the ladder which God himself has set up for us into heaven; faith is the hand which grasps the Son of God as a precious unutterable gift of the heavenly Father and with him righteousness, life, and salvation.

The treasure has already been given to us; it lies in the Gospel; by means of the Gospel it is presented to all; so whoever believes it, as the Word promises, has it; though heaven and earth may disappear, the Word does not disappear so also salvation remains for him who clings to the Word. St. John therefore says, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 Jn 5:4.

If anyone wants to merit God's love through works, in the eyes of the world this has indeed an aura of holiness but in God's eyes it is a horrible sacrilege which must finally hurl one to hell. Christ therefore says in our text, "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." V.18b. This means: He who does not believe in Christ need not first be judged and condemned. Moses, the Law, has already condemned him; he wants to be judged by the Law, and so he will be.

On the other hand, faith appears to be something insignificant. Oh, people think judging by their reason, how can faith do this! But for the sake of God and our salvation let us not follow the perverted judgment of our blinded reason. If faith would not have God's Word and promise, naturally it would help us as little as would picking up a straw from the ground and desire heaven as the gift for doing that. But because God in his Word has promised us grace, forgiveness, life, and salvation for Christ's sake, that is why faith is not an empty thing but it is a hand which grasps God and with him all his divine heavenly treasures.

However, faith is the very mountain over which the blessings of Pentecost are unable to climb. The Gospel is preached; oh that it would also be believed by all! Of course, we dare not be surprised that those who do not believe, who still regard their sins as trifles, who are least of all concerned about their sins, who think: Oh, what is grace! if I would have money, if I would have beautiful clothing, if I would have the smiling pleasures of the world! To be sure, in their case one preaches into deaf ears. First they must learn to become frightened at the thunder upon Sinai; when they begin to wither before the consuming fire of divine righteousness, then they will also search in faith for the refreshing breezes of the Holy Spirit from the Gospel.

However, faith is an offence not only to these but also to many who are already smitten by the Law, who would gladly be pious and be saved. Unbelief, mistrust of God is born in us all. True, many therefore do not want to contradict God's Word, but they think: Yes, if I would truly believe, I would really have eternal life through faith; however, how can I really believe since I so completely lack its fruits? since I feel so little in my heart? Sin clings so closely to me, I am so indolent! My faith will not help me at all. Alas, no one can state the countless numbers of those who let themselves be held back from faith because they thought they could not believe correctly.

I fear and certainly not without reason that therefore many also among us have this fear, that therefore they also never in all their life attain a lasting peace and a lasting certainty of their salvation. But what is really that faith

which saves? The true faith is nothing else but firmly regarding as certain and true that Christ is ours with all his grace. This does not make faith genuine so that he is powerful and fruitful but that it sees the true Christ and clings to him. Not my earnestness, zeal, and devotion but the true Christ whom I seize makes up faith. Where that is, there is true faith. If a person could regard as true: Christ died also for me, God has given him also for me, from eternity God loves also me in Christ, I say, if a person could regard this as certain and true, he could lie ever so deep in sin, this faith would make him righteous before God and save him; yes, though such a person were already in the abyss of hell, hell would have to give him up. For Christ who cannot lie says, "That whosoever believeth in him." oh hear this! "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Now my dear hearers, people beloved by God in Christ! I have a heartfelt longing that none of us be lost but that everyone of you might receive eternal life. Therefore I can do nothing else, I must now in closing on the occasion of our today's glorious text turn to each of you particularly.

First, I turn to you who simply do not seek nor are concerned about being saved. You still have not pondered the fact that God is a righteous God who has threatened to punish the sinner. You live on securely and regard the Gospel as the most trifling treasure in the world; you seek money and goods, you want only to be physically healthy and have good days, be honored, praised, and loved by everyone. These things comprise your planning, seeking. You regard salvation as a secondary matter. I must admit to you: my heart weeps when I

think of the tragic situation in which you are. You are wretched and you do not know it. You are on the way to ruin and you do not think so. Oh, that my tongue could not utter words of thunder! oh that I could now transform my words into spears and nails in order to wound your sleeping conscience!

Well, now, before God the Judge of the living and the dead you now receive this testimony: You still lies in your sins! Because you still despise God's Law and his threats, God's wrath rests upon you. Oh, wake up, wake up, you who sleep and rise from the dead and Christ will give you light. Oh, be frightened at yourself; you still despise Christ; perceive your sins and cry: Lord, what shall I do? Oh, that you would let these words pierce your heart! Christ stretches forth his hands to you lost sheep! Oh, let yourselves be rescued! Oh, let yourselves be saved!

But I say to you: if you will continue to despise all this and continue to sin against grace, some day today's text, which is so comforting, will accuse you before God and cry vengeance upon you forever and ever.

Now let me turn to you who do not despise God's Law and threats but fear them and would gladly be pious, righteous, and be saved, but because you see that you are so wicked, because you stumble so often, because you feel yourselves so powerless, so often lazy and lukewarm, you do not want to lay hold of any true, certain, and firm confidence in your Savior and in your salvation. You see: you lack power, you are wretched and frail; now tell me: By what means do you think that you can finally be helped? Do you imagine that you will become better by your own power? Do you think that someday you will fight your way out yourself by your weakness?

I tell you: In this way your situation will become worse and worse; I tell you: hurry to deliver your soul, hurry to Jesus Christ! Begin to hurl all your sins upon him and to recognize and seize him in firm confidence as your Savior. Believe me: Everything which wants to hinder you from doing this is of the devil! You have now heard: God gave his dear Son for the world, also for you; you need but accept this, believe this, daily exercise yourself in this faith and persevere in this faith until the end and you will not be lost

but be saved, yes, saved eternally. Oh, don't hold back any longer! You could die today! Accept the great love of your God, for eternal life is to be found in it alone.

Finally, you my dear brethren and sisters in the faith, who have a taste only for Jesus and his righteousness, listen to the voice of your comrade in salvation by grace: Let us make a covenant to let no creature either in heaven or on earth separate us from God's love in Christ Jesus. Let us hold fast to our crown which Jesus' blood has won for us and which was given to us through faith in our Holy Baptism., Let us gladly take up our cross and follow Jesus in this world, bravely fighting against flesh, world, and devil; through Jesus we must gain the victory.

To be sure, here on earth we will never be able to be as thankful, to our Savior as we would gladly wish to be, but some day, some day, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and when this mortal shall have put on immortality, then we will give praise to the Lamb who was slain for us, and to the Father and the Spirit of these two from eternity to eternity. Amen.

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