God has made a home with us

Sermon for Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13  +  John 14:23-31

Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world on the Day of Pentecost, as we heard in the Epistle reading. Not that He wasn’t already in the world before that; He’s been here all along. But He was given to the world in a special way on the Day of Pentecost. We’ll talk about that a little bit. Remember, it’s the Holy Spirit who is responsible for inspiring the writings of the prophets and of the apostles, so really, it’s the Holy Spirit teaching us today about the Holy Spirit in that account. But the Spirit of God also has much to teach us in today’s Gospel. So we’ll spend a good amount of our time there, too, where we’ll see that the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to come and make a home with believers. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, God Himself has made a home with us.

Let’s consider the Gospel. Jesus begins with these words: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. There’s so much packed into that little sentence! First, what is Jesus’ word? It’s everything he ever said to the apostles, His entire teaching. His entire teaching about man and the lost condition in which we’re all born. It’s His entire teaching about God—who He is, what His commandments are, what He declares to be right and wrong, how He hates and punishes sin, and how He sent His Son into the world to redeem fallen man and to reconcile us to Him through faith alone in Jesus the Christ.

Not that Jesus came up with any of that Himself, as if it originated with Him. The word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s, who sent me. There we see a tiny glimpse into the workings of the Holy Trinity. God the Father is the Fount and Source of the words, of the teaching. What He speaks is…Jesus, who is the eternal Word who was in the beginning with God and who was (and is) God. When Jesus came into the world and spoke to the world, He spoke the words that came from the Father as the Source.

Of course, even before Jesus was born, the words that originated with the Father also came into the world. They came by the Holy Spirit, who spoke through the prophets, bringing the word of God into the world bit by bit, book by book, prophecy by prophecy, meaning that the entire Old Testament is also the word of Jesus and the word of the Father and, in yet another sense, the word of the Holy Spirit.

What does it mean to “keep His word”? It means to treasure it, to hold onto it, to believe it, and to put it into practice. In summary, it means faith in God as He reveals Himself in His Word, and love toward God and our neighbor as God has revealed in His Word what love is and what it looks like.

If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Why would anyone love Jesus? This is the love of agape, of sincere devotion. Those who love Jesus love Him because He has told us the truth about God and about the way God has provided for sinners like you and me to be reconciled to Him: through faith in Christ Jesus, who demonstrated His own love for us in that He gave His life for us, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God. If anyone loves Jesus, he will keep Jesus’ word. If anyone loves Jesus, He will read the Word of God. Hear the Word of God. Learn and meditate on the Word of God. He will know and believe in the true God. He will be devoted to God, to avoid what is sinful and wrong and to think and to do what is right in God’s sight. And, if he stumbles and falls, he will repent. That’s also part of “keeping Jesus’ word.”

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. Sadly, that describes most people in the world today. They don’t love Jesus, and so they don’t keep His words. Or they love some made-up idea of Jesus instead of the one actually revealed in Holy Scripture, and then think they can keep a few of His words and ignore the rest. But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t know what Jesus says and intentionally do the opposite, refusing to repent, and still pretend to love Jesus.

But He has this beautiful promise for everyone who does love Him and keeps His word. And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make a home with him. Imagine, God Himself making a home on earth, not just in some city somewhere, but with an individual. How is that possible? How is it done?

Well, in the Old Testament, God, who fills all things, whom even the highest heavens can’t contain, made His home, His dwelling place on earth, a temple in the city of Jerusalem. There God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—lived among men, made Himself accessible to men, in a symbolic way. But the temple was only a picture. Then Jesus came, the true Temple of God, and God made His dwelling place on earth in a man who literally made His home with Mary and Joseph, and then with His apostles, moving from place to place with them. Where Jesus was, there was the Father, and there, too, was the Spirit.

What about after Jesus’ ascended into heaven? That’s where Pentecost comes in. You know the story. Ten days after His ascension, the Lord Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit on His believers in Jerusalem. But the Holy Spirit is a spirit, invisible like the wind. At Jesus’ Baptism, He made Himself visible in the form of a dove. On the Day of Pentecost, He made His presence known in three external signs: (1) The sound of the loud, rushing wind—a sign that the powerful Spirit of God was among them. (2) The tongues of fire on the heads of the disciples—a sign that the Spirit now dwells with believers; a sign that the Spirit is passed along with the tongue, through the preaching of the Word of God; and a sign that He would use their tongues, their preaching, to kindle a fire on the earth, to spread the kingdom of Christ in the hearts of men. And (3) the sudden ability of the believers to speak the wonders of God in different languages—a sign that the Gospel was to be preached to all the peoples of the earth.

And after Peter preached to the people and exposed their sin, after they were cut to the heart by his Spirit-filled preaching, what was it he promised them? Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. You see, the gift of the Holy Spirit wasn’t just for the Day of Pentecost. He would be dwelling on earth in and among believers, that is, within this worldwide Holy Christian Church, until Jesus Himself returns to bring us to His home. Until then, God has made a home with us by His Spirit.

That home is the Christian Church in general, as St. Paul writes to the Corinthians in chapter 3: Do you not know that you—that is, you plural, you as a group of Christians—are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? The Spirit works through Word and Sacraments to gather a Church on earth and to strengthen and govern it. But that home of the Spirit is also each individual believer, as he writes later in chapter 6: Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? God dwells in each believer by His Spirit, testifying with our spirit that we are children of God, teaching us about Jesus, urging us to keep trusting in Him, to bear the cross with patience, and spurring us on toward love and good works. It’s as Jesus promised, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all the things I have said to you.

This is why Jesus could say what He did to His apostles: Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. How can we have peace in this world as long as the devil is the “ruler of this world,” as Jesus calls him? How can we have peace when sin is rampant, and when suffering and death surround us? How can we have peace when the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh seek to destroy us day and night? Because, in the midst of all that, God Has made a home with us. He is present in His Church with the peace of the forgiveness of sins, proclaimed in the Word and applied by the water of Baptism and by the body and blood of Jesus given to us in the Sacrament of the Altar. And He is present by His Spirit in the heart of every believer to remind you continually that God is real, His Word is true, Jesus reigns at the Father’s right hand, and you belong to Him.

So let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. The world laughs at the peace Jesus gives, but you and I—we live by it. We thrive on it. And as you face the challenges and struggles of each day, take comfort in Jesus’ promise. Even in the darkest times, even on the loneliest of days, when friends are few and when allies become enemies, you are not alone. It’s as the Psalm says, Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will hold me fast. If that was true in the Old Testament, it is much more so now, after the Day of Pentecost, when God’s Spirit dwells in and among believers, when God Himself has made a home with us. Amen.