The Gift Beyond Measure :: John 14:26-27

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[And Jesus said:] But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and cause you to remember all things that I spoke to you. Peace I release to you. My peace I give to you. 

And now you have that peace. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, is there any doubt in your mind about this today? The peace of God which transcends all understanding ... quite literally, the forgiveness of your sins ... is yours in Christ. The Lord of Peace has given you this peace at all times in every way (2 Th 3:16). You who confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you have been saved. He has set you free from sin, death, and the power of the devil; you have eternal life now.

So today we celebrate the abundance of that peace, His peace.

This is what the Feast of Pentecost is really all about. 

I might have surprised some of you last week when I said that this day is one of the three most important days of the church year. Of course, I’m sure y’all had Christmas and Easter atop your list. After all, who doesn’t love birth and new life most of all? But you should know Pentecost is right there alongside them. 

Why? 

1.    The Feast of Pentecost is all about the abundance of life in Christ, too! 

In the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, God has released peace to you. His peace he has given you. Christmas is the day we recognize God brought peace to earth, to begin with. In the midst of our sin, the Prince of Peace took on flesh and began dwelling among us (Jn 1:14). The Babe of Bethlehem proves to us that God is not a god who doesn’t understand us; nor is he a distant god who doesn’t care for us. The Maker of heaven and earth, the only True God, the One who gave us our bodies and souls, our eyes, ears, and all our members, our reason and all our senses, still takes care of us. He has come to serve us. ... We couldn’t go to God. So he came to us. 

Let us always rejoice and be glad about this! Yes?

In the same way, Easter is a day we recognize that God made all things new. At Christmas, he entered a sinful world. At Easter, he restored peace in the new creation, a risen savior. Sin has been doing its best to destroy our world, so God sent forth his only begotten son, our Lord Jesus, to live a life of peace, without sin. Jesus then faced the wrath of God alone for your sin. Yes, your sin. He suffered, died, and was buried for your sin. He received the death you deserve. But death and grave could not hold the author of life. God raised him from the dead, releasing the pangs of death (Acts 2:24, ESV). And because of his resurrection, death has no more power over you. God has swallowed up death in victory. So now we have peace, peace which we don’t understand. 

So let us rejoice and be glad in it: The resurrection life is now yours! Peace he has released to you. His peace he has given to you. 

Yes, Christmas and Easter are most certainly two of the most important days of the church year. But what would any of that be without the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? 

The answer: Nothing at all. 

So today we celebrate in God’s Divine Service, where he gives you his peace, the forgiveness of sins, the fruits of the Holy Spirit. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we remember that our Advocate, the Comforter, the Defender, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sent in the name of Christ ... he has come to us to teach us all things ... and he has caused us to remember all things that Jesus said and did ... at Christmas, at Easter, and in all points before, during, and after. 

The Holy Spirit is the reason we remember the season. This is Pentecost. Because God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the world during the Feast of Pentecost, we now know all we need to know to have peace. So let us rejoice and be glad in it!

2.    What, therefore, is it that we need to remember?

As Jesus told Judas (not Iscariot) in the verse immediately before our Gospel reading, we need to remember to keep his word ... as in, all of it ... as in paying attention to it, all of it ... treasuring all of his word. You know loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all you soul, and all your strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself (Lk 10:27). 

That’s a tall task, eh? 

How are you doing with that? 

Not good? Well, join the club. No one is righteous. No not one. None of us understand. None of us seek God. We all have turned aside. We all fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:10-19). You are sinners dying in sin. Sin steals your peace.

So thank God for the Feast of Pentecost, one of the days he appointed for his remembrance. Through the Holy Spirit, he is calling you to repent in the name of Jesus. Return to the baptism that the Holy Spirit poured out upon you, enabling you to hear the word of God, enabling you to confess your sins, and your need for a savior, enabling you to believe all that Jesus said and did. This gives you peace.

Before the Day of Pentecost, the disciples had been weak in faith, doubting Thomas’ so to speak. Like Peter once did, denying they had ever been Christians. But then the Holy Spirit came and reminded them of all that Jesus said and did. 

Amazingly, 3,000 souls heard that word of the Lord and believed that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to him. That is to say, I cannot love Jesus as I want to love him. I can only pay lip service to my Lord. ... I can’t give him my heart. I can’t find God in my heart. I can’t make a decision for him on my own. ... I can’t find God with my mind. I can’t find God in the world. I can’t find God in my efforts to be the church. I can’t even find God at all. 

But he finds you. He calls you. He comforts you. He nurtures you. In word and sacrament. This is the truth of God’s word being proclaimed at Pentecost. It is the truth we need to treasure and remember. 

As we hear God’s word breathed out by the Holy Spirit through the apostles, he causes us to remember all that Jesus taught and did, the truth that we are not sinners because we sin ... we are sinners who sin ... sinners who don’t do what we want to do, follow the law; we do the very thing we hate, that is disobey. We were born in sin, steeped in sin, spiritually blind and deaf to all that Christ has said and done, dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1) ... stiff-necked people (Acts 7:51) ... until Pentecost. Then it happened. 

3.    God poured out the Holy Spirit upon us, just like Jesus promised in the upper room on the night he was betrayed, and we began to remember why we are here. 

As Luke reports in our epistle reading, when the day of Pentecost arrived ... there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house ... And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1-4 ESV).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, they all believed the truth of God in Christ! They began remembering why they came to church. Do you? 

That first day alone, people speaking at least 16 different languages heard the Gospel in their own language and began sharing it in their own tongue, telling their neighbors. Today, all that Jesus said and did is now written in 704 languages, most notably in our own English. Aunt you share it too? These words of God give us peace. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.


While everyone everywhere searches for happiness, identity, security, and meaning in life elsewhere, listen as God continues to remind you of the peace which Christ has secured for you in his Divine Service to you. This is the place he brings you back to the certainty of holy baptism, where he unites himself with you in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Eternal life is yours in baptism. 

This is the place he brings you back to hear the proclamation of the Gospel, the Gospel that declares to you that your sins are indeed forgiven on account of Jesus, who lived for you, died for you, rose from the dead for you, and ascended into heaven where he has prepared a place for you. Eternal life is yours in absolution. 

But as if those two means of grace weren't sure and certain enough, the Holy Spirit still has one more gift for you today. As Luther once said, when you want your sins to be forgiven ... run to the Lord’s Supper. Here, in the feast he has prepared for us, you will surely receive the forgiveness and peace Jesus won on the cross for you as the body and blood of the Lord is put into your mouth to eat and drink (AE 37:213–14).


How comforting it is that Jesus left his peace right where the Holy Spirit is. 

THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS BEYOND MEASURE

Overwhelmingly comforting! 

Eternal peace!

Blessed Pentecost!

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