You've Been Gathered by the Holy Spirit!

Pentecost, 5/23/10
Acts 2:1


You’ve Been Gathered by the Holy Spirit!
I. Into the Holy Christian Church
II. To proclaim your Savior’s praise


Today we join the church on earth in celebrating the Day of Pentecost and, along with it, the work of God the Holy Spirit. So let me ask you. When was the last time you celebrated the work of the Holy Spirit? Some of you might be saying to yourself, “I don’t remember the last time.” Others of you might be saying, “About a year ago when we last celebrated Pentecost.” Fair enough. Those are honest answers and that’s what I was looking for.

How about this one? When is the last time you prayed to the Holy Spirit? Can’t recall the last time? Maybe you’re sure you never have. Really? In each of our creeds we confess the Holy Spirit as true God along with the Father and the Son but we have a hard time recalling when we have celebrated his work in our lives or praying for him to continue that work in our lives.

Those are two of the biggest reasons that the Holy Spirit has often been referred to as the “silent member of the Trinity.” We tend to forget about his work. We often fail to pray for his influence in our lives and in the lives of others.

If that’s true for you to any degree, then I’m glad you’re gathered here with God’s people this morning, for Jesus has referred to the Holy Spirit as the greatest gift that God can give to any sinner. In our Catechism instruction with our children we recall this explanation from Martin Luther regarding the Holy Spirit’s work, “He has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the truth faith.” But then Luther also goes on, “In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”

He gathers Christians. Like no other day in history we see him doing just that on the day described in our text. And he’s still doing it. He’s done it with you. You’ve been gathered by the Holy Spirit. May he enlighten us so that we see the many blessings he has in store for us who have been gathered by him.

Part I.

Our modern society encourages individualism. Particularly at this time of year when we’re celebrating graduations, you hear the encouragement to be yourself, to be true to yourself, to strike out on your own, to avoid just going along with the crowd. But we don’t take those words as an encouragement to be all alone. No one likes to be entirely alone. The newly widowed spouse and the college freshman sitting at her desk that first night on campus fight the feeling of loneliness.

Your God doesn’t want you to be alone. Not forever. Not even for a single day. And thus he gathers you. Listen again to the words of our text. “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” The followers of Jesus were gathered on that Day of Pentecost in one place. That was the working of the Holy Spirit. He had caused them to obey the command of their Savior to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit had been poured out on them.

How appropriate that this outpouring should occur on the Day of Pentecost! You see, this wasn’t a brand new celebration. It had been on the Jewish calendar every year for centuries. It was the annual celebration of the harvest—the gathering in of God’s blessings on their farming efforts. As such, it also prefigured the way the Holy Spirit would gather together or harvest sinful human souls into God’s kingdom.

The beginning of that worldwide work involved these very disciples that were gathered together in that room on this particular Sunday morning. In keeping his promise Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to them in a special way. You know the Pentecost story. You just heard it read to you a few minutes ago. There was the sound of a rushing wind and then what looked like tongues of fire separated on rested on them. Incredible! These outward signs were the indication of what he was doing to them inwardly—filling them with his holy, powerful presence.

The Holy Spirit was gathering them in a special way so that he could use them to gather others. Many Christians speak of this day as the beginning of the New Testament church on earth. And what a start was made this day! The church has never seen one like it since. Peter preached a sermon to the crowd gathered before him and the Holy Spirit does his work. Three thousand come to faith in Jesus as their Savior. Three thousand are baptized. Three thousand are gathered by the Holy Spirit into the Holy Christian Church.

And the soul count keeps increasing. This same Holy Spirit used the same gospel of Jesus Christ that Peter spoke and the same sacrament of Baptism that Peter and the others administered to bring you to faith in Jesus and to gather you into the Holy Christian Church. When you confess that you “believe in the Holy Christian Church,” you are confessing that you are a member of that invisible Church by faith in Jesus. You are gathered with all others in heaven and on earth who trust in Jesus as their Savior.

You’ve been gathered by the Holy Spirit! You’ve been gathered into the Holy Christian Church.

This past February our area observed another very grim anniversary. It was 11 years ago that 10-year-old Erica Baker disappeared while walking her dog. I recall watching the news reports of her parents’ efforts to find her and bring her back home. Eleven years later, they’ve resigned themselves to the fact that she will never come home alive. They can only hope that those implicated in her disappearance will inform them of where her body is so that they can bring her home and give her a descent burial. It’s a terrible, horrible situation!

But even that pales in comparison to how lost you and I were. Worse yet, we didn’t even know how lost we were. We were headed for hopelessness and helplessness and eternal death with our enemy, Satan. But the Holy Spirit gathered us in. It likely took place at a font much like that one. Or it happened as a friend or a teacher or another pastor shared with us the message of our sin and God’s grace in Jesus Christ. And through those means—unimpressive in the world’s eyes—the Holy Spirit accomplished something eternally tremendous in us. He gathered us in. He brought us to faith in Jesus. He made us members of the Holy Christian Church. It took no effort, no decision, no response on our part. It was all his working. You’ve been gathered by the Holy Spirit.

Part II.

Are you familiar with the term “coffee klatch”? It’s used for a group of people—usually a group of women—who get together over a cup of coffee simply to talk with one another. That’s the only purpose for the existence of their gathering.

We just noted how the Holy Spirit has gathered us into the Holy Christian Church. That’s an eternal organization. It’s the most outstanding organization ever. But for what purpose?

Well, for one thing he wants to bless you. As a member of the Holy Christian Church you live in the daily forgiveness of your sins. You have the daily assurance that you are a dearly loved child of God. You have God’s promise that eternal life in heaven is yours. Those are some of the blessings God gives you because he has gathered you.

But he also wants to bless others through you. Through your presence and participation here in this gathering of Christians you make it possible to share God’s truths with our children. In worship and in Bible study you share God’s truths with one another. Through your offerings you make it possible to share God’s truths will people near and far.

And that’s exactly what they apostles were doing immediately after the Holy Spirit filled them on the day of Pentecost. Peter grabbed the closest spot he could and used it to preach his first sermon. After that sermon the other apostles used water and the word to baptize 3,000. From that point on the apostles took the good news of Jesus to far points in every direction of the compass. The pebble of the gospel had been dropped in the lake of this world and the ripples spread out from there. That saving movement of the gospel was in keeping with the gracious plan of our Savior. The Holy Spirit gathered his apostles in so that he could use them to gather others in.

That same plan is still in action today. The players are different, but the plan remains the same. It’s one of the reasons that the Holy Spirit gathered you and me into the Church. As individuals, we’ve been placed here at this time in history for the Holy Spirit to use to gather others into his Church. As a congregation of believers our purpose is to make disciples of all nations. We’re here to share God’s Son with you and with everyone else. The Apostle Peter said it this way, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 1:29).

You’ve been gathered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim your Savior’s praise.

We’ve been gathered by the Holy Spirit to praise Jesus, to tell others how wonderful he is. That’s our stated purpose as a congregation and as individuals. How well does that stated purpose describe us collectively? Individually? Over the past 2 weeks I’ve had some time to reflect on that personally and to confess that it hasn’t been the priority in my life that it should be. How about you? And the Holy Spirit brings us forgiveness through faith in Jesus. And then he fills us with his power. He renews us and guides us and uses us to reach others with the saving message of Jesus just as he used these apostles on that Sunday morning in Jerusalem. May he continue to gather more people into his kingdom through us! Amen.