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Tomorrow is the Festival of Pentecost. Just why do we celebrate Pentecost? Well, we don’t celebrate it just because of the miracle that the Holy Spirit performed in the hearts and in the lives of the Apostles that day in Jerusalem, fifty days after Jesus’ Resurrection and ten days after His Ascension. Although that would have been enough…
- to mark the day that converted a bunch of quivering cowards afraid of their own shadows into mighty heroes of faith, unafraid and unashamed to die for their beliefs.
- to mark the day in which their confusion cleared up, and they could finally see the light after sitting at their Master’s feet for three years in a virtual fog (still at the Ascension, some of them were asking when He was planning to set up shop as King on earth).
- to mark the day the movement began, which took the world by storm and turned it upside down in just a few short years. In effect, it was the birthday of the New Testament church.
But these aren’t the real reasons why we celebrate Pentecost. Our main reason is much deeper, much more personal, and much more far-reaching. What took place in a little corner of the world 2000 years ago in far-off Jerusalem was only the beginning, just the tip of the iceberg. Whenever and wherever the Gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit is unleashed on human hearts. Pentecost was the beginning of something big. Something really big. It fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies, among them Isaiah 44: “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel.” That prophecy is still being fulfilled today. The singing sword of the Spirit is still making its mark upon hundreds of thousands of thirsty souls. Saints, our special stake in this Pentecost celebration is that the Spirit has indelibly stamped on our own souls for all the world to see and for all time the words: THE LORD’S. That’s why we celebrate Pentecost!
I. He Works In Us
Just what makes us so special? Was it a little extra something in us that lets the Holy Spirit do His saving work in our hearts? No, in fact, it is a little extra nothing that the Holy Spirit has worked in us. A little extra nothing? Our text describes that extra nothing as “thirst.” “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” Rather an unusual invitation, wouldn’t you say? Especially since Jesus wasn’t in the habit of vending water at Temple functions.
Let’s take a little closer look at this gracious invitation. First, we note that it is a full and free invitation to all people, high or low, rich or poor, young or old, no matter who they are or what they are or what they may have been, no matter how wicked or evil they had been previously. But it presupposes one thing: before a man will drink he must be thirsty.
Rest assured that Jesus is not putting a condition upon our salvation because this thirst is not a condition that we can bring about. It is a condition that the Holy Spirit brings about. He creates this thirst in us, this parched feeling, which He alone can quench and cure. He works through the Law to convict us of our sin, to cause anxiety of soul, desire for pardon, and longing for peace of conscience. In John 16, Jesus tells us: “When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin.” The Lutheran Confessions call this the “strange work” of the Holy Spirit. This is not His primary work but rather his preliminary work. Before the Gospel can be planted and take root, the Law must do the spadework and prepare the ground. As Luther says: “Before God can make us glad, He first must make us sad.”
The Holy Spirit went right to work with His “strange work” on that first Pentecost. The Bible says that the Jews, who heard Peter preach were “cut to the heart.” He created an insatiable thirst in 3000 people that day. A thirst only the Gospel could quench. They were led to ask the Apostles: “Brothers, what shall we do?” Their consciences were set on fire, and the Holy Spirit created a burning thirst in them. Such a thirst is a blessed thirst – it is the first step on the road to Christianity. The first step on the path to heaven is to be convinced that we deserve hell for our many sins. Matthew 5:6 says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
So very few know this blessed thirst. People are thirsty all right, but they seek to quench their thirst with everything but the living water supplied by the Spirit: power, position, prominence, profit, and pleasure. They are thirsting for the wrong things. In Jeremiah, the Lord very vividly describes the mistake people make in trying to quench their thirst with such things: “My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” The world’s water, with all its impurities, is powerless to quench a searing spiritual thirst, even as the ocean, with all its impurities, cannot quench our physical thirst.
Where do we look for relief from our spiritual thirst? Where do we turn when our consciences convict us? Do we try to draw water from those dry wells the world has to offer, only to come up empty every time? Emptier, if that were possible? Do we find ourselves chasing down mirages in this desert of life, only to have them disappear on us, leaving us in a worsened condition? In our text, Jesus provides an oasis that won’t disappear, a well that won’t run dry, one that is brimming with life-giving water, which can refresh us and give us strength to continue our pilgrimage through the dreary deserts of life to our Promised Land. He says: “If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”
Sounds like we have to do something again, doesn’t it? Once again, the Holy Spirit steps in and relieves us of that burden. Paul tells us: “No man can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” John makes that clear in his addendum to Jesus’ announcement: “By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.”
He, who created our thirst through the Law, doesn’t leave us high and dry with our tongues hanging out. He quenches our thirst through the Gospel. He picks us up from the depths of despair and lifts us to the pinnacle of peace. That’s His real work as Comforter. He leads us to see the folly of following the world’s poisonous remedies for thirst and perilous prescriptions for peace. He shows us the poison that is in the cup that the world offers. Then He offers us a cup of His own to drink from the true Fountain dispensing living water. He fills that cup with faith to trust words like those that Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman: “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
What a remedy! It sounds too simple to be true, but there is no other remedy. All the wisdom in the world can’t find a flaw in it or devise a better one; try as it might. Use this grand prescription for peace held out to us by our Savior and made our own by the Spirit: “Let him come to me and drink.” Coming and drinking is nothing more than believing with the faith worked in you by the Holy Spirit. Saints, come and drink. Drink deeply of the water of life. Cool your parched lips with the refreshing water of the Word. Every day, the world leaves us dusty dry with our tongues hanging out. Daily, we need to get into the Word to displace the dust and dirt that have accumulated. Your troubled souls will be soothed by the knowledge that your sins have been forgiven. Like the desert blooms in glorious grandeur after a rain, your souls will blossom with the fruits of the Spirit: hope, joy, love, peace, pardon, mercy, and grace.
II. He Works Through Us
Even after He has brought us to faith, He continues to work in us, watering us with the Word so that we grow in grace and confidence in our salvation. At the same time that He is working in us, He is working through us. Our text tells us: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” It is not only a privilege to be a child of God; it is also a responsibility. When we are richly blessed, we are to be rich blessings to others: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Some shining lights appeared on that first Pentecost. The Lord didn’t take His disciples with Him when He went home to heaven. He left them behind to be His witnesses. Just before He ascended, He told them: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Through streams of living water from Peter alone on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit washed 3000 people out of the devil’s clutches. Later on, through the persecutions, the Holy Spirit used some of these very same converts, as they scattered all over the world, to bring the Gospel to others. When the Apostle Paul came on the scene, he almost single-handedly set the world aflame with the Word.
Dear Saints, our successes likely won’t be as spectacular as Peter’s or Paul’s; nevertheless, the Holy Spirit uses the streams of living water flowing from us as a fountain to quench the thirst of those around us. He not only uses our faith to light our own path to heaven, but He uses it to shine on others whose path may cross ours – be they friend or foe. When we speak of and live the love of Jesus, the Holy Spirit not only works a stronger faith in us, but He may also be working through us to fan a flickering flame of faith in a fellow Christian or to ignite a spark of faith in one not yet in the fold.
Thanks be to God that in His great grace and wondrous wisdom, He chose to quench our thirst with the living water. Saints, rejoice, for the Lord has done great things for you and in you. Now, let Him do great things through you. Amen.
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