Pastor Tim Patoka
The Day of Pentecost
May 28, 2023
Same Source, Different Gifts 1 Corinthians 12:3-11 1) Christians Have the Same Source 2) Christians Are Equipped Differently Picture yourself among the Christians on the first Pentecost. You’re gathered together with others fifty days after Easter, waiting for Jesus to pour out his Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, upon you. Before the sundial shadows 9am, you hear a loud, rushing wing and everyone has a tongue of fire resting over them. You speak of God’s wonderful truths as you have before, except this time it’s in a living language you never studied. As the crowds wonder and mock you, Peter gets up and explains what’s happening: Joel’s prophecy is being fulfilled! And whoever calls upon the name of the Lord with believing lips will be saved. Fast forward to today. You’re with a body of believers fifty days after Easter. But there’s no loud, rushing wind, tongues of fire, fluently-spoken foreign languages, or fulfillment of specific Old Testament prophecies. Though the Holy Spirit is certainly present among us and in us, there’s no special sign of his presence. But his promise still stands: whoever calls upon the name of the Lord with believing lips will be saved. Though our Pentecost celebration looks quite different, there are a number of similarities as our verses from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 point out. Both have Christians who have the same source yet are differently equipped by the Holy Spirit. For he is the source of every Christian’s faith and resultant life. Yet he differently equips each Christian as he so desires. From this same source with differently equipped gifts, we Christians then use them for the same purpose as that first Pentecost: for the common good of creating and nourishing faith through the Word of God. 1) Christians Have the Same Source The Corinthian Christians to whom the Apostle Paul wrote our verses had suffered from divisions. Divisions that were partly fueled by their misuse of the vast variety of spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit had equipped them with. Paul here begins a three-chapter treatise on spiritual gifts by explaining the most important spiritual gift: faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The only way a sinner can have this faith is by the Holy Spirit. If you are confirmed member of Grace or one of our sister churches, you perhaps remember how Luther’s Catechism summarizes the Bible in saying, “I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” (Third Article; What Does This Mean? ©2017)
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