Audio recording Sermon manuscript: There are three great festivals that the Christian church celebrates every year: Christmas, Easter, and today’s festival of Pentecost. During these festivals we often learn and speak about the significance of them. Therefore, with Christmas, we learn how very changed the universe has become by the Son of God being joined to our human race and born of the Virgin Mary. By this union of God and man in Jesus Christ we have been intertwined with God. At Easter we consider the way that Jesus achieved atonement and justification for all people, for all sinners. He suffered and died on the cross on Good Friday. He rose from the dead on Easter. Because of him all who believe in him will overcome sin and death and rise again to new life. So what about Pentecost? Before we speak about its significance for us, perhaps we better briefly speak about what happened. Whereas most people can tell you what Christmas and Easter are about, they get a little hazy with the events of Pentecost. The timeline goes like this: On Easter Sunday Jesus rose from the dead. He appeared to his disciples on many occasions, in rather unusual ways. For example, he didn’t seem to walk down the street or go from one place to another like a normal human being. He appeared to his disciples in a room where all the doors and windows were locked. He appeared to two disciples on the road, but they didn’t immediately recognize him. For forty days Jesus did this. Then he ascended into heaven. Fifty days after Easter Sunday is when the events happened that we heard about in Acts. The disciples and many Jews from around the world were gathered in Jerusalem for the Old Testament feast of weeks. While they were all gathered together there was a strange blowing of wind, tongues of flame, the ability to speak in other languages, and Peter testified that the only Savior of the world was the one whom these Jews had crucified about seven weeks prior. Peter told them that although they had crucified the Lord of Glory, they and their children should believe in him, be baptized, and be saved. And so it was that 3,000 were baptized that day. Thereafter they continued to gather to hear God’s Word, to pray, to eat together, and grow in grace. These are the events of Pentecost. What is the significance of this festival? There are two things that are especially important. First, we learn more about the Holy Spirit. Second, we learn more about the Christian Church. We’ll begin with the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is a festival that is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the word “spirit” we might just think of an energy or a force. That’s not altogether wrong, because most certainly the Holy Spirit works within a person. But this “spirit” is not just an energy. He is true God—just as much God as the Father or the Son is. With the three persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is not talked about as much. The Bible has much more to say about the Father and the Son. The prayers we pray in Church are most often addressed to the Father, sometimes addressed to Jesus, much less so to the Holy Spirit. Our chief hymn today is unusual in the way that it is a prayer to the Holy Spirit: “Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord.” The vast majority of our hymns are not addressed to the Holy Spirit. This is not an accident. It is not dishonoring the Holy Spirit. It is a recognition of the Holy Spirit’s proper work. On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit manifests himself in the rushing wind, the ability to speak in tongues, and the divided flames of fire. But of whom does the apostle Peter speak, when he stands up to address the crowd? He does not speak to them so much about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit causes the apostle Peter to speak about Jesus. He urges the people to call on the Name that is above every name so that they too may be saved. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, by