Preparing for Worship - May 28, 2023

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, and the readings focus on God’s giving the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and how the Lord wants to lead and guide us into the truth of His Word through the Spirit.

The Old Testament lesson is from Numbers 11:24-30. The Lord had told Moses to gather 70 men of the elders of Israel around the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. The Lord then put a portion of the Spirit that was upon Moses upon these elders. They were able to “prophesy,” but only briefly, as a sign from God that they were chosen to help Moses in dealing with all the people. Two others were given this same gift, and though some object, Moses says that he wished that the Lord would put His Spirit on ”all the Lord’s people.” (The Holy Spirit was certainly present in the Old Testament, working through the Word, but specific mentions and manifestations of the working of the Spirit are mainly with prophets and kings and others in leading God’s people and bringing them God’s Word.)

The wish of Moses was fulfilled in the Epistle lesson, Acts 2:1-21, on the Day of Pentecost, as predicted by the prophet Joel. The Holy Spirit came upon all the early Christians and showed His presence by “the sound of a mighty rushing wind” and “tongues as of fire” and by His enabling these believers to “speak in other languages“ and “tell of the mighty works of God” in Jesus as Savior. The purpose was that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (The Spirit still works today, as people are “born again of water and the Spirit” in Baptism and through the Word of God. See Acts 2:38-39 and John 3:3-6 and 1 Peter 1:23-25, etc. In fact, if we are trusting in Jesus as our Savior, we do have the Holy Spirit, for Paul reminds us, in 1 Corinthians 12:3 that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit,” as he brings people to faith .)

Jesus also predicted a number of times this coming of the Holy Spirit, in the Gospels, and in our Gospel lesson for today, John 7:37-39. Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths, where there were water ceremonies, and people would sing of God’s salvation and quote from Isaiah 12:3, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Jesus cried out about “rivers of living water” available through faith in Him and through the working of the “Spirit” who was to come. Again, as in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was at work through the Word, but the unique coming of the Spirit at Pentecost was still to happen later. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, “He dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17. The promise is of the Spirit’s presence with us “forever.”

The Psalm is Psalm 25:1-15. David says to God, “In You I trust.” He knows, though, that he continually needs God’s forgiveness for his sins and God’s mercy and steadfast love for him. He needs God to “redeem him and Israel out of all their troubles.” David also knows, to be a “man who fears the Lord,” that he needs to walk humbly with God and needs to be “instructed in the ways of God “and “the ways he should choose to go in his life.” In the New Testament, we know that the Holy Spirit does much of that teaching, as we use God’s Word.