Bible Text: St John 14:23–31 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
That first Pentecost saw three thousand baptized, three thousand repent of their sins and confess Jesus as their Lord. It is, as far as I know, the biggest mass conversion the world has ever seen. A prominent sociologist, actually considered a conservative, insists the number has to be inflated, because as he says, mass conversions don’t happen. He works with the principle “as it is now, so it was in the beginning, and will be forever,” and because I don’t see mass conversions now, therefore they’ve never been. That’s sociology.
You can observe why the church grows, outwardly, and assess the reasons why. The factors are legion. Why does this or that congregation grow? Analyze it. People come and join because they like the pastor’s personality, they come because they like the programs for their kids, they come because they’re young and other young families are there, they come because they like the music, the coffee, because the people are nice, because their family goes there.
All of these factors, which are actually important, Jesus sums up with the words “the peace that the world gives.” This is the peace you can find in any social group. It doesn’t require the Holy Spirit or faith in Jesus. Sometimes, in fact, you can find MORE of this worldly peace at your book club or your tennis club where everyone gets along than you can find in a church. Where very often people bicker and are selfish and fight with one another.
Now I am not downplaying these social factors. Because outward peace is a gift from God. We pray for it in the Lord’s Prayer – give us this day our daily bread. And the church SHOULD be the place where Christians enjoy the company of other Christians. Right after Pentecost, the Holy Spirit tells us that these 3000 men, women, and children (“3000 souls”) met as a church, and devoted themselves to the apostles’ doctrine, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread (the Lord’s Supper), and to prayers. And that coming together of the church in fellowship involves people talking with one another, forming relationships, smiling at one another, being kind and forming friendships, helping the needy. The fruits of the Spirit include kindness and patience, and these are virtues that every congregation needs to practice, so that, as Jesus says, men see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.
But the peace that Jesus gives, what actually makes a Christian, and builds the church, is far outside any sociological study. It surpasses reason. It is something only the Holy Spirit can teach.
St. Paul says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” And Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God doesn’t come with observation, but the Kingdom of God is within you.”
The church grew by 3000 souls that day. Not just 3000 souls in the outward org. of the church. No, 3000 souls bound to Christ, filled with the Spirit, at peace with God, heirs of everlasting life. There’s a big difference. The Holy Spirit doesn’t record stats, doesn’t record membership counts. He records a heavenly reality, the number of the family of God, those sealed with the Holy Spirit who trust in Jesus’ blood for the forgiveness of their sins, whose names are written in the Book of Life. The church grew by 3000 souls that day, because the Holy Spirit did His work. And it’s the work the Holy Spirit continues to do, the only reason the church has ever grown or will ever grow.
What was that work? I want to point out three major things about Peter’s great sermon that day. First, it was based on the Bible. He quotes Joel, Psalm 16, and Psalm 110, literally half his sermon is the Bible. And that’s how all effective preaching is. Based on the Bible, because that’s God’s Word. Effective, I mean, not for drawing crowds, but effective for creating and sustaining faith in Jesus. The Bible is God’s Word and the church is not the church – it’s just a social club – unless the church lives off the Word of the Bible. In fact, when the Holy Spirit describes the growth of the church in Acts, He says the word of God grew. Not the church grew, the word of God grew, because that’s what makes a Christian, the Word of God preached, the word of God held in the heart, treasured.
And that gets us to the second major characteristic of Peter’s great sermon. What is this word? It’s what Peter saw. It’s eyewitness testimony. You remember from last week, Jesus said, “And you also will bear witness because you’ve been with Me from the beginning.” Well, here it is. Peter tells them what he saw – the death of Jesus, the fact that God raised him from the dead. He says it in Jerusalem, 50 days after Jesus rose, and everyone there, tens of thousands of people, can go and see for themselves, that Jesus’ body isn’t in that tomb. Peter preaches history, reality.
And finally, Peter preaches Jesus. He preaches Jesus’ death. He preaches Jesus’ resurrection. He doesn’t preach ten ways to live your best life now. He doesn’t preach financial peace. He doesn’t preach politics. There is a time and place for all that, and God’s Word actually does speak to it all, but it’s not and never can be the focus of Christ’s church, because it’s not what makes the church.
Why did those 3000 souls become Christians that day? Here’s where sociology makes no sense. What were the sociological factors. The coffee? The great organ music? The friendly people? No. What made them Christians? What gave them a new heart? What transferred them from the kingdom of the devil to the Kingdom of God, gave them a joy and peace that no man knows unless his soul has become the habitation of the Spirit of God?
The Holy Spirit pierced their hearts, “cut to the heart,” Luke says. They had crucified Jesus. Their sins had put Him on that cross. “This Jesus whom you crucified.” And that’s the message the Holy Spirit preaches to every Christian heart. That’s the Law. You have sinned against the majesty of God. What put Jesus on the cross? Lust for power, lust for pleasure, selfishness, pride, unbelief, all the things you find in your own heart. The Spirit cuts to the heart and shows you God’s anger with your sin, so drop your pride and your judgment of others and see God’s holy finger pointed at you and know you have to face death and you have to face God. Can you? You can’t manufacture this cutting of the heart. It can’t be faked, you can’t be reasoned into it. The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of the soul, and He shows the Christian that what you need above everything else is a right relationship with the God who made you and against whom you have sinned grievously.
The people that day cried out, “What shall we do?” And that is the question we ask. What shall we do? And the answer is and remains what Peter preached that day. Repent. Trust in Jesus. The Gospel, the good news, requires nothing of you. Instead the Holy Spirit places Jesus Christ before you, and assures you that the sin that separates you from God is forever removed from you, because it was placed on the holy Son of God, and He bled on it with the blood of God, and He washed it all away.
Nothing can compare to the peace this gives. “My peace I leave with you,” Jesus says. “Not as the world gives do I give to you.” The witness of the Holy Spirit in the Christian heart is literally divine, nothing the world can give you, no social benefit, no warmth of friendship or belonging on this earth, can even compare to what the Holy Spirit gives the Christian heart: God is telling you that He loves you so much that He has suffered everything to win you back to Himself, He is taking every fear you have away, death itself can’t harm you, death has now become the portal to joy untold; He’s removing all shame and guilt, telling you that He refuses to hold a single thing you’ve done against you; God is telling you you’re His own child and He’ll give you the power to live like it, to be patient and kind and self-controlled; and if you sin and fall He’ll chastise you like a son and pick you up and forgive you; He’s telling you the body Peter saw pierced and the blood He saw flow from that cross He now gives to you, so that nothing can separate you from Him. And since this is true, all other things will follow, and the Church will grow, spring up, to heaven, in praise of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with all saints and angels, forever and ever.
So we gather together to hear the Spirit speak, we devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and to prayer, and we see the Holy Spirit do His work. And in so doing we may become susceptible to the analytics of sociologists who want to count us, but we are no statistics, we are children of God and our names are written in heaven. Amen.