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THE DAY OF PENTECOST Sunday, May 24, 2026 Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, TorontoOPENING HYMN: 913 “O Holy Spirit, Enter In” The Invocation Page 184 Confession and Absolution Page 184-185Introit Psalm 68:1, 4a, c, 11a, 33b, 35a; antiphon: Liturgical text, Psalm 68:3The Spirit of the Lord fills the world. Alleluia. The righteous shall be glad. They shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy! Alleluia. God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those that hate him shall flee before him! Sing to God, sing praises to his name; exult before him! The Lord gives the word; behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel – he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen. The Spirit of the Lord fills the world. Alleluia. The righteous shall be glad. They shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy! Alleluia. Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) Page 186 The Gloria in Excelsis Page 187Salutation Page 189 Collect Prayer: O God, on this day You once taught the hearts of Your faithful people by sending them the light of Your Holy Spirit. Grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.Our Bible Readings:First Reading Genesis 11:1-9 Psalm 143 (antiphon: v. 11) Epistle Reading Acts 2:1-21 Alleluia & Verse Page 190 Our Gospel Reading John 14:23-31 THE APOSTLES’ CREED Page 192 HYMN OF THE DAY: 768 “To God the Holy Spirit Let Us Pray”THE SERMON – Fifty days.That number is not accidental.The Lord does not waste details.Fifty days after the first Passover in Egypt, Israel arrived at Mount Sinai.There the Lord descended in fire.There, He gave His Law through Moses.Now, fifty days after the true Passover Lamb, Jesus, had been sacrificed on the altar of the cross, the Lord once again descends.Again, there’s fire.There’s the sound of divine power.And again, God calls and forms His people.But this time, He doesn’t write His Law on tablets of stone.Christ pours His Holy Spirit out upon His Church.The first Pentecost after the Exodus foreshadowed this greater Pentecost after the ascension of Christ.The old covenant pointed to the new.The shadow anticipated the reality.The Passover lamb in Egypt pointed to Christ, the true Pentecost Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.This is why the timing matters.Jesus died at Passover on the cross, then rose from the dead.Fifty days later, as promised, He poured out the Spirit upon His apostles and His Church.In today’s Gospel, the Apostle John declares in today’s Gospel that Jesus said:“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”Then John explains:“Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive.”The Spirit proceeds from Christ.The Spirit is sent by Christ.The Holy Spirit doesn’t draw attention to Himself.The Third Person of the Trinity glorifies Jesus.Pentecost is not ultimately about ecstatic experiences or emotional excitement.This day was and is about Christ giving His saving gifts through His Word in His Church.That becomes clear immediately in Acts Chapter 2.“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind.”Notice: the sound comes from heaven.This is God’s work.Not man’s achievement.Not spiritual self-improvement.Nor emotion leaping upward toward God.The Spirit descends from above as a pure gift.And then:“Divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.”The fire matters too.Throughout the Bible, fire marks the holy presence of God.The Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush.The Lord descended on Sinai in fire.The pillar of fire led Israel through the wilderness.And now the fire rests upon the apostles.But notice its form.Tongues of fire.Because the Spirit works through speech.Through proclamation.Through God’s Word properly taught and preached.The Holy Spirit does not operate apart from the Word of God.He works through the Word spoken by the apostles.He still works that way today.Where God’s Law and Gospel are preached faithfully, there the Spirit is operating.Where sins are forgiven in Christ’s name, the Spirit is present.Where Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are administered according to Christ’s command, there the Spirit gives life and salvation.The Spirit binds Himself to these means of grace.In our reading from Acts, we hear that,“They began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”These were not meaningless sounds.Not ecstatic babble.Not emotional gibberish.Acts makes this clear.The crowds say:“How is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?”These were real human languages.Parthians. Medes. Elamites. Residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Egypt, and more.People from all over the known world heard the mighty works of God proclaimed in their own dialects.And this points us back to another event involving human speech.The Tower of Babel.At Babel, sinful man united in pride against God.Humanity sought glory for itself.“Let us make a name for ourselves,” they said.And so, the Lord confused their languages and scattered the nations across the earth.Language became a sign of division and judgment.But now at Pentecost, the Lord begins undoing Babel.Not by erasing different languages or creating one earthly culture.But by uniting people through one Gospel.One Christ.One faith.The Spirit sounds forth one saving message in many tongues.The Gospel is for every nation.Every people.The Church of Jesus Christ transcends ethnicity, nationality, and earthly divisions.For all are one in Christ Jesus, as St. Paul taught.This is the beginning of the new Israel, gathered not by bloodline, but by faith.Not through descent from Abraham according to the flesh, but through faith in Abraham’s promised Seed, Jesus Christ.And notice what astonishes the crowd.Not merely that languages are spoken.But what is being proclaimed.“We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”The miracle serves the message.And the message is Christ.His death.His resurrection.His salvation.The greater miracle is not that tongues speak and ears hear different languages.The greater miracle is that dead sinners are brought to faith.That unbelieving hearts are converted.That those dead in trespass and sin are made alive through the Gospel.Only the Holy Spirit can do that.As St. Paul says, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”And this brings us to the Old Testament reading from Numbers.There, the Spirit rested upon the seventy elders, and they prophesied.Joshua became concerned.He wanted Moses to stop them.But Moses replied:“Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit on them!”At Pentecost, Moses’ wish begins to be fulfilled.The Spirit is poured out broadly upon Christ’s Church.Not only on prophets and kings, or a select few.But upon sons and daughters.Young and old.Male and female.As Peter proclaims from the prophet Joel:“In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.”Notice that phrase carefully:“The last days.”Peter declares that the decisive stage of history has arrived.The end times have begun.Not because the world ended on Pentecost.But because Christ has come.He has died.He has risen.And now Christ reigns.The Gospel goes forth to the nations before the final Day of the Lord arrives.We are living in those last days now.For two thousand years, the Church has stood in this Pentecost age.A time of preaching, Baptism, and mission.An age in which the Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, as Martin Luther wrote.But Peter’s quotation from Joel also reminds us that history is moving toward a conclusion.“The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes.”Christ will return in His glorified body.The final judgment will arrive.This present age will end.And therefore, now is the time of repentance.Now is the time to hear the Gospel.Now is the time of salvation.St. Peter concludes with these precious words:“And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”Everyone.Jew and Gentile.Slave and free.Rich and poor.The Gospel is for all.Salvation is by God’s grace alone.Through faith alone.In Christ alone.It’s not earned, nor deserved.But freely given.This is the great gift of Pentecost.The Spirit comes not merely to amaze people with miracles.He comes to deliver Christ.To create faith.To forgive sins.To gather the Church.To prepare sinners for eternal life.Dear Christians, the same Spirit poured out at Pentecost is still at work today.Not through new revelations or chaotic displays.But through the same apostolic Word.Every time God’s Word is preached, the Spirit is speaking.Every Baptism is a Pentecost miracle.Every absolution is the Spirit forgiving sins through Christ’s Word.Every Lord’s Supper is the Spirit strengthening faith through Christ’s true body and blood.And all this should give us great comfort.For our salvation does not depend upon the strength of our emotions.Or theatrical spiritual experiences.And it does not depend upon our own worthiness.But upon God’s promises delivered through Word and Sacrament.The Spirit is faithful, because Christ is faithful.And so today the risen Christ still stands among us and cries out:“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”Are you burdened by guilt?Come to Christ.Are you weary from sin?Are you fearful about the future?Receive the Good News of Jesus Christ.For from Him flows living water.The Holy Spirit Himself.And where the Spirit is given, there is forgiveness.There is life.There is salvation.May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you always.PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 195 The Lord’s Prayer Page 196 The Word of Our Lord Page 197 Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Pages 198 (Our Communion Hymn is 622 “Lord Jesus Christ, You Have Prepared”) Nunc Dimitis (Song of Simeon) Page 199 Post-Communion Collect (Left-hand column) Page 201 CLOSING HYMN: 659 “Lord of Our Life”