2026 05 24 - Water, Fire, a Dove, Wind, Anointing Oil, a Seal, a Cloud ... What is the Holy Spirit? - Popp

Grace, peace, and mercy to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.... We had Ascension Day in that seventh Sunday of Easter last Sunday. We have Pentecost today, and of course it's going to lead right into Trinity Sunday. Next Sunday in Acts 2 is our Pentecost.

Thank you very much.

I want to jump right in because I see a lot happening that really comes through in that book. And yet, I'll be honest with you, I'm going to leave you a Bible study today. I'm going to leave you a lot of homework for this week as we jump into the work of the Holy Spirit.

You'll see that chatgpt image I created. I said, you know, so many different symbols throughout scripture that show us the Holy Spirit. And again, I kind of put that in that crazy long title.

What do we know about the Holy Spirit? He is risen.

This Pentecost Sunday, we're going to focus on the Holy Spirit. Jesus made reference to the Holy Spirit, the helper, coming upon them at least eight to ten times for the apostles, many in the upper room right before he went to the cross and again before he ascended. We heard it last week, end of John, Acts, chapter one.

Yet I don't think any of them were explaining expecting tongues of fire. Right. How is it a surprise? So again, who or what is the Holy Spirit? I showed you this picture.

I had lots. This is the one we usually think of, the dove. Right. Whether it's in baptism, we talk about where the dove came down. We'll probably get into that more next week in Trinity Sunday.

Certainly, this idea of the power coming through the dove, we see the. The flames. We don't see or hear about a dove in Acts 2. And yet where are most of our pictures going to take us? That's our symbol because of the baptism of Christ.

This was an interesting one when the book the Shack. The Shack came out. Very controversial, of course. I had to read it right away to see what they're talking about. But it was always interesting how they view the Trinity here.

Right. And of course, it's about Mack and oh, look, Jesus, a Jewish carpenter. How God was the woman who can cook and make him feel better. That's a whole other book. But I heard a lot of the stereotypes of this mystic Oriental figure playing the Holy Spirit.

And yet if we were going to have a character play The Holy Spirit. The whole idea in our world of mysticism certainly comes from the Middle East. I put he. I noticed a lot when I was mentioning what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. I don't think there was a sex assigned.

Certainly not like Jesus coming as the Son, as a man. But we're gonna, we're gonna take a look at a little bit. I'm not gonna focus on the symbols as much as what we see from the Holy Spirit because frankly, it's not about what symbol draws you to it, but what the Holy Spirit does for us. And hopefully the way you are listening and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead in you. All right, so who, what is the Holy Spirit?

All right, first off, look for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Where do we find the truth? In all things related to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Mile. Of course.

Right. What does the Bible say? I'm going to look at five now. I'm not going to go through all these references. That's why I said it's kind of a Bible class.

I'll lead you this week if you want to take these in the mornings, evenings, whenever you have time to double check them. But, but again, what does the Bible say? He is God himself, part of the Trinity. And again next week, Trinity Sunday, we'll jump into that a little bit more. He's the helper, the counselor, the comforter.

Right. We talk about that in our baptisms and the Holy Spirit comes upon us. Really this idea of the helper.

I think the Holy Spirit guides us awful lot and sometimes we're not always open to listening. We're trying to do things ourselves. I see far too many times when people come to me, pastor, pastor, help me, help me. They have tried everything on their own and they've never stopped to listen and allow God to help. I guarantee the Holy Spirit the whole time was just sitting there like, hello, don't forget me.

I got you. This is what I do. The helper, certainly the faith creator, life giver, right? Even Google or ChatGPT knows when you're Lutheran. Right?

We cannot believe in God without the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is there, our sanctifier who allows us to have that faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We'll get back to that Again. The giver of gifts and fruit. I like the way they put that right. This idea of allowing us again the blessing of working with the school and young people all the time, watching them go from preschool to eighth grade and graduate and starting to get an Idea of what each one is good at and what they're going to do, how they're going to use their gifts and then again continuing to see them go on and use them.

We have elders I've watched grow up from little, little kids, teachers that I've watched grow up from little kids, people working and serving those in other areas, areas, the way they give back and serve and even the fruits of the Spirit. You see the first reference there gets into that. It's one of the blessings each month in our chapels as we talk about giving out this fruit of the Spirit ward and we sing that song, man, the kids go crazy. They know the fruits of the Spirit. Do we know how to use them and catch them to live them?

Finally, he is our power and our witness. We have to rely on the Holy Spirit. We have to trust, right? Without him, we can do nothing. I don't know why my mom, it's her fault.

She brought me up on Petra. So anytime there's a line or a verse that comes from a Petra song, without him we can do nothing. I just started rocking to it because I remember that song, right? And yet what did that remind me over and over?

I had that moment of fear. I didn't know what to do. And the Holy Spirit gave me the peace and the words. It was so great when you have those moments when you trust the Holy Spirit, it makes it so much easier the next time. And of course, I talked about how this summer I want to get back into the catechism a little bit for us to get back to remembering again why it's so important we have those basics, why it's so important we have that foundation in our faith.

Why the catechism also helps explain the Holy Spirit a little bit in areas where first, I mean, you always hear about the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies. So we're going to see that come out here. But called me by the gospel. Every single human being is a child of God called.

Just some are missing. Certainly enlighten me with is gifts, right? The Holy Spirit has enlightened me.

I tell the kids all the time, when you figure out what the Lord has blessed you with and you figure out how you can do that for a living while serving the Lord. Man, life is great. I've got the greatest job. I've always had the greatest job. Didn't matter what I was doing, because I was serving the Lord.

When we do what we do, using our gifts to serve the Lord, it is a beautiful thing. And it's not about vocation. I don't care what you do. The Lord will find a way to use you. The fact is, every single one of you who have jobs outside this building are better evangelists than I am.

Nobody outside this building wants to hear a word out of me. Once they know you're a pastor, they just assume all you want to do is make me a member of church. You guys have that ability using your gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. You know, we often talk about God the Father was creator, Jesus Christ was the redeemer. The Holy Spirit was the sanctifier.

But I don't always think we realize how important that sanctification is coming to church. I know you all. You probably don't always feel like it. Probably there's more things on your mind. Of course.

I guarantee every Sunday morning when you wake up, the devil's going to remind you what you don't have time for and what you need to be doing.

I joked this week with my trainer. I said I hate coming here, I hate working out. I'm always glad I do and I always feel better now. I hope you don't hate coming to church and hate being here. But regardless of your attitude when you come, regardless of what's going on in your life, I hope you're always walking out filled with the Holy Spirit, hearing God's word, worshiping him.

He daily forgives all my sins. We know Jesus does. Question is, do we always stop and ask for?

Jesus died for us because he knows we're sinners. We have the ability to be forgiven. But if the only time you feel that is when you're here Sunday morning kneeling in the pews, boy, are you missing out. Allow the Holy Spirit to help you with that struggle, with that guilt and finally he will raise me and give me and all believers eternal life. We don't know when last week we talked about ascension and where Jesus went.

We know someday he'll come back the same way. Only God knows that day. That's not for us to worry about. Does not change a thing. Let's be honest, it's probably a good thing we don't know.

Might change the way we live right now. Until he comes back and brings us home. We do what we do because he loves us and has given us an opportunity to enjoy the blessings we have and to use those gifts that we talked about. So this idea of destination, our destiny, our freedom to be a part of God's family we have, that brings us to today's gospel 50 days after the Passover Sabbath. Here we are, we're at Pentecost.

Okay. There were signs that things were different that day in those first four verses. All right, we'll just jump into all four of those. First, the sound like a mighty rushing wind. I can only assume it says it was the sound because maybe there wasn't actually wind.

I mean, if there was wind too, it would just say a loud wind. I don't know. But when it says a sound of a mighty rushing wind, maybe the sound was there, but maybe their hair wasn't flowing all over and paper flying everywhere. I don't know. The fact is, that got everybody's attention and not just the apostles or the believers, because everybody came out right.

We also have that divided tongues as of fire. Now, there's a lot of controversy. Did the tongues of fire come upon just the 12, upon the 70, upon the people? There doesn't matter to us. Holy Spirit comes upon us in our baptisms, and we are thankful for that for them.

The fact is, it was something very different happening. And people knew between the noise and now the fire. And if that wasn't enough. Right.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit. This is what was foretold over and over. This is what they heard multiple times, and they didn't yet get it. How many times you said, when the Holy Spirit comes, when the helper comes. I saw it again.

We were doing. I think it was a kindergarten graduation where one of the parents chose John 14:26. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you and gives you that knowledge so important for us, they began to speak in other languages. This is that power we just talked about. This is where God made very clear, these followers of Christ are going to go out and share it.

And it's not about what they say, know, or do. They just spent how many years following Jesus, learning, growing. And yet right from the start, the Holy Spirit made very clear, I got this. You're gonna talk to somebody and share about Christ and you're not even gonna know what's being said. But they do.

Cause I got this.

So much more important for us to be open and willing and available and let God take care of things, than for us to study up and be ready. Right? What do they call that? Paralysis by analysis? We worry so much about, am I ready?

Am I able? So we never go out powers there. Men from every nation heard them in their own language. And again, it was just kind of one of those wonderful reminders.

God's word is powerful. Think about how many languages our Bible is in nowadays, how many times they've translated over and over and how many different versions of the Bible they have out there. But the fact is people can hear God's word in their own language when we celebrate Reformation October 31st. Yet Luther was bold enough to stand up to the things he felt were not biblical. Luther cherished that word of God so much, he wanted it in the language for his own people to read for themselves.

Not so he could share it with them, so they could read it. And of course, then it's Peter. Peter's coming out party. This is where Peter stands up and responds and quotes Joel. I often wonder.

I know they studied Scripture, but did Peter know Joel before he went? Did he. Did he understand what it was that he was preaching Joel to? Or did the Holy Spirit just give it to him? I'd like to think that was just there.

The Holy Spirit said, here you go. Might have read it before, he might have known it. I don't know if it was an assignment from Jesus. Today all you apostles will memorize Joel 2.

But he knew it.

First he called out drunk. It was 8 in the morning, right? It says the third hour. They counted hours starting at 6am I guess 6am Is when the rooster crowed, I don't know. But in their hours, it's 8:00am he's like, don't go there.

Don't make excuses. And if that was possible, they could all of a sudden speak in everybody's own languages. That would change the way we drink, right?

Holy Spirit's power came through. And that's why I love what he gave us. A Joel. What was that last line that Marcus read? Everyone who calls the name of the Lord will be saved.

And really it goes back to the Gospel too. In John 7, right? Out of the heart flows rivers of living water. That last verse. Now this he said about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive.

For as of yet, the Spirit had not been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. Guess what? Fast Forward Acts 2. Jesus been glorified and now they have it. And out of them flows this rivers of living water because of the Holy Spirit.

So just quick wrap up number one. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you for coming to the waters of baptism. Thank you for coming upon us.

Thank you for guidance and leading us.

First, we should probably just apologize for not listening more, for not trusting more, right? I love the Old Testament reading that Marcus read about how Moses, God and Joshua said, don't be jealous. I hope everybody's filled with the Holy Spirit. We are. Praise be to God.

Right. But I'm convicted and forgiven. That's that long gospel. It cannot be of ourselves. We do not know enough.

We have to trust the Holy Spirit. Hopefully again you feel different when you stand up from kneeling down and forgiving and confessing your sins and being forgiven. It's that belief I believe. Thank you Holy Spirit for giving me the ability to believe. Right.

Fact is, everybody believes in something.

The question is, do you believe in the one who created all things and just prepared a place to spend eternity with you? And that in knowing our belief, I am saved, right? Mark 16:16. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Boy, we over complicate things.

Sometimes we just need take that minute stop and remember how blessed we are. What the Holy Spirit has done for us. Trusting in our Lord and Savior. That's foundation in Jesus Christ. Thank you Holy Spirit.

Continue to help us be faithful and fruitful. Next week again we're going to talk about that triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. This week take a moment focus on the Holy Spirit. To God be the glory. Amen.