Sermon Audio - June 7, 2026

 

Believing is seeing

CrossTalk: Pentecost Fulfills God's Descent on Mt. Sinai

This coming Sunday Christians around the world will gather for the third great feast of Jesus.

The first one was in December. It is the annual celebration of the birth of Jesus. “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (John 3:16). We exchange gifts in remembrance of Jesus as the Father’s Gift to the world.

The second one was in early April this year. It moves with the Old Testament festival of Passover because it was on Passover “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

The third great feast of Christianity also moves with the Old Testament festival calendar. As the Old Testament Feast of Weeks was held seven weeks after Passover, so the New Testament festival of Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks after Easter Sunday.

The book of Acts makes this clear. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1 [KJV]). Pentecost is a Greek word that simply means “fifty”—seven weeks plus Sunday.

Fifty days after the angel of death passed over the homes of those who had the blood of the lamb on their door-posts, and after the Children of Israel passed through the Red Sea on dry land, they celebrated the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai.

This is called the “Feast of Weeks” in Exodus 34:22 and in Deuteronomy 16. By the time Jesus was born, it was called “Pentecost.” And after Jesus rose from the grave and ascended into heaven, He did one more magnificent thing while the Jews were gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost.

“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2-4).

 

Just as it is instructive to read the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus against the backdrop of the Jewish Passover, so it is helpful to read the events of Acts 2 against the backdrop of the Jewish feast of weeks—the momentous events that happened at Mt. Sinai.

“[T]here were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire” (Exodus 19:16-18). 

At the first Pentecost, the twelve tribes of Israel had been freed from slavery in Egypt and assembled together to meet with God. At the second Pentecost, the twelve Apostles were freed from slavery to the devil and assembled together in the Upper Room.

At the first Pentecost, God was present in the form of fire on the top of Mt. Sinai. At the second Pentecost, God was present in the form of fiery tongues on the Apostles.

At the first Pentecost, God spoke in a disembodied thunderous Hebrew voice so that “[W]hen all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die’” (Exodus 20:18-19 [ESV]). 

At the second Pentecost, God spoke in every language of the world, through the voices of fishermen, tax-collectors, and ordinary men. And, rather than scattering in fear, “the multitude came together” to hear the Word of God speaking in their own language in which they were born (Acts 2:6, 8).

This is the glory of Pentecost! Rejoice and be glad that you can gather in churches still today! And that you, by Jesus’ power, can hear the voice of God preached in your own native tongue.

 

CrossTalk: Live in the Light of Easter

 

We live in a world that has been forever changed. It was changed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

For all of our lives, and for two millennia before that, we have lived in a world where the promised Messiah has come. He has finished His battle with Satan and has crushed the Serpent’s head. Jesus has ended the Old Testament and ushered in the New Testament in His blood.

Jesus’ resurrection is the indispensable foundation of the Christian faith, its hope, of Christian love. St. Paul put it this way, “if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20).

Nevertheless, we struggle daily with doubt. Despair harasses us. And love does not come easy. Our struggle is to live in the light of Easter—to internalize the reality of the resurrection.

The first step is to put yourself in the shoes of its first witnesses. You are no different than those who lived through the first Easter. They also struggled because, as St. John tells us, “As yet they knew not the Scriptures, that He must rise again from the dead” (John 20:9).

They didn’t know that He was risen. The clues were all there. The body was gone. The linen cloth was lying there. The napkin was folded, in a place by itself. But still, they went home dejected.

They interpreted the clues to mean something false. Mary could only conclude that “They have taken away the Lord from the tomb” (John 20:13). Not realizing the true significance of what they witnessed, they interpreted them as more evidence that Jesus’ enemies were still prevailing. “They did it. They are in control. We don’t know what they did to His body,” thought His disciples.

But they were wrong. And we know otherwise. For us, these clues are signs of the resurrection. We cherish these artifacts, and revel in the empty tomb. What a difference perspective makes! We know the Scriptures. They did not.

And today, in our lives and in our circumstances, we too are given clues that Jesus has deliberately left for us. We see His acts in the world, every single day. World events are never random. The good and the bad and the ugly—all events are of His making.

Jesus chose Judas, His betrayer, to be a disciple. The Father gave Pontius Pilate the authority to crucify Him. God Himself made Caiaphas High Priest, that year.

And the same remains true today. God is directing current events. And God has brought you into the world precisely for this moment. Whether God or you approve of what is happening, God remains in control.

You don’t yet know HOW God “will work [them] together for the good of those who love God” (Romans 8:28). But, because of the resurrection of Jesus, you know THAT He will.

Future generations will look at us and say, “How could they NOT rejoice?” Because they will see with hindsight.

We, on the other hand, live by faith. The Scriptures interpret the clues and make us glad—even before God’s plan is clear.

If we are still in sorrow, bitterness and anger, it is only because we—like the first visitors to the empty tomb—do not yet know the Scriptures. Observing the world apart from the Scriptures will make us misinterpret the clues and make us despondent.

So, let us consciously live in the light of Easter. That means to believe God’s promises for you as surely as if they have already happened. Because, in Christ, they have.

CrossTalk: Read the Bible as your Lenten Challenge

 

For the second year in a row, our congregation is working on a challenge to read the Bible from cover to cover during one calendar year. That comes out to 82 verses, or three and a quarter chapters per day.

It’s quite doable and it has many benefits. I encourage you to join us in this challenge.

The first benefit is that it will dispel the myth that the Bible is just too big and too complicated for the average person to tackle. Anyone—and I mean anyone—who starts reading the Bible at page one soon learns that it is very straightforward.

Most of the Bible simply describes events that happened during the history of the world. It is not written in cryptic code but in historical narrative.

The Bible is only confusing when false teachers cherry-pick a passage from here and a passage from there and artificially connect them together into something that the Bible never says.

When you read the Bible cover to cover, don’t try to read between the lines. Just see for yourself how its stories connect naturally. Adam’s story flows into Abraham’s story. And Abraham’s flows into Moses’ story and Moses’ story flows into Jesus’ story.

Read it on its own terms and you will soon become familiar with the story of the human family, created and sustained by God. As you are reading these historical events, you will see how God is deeply involved in very ordinary lives.

Sometimes His involvement is a miraculous deliverance from an impossible situation. Sometimes it is a frightening judgment on those who thumb their noses at Him.

The blessings—like bumper crops, victory in battle, and restoration of broken relationships—may seem like pure luck in the non-biblical world. But the Bible makes clear that all of them are God’s direct fulfillment of His promises.

Likewise, judgments—like famine, military disaster, and the fall of entire nations—are not random, but are directly connected to the people’s sins and rebellion.

Taken together, both sorts of stories are written so that you would take God ever more seriously. “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

When you read of God’s terrible punishments, you are stirred to repent. And when you read of God’s miraculous deliverances, you are emboldened to trust His promises without fearing that He will let you down.

That’s the second main benefit of Bible reading. If you approach it like an empty fairy tale, you will be bored. But when you remember that these things really happened, you will be moved to repentance and faith.

Repentance is when you take your sins seriously and are no longer content to cave in to every temptation that you feel. Faith is when you are no longer afraid of what others can do to you but you trust that God’s promises to care and provide for you are true.

And that brings us to Lent.

Lent is a time of renewal because Lent is a season that invites us to take God more seriously today than we did yesterday. Lent is not about giving up chocolate or some such thing. Lent is really about a renewal of life that is born of repentance.

Fasting can be helpful. But if you really want renewal, go to God’s Word. It will do more for you than anything that you can do for yourself.

Reading the Bible for yourself will reduce your intimidation over Bible reading and fortify you against some of the false teaching that Satan will throw your way. Reading the Bible will give you reasons to fear, love and trust in God more than anything. Also, reading the Bible will teach you to gather with fellow believers in weekly worship.

When you take God’s involvement in your life seriously, the blessing you find by gathering with other believers will crown your Lenten repentance with renewal and Easter joy. God promises it.

Notes for newcomers

Welcome to St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Kemmerer and Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Evanston.

If our order of worship is unfamiliar, you may appreciate this brief explanation of its meaning. 

We are congregations of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. The LCMS is a church body that was formed in 1847 specifically to help her churches and pastors resist cultural drift and stay faithful to the Holy Scriptures.

Faithfulness to the Scriptures means that "We believe, teach, and confess that [they are] the sole rule and standard according to which all dogmas together with all teachers should be estimated and judged. . , as it is written Ps. 119:105: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And St. Paul: Though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, let him be accursed, Gal. 1:8." (Formula of Concord, Epitome 1).

The Formula of Concord is one of eleven documents that state clearly what the Scriptures say on points that have been contested and confused at various times and in various places. These eleven documents are as follows:

• The Apostles' Creed, The Nicene Creed, The Athanasian Creed
• The Augsburg Confession and the Apology (Defense) of the Augsburg Confession
• The Smalcald Articles and the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope
• Martin Luther's Small Catechism and his sermons on the same, called the Large Catechism 
• The Epitome of the Formula of Concord and its more fleshed-out Solid Declaration

All eleven of these documents are also available for listening at: LibrivoxBookOfConcord

In 1538 Martin Luther got to the heart of the Christian religion as follows:

What I have hitherto and constantly taught concerning this I know not how to change in the least, namely, that by faith, as St. Peter says, we acquire a new and clean heart, and God will and does account us entirely righteous and holy for the sake of Christ, our Mediator. And although sin in the flesh has not yet been altogether removed or become dead, yet He will not punish or remember it. And such faith, renewal, and forgiveness of sins is followed by good works. And what there is still sinful or imperfect also in them shall not be accounted as sin or defect, even [and that, too] for Christ’s sake; but the entire man, both as to his person and his works, is to be called and to be righteous and holy from pure grace and mercy, shed upon us [unfolded] and spread over us in Christ. 3 Therefore we cannot boast of many merits and works, if they are viewed apart from grace and mercy, but as it is written, 1 Cor. 1:31: He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, namely, that he has a gracious God. For thus all is well. 4 We say, besides, that if good works do not follow, faith is false and not true. (SA XIII)