Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ, it's sad when a word gets ruined, when a culture takes a good old word and perverts its meaning. Back in Livingston I knew a lady named Gay, and she was simply disgusted that the most common use of her name was no longer to describe something as happy and merry, but rather to refer to a sinful and shameful lifestyle. Similarly, the word "catholic" is usually misunderstood today. When you hear the word "catholic," you assume that's a reference to the Roman Catholic Church, but long before the Roman Catholic Church was organized, the word "catholic" was used to describe the Christian Church's universality, wholeness, and doctrinal unity.

Next Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Trinity, and we will confess the Athanasian Creed, which begins: "Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith." This does not mean we must be members of the Roman Catholic Church to be saved, but rather that we must hold to the catholic (or universal) faith described in the Creed, which confesses the doctrines believed by all Christians, such as the Trinity, the Incarnation of Christ and our redemption by Him who "suffered for our salvation." Indeed, our own congregation can and should be called a catholic church in the sense that we teach the right doctrines our Lord has given us to confess. Ironically, the Roman Catholic Church fails to be catholic when it obscures Christ's true doctrines and teaches false doctrines that our Lord has not given us.

Another word that has gotten ruined in the past 100 years is Pentecostal. When we see its first written usage in the 1600s, it simply means "relating to Pentecost," that is, having something to do with the feast of Pentecost. So according to that older usage, you could say that the chasuble I am wearing is a "Pentecostal chasuble" because it has tongues of fire representing Pentecost on it; or my sermon today would be a "Pentecostal sermon," since today is Pentecost and my sermon is talking about Pentecost. But if I told someone today that I was wearing a "Pentecostal chasuble" or preaching a "Pentecostal sermon," they would say, "Oh, so you're a Pentecostal minister at a Pentecostal church?" The word Pentecostal has become almost exclusively a reference to a religious movement that began only a little over 100 years ago. It's a shame that a perfectly good adjective has been ruined by bad theology.

The hijacking of the word "Pentecostal" started in 1906, in Los Angeles, CA, when the Azusa Street Revivals began, which are considered to be birthplace of modern "Pentecostalism." Here is how the Los Angeles Times described these revivals: "Meetings are held in a tumble-down shack on Azusa Street, and the devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories and work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their peculiar zeal…night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howlings of the worshippers, who spend hours swaying forth and back in a nerve racking attitude of prayer and supplication. They claim to have the "gift of tongues" and be able to understand the babel."

If you wonder where today's Pentecostal and Assemblies of God congregations have their historical roots, it's 100 years ago in these chaotic, disorganized, emotionalistic revivals that happened in the land of fruits and nuts, Los Angeles, California. Of course, the people who started these revivals didn't consider themselves weird or doctrinally off-base; they thought their movement was directly linked to the day of Pentecost we heard in Acts. Here is how the newspaper published by the revivalists explained what was happening in its first headline; they proclaimed: "Pentecost Has Come: Los Angeles being visited by a revival of Bible Salvation and Pentecost as recorded in the Book of Acts." That's a pretty ambitious claim.

At the revivals they focused on five core beliefs, which also represent the basic teachings of today's Pentecostal and Assemblies of God congregations. Of course, not all their teachings were wrong. They did confess Christ's death for sins and His resurrection, and believed that we are saved through faith in Christ, but where they were off-base was on the role of the Holy Spirit, they were and are confused about the way the Spirit delivers to us what Christ has done. The Azusa Street revivalists taught that believers today need to speak in tongues to give evidence that they have received a second Baptism, not just with water, but a Baptism of the Holy Spirit. They also believed that faith healing is part of God's plan of redemption.

If you would have heard their Pentecostal sermons, you would have heard a big emphasis on tongue-speaking and faith healing, and not so much about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's a big problem, since in 1 Corinthians St. Paul makes the remarkable statement (inspired by the Holy Spirit, of course) that the message of "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2) is actually a "demonstration of the [Holy] Spirit and of power" (1 Corinthians 2:4), which causes our faith "not to rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God" (1 Corinthians 2:5). According to St. Paul, the Holy Spirit does His work of saving us by proclaiming Christ crucified, not by focusing us on signs, wonders, and tongues.

If we want to see where these so-called Pentecostals went wrong, all we have to do is go back to the first truly Pentecostal sermon, one that was inspired by the Holy Spirit: the sermon that Peter gave on the first Pentecost. What's funny is that many of you probably have never heard Peter's sermon read in church, because our appointed reading from Acts on Pentecost stops before Peter ever gets around to preaching his sermon; he reads the text, but then the sermon is omitted. So in a minute I'll read this sermon, but first a few comments about the first half of Acts 2, which we already have heard. There we learned about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples in tongues of fire, and their miraculous speaking in foreign languages (which is nothing like the nonsense babble you hear in charismatic churches today), and then Peter defends the disciples against naysayers by saying that they weren't drunk on wine at 9 a.m., but rather filled with the Spirit, and he quotes Joel 2 so that he can show that the Old Testament prophecy about the Spirit's outpouring is coming true, is being fulfilled.

But if you read Acts, the signs and wonders caused by the Spirit aren't supposed to be the main focus for the Christian Church; the speaking in tongues is really just there to prove the fulfillment of Scripture and to get people's attention while the Gospel is first being proclaimed, to show that this message was from God. But there is no promise given in the Scriptures that these miracles and tongues will continue throughout history. As we read further in Acts 2, the focus is not on the signs and wonders worked by the Spirit, but on what the Holy Spirit says through Peter in the first Pentecostal sermon, which I will now read. And keep in mind that Peter quotes this verse from the prophet Joel right before he delivers his sermon: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Then Peter said:

"Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know- this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, " 'I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.' "Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, " 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.' Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself."

So what's the focus of Peter's sermon? Is it speaking in tongues, or faith healings? No, Peter proclaims Jesus' perfect life and His crucifixion, resurrection, exaltation to the right hand of God, and sending of the Holy Spirit to call people to repentance and Baptism in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. And Peter backs up his assertions by showing some Old Testament passages that pointed to Christ, and makes it clear that Jesus is not only the Messiah of Israel-He is the Lord Himself in the flesh. Peter began his Pentecostal sermon by quoting the prophet Joel, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved," and then in his sermon he shows that Jesus Christ is that Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who has taken human flesh to redeem Israel and all of us poor, miserable sinners from God's wrath.

In another sermon Peter says that the name of Jesus is the only name given to us by which we must be saved. So you can also see why Peter places so much emphasis on Baptism in his first Pentecostal sermon. He says to all sinners who realize their helplessness, who know they deserve to be condemned for their sins, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Now today's Pentecostals will try to tell you that this isn't simple water Baptism but a special baptism of the Holy Spirit, but they are dead wrong. No, as St. Paul says in Ephesians 4, there is only "one Baptism," and as we confess in the Nicene Creed, that is "one Baptism for the remission of sins." When the 3000 people were baptized on Pentecost, it was with water and the Divine Name applied to them, and that is what gave them the forgiveness of sins that Jesus earned on the cross, and that is what delivered to them the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But what's that gift of the Holy Spirit? Is it speaking in tongues or faith healing? No, the Holy Spirit is the gift Himself. In Holy Baptism He comes to dwell in you to bring you to faith in Jesus, and to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus throughout your whole life. And when the Spirit brings you to Jesus, He gives you all that Jesus came to accomplish for you: He takes away your sins and gives you Christ's perfect innocence and righteousness in exchange; He takes away your eternal death and condemnation and exchanges it for everlasting life and salvation. That is what the gift of the Holy Spirit brings!

And the faith worked in us by the Holy Spirit leads into life in Christ's Church, continuing to hear the preaching of Christ crucified and receiving Christ's Word and Sacraments. In Acts 2, St. Luke tells us that after Peter's sermon, "with many other words [Peter] bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."

Baptized Christians are those who are devoted to the apostolic teachings that were eventually laid down in the Gospels, the words and works of Jesus Christ; the apostles didn't just preach the same sermons over and over, but they taught and expounded on what Jesus had said and done. And like the first 3000 members of the Christian Church on Pentecost, baptized Christians are devoted to gathering together for worship to pray, to hold in common their gifts for service to their neighbors, and for the Breaking of the Bread, that is, the Lord's Supper, Christ's true body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us all right here in the Church through the Word and Sacraments.

Dear friends, our faith is a Pentecostal faith-that is, we believe what the apostles preached at Pentecost is the message the Holy Spirit wants to proclaim until the end. Jesus Himself testifies to this in our Gospel reading when He says that when the Holy Spirit comes in Christ's name, "He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:26). So if you want to hear the Spirit speaking, simply listen to what Jesus says to you in the Scriptures and the Word and Sacraments in the Church. And Jesus Himself tells us in the Gospel reading the main content of His Gospel: He says: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid" (John 14:27). Jesus delivers this peace to you, an otherworldly peace, a peace that passes all understanding, the peace of knowing that your sins are forgiven, that you are reconciled to God and He is not angry with you, that He is working all things together for your good, and when your last hour comes, He will take you to Himself in heaven to await the great day of resurrection into life everlasting, peace, joy, and love in Christ forever and ever. May the Lord preserve us in this Pentecostal faith. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.