In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in Every Tongue

Feast of Pentecost

May 15, 2016

Acts 2:5-11

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in Every Tongue

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

⁵Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these men who are speaking Galileans? ⁸Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2:5-11 NIV 1984)

If you've visited or worked in a foreign country, you'll have had this experience. You're surrounded by unfamiliar words and people you don't understand, speaking a language that you don't know.

And then you hear it. Words in your own language! Someone is speaking English. And it is wonderful! You understand. You don't have to translate it. You just know it.

Most likely the many pilgrims in Jerusalem on that first Pentecost knew Hebrew. They lived around the world, but their mother tongue had traveled with them. They were God-fearing Jews. So it's fascinating that the Holy Spirit chose to have these first Christians speak to the crowd not in the common language of the Jews, but instead in their many foreign tongues.

This choice to speak in their own native languages reinforced the truth that Christ Jesus and His conception, virgin birth, perfect life, suffering, death, and resurrection was not just for the Jews, but for all people, no matter what language.

The 3,000 baptized souls who heard the polyglot preaching of Pentecost never forgot it. They went home to their homes all over the world and spoke Christ's life and death in their own homes. They didn't have to translate a Hebrew sermon into Latin or Cappadocian, because the Holy Spirit had had His preacher give them the words to confess. And many of those homes heard this Christ in own language and the Holy Spirit created trust in their hearts. They trusted Jesus as their Savior from sin, baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Last year I watched a political drama in Danish. I don't know Danish, so I read the subtitles, but once in a while one of the characters spoke English. And it was such a treat!

Lutherans want to treat others to Christ in their own languages. So our national church body spends part of our offering money to produce and supply good Lutheran books in many languages. The following are languages in which we have materials and books.

Albanian Arabic Bulgarian Burmese Chewa Chinese Haitian Creole Czech Dutch Farsi Finnish French Georgian Hindi Hmong

Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Kazakh Korean Kurdish Laotian Latvian Luvale Mizo Nepali Norwegian Pashtu Polish

Portuguese Punjabi Russian Spanish Swedish Telugu Thai Tibetan Tonga Tumbuka Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Turkish

https://wels.net/serving-others/multi-language-publications/publications/

Our synod does things together that we can't do alone as individuals or individual congregations—for example, treating speakers of other languages to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Treating them to the confession of faith that knows the mysterious and wonderful ways in which the Holy Spirit works, to kill us in Baptism and raising us to new life, using words as His way of creating saving faith in Jesus.

And dear baptized-in-English souls, don't forget to treat yourselves. Speaks these English words—In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—as you pray.

Remember that these same words were spoken in Greek and Latin and German and French and Italian and Norwegian for centuries. These words of Christ connect us to the saints of God who have gone before us.

And remember how these same words are being used right now and throughout the week in those languages listed before and many more. These words of Christ connect us to our fellow baptized souls around the world.

But even than connecting us to our fellow saints through time and space, this forgiveness that puts His name on us binds us to our Savior Jesus.

Was there ever a more beautiful promise spoken to you in your own tongue?

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Alleluia! Amen!

2 Corinthians 5:21