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Acts 2:1-21
John 14:23-31
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Epiphany Lutheran Church |
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Genesis 11:1-9 Acts 2:1-21 John 14:23-31 In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. When something goes wrong in life we comfort those in distress often saying, “It’s alright. It will be ok.” But we don’t know that. And rarely do we have power to make what’s wrong right. Imagine people in the Twin Towers on 9-11 saying that to each other. It might have calmed their hearts for a few moments. But was it ok for those trapped in the towers?
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Ezekiel 36:22-28 1 Peter 4:7-11 John 15:26-16:4 In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The Holy Spirit speaks from Christ about Christ. That’s His purpose: to speak the oracles of God; to let people know about the Saviour. It is the Holy Spirit who creates believers, who cracks open stony, unbelieving, dead hearts; who raises them to life, who, in fact, swaps out old dead, cold stone hearts and replaces stone with living flesh; who gives you rest and peace with God your Father. And He does this all through the word about the Word. That is, the word about Jesus.
Numbers 21:4-9 James 1:22-27 John 16:23-30 In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Everybody prays. Even atheists. You’ve heard it said there are no atheists in foxholes. That maxim is true, for when tragedy strikes even atheists find themselves praying to some god. Everybody prays for we all instinctively know the law and thus know our sinfulness. The problem with our prayers is that they are usually based on the idea that if I pray hard enough, long enough, are sincere enough, bargain with God in just the right way, or get the formula right then God will listen and give me what I want. Even Christians fall into this trap. Many of us Christians don’t pay attention to what we pray, sometimes praying for that which is selfish or self-serving, and then throw on the tag-line “in Jesus’ name, Amen” as if that somehow means that God will have to answer every prayer we utter with exactly what we want.
Isaiah 12:1-6 James 1:16-21 John 16:5-15 In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. It is to your benefit that Our Lord has left earth and that you no longer see Him. I heard one of you say once that it seems so lonely to think of our Lord ascending into heaven, leaving us behind, but He Himself assures us before it happens that it is to the disciples benefit and thus to our benefit. Why? Because the Lord will send the Helper. If He remained, He couldn’t send His Spirit. You wouldn’t have that Helper who lives in us. For Our Lord would remain here below and the Lord would need to stay in one place. Not because He does not have the power to be everywhere, but because it drive us insane if He appeared beside each of us and you would just have talked to Him here, and then you turn there and see Him there. So for our sake He leaves so that He can give His Spirit to all who are baptized. Thus, He is not only beside us, but actually in all who are His! So His leaving is to our benefit.
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August 2015
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