“An Astounding Assignment”
Acts 2:1-21

Click for Audio

Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Pentecost Sunday—May 31, 2020

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Book of Acts tells us that in the beginning, the Christian movement consisted of the twelve Apostles and about 120 other believers, about the size of our own weekly attendance.  To this small group Jesus gave an astounding assignment: “Go and make disciples of all nations.”  A whole world to be conquered for Christ!  But how?  There’s a hymn that says, “God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.”  We see in the story of Pentecost how God works all things according to his plan, to spread the Gospel and make disciples of all nations.

It was no accident or just a coincidence that “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven” were assembled in Jerusalem on the first Pentecost.  Because, nearly 1,500 years beforehand, the Lord had established through Moses the festival of Pentecost, on the 50th day after the Passover.  “Pentecost” literally means “the 50th day,” the 50th day after the Passover.  For the ancient Hebrews, Pentecost was a harvest celebration, much like our Thanksgiving Day. 

The Lord placed this festival where he did, 50 days after the Passover, for a purpose.  Because, he planned for his Son to one day die at the Passover celebration, sacrificed like a Passover lamb as an atoning sacrifice to take away the sins of the world.  The Lord planned that on the third day his Son would rise from the dead.  The Lord planned that after his Son’s resurrection he would be on earth for 40 days, appearing to his disciples.  And the Lord planned that 10 days after his Son’s ascension—the 50th day after the Passover—“God fearing Jews from every nation” would be gathered together in Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost.

Jesus gave an astounding assignment: “Go and make disciples of all nations.”  We see in the story of Pentecost how God works all things according to his plan to spread the Gospel and make disciples of all nations.  For, gathered at Jerusalem for the Pentecost festival were “God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven . . . Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs.” 

These “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven” were faithfully waiting for the Messiah, the promised Savior.  The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples as tongues of flame and enabled them to speak in the languages of these people from all over the world.  They heard the Good News in their own tongues: Jesus is the Messiah, the promised one, the Son of God, the long-awaited Savior of the world.  They heard the disciples declaring the wonders of God in their own tongues, and then they took the Good News back with them to every nation under heaven.

God does indeed “move in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.”  It seems seemed an impossible task for that small handful of the first Christians to make disciples of all nations!  But, God had it all worked out in his plan.  God jumpstarted the growth of the Christian Church by bringing representatives from throughout the ancient world to the Apostles; miraculously enabling the Apostles to speak the Gospel in their different languages; and then sending them back with the Gospel to “every nation under heaven.”

And what is God’s plan for us, today?  How is God still working all things according to his plan, to bring the light of the Gospel to our dark world?  You wouldn’t think anything good could come out of the current crisis that we have been enduring the past several months.  However, churches all across the country are reporting that despite “social distancing” people ARE getting connected.  The sudden absence of worship services, something that before people may have taken for granted, seems to have resulted for many in a greater desire TO worship.

When all this started, the pundits predicted that cancelling services for months would be the death of many churches.  But, churches quickly found innovative ways, such as our drive-in services, to continue worshipping, while staying within the guidelines.  Fellow pastors that I speak with all report with amazement the same phenomenon that no one expected when this all started: Instead devastating church attendance, when in-person worshippers are combined with those watching online, many churches have actually maintained or even increased their attendance.   Even in the midst of all this, Christ is still seeking out and bringing back lost and wandering sheep to his flock.

Twenty-five years ago when my former congregation in Lawrence, Kansas built a new sanctuary, there was an amazing example of how God has things all planned out in ways we could never imagine.  When they were first starting the congregation, ten years before the new sanctuary was built, a former organist of the congregation had purchased at auction from the University of Kansas a pipe organ, an historic instrument originally made for the university’s Hoch Auditorium in 1922.  Although this organist had since moved to another part of Kansas, he had kept this pipe organ in climate controlled storage, awaiting the day when his former congregation at Lawrence would build a sanctuary.  No one at the church knew anything about this, it was a total surprise when after we started construction he contacted us and offered to donate a pipe organ for our new sanctuary worth several hundred thousand dollars. 

But the story gets even better.  The organ loft in the new church had a low, sloped ceiling, with several large beams.  As the organ builder was installing the organ, I noticed that many of the pipes were mitered at a 90 degree angle, so that they fit perfectly under this sloped ceiling.  I assumed HE had to miter all these pipes, and commented what a big job it must have been.

He replied, “You know, that’s the funny thing.  When I unpacked the pipes they were all mitered just perfectly to fit in your church.  I can tell they’ve never been altered.  That’s how they were originally made.  It’s like this organ was built back in 1922 to fit perfectly 70 years later into your new church.”  And, you know, that’s exactly what happened.  God had it all planned out.

Even more amazing was that, because one of the large beams supporting the roof went through the pipe chamber right where a big pipe was supposed to be, the organ builder at first thought he would have to do an expensive modification of the wind chest, on which the pipes sit.  When I later asked him about this, he said, “Well, I’ve never seen anything like it.  When I started to put everything together I discovered that the original wind chest was built back in 1922 with an extra pipe position.  So, all I had to do was just shift the pipes over and the leave the space under the beam empty.  There’s only 88 keys on a keyboard, and in thirty years as an organ builder I’ve never seen or heard of a wind chest with positions for 89 pipes.  I can’t imagine why they would have built it that way.”  But, of course we know why: “God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.” 

Can you imagine how astounded the old folks here would be that we can now broadcast video of our services live from Trinity into our members’ homes?  And when this all started, we didn’t really have to do anything special to make that happen.  The technology was all there, ready to go in this crisis.  It doesn’t even cost us anything extra to do such a marvel.

It’s like the Lord establishing 1,500 years in advance the festival that one day would gather together at Jerusalem for the first Pentecost people “from every nation under heaven” who would then take the Good News of the Messiah’s coming throughout the world.

Jesus gave an astounding assignment: “Go and make disciples of all nations.”  For the first Christians, he worked all things together in his plan.  And for his church still today, he is still working all things according to his plan, to fulfill his astounding assignment.

Amen.