Lutheran Church of Epiphany

Lutheran Church of Epiphany The Lutheran Church of the Epiphany is a wonderful place to come together and worship our Lord and Savior! We are a small church with a big heart!

Hoping to grow in numbers and spread God's word. We have a friendly congregation who always greets you with a smile or a hug, no matter how long it's been since you've seen them last. We have a dedicated staff of amazing women eager to teach the little ones and a Pastor who truly loves his work! We always have room for more in God's house, so feel free to come visit us :) Bible Study starts at 9:30 am and Sunday Service and Sunday School starts at 10:30 am.

06/07/2026

Readings for the Second Sunday after Pentecost/ June 7, 2026
Hosea 5:15-6:6: I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me. 6 “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up that we may live before him. 3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” 4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. 5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6 For I desire steadfast love[a] and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
P: This is the Word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God.

Romans 4:13-25: For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness[a] of Sarah's womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
P: This is the Word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God.

Matthew 9:9-13: As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
10 And as Jesus[a] reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
P: This is the Gospel of the Lord. C: Praise to You O Christ.

Message for the Second Sunday after Pentecost/June 7, 2026
Text: Hosea 6:1 Theme: “Don’t be like this to God!”
“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up” (6:1).
Grace, mercy, and peace I bring to you from our risen and ascended Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Where have you heard these words before? “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” Sure, you remember that those words come from the movie “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” And they are the words of the wicked queen. But I wonder, have you ever substituted your name in that question? You never have? . . . not even maybe once or twice? Haven’t you ever protested to God that things aren’t going your way in life. Have you ever thought that you really deserve better than what’s happening to you in any particular moment? Come on! We need to be honest here! We’ve all done it a time or two!
Well, the wicked queen in Snow White’s story falsely believes that she is the most beautiful woman in the world. And yet her ugliness is really on the inside. And that’s because of the pride, her dark side, that eventually shows it’s face as an ugly witch.
And you know what, we are like that. But you don’t want to hear me say that, do you? Well, it’s true! You see, we aren’t as spiritually nice looking as we think we are sometimes. Our good works are still like filthy rags as Isaiah tells us in the Old Testament. We are corrupted when we chase after other gods. You see, those other gods, our thoughts and desires, are something that takes us and our love away from our Lord. And it happens when we don’t even realize it. We don’t get it until we take a good hard look at ourselves in a mirror. And that mirror is both a worldly one and also a spiritual one, a combination of the two, that we look into which is called God’s Law. And it’s there and then that we realize that we have left our good and gracious Lord at times. When we stare at ourselves in that mirror with eyes that are honest and a heart that is humble, we are confronted with a face like that of a sinful witch!
But unlike that witch in “Snow White” you and I have hope. We are turned from our image, as we look into a much clearer mirror. In our Old Testament lesson from Hosea, God says that when we repent, we will see His face. And when we do, the face of Jesus looks back at us. “Come, let us return to the Lord,” Hosea says (6:1).
But I wonder! How is it that we are stopped from returning to the Lord? It’s when we trust in our works, and in doing that, we have left God for other things. You might even call them other loves! The book of Hosea is an interesting one. It’s in Holy Scripture where Hosea is mentioned, you won’t find him mentioned or quoted anywhere else. The book tells the account of God giving direction to the prophet, Hosea, to marry a woman called Gomer, She was a pr******te. And she was very quick to leave Hosea. Just imagine if you were told to marry someone like that! And that brings us to another relationship, that of Israel’s worship. That worship was like a wife leaving her husband for another. And what do I mean by that? They left the Lord and began to worship other gods, false gods, that were made with human hands (like the golden calf). They admired what they had made, even admiring themselves more than they did their God. And even when their sacrifices were given to the true God, they were rejected by HIm because they weren’t given from the heart. They came about from an impure and self-righteous attitude.
Even today, you and I do the same thing. We leave the true God for our own gods and many times it’s out of pride and conceit. How often have we taken credit when something good goes our way and we look at it as a personal victory because of our hard work? Folks, that’s walking away from God! Or at the very least it’s trying to earn God’s favor by our good works, our special victories and our achievements. That’s leaving God for what you might call self-love!
Even as a church we have left God for idols that we have allowed to replace Him. For instance, “We built this church with our own bare hands. We have done this or that by our hard work and using our imagination and our talents.” What’s the word that stands out here? “OUR!” And sometimes these “successes” come at the expense of God’s Holy Word. How can that happen? When the minister and congregation take liberties in doctrine and practice, including ungodly changes in worship. And sometimes, pastors and congregations can get so caught up in what is the “right way” to do worship that they dismiss any worship that is just a little different but still should be pleasing to God, like contemporary worship verses traditional.
And there were consequences back then in Hosea’s day and even today. As Hosea writes, Israel’s love for God fell apart, evaporating like a passing cloud or the morning dew (6:4). Hosea calls us on the carpet for ignoring the cutting and healing words that we use, refusing to repent (6:5). And the fall-out is that we deprive ourselves of God’s presence. God distances Himself from us until we come to our senses and repent (5:15). It’s at that point that we can’t do any acts of mercy. Why? Because we’ve cut ourselves off from the source of real love, we’ve cut ourselves off from God. But understand this; the trouble that we find ourselves in, what we deserve, God will use it in one way, shape, or form to bring His Bride, the Church, you and me, back into His presence!
For sure, the people give a beautiful description of the patience of the Lord here in our lesson. If His folks return to Him, He will again appear and pour out blessings upon them. The favor that He had showered upon them in the past, He will certainly do again. It’s like the rain that they had been blessed with that softened the earth allowing it to be plowed and planted at just the right time. Won’t God’s mercies come down again, like the moisture from the winter snow and the spring rains. They water the fields and, along with some sun, produce a crop and a bountiful harvest. Aren’t God’s blessings available to Israel? Aren’t they available to you and me at any time?
As I’ve mentioned previously, the Lord has heard all this before. Israel had tried God’s patience time and time again. And He has no intention of letting the people try to manipulate Him. It’s not as if they could sing a song or bring a sacrifice and then everything would be okay, It’s not as if the Lord would respond with an act of favoritism, like He was a god like Baal. After all, the Lord has seen, often enough, how Ephraim – Israel, the kingdom in the north – and Judah had claimed their love for Him, and then all of a sudden had taken off after idols again and again. It’s not as if the people would turn to the Lord for an hour or so, and then their faith and love would disappear just like the morning mist as it’s burned off by the sun. No, the Lord sent His prophets to cut their sinful hearts to pieces, to get rid of the self-righteous old Adam and to shatter their pride with the words of His Law. Did they think that they could satisfy the Lord and escape any pain or discomfort that they had coming as a response to their actions by simply saying “I have sinned Father” or just by singing a nice piece of liturgy or by heaping the Lord’s altar with sacrifices.
Well then, just what does the Lord seek from His people? He “desires mercy, not sacrifice, and the acknowledgment of God rather that burnt offerings” (v. 6). The word translated mercy means “faithful love.” The Lord has shown His own faithful love to His people by making and keeping His covenant with them. He has held true to all His past promises and has revealed the further promise of a Savior, who will bless them and us, all nations. In return, the Lord seeks faithful love from His people. All the animal sacrifices in the world, required by the law, meant nothing if they were not brought in the right light. The Lord wants His people to acknowledge Him, meaning that they trust Him and His promises. All the requirements described in Leviticus are worthless if Israel does not bring their love to the table, so to speak.
And what will be the proof of that faithful love and loyalty to the Lord? A penitent Israel. A penitent Israel will change the situation that is described in Hosea 4:1-2, “There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; 2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery . . . and bloodshed follows bloodshed. It will be as the Savior describes when He quotes Hosea 6:6 in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7: His people will show their loyalty to Israel’s faithful God by worshiping Him each and every day. They will look out for the spiritual and physical needs of their fellow Israelites. In their love for their fellow man, they will reflect the love of their own forgiving God. They will defend those in need. Feed the hungry and show mercy to others as God has shown mercy to them.
Folks, the Lord leads you and me, through Hosea’s words, to reexamine our own worship life. He destroys us with the words of His mouth (v. 5), leads us to acknowledge our sins and repent of those sins. And He calls us back to Himself through failure and hardship. For He is our only true helper. In His words and promises, concerning the Savior, our God shows His faithfulness. He shows us the fruits of repentance and faith that go on in our lives. Those fruits appear when we worship, when we show His mercy and love to others, and when we pray. And He is also pleased as we express our love for Him in a worship service like we’re having this morning, through our hymns, prayers and offerings. To almighty God be all glory and honor and all our thanks and praise now and forever. Amen.
Now may the peace and love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you and bless you always. Amen.

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05/30/2026

Readings for Holy Trinity Sunday/May 31, 2026
Genesis 1:1-2:4a: Please read this long lesson in your own Bible. Thanks!
Acts 2:14a, 22-36:
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. . . . “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— 23 this Jesus,[a] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 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; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ 29 “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. 30 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, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 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. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand ,35until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
P: This is the Word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God.
Matthew 28:16-20:
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
P: This is the Gospel of the Lord. C: Praise to You, O Christ.
Message for Holy Trinity Sunday/May 31, 2026
Text: Psalm 8 Theme: Why is God thinking about you?”
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. 3 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8)
Grace, mercy, and peace I bring to you from our risen and ascended Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
What do you spend a lot of time doing each day? (And you might want to think about that for a minute.) And you know what? That’s exactly what you spend a lot of time doing each day, thinking! And even if you’re focused on thinking about spiritual things, you aren’t spending even close to the amount of time that God spends thinking about you. The Psalmist writes, “4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? So, knowing our God the way that we do, we know that He is thinking about us all the time. And with that being said, does that make you feel just a little bit uncomfortable?
Now, maybe you’re thinking that God has a bone to pick with you because you repeat the same sins over and over again. (I know that I’m a repeat offender and it frustrates me to no end!) Maybe that’s why things don’t always go the way we planned because God is frustrated with us. Maybe we see Him as more of an angry boss than a loving Father. Maybe we look at God more like Santa Claus who knows when we’ve been bad or good and we get punished accordingly. (And you’d be surprised at the number of times I had come in contact with folks that think just like that!) But that’s what happens when we look at our lives based on God’s Law. That’s when we come up with a long list of things that “we’re ashamed of”!
“Maybe God’s disappointed with me. My life isn’t what I’d dreamed it would be. Maybe God isn’t punishing me, but instead He’s just not bothering to spend much time trying to help me. After all, He’s got better Christians out in the world to concern Himself with. He sees the sin in my heart, the blessings that I’ve missed out on and that’s really my fault not His. So how can I blame Him for my problems? How can I blame Him for not caring?” Maybe God is even thinking about how little I’ve done and that He is only interested in folks that throw their whole being into His work. And maybe God is thinking how little you matter to Him and how you don’t really fit into His greater plan!
Or maybe you’re one of those folks who are a little head strung and think, “Why wouldn’t God be thinking about me? I’m good at school, a hard worker, a faithful husband or wife. I pay my taxes, send money to help different missions and the like. I’m an outstanding Christian in all three for those areas. Hey, I’m one of the Lord’s best representatives! Maybe we don’t say those words out loud but we can get pretty self-righteous deep down in here (heart).
Yes, we can sure think a lot about ourselves. At different times and to various degrees we focus on who we are and how much faith we have. And we can even get to the point that we think, “What does God think about me?” instead of thinking about God and others. And that shows our selfishness, our egos, that are under the disguise of self-pity, despair and humility. And we look inside ourselves for meaning, hope, and purpose. We look inside ourselves for the ultimate word and the final authority. But that is the message and feeling of our own hearts and emotions.
But those come to light from a non-Christian attitude, the experiences that are found out in the world, and not found in Holy Scripture. What happens is that we set ourselves up as God, taking over in the place of the real God, making the same mistake that Adam and Eve did and so did Satan.
Contrast what we have just said, with the God who directs all His attention outside of Himself! And where do we find that? In creating the world. God didn’t do it for His sake but for ours. The psalm here, and in other places of Holy Scripture, show the ultimate and intimate description of the great care that God took in designing creation and the focus He took with all the details He put in place for you and me: “When I look at your heavens I see the work of our fingers”
Folks, God cares about all the details in your life, as His very fingers are active in forming your heart and soul. And the ultimate act of creation was the promising and then delivering on that promise to provide a Savior for the world. The divine Creator is greater than all of us put together. And yet He put on human flesh, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was born of a virgin. So, the psalmist puts out an interesting question as to why God would take all this upon Himself? Why would Jesus leave His throne in heaven and enter into a state of humiliation, even unto death on the cross, for our sakes?
And here is the answer to that question! The real reason God is thinking about you is that He loves you and would do anything to save you!
Folks, God does have a bone to pick (as the old saying goes). But interestingly enough it’s not with you and what you have done or left undone. The Father has a bone to pick with His Son. And that confrontation came to fruition when Jesus hung on the cross and was completely abandoned by His Father. When God sent His only-begotten Son to earth, He became a little lower than the angels, not by nature but by status through His state of humiliation. That’s found in the words that were written in Hebrews 2:7. Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians that, because he knew no sin, He became sin and died on the cross for us. (2 Corinthians 5:21), The Father and the Holy Spirit abandoned the Son for a moment, one of the most profound and greatest wonders in all of history and experienced something more bitterly painful for God than any other bodily torture could ever be. And He did it all for you, and for me! What happened was that because it was done for us, it puts you and I on God’s mind for all of eternity. And that’s in a happy way and place to be!
Psalm 8 gives us a moment to think about how majestic and self-sufficient our God is for little old you and little old me. After all, He made all of creation for you and I to enjoy. And He did it knowing full well that we were going to mess it all up. And we still are! But then He did all that He needed to do to redeem us from all our miscues.
Oh, we still bear the consequences of our sins through the worldly sufferings and trials that come our way. But in God’s mind He still holds us and we remain His beloved children. And He remains committed to our personal, spiritual welfare. And someday you and I will know all that to be true when we enter heaven. But for right now you and I all called to live by faith.
You see, your worth in God’s eyes surpasses any disappointment that you have caused Him. In spite of all that you and I have done, we are still His children and what we’ll call the crown of His creation. God moved pretty quickly through His creation process, doing it all in a week’s time so He could get to the best part and that was the part when He created you and then gave all that He made to you. You see, God thinks about you because He created you!
It’s kind of like an artist who paints a masterpiece and then hangs it in his own house, in his own private collection, his to enjoy. You don’t just pass by it like an occasional thought, but instead it is always on His mind. One way to look at it is that God created you so that He could think about you.
God thinks about you because you are in His Son. And God thinks about you because He thinks about His Son. And Jesus is certainly worth thinking about. And because you have been in Christ through Holy Baptism, God treats you just as if you are His Son. What did the Psalmist write? “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet” (vs. 4-6). When you pray, it’s as if Jesus is making His appeal for Himself. When God looks at you, He sees His perfectly good and holy Son. You see, through prayer, you have the ability to push aside all the evil that is under your feet as if they were Jesus’ feet.
You might call this mystery as being really out there, even radical in some ways. But folks, this radical thought is really a good radical thought, not carrying with it a negative connotation. Here in America we can get too used to taking God for granted and also having a pretty high opinion of our selves. But when we act like that, we then can forget all that God has done for us, through His Son. The Jews, in contrast, were uncomfortable even saying the name of God since they thought it was too holy. And yet, this God Almighty became God in the flesh and mixed you and I into His flesh and blood, His body, the church, saving you and me through in the new birth of Holy Baptism. That’s when He wrote your name into the Book of Life! Every time you remember your baptism, or take to heart the Pastor’s words of absolution, God is using His finger to retrace His name on your heart and in your life! You are always on His mind, not as a simple memory, but as an ever-present reality.
God is thinking about you all the time! God is focused on you all the time like a parent is focused on their kids. When Christians get married, they normally begin planning for a family. And this thought process is not taken lightly. But those happy thoughts don’t compare to the joy that comes, when those dreams come true. Well, God couldn’t wait to create the world, much less save the world with the death of His Son. And that excitement, the joy of the Holy Trinity, is what we celebrate today. The fulfillment of history, of God’s promise, is all done out of love for you. Amen.
Now may the peace and love of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be and remain with you always. Amen.

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05/23/2026

Readings for The Day of Pentecost/May 24, 2026
Numbers 11:24-30:
So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. 25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it. 26 Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” 30 And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
P: This is the Word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God.

Acts 2:1-21:
Because of the length of this reading, we ask that you read it from your own Bible. Thanks!

John 7:37-39:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as[a] the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
P: This is the Gospel of the Lord. C: Praise to You, O Christ.

Message for The Day of Pentecost/May 24, 2026
Text: Acts 2:1-21 Theme: “What a sight it was!”
Grace, mercy, and peace I bring to you from our risen and ascended Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the weekend that’s coming up we have quite a sight taking place just a mile from our house. What’s going on? It’s the Mendon Fireman’s Carnival. Some of the rides and equipment are already there and set up. And besides all the rides and carnival games, there is the fireman’s parade on Saturday evening through the hamlet and up the hill to the Fire House. That parade showcases all the emergency equipment that belongs to the surrounding towns and villages. And it’s quite a sight! There has to be several million dollars worth of equipment that passes by and after the parade it’s taken back to the Fire House to wait for the alarm to go off and the members and the trucks spring into action saving the lives and property of the local towns they serve. The sight of the parade is pretty impressive. And what a blessing it is that we have men and women who have spent many hours training to be prepared at a moment’s notice to serve their friends and community.
Now you have heard the story of the Day of Pentecost numerous times. And you heard it again just a couple of minutes ago. And in light of that, I don’t know about you, but I’m still impressed each and every time it’s read because of how amazing the giving of the Holy Spirit was on this particular day.
But you might say, you’re right Pastor, it is amazing. But then, if I remember correctly, didn’t Jesus give them the Spirit before? So why is this so different? And you’re right, Jesus did give them the Spirit before. But the difference in the Old Testament and even into the New Testament, is that the Spirit was on them but it was a one and done thing. In Numbers 11:24-25 you’ll find that it says “So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. 25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to [Moses] and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.” And when Jesus sent the apostles out “among wolves” as He put it, and the gift of the Spirit and the power to heal was only given to them for a short time, on that particular trip. It wasn’t until Jesus rose from the dead on Easter and ascended into heaven 40 days later, that the complete and unending gift of the Holy Spirit, was given on Pentecost.
Certainly, it was an exciting time when all those devout men, from every nation, heard the disciples speaking in their own languages. But when I think back to what I know from Holy Scripture, there have been numerous exciting times, sights to behold, for you and me to think about, and you probably have heard them all.
Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden and the perfect creation that God blessed Adam and Eve with before the fall. What a sight that must have been? And let’s talk about the Israelites and the mistreatment they endured while in captivity in Egypt. What a sight it must have been, first seeing the Egyptian army chasing them but then seeing the waters of the Red Sea standing straight up and tall with the sight of God’s people crossing on dry ground. And then the sight of the waters flowing back together with Pharaoh and his army caught in the middle. Can we do anything but smile when we see the Lord’s work, done on behalf of His people.
And that’s only the beginning. There is the sight of Noah and his boys building the ark and Abraham and his encounter with three visitors. Can you imagine the sight that the Israelites were privy to when the Lord blessed them with food, quail in the evening and manna in the morning, and fresh, clean drinking water when Moses was called on by God to throw a piece of wood into the water and the once bad water became clean and fresh (Exodus 15:22ff).
Imagine the sight that the Israelite army experienced when a young shepherd boy took down the giant Goliath with nothing but a flat round stone and his slingshot. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg in the Old Testament when we see amazing things done by God. Just imagine if you or I were actually there for any of that at all.
But then, we can’t stop there when we think about what exciting things God has revealed to us. And that’s because we have the whole New Testament to look at. Think how it was for Mary, seeing and having a visit by an angel with the news that she was going to have a son, the Son of God. On the negative side, I wonder what facial expression came over Joseph’s face when the angel spoke to him in a dream telling him that Mary was going to have a son when they hadn’t been together yet? And what an exciting sight must have come over Elizabeth’s face when her baby, John, kicked when she first heard Mary’s voice when she came for a visit.
And how about the shepherds when they saw and heard the angels announced to them that a Savior had been born and then think about the sight when they entered the stable and saw the Christ Child laying in a manger.
Imagine the sigh of relief and eventually the smiles when Mary and Joseph found their son in the temple sitting among the scholars, questioning and teaching instead of heading back home with their group?
I wonder about the sight, the expression that was on John the Baptist’s face when He saw Jesus walking towards him and he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And imagine the looks on the faces of people who saw Jesus do miracles of healing, both physical and spiritual healing. There had to be smiles at the sight of numerous members of the crowds as they came to the knowledge of the one true God!
Scripture tells us that the disciples didn’t always get what Jesus was telling them and that’s why He had to explain Himself quite often. So along with the smiles there must have been looks of bewilderment. That certainly must have been the case when they were in the upper room celebrating the Passover and Jesus revealed to them that one of them was going to betray Him. On the negative side, there were no smiles among the disciples when Jesus was hauled away by the crowd to face His accusers and then to face Pilate and Herod and eventually death on the cross. Only Jesus’ accusers were smiling on Good Friday when they felt like they had won and Jesus was going to be gone forever!
But then on Easter morning there were, at first, again, faces of bewilderment on the women and the disciples at the sight of the empty tomb. But there were certainly smiles when the reality of the Savior’s resurrection took hold in their hearts and minds. And I wonder about the faces of the two men walking with Jesus on the road to Emmaus after Jesus’ true identity was revealed to them and then He disappeared. They had to smile at the appearance of their risen Lord and Savior!
Now we’ve covered a lot of things here that were a sight to behold, that made folks both smile but also, feel sad. And I know that, as I said before, these are only the tip of the iceberg. But all of that, has it’s partial ending in our lesson from the Book of Acts, on this Day of Pentecost. Because on this day God established His Church, the Church that you and I are a part of. And it’s in that Church that you and I find the hope that we have in our risen and ascended Lord and Savior. Each and every one of you has the power of the Holy Spirit in your grasp, in your heart. And you can share it with anyone that you want, at any time that you want. And that is a sight to behold and experience. The only thing left for us is the Last Day, when Jesus returns to take us to be with Him in heaven. Just what kind of sight will that be for you? I’m guessing that it will be smiles all around when Jesus says to you “Well done thou good and faithful servant. Come be in the eternal presence of your Lord. Amen.
Now may the peace and love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you, bless you, and make you smile each and every day. Amen.

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