“From Every Nation Under Heaven…”

If the Book of Acts can serve in place of the Old Testament lection (as it has done in our lectionary for the entire season of Easter) and if it can also take the place of the Epistle reading (as it does for today, the Festival of Pentecost) I see no reason why it can’t pinch hit for the Gospel lection as well. So, we shall find our Gospel in this reading from Acts today…

What’s up with Pentecost? There is so much going on, one hardly knows where to start. The festival itself is the only Old Testament festival that carries over into the New Testament and is still observed as a major festival by the church today. In the Old Testament era (which the Day of Pentecost described for us in Acts brings to an end) the festival of Pentecost was 50 days after Passover and was the peak of the festival season of ancient Israel’s liturgical life.

It helps a bit, in understanding what was going on, to realize that the Torah of Moses required all faithful Israelites (all the men at least) to gather three times a year (Deut. 16:16) in the place the Lord would choose (Jerusalem ultimately) to observe first: the Festival of Passover in mid-April, then, 50 days later, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and then, in the early fall, the Feast of Tabernacles at harvest time. This wasn’t just a good idea, either—it was the Law!

But when Assyria conquered the Northern Tribes of Israel in 723 BC, and then Babylon conquered Judah in 586 BC, Israel was scattered literally over the whole world. This was the Diaspora, the dispersion of God’s chosen people all over the world. And it is a vitally important feature of Pentecost. As the Persian Empire succeeded Babylon, and the Greeks the Persian, and the Romans the Greek, Jews were scattered to more and more nations of the world. Finally, by the time Jesus was born, there were “devout Jews in every nation under heaven” as St. Luke records for us this morning in the 5^th verse of our reading from Acts, writing under divine inspiration (so it must be true).

This had made it difficult to observe the ancient Law—that all male Israelites appear together at the place where the ark rested three times a year for the major festivals. If you lived a couple continents away, this was simply impossible. So what to do? Well, they could all have moved back home, I suppose, if the Torah had been more important to them than making money and social advancement. But most didn’t do that. In the first century, the vast majority of world Judaism lived outside the Holy Land promised to Abraham and his Seed.

So, they adjusted the Torah to suit their preferred lifestyle. They decided that if you came at least once in your lifetime to Jerusalem, for just one of the Feasts (Passover being the biggie) that was enough to consider yourself faithful to the Torah of the Lord. And that’s what most did. Once in their lifetime, they would make the pilgrimage (even if it was a massive journey) to be at Jerusalem for Passover.

Now, once you’d come all that way, if you stayed 7 weeks, you could catch Pentecost also. 2/3 isn’t bad. So most did this. And this is what virtually guaranteed that every year, from Passover to Pentecost, you would have devout Jews dwelling in Jerusalem—literally from every nation under heaven, as St. Luke records was the case for this particular Pentecost of which he tells here, now.

But as the day dawned, a weird thing happened with the gathering of the Christian group. The sound of a rushing mighty wind filled the place they were at in old Jerusalem, and tongues (as of fire) rested with each of them, and they began to speak in the languages of the nations, though they had never studied those foreign languages.

And the sound of the rushing, mighty wind drew the pilgrims to the place the Christians were, and all these foreign Jews found at least one of the Christians speaking to them in their own language, telling of the wonderful works of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. And they were, naturally, amazed and impressed. These foreign born Jews usually received a harsh welcome from the Hebrew speakers. But this Christian group was speaking in their own language what God had done. How nice!

But it’s more than nice. You know what it is? It is the fulfillment of what Jesus promised in Matt 28:19-20, the so-called “Great Commission” (though no church father ever called it that. For them, it was the institution of the means of grace as the divine means for making disciples. For them, it was a promise: Baptism and Gospel proclamation will be efficacious for bringing anyone and everyone of the nations to faith in the Christ).

Jesus told the apostles: as they were going, they would make disciples of all the nations, by baptizing them in His Name and teaching them His Gospel. Today, we think that’s a tremendous task God has laid on the Church for all time, an unfulfilled and unfinished task that we worry and scurry today to perform for Him. But the early church fathers, Chrysostom, Augustine, and the later ones like Luther, Nicolai, Gerhard, and more realized that the day of Pentecost fulfilled the divine promise of Matt. 28.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, miraculously, on the day of Pentecost they preached the Gospel to devout men from every nation under heaven. And those devout men took back the Gospel to their homes and so it spread to all the world, long before the last apostle died. It’s a miracle. The true miracle of Pentecost. You see, God was bursting with excitement over the great news that Jesus’ death and resurrection is life and salvation for all. He wasn’t going to wait centuries to spread these glad tidings. 7 weeks was all He could stand to wait. On the day of Pentecost, He fulfilled His word of promise, and caused the Gospel to be spoken efficaciously to all the nations in the devout representatives gathered at Jerusalem. A divine gift. A miracle. And a weight off our shoulders.

This is why St. Paul says in Col. 1:23 that the Gospel “was preached to every creature under heaven” already in 60 AD, see. It’s why in Romans 10:18 he quotes Ps. 19, that the sound of Gospel preachers has “gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world”. It’s why there is no anxiety at all in the ancient church to hurry, scurry, and worry your neighbor. Because they believed God had brought the Gospel to all nations, already on the day of Pentecost and continued that gracious work through the ministry of the apostles and their successors, the pastors of the New Testament, and would keep doing this till Jesus returns in glory.

That’s the Pentecost miracle. The great things God has done in Christ He has shared with the world, just 7 weeks after the deeds were done, He saw that all heard in their own language the wonderful works He’s done for you, for me. This is God’s doing. It is God’s gift to the world. To you and to me.

For the miracle happens again today. Far from ancient Jerusalem, half a world away, you hear in your own language that Christ was crucified for your sins, and has risen for your justification, and lives and reigns over all, so that you will live and reign with Him too. He puts this word in your ear, and His body and blood in your mouth, so that His wonderful works will live in you, as in the devout from every nation under heaven, and the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Always. Amen.