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

A few years ago, I had a short conversation with a family friend of mine who left the Lutheran church and started going to a large non-denominational church instead. When I asked her what the reason was for her leaving, she told me that it was because she just didn’t feel like she was being spiritually fed there. Now, I had a hunch about what she might mean, but in order to be safe, and not put any words into her mouth, I asked a follow up question about whether or not her old pastors were faithfully preaching God’s Word and if she had still been getting the forgivness of her sins through the means of grace each week. I think, if my memory serves me right, I even pressed her a little bit more by specifically asking whether or not her new church taught, for example, that her baptism actually saved her or that the Lord’s Supper wasn’t just a symbol. Her response was very telling. She didn’t accuse her old Lutheran pastors of teaching any false doctrine to her, and she didn’t deny that she had been getting God’s forgiveness through the Word and Sacraments. But what she said was the same thing over again, “I just didn’t feel like I was being spiritually fed there.”

That conversation, which I’m sure you’ve had your own version of with others over the years, or maybe you’ve played out in your own mind before, brings up a very important topic that’s intimately connected with what we’re celebrating in Church today. This morning is the Feast of Pentecost. It’s the day when we give thanks to God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and His continued presence among us. But how exactly is the Holy Spirit present, and what are the ways that He really feeds us?

The dominant perspective in our time, and sadly, I think this was probably true, at least, in part, for that family friend of mine, is that the real mark of the Holy Spirit in our lives has to do with the way that we feel. Remember what my friend said, “I just didn’t feel like I was being spiritually fed.” But what we do or don’t feel in a given moment, doesn’t necessarily change what’s actually going on there. And more importantly, it’s not always a good indicator of the Holy Spirit’s presence in a specific place. 

Take, for instance, what happened on the day of Pentecost. Yes, there were some very spectacular things that took place that day. There was a sound of a mighty rushing wind, tongues of fire came and rested on the apostles’ heads, and God gave them the special ability to preach the Gospel in languages that they had not previously learned. But what did Saint Peter still call the people’s attention to in the midst of all of that? He said, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.” Peter didn’t direct the crowd just to what they saw, and certainly not what they felt, instead he pointed them to what was spoken. All of those other things only happened to serve the purpose of getting people to listen to the most important thing, God’s Word. 

Then Peter preached a very simple sermon based off of one text from Scripture, and three thousand souls ended up getting baptized and being saved. More than the entire population of Denver, Iowa, converted to Christianity from a single instance of hearing God’s Word explained and applied to them. Every single one of them, was filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember what the Bible says elsewhere about who has the Holy Spirit. It says, “no one can say Jesus Christ is Lord, expect by the Holy Spirit.” So, it wasn’t just those who spoke in tongues that day who had Him, it was everyone who believed the Gospel.

The first point that I’m trying to make here is that we don’t locate the presence of the Holy Spirit simply by the way that we feel. We locate Him in what we hear. We don’t know that we’ve found Him simply by feeling something. We know that we’ve found Him by listening to something. He’s present and active wherever the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity. 

Here are some other great passages from the Bible that prove that the true mark of the Holy Spirit is not tied to some kind of emotional experience, but bound up together with the humble proclamation of God’s Word. How about our Gospel lesson today from John chapter 14? There Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep My Word, and my Father will love Him and make our home with Him.”  After that Jesus adds, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I havesaid to you.” Notice how Christ links together the presence of the Holy Spirit, and God making His home in us, with the teaching and hearing of God’s Word. That’s how we know the Holy Spirit is active in our lives. It’s not when we get goosebumps on our skin, or butterflies in our stomach, it’s when we are listening to the Bible.  

Or how about what Saint Peter tells us 2 Peter chapter 1, “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place… For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”  Peter specifically tells us in these verses that the thing that we’re supposed to pay attention to as Christians is the Scriptures. It’s what’s been written down that’s inspired by the Holy Spirit, not necessarily all the feelings that we have. We can’t always trust the way that we feel about something, but we can trust what has been recorded for us in the text of the Bible.

And here’s another good passage about the Holy Spirit being present and active through God’s Word. Saint Paul tells us plainly in Ephesians chapter 6, “Take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” So, the tool, or the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to protect us from other spiritual attacks is the Bible itself. That’s where He’s found. That’s how He works. That’s how He feeds us. And that’s where we need to go if we want to find Him.

The people who are critical of our traditional Lutheran worship services, because they don’t make them feel a certain way when they leave, don’t understand how the Holy Spirit really works. If they did, they wouldn’t be so critical of what happens here. You can crack open your hymnal right now and pick out any service you want to, and on the right side of the page, in the margins, you’ll see a reference to where everything comes from in the Bible. Most of what we say and do in church are literally just direct quotes from the Scriptures. “O Lord open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” That’s Psalm 51. “Make haste of God to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord.” That’s Psalm 70. “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.” That’s what blind Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus in Mark chapter 10. “Our Father who art in heaven hallowed by Thy Name,” “Take eat this is My body, take drink this is my Blood,” “The Lord bless you and keep, the Lord make His face to shine upon and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” We could go on and go.  And that’s how we know that the Holy Spirit is really here today, and every time that we gather together for worship even if we can’t see Him or feel Him. We know He’s here, because we’re gather together around God’s Word, and that’s where He’s promised to be at.

Recognizing that the Holy Spirit promises to be present in God’s Word and Sacraments, and not in your feelings, isn’t just important because it’s true, its important because of how it protects our faith and gives us comfort.

First, this recognition guards our faith and keeps us from falling into false belief and error. How many different churches in our time have defended their bad theology because they had a faulty doctrine of the Holy Spirit? Just the other day I was talking with someone who belongs to a UCC church. I didn’t know much about what they taught, so afterward, I went online and looked up their denominations’ website. Besides the rainbow flags and the trans visibly promotion, which was right on the first page of the screen, I came across this interesting quote in their “what we believe” section. It said, “Never put a period where God puts a comma,” which apparently means, as they went on to explain, that they think the “the Holy Spirit is continuously guiding the Church forward into new understandings of faith and grace.” And what are those new understandings of faith and grace? Conveniently, they just so happen to contradict the “old” understandings that we get in the Bible. God’s Word might say that all sexual activity that isn’t between one man and one woman, who are married, is sinful, but not the UCC. The Scriptures might repeatedly say that only men can serve as pastors, but not the UCC. Jesus and the Apostles might say that God created them male and female, so there are only two genders, but not the UCC. So, who has the Holy Spirit and who doesn’t?

The same thing, by the way, can apply to individuals. If a person thinks that God talks to them directly, and reveals things to them through their feelings and experiences, instead of just the Bible, lots of times that can lead them into making decisions that are completely contrary to the Bible. What if you feel like you should leave your spouse, because you’re just not really getting along with them anymore? And what if you just so happen to meet somebody else that you do get along with way better? Is that God telling you to marry them? Is that the Holy Spirit giving you permission to “follow your heart?” No, it is not. That thought didn’t come from God. It came from the devil. And the way that you know it did, is because it doesn’t agree with the Bible.

Now, besides just guarding us against falling into sin and other errors, a correct understanding of the Holy Spirit also gives us an immense amount of comfort. Every time a church gives the impression that “getting excited” or having certain feelings is a mark of the Holy Spirit’s presence, they ostracize and put down everyone else who isn’t necessarily feeling those exact same things. But where in the Bible does it say that we’re all supposed to feel the same way all of the time? Where does it say that experiencing an emotional high is synonymous with encountering God? Don’t you remember the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal?  Those people put on a pretty impressive looking show. They got super amped up and worked themselves into a total frenzy. I bet if you watched the prophets of Baal do their thing, it would have been a sight to behold. But, nevertheless, their god was silent. He wouldn’t answer them, because he didn’t exist. And it was Elijah, who silently went around the altar, carefully and reverently preparing it in the ways that God directed Him, that had his God answer with fire.

Just because you don’t feel like God is with you, doesn’t mean He isn’t. Just because you don’t always feel like your sins are forgiven, doesn’t mean that they aren’t. Just because you aren’t crying, or shouting, or “riding on cloud nine,” that doesn’t mean that you don’t have faith. It certainly doesn’t mean that when you come to worship at a place that preaches the Word faithfully, and gives out the Sacraments according to Christ’s command and institution, that the Holy Spirit isn’t there. 

Who care what you feel or don’t feel. Who cares what other people are doing and what they say is happening. What does the Bible say? That’s all that you need to care about.

Today isn’t just Pentecost, it’s also the day that we recognize and pray for our high school graduates. So, here’s my advice to them, which also applies to everyone else. There are lots of things in this world that look impressive. That’s true when it comes to things in your day-to-day life, and its true when it comes to certain churches. And you have a sinful nature that always wants what looks impressive. Your fallen flesh wants you to evaluate everything you encounter by how it makes you feel and whether or not it’s interesting. Don’t listen to it. Listen instead to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks to you not out of your heart, but to your heart through the Bible. He is present and active only where the pure Word of God is preached and taught correctly. So, that’s where you need to go if you want to find Him, and stay close to Him. If you want to remain steadfast in the faith to very end, then leave everything else behind if it gets in the way of God’s Word and Sacraments. Even if the church doesn’t have any cool programs. Even if they don’t have a pickle ball club and 50 billion small groups. Even if there aren’t a lot of young people there or the music doesn’t give you chills. Who cares. If the Word is there, that’s all that matters. Because if the Word is there, the Spirit is there. And if the Spirit is there, then you’re going to be spiritually fed just fine. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.