Sermon for Pentecost, May 24, 2026
Grace, mercy, and peace be yours, forever, from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
1 Corinthians 2:10-16 10But God revealed it to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11Indeed, who among men knows a man’s thoughts except the man’s spirit within him? So also, no one else knows God’s thoughts except God’s Spirit. 12What we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given to us by God. 13We also speak about these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual truths with spiritual words. 14However, an unspiritual person does not accept the truths taught by God’s Spirit, because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually evaluated. 15But the spiritual person evaluates all things, and he himself is evaluated by no one. 16Indeed, “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who will instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (EHV)
Combining spiritual truths with spiritual words, the Holy Spirit gives life.
Dear friends won for God in Christ,
“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.” We confess our faith in the Holy Spirit each week in both the Apostolic and Nicene Creeds. However, what do you suppose that means? And, who or what is the Holy Spirit? Believe it or not, that question has been pondered and argued throughout the history of the Christian Church. Even more so in the non-believing mind, that question is an enigma, something impossible to be understood. Indeed, Paul wrote to the Roman congregation, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his adviser?” (Romans 11:34)
As we continue our journey through the catechism, some of the deepest questions we might ponder concern the Holy Spirit. Our Christian faith testifies that the Spirit is a person of the Trinity, one inseparably connected with both the Father and the Son. We will examine this truth more closely next Sunday, so today, we consider who the Holy Spirit is and what He does for us.
So, who is the Holy Spirit? Some people have denied that He exists, at least as a separate person. Some would teach that the Holy Spirit is merely a power that goes out from God but that He is not truly God. However, Jesus promised His disciples that after He left them to return to His Father in heaven, He would send a Counselor to them, a Helper to teach them all things of the mind of God.
Here, Paul explains that all those things about God and His ways, which were hidden from the broken, sinful nature of mankind, are now being revealed though this Counselor known to us as the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is both our Teacher and the Deliverer of God’s means of grace.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil hoping to increase in knowledge, but by their rebellion against God’s command, they became blinded to the knowledge of God’s ways, and for their lack of trust in the Lord, they were driven away from His presence. Their fate became our fate as well. Inherited sin separated us from God and kept us in the dark about salvation and eternal life. Our sinful nature kept us desiring things that go against God’s plan for a holy people. Plus, the devil, the flesh, and the world continually fight against us, tempting us with evil things, and accusing us in our faults and sometimes even in our positives. If you doubt that last statement, remember all those times the world mocked you or others for refusing to disobey God’s commands. Thus, by nature, we rebelled against God and consequently, we were exiled from Him.
Meanwhile, through the ancient prophet, Jeremiah, we heard God say, “I will let you find me,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring you back from your exile.” (Jeremiah 29:14) Now we ask, how could anyone possibly know God when we can’t see Him in this life? How can we know God when we don’t hear His voice or see His hand at work in our world? How can we know God when we were born spiritually dead, blind, and completely unable to understand His ways? Explaining our predicament, Paul taught that no one can know God unless God makes Himself known to that person. However, Paul also teaches us that “God revealed it to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”
Jesus had walked this earth teaching about His Father and the ways of God, but even while Jesus, the Son of God, was teaching people face to face, they failed to understand. We couldn’t dare guess why Jesus didn’t exercise His power to bring people to faith, but even in the performance of all the miracles He did, most of the people remained unconvinced. Therefore, we need to understand how God works the miracle of salvation. It’s not that any of the persons in the Trinity lacked the power to change us, but the Lord works in the ways He has determined to work to prepare a faithful people to be holy citizens in His kingdom forever.
It is impossible for any of us to find God on our own, or to imagine His mercy and kindness. Yet, there remains one Holy Spirit who reveals all things to those God has chosen. Paul wrote, “Indeed, who among men knows a man’s thoughts except the man’s spirit within him? So also, no one else knows God’s thoughts except God’s Spirit. What we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given to us by God.”
This is what we should take from the words the Holy Spirit granted Paul to write; saving faith is worked in us when the Holy Spirit both brings the Word of salvation into our hearing and also uses that powerful Word to work faith in Jesus Christ in us. Just as Jesus declared, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life,” (John 14:6) so the only way we can know Him is through the work of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, for as the Bible clearly explains, “So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)
One of the great difficulties of the world is that “An unspiritual person does not accept the truths taught by God’s Spirit, because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually evaluated.” What this means is that the Holy Spirit cannot become known through investigations, scientific experimentation, human reasoning, nor any other work of man. In the letter to the Ephesians, we read, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1) Likewise, Isaiah declared, “I reached out my hands all day to a stubborn people, who are walking in a way that is not good, who follow their own ideas.” (Isaiah 65:2) The spiritually dead cannot raise themselves to new life. Neither does the natural person have the ability to find God, because in our sin, we make gods of ourselves, putting our own ideas above what the Lord has declared.
More and more, this teaches that we need the Spirit Jesus promised to send. Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, our future contained only death and eternal suffering separated from God, who loved us enough to sacrifice His own dear Son and His own flesh so that we might be forgiven and brought into eternal life. However, this news is brought to us solely through the work of the Spirit. He is both the messenger of salvation and the source of power that works saving faith even in rebellious sinners.
Therefore, we read again, “What we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given to us by God. We also speak about these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual truths with spiritual words.” The Father of all grace and mercy sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil. Jesus accomplished that perfectly with His holy, obedient submission to His Father’s will and through His suffering and death for our sins culminating in His resurrection from the grave on Easter morning. As Jesus declared from the cross. “It is finished!” Everything necessary to reconcile us with God had been accomplished. Still, we needed to hear that Good News for it to make the change in us that brings life and salvation.
Therefore, Paul again explains, “But the spiritual person evaluates all things, and he himself is evaluated by no one. Indeed, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who will instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” The truly spiritual person is the one who, though dead in sin, the Holy Spirit has dragged out of the muck and mire of a sinful existence and brought to life by the power of the Word the Spirit has given to the world through prophets, apostles, and evangelists.
The psalmist once wrote, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made. By the breath of his mouth he made the whole army of stars.” (Psalm 33:6) By the same powerful Word, the Holy Spirit creates faith in the formerly lost so that they are given true life that is everlasting in the glory of heaven. By the powerful Word the Holy Spirit has brought into the world, you and I were raised from dead unbelief into the glorious freedom of the child of God. By that powerful Word connected with water in Baptism, “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)
Thus justified by faith, all sins are forgiven, wiped away by the blood Jesus shed on the cross. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice confidently on the basis of our hope for the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2)
Consequently, with the Spirit working in us, we can confidently declare, Combining spiritual truths with spiritual words, the Holy Spirit gives us life. Amen.
Now may the God of hope fill you with complete joy and peace as you continue to believe, so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.