The Feast of Pentecost, 2022
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The melodies are linked in the hymn name.
The lyrics are linked in the hymn number.
The Hymn #1 Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
Introit
The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world: Hallelujah!
Let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Psalm. Let God arise; let His enemies be scattered: let them also that hate Him flee before Him.
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
Collect
O God, who didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful people by sending to them the light of Thy Holy Spirit, grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who with Thee and the Holy Ghost liveth, etc.
The Epistle and Gradual
Gradual
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created:
and Thou renewest the face of the earth. Hallelujah!
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful:
and kindle in them the fire of Thy love.
The Gospel
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn # 224 Luther - Come Holy Ghost, God and Lord
Who Are the True Pentecostals?
The Communion Hymn #227 Come, Holy Ghost, in Love
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #309 Kingo - O Jesus Blessed Lord
In Our Prayers
- Medical treatment - Lynda Roper, Pastor Jim Shrader and his wife Chris, Kermit and Maria Way, Howard Hagar, Callie and her mother Peggy, C., and many others - peace and comfort.
- Alec Satin published the KJV book online and several people asked for the KJV print version. Thanks to gifts, free books are sent each time. See the Sower and the Seed, Matthew 13, Mark 4.
- Pastor Jackson was nominated for teacher of the year, education department, at UOP.
KJV Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? 8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. 12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
KJV John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. 25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
Pentecost Monday Text
KJV John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Who Are the True Pentecostals?
KJV John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Introduction
The Missing Concept Today
The only way to read the Bible is to treat it as the true Word of God, which Jesus Christ promised would be true forever. " Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
The Jewish tradition is to copy the Old Testament word for word, syllable by syllable, counting the words and letters to make sure each book is copied exactly.
The Majority (aka Byzantine, Traditional, Stephanus, Ecclesiastical) Text of the New Testament has 5,000 witnesses, all in agreement.
Tischendorfians have two versions of the New Testament, not in agreement with each other -
- Codex Sinaiticus conveniently "discovered" by the Count, which was white leather and supple at first, stained and discolored later. Born in the 19th century.
- Codex Vaticanus, about 40% different from Sinaiticus, held by the papacy and dismissed as a fraud by Erasmus.
Should not these precious books (codices) have hundreds of exact copies? They have none. If they are called "the oldest copies of the New Testament," why do they not have existing copies?
The Beck/Otten Bible, NIV, ESV, RSV, NRSV, New KJV - etc - have notes at the bottom of the New Testament pages, with words similar to this - "The oldest manuscripts omit this verse" or "omits these verses." The publishers do not name Sinaiticus and Vaticanus in these margin notes. Who supports cutting out these key verses about faith in Christ and His divinity? - ELDONA, ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC! They support and promote the false editions of the Bible and cannot tolerate the King James Version.
This great Promise from Jesus means the Father and Son will dwell in the person who loves Christ. So where is the Spirit in this Promise, fellow Pentecostals?
The Holy Spirit always works through the Word, and the Word is never without the Spirit. Jesus said very clearly in John 16 - the Spirit will convict the world of sin, because they do not believe on Me. When that Promise and warning are ignored, the work of the Holy Spirit is forgotten and there is no fruit of the Spirit. So these days, people have the Spirit without the Word and the Word without the Spirit. Both are wrong and contrary to the Scriptures.
Today we will get rain (so they say) and that rain will change the color of the soil, form pools for the animals drinking and bathing, and make the garden burst into bloom, the crops grow and flourish. God promised, like the snow and rain, His Word will never return empty, but will accomplish His purpose, and prosper His will. Isaiah 55:8f.
I had an interesting experience with the KJV book, which Alec Satin added to his online Lutheran Library. I posted the link all over Facebook. Soon my friend (back to 4th grade) asked for a printed copy, followed by several more people and then by a Canadian.
If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
How can anyone despise and ignore the Words of Jesus and expect anything more than the wages of apostasy? - earthly approval, heavenly shunning. Because the Word belongs to God alone, it is dangerous to play with it - like a toy - and expect anything other than bad results. That is how rationalists are created, by planting doubts instead of teaching faith in Jesus Christ. Then the rationalists spread their doubts to feel more in harmony with the crowd.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
Prior to keeping the Word is loving His Words, and loving the Words of Jesus comes from faith in all He did and said in His public ministry. The heretics (the term means another teaching) take away from the complete Gospel. As one Lutheran writer said, the sects are like insects who sit on one part of a plant and think the whole plant is theirs. So the heretics take away, for the most part, and deny those things from Jesus that they dislike - such as "This is My Body." Or they emphasize the Spirit apart from the Word.
A sect Bible will take away from the Scriptures and ignore what they want forgotten.
The modernists/rationalists take away the Spirit and consider the Bible a very interesting and lucrative object to exploit. They laugh at or scowl at parts of the Bible they choose to emphasize.
About 40 years ago, narrative theology became popular and would not go away. There is the God story, your story, my story, and our story. The obvious beauty in this story is making everything subjective and not subordinate to the Word of God.
Throughout the Fourth Gospel, Jesus emphasized that everything came from God the Father and also that He, Jesus, was in complete harmony with the Father. Another way to say this is to express how Jesus is the voice, will, and gracious attitude of the Father in heaven. Where there is unity, the sceptics promote disunity.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
The three years with Jesus was intense in learning His Word and seeing His miracles. The loss was profound when He died on the cross. But the Resurrection and Ascension showed them what the entire ministry meant. And they were to be the foundation of world missionary work, with Christ as the cornerstone.
How could they replace their Teacher? They could not, but the Holy Spirit would give them everything they needed to know. Their sermons doubtless crackled with power, as the Word was energized by the Holy Spirit. The local ministry,
- firmly establishing the Jews in knowing the Messiah, and some Gentiles through those miracles,
became a world ministry through the apostles.
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
The last phrase troubles people because so many "scholars" have made what is clear to be unclear. As Lenski says, this is Jesus the God-man, facing arrest, torture, and death. In this way God the Father is greater, which is not a contradiction about the Three-ness of the One God, or the unity of the godhead. A church a few blocks away from here has one God, the Holy Spirit. Ironically, they call this Unity, which it is really disunity.
The disciples should be rejoicing about the ultimate triumph, but they were overwhelmed by the coming loss and not fully aware of the divine power. The Scriptures show us the disciples in their humanity so we would be less inclined to bow to statues of them instead of observing (guarding) the Words of Jesus.
29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
Nothing can steady us more than these words. Jesus has already told us the future, which is established and real. As these things happen, we believe all the more.
Here is one example - When the truth is taught us, those parts of the Bible we did not understand or ignored are suddenly highlighted and explained. It is so remarkable that we are stunned that we did not see it. That happens to pastors and teachers as they study what they must proclaim. That happens to the laity when puzzling passages are illuminated by other passages of the Bible. That happens with children who realize their parents were teaching these truths when they were young.
If we love the gracious, forgiving, and compassionate Son, the Father will love us, too. No one can condemn the Father for giving us a raw deal when the Son is viewed as He is - always as anxious for us as we are for Him.
