The Power to Proclaim Numbers 11:24–30; Acts 2:1–21; John 7:37–39
Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, whose name His people proclaim, and in many languages.
If you’ve ever learned a second language, you know that it takes a lot of time and effort.
Some people grow up in bilingual households, with two spoken languages, as did many of our ancestors of a century or so ago. It’s much easier to learn a second language that way.
In this area, those two languages would have been, for most families, German and English.
When I first came to this area, about 1990, I was helping out one Sunday at a neighboring congregation, and when I arrived, a group of elderly gentlemen were in the narthex having a conversation… in German. I was impressed.
In some of our LCMS congregations, from about the 1910s to the 1930s, confirmation students had to learn the Small Catechism and the Scripture verses in both German and English.
And they were confirmed and confessed their faith in both German and English.
Some had to go through questioning in both German and English.
It was probably mostly for the benefit of the older generation, who didn’t know English as well as German… and maybe partly to preserve the language of their forefathers in this new land as long as they could.
Some of those gentlemen speaking German in the narthex that day, may well have been of that generation who were taught and confirmed in both languages.
Whichever language the Word of God was taught to them, it was true, and powerful, and accompanied by the Holy Spirit.
The Word of God is powerful in every language, as we saw in our reading from Acts.
There are an estimated 6,500 languages spoken on the earth.
Every one of them exists for the primary purpose of communicating God’s true and saving Word to the people who speak that language.
The primary purpose of the English language, and every other language, is to serve as a means to hear and learn the Word of God, that we might believe it, live it, and share it.
And then more broadly, all languages exist to be used in a godly way, for a godly outcome.
That’s done when we, as Ephesians 4:15 says, speak the truth in love… in whatever language.
Proclaiming God’s Word in any language gives that language its noble purpose. Speaking “truthfully in love” sanctifies that language.
We see this most noble and sanctified use of the languages of humanity by the apostles on the Day of Pentecost.
In our reading we heard how the Holy Spirit came upon them, and empowered them to speak in different languages.
But they weren’t talking about just anything, they were talking about Jesus, His death and resurrection for the world.
The words they spoke were both inspired and sanctified… and served the highest purpose for human speech in any language: to proclaim the Gospel of Christ.
All languages on earth are united by the great and common task of proclaiming the Gospel and teaching the Word to all who are willing to hear.
We see this in the events of Pentecost, and in the foreshadowing of Pentecost in today’s Old Testament.
In the verses just before, Moses was complaining to God that He was expecting way too much from him, that he was worn out, and could no longer bear the heavy burden of leadership.
And, he was afraid that the people were going to turn on him and stone him.
He said to God: 14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me… and do not let me face my own ruin.”
But that’s not how God operates.
When we’re so burdened that we feel like we can’t go on, God gives us an extra measure of His Spirit through His Word and Sacraments, to uplift and strengthen us.
And He gives us the fellowship of His people to support and assist us.
God gave Moses a number of trusted leaders to bear the burden with him.
God told him to gather 70 of the elders of Israel at the tabernacle.
There God poured a part of His Spirit that was on Moses, also on them, to empower them for godly leadership.
Two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, didn’t gather at the tabernacle for whatever reason, but the Holy Spirit was poured on them too, and they began to prophesy right where they were, among the people.
Joshua thought that was out of place, so he told Moses to make them stop.
Moses said, “Why? They’re not doing anything wrong; they’re just doing what the Holy Spirit is having them do.”
And then Moses said, “I wish everybody would what they’re doing… that all would be filled with the Spirit of God, and proclaim His Word.”
Like Eldad and Medad, who, when filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke powerfully among the people, so on the Day of Pentecost, the apostles, with the Holy Spirit upon them, went to the busy marketplace and powerfully spoke the Gospel in the many languages of the people there.
Now the Gospel is proclaimed in the languages of people all around the globe, each proclamation accompanied by the Holy Spirit, and therefore powerful to believed and mighty to save.
Sometimes for Pentecost Sunday, the first reading is from Genesis 11, which is the story of the Tower of Babel.
This happened awhile after the Great Flood, and human language was still all the same, maybe an early semitic language.
Even after the devastating flood, humanity had not learned its lesson, or was forgetting.
Things were going back to the way they were before the flood… people were becoming entirely selfish and worldly again.
They were using their common language and knowledge as a tool to defy God and mislead people.
They engineered and built a tower intended to reach into Heaven, where they imagined that they would ascend and become as gods.
For the good of humanity, God intervened by scrambling their words, and mixing their language.
No longer able to communicate and collaborate in their scheme against God, the people scattered and dispersed.
But from that very day on, God was working His plan to bring people back together again through His Son and His Spirit… but this time to work for and with Him, instead of against Him.
Their task would not be to build towers but to build relationships… relationships of trust in God, and of love with His people.
And their common language would be a spiritual language, the message of the Gospel of Christ… God’s Word shared in every language.
And that’s how it is for us, God’s people today.
We said there are an estimated 6500 languages on the earth.
By the spread of the Gospel around the world, beginning with the apostles and commissioned by Christ and carried out by the Church, the life-giving and life-changing Word of God is taught in many of those languages.
People in all nations are being brought to Christ in Baptism… washed with water as in whatever language, English, French, Swahili, Arabic, Chinese, and hundreds more, those powerful, saving words are proclaimed: I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…
Engraved on our baptismal fount are the words of Jesus from Matthew 19:14, in German: Lasset die kindlein zu mir kommen. Let the little children come to me.
By the working of the Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism, another child of God is made… and His Kingdom of Grace on earth is expanded.
And that’s how His Church is built up, not by bricks stacked higher, but by souls redeemed, hearts washed clean, and minds enlightened.
And in heavenly languages, angels rejoice, as another dear child is set aside for a heavenly inheritance.
As the Holy Spirit empowered the apostles to proclaim the Gospel in many languages, so may all God’s people share and proclaim the Gospel in their native language… and in any secondary language they might know.
Let us use our given language to better know Christ, and to make Him known.
Praising, praying, confessing, proclaiming, hearing, reading, teaching, learning, and sharing God’s Word is the biggest reason we have our language.
So let us put it to good use, and joyfully praise God and share the Good News!
And as we do, the peace of God, which passes understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, whom we boldly proclaim in truth and love. Amen.