The Lutheran Hour

"Waiting, But Not Alone"

#91-38
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on May 19, 2024
Guest Speaker: Rev. Dr. Jason Broge
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: Acts 2:1-21

Being alone can be scary if not terrifying. Now, I know a lot of introverts, and for many of them being alone for a while is the goal. But even for them, being left alone can be scary.

About twenty years ago my grandfather found himself stuck alone. My grandparents had a cabin on some land that the family affectionately called “the farm”. One day my grandfather decided to go out to the farm by himself to get some work done. While driving the tractor up a hill the wheels slipped on the wet ground and he was thrown off the tractor and pinned between the tractor and a tree. Stuck there in a time before people carried cell phones everywhere they went, all he could do was wait. Wait for hours upon hours, wait long after the sun set, wait as it got cold, wait for someone to help him. Obviously, he was found, but I remember getting the call, I remember hearing what happened and thinking about how terrifying that must have been, pinned between a tractor and a tree alone, waiting. Wondering when someone would think to look for him, wondering if that someone would know where to look.

When I finally got to talk to my grandfather, he was recovering in the hospital. I expected to find a somber man but found instead a robust and cheerful one. When I asked him how he felt, he told me, “Sore.” So I clarified my question, no, how did you feel there at the farm? His answer was the same…sore…painful, it was quite uncomfortable. “But weren’t you scared?” I asked. “No,” he replied, “I was waiting.”

Waiting….

It is Pentecost, the season in the Church year where Christians everywhere remember and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And at first glance it is easy for me to have similar expectations of the disciples that I did of my grandfather. To expect them to be cowering in fear, alone, waiting.

After all, for them, Jesus is gone. He is ascended.

Now, I will admit, it is crowded in Jerusalem. I suspect so crowded that you can hardly find a place to be truly alone. It has been for quite some time now. Jews from all over the world have descended on Jerusalem. The majority came to celebrate the Passover and have remained these 50 days to celebrate Pentecost. Pentecost literally means fiftieth day. The Jews observed it as a feast for the harvest. The first fruits of the harvest were offered up to God on this day, ahead of the future summer harvest. You can read all about it in Leviticus chapter 23. But by this point in time the Jews have come to associate Pentecost with the giving of the Law to Moses at Mt. Sinai-in a sense, the founding of the Jewish “church”. It is an end to a long festival period, and so these Jews coming from different countries, cultures, and languages have remained in the city, waiting.

And in an upper room in Jerusalem the followers of Jesus are gathered. How many there are at the moment isn’t certain, but this seems to have become the major gathering place since they came to celebrate the Passover weeks ago. We can assume that the twelve—with the recently upgraded Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot—along “with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:13-14) are there. And it is quite possible that some number of the “120 persons” (Acts 1:15) Luke has described who have been following Jesus are there…all waiting….waiting.

They are sitting there, and they are waiting. They have seen the resurrected Jesus, talked with Him, ate with Him, and watched Him go to the Father. And do they run and tell others? Do they spread the word? No, now they sit—and they wait.

Why?

Because this is precisely what He told them to do.

And after years of trying to pull Jesus in the direction they wanted Him to go, after years of Jesus putting them back on His track, they seem to have finally gotten the message. If the Lord wants them to wait before they are witnesses then they will wait. He has given them an impossible task and promised to send them the Helper. And since every single promise He has ever made has come to pass, at this point it is not only natural for them to wait for this one to be fulfilled, it would simply be idiotic for them to doubt.

And so they wait.

What must it have been like in that room as they waited?

Sunday School lessons from my childhood always depicted it as a somber waiting. A tense, nervous waiting, disciples who resemble the scared group hiding from the Jews at the end of the Gospels before Christ appears.

As I have gotten older, I have come to doubt that picture. Scripture doesn’t tell us for certain, but I suspect that after seeing the resurrected Jesus, after having been tasked with a mission, after having seen Him ascend to the Father, this was quite a different group. This is a group of followers eager to begin. Less like children hiding in the dark, and more like thoroughbred racehorses waiting for the starting gun, pacing in the paddock, pawing the ground, ready to burst forth. Less like people hiding from the secret police and more like swimmers on the block, muscles tense, ready to dive into the water.

This is the group of followers of Christ I picture. Perhaps trading bits of conversation.

“How long do we wait?”

“Did you see Him rise into the air?”

“How long do we wait?”

“Did you see the angels?”

“How long do we wait?”

“Till he sends us the Helper.”

The Helper, The spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.

Looking at it now, I doubt very much His arrival was a surprise to any of them.

Jesus had stood before them on the night He was betrayed and promised to send them a Helper. When we picture that night, we picture Jesus washing their feet, the Last Supper, Judas sneaking away in the dark, predictions of betrayal and denial, a kiss in the dark, an ear being chopped off, a rooster crowing.

But in the midst of all of these events, during the Passover celebration John records the final teachings Jesus left for His disciples, the last words of comfort before He would go to the cross.

It was on this night that Jesus predicted Judas’s betrayal, and then they watched as Judas betrayed Jesus. It was on this the night Jesus predicted Peter’s denial, and it was the night Peter denied Jesus. It was on this night Jesus predicted His death and it was the night that led directly to His death. It was on this night Jesus predicted His resurrection, and this too came to pass. It was here that Jesus taught about His death, His resurrection and even alludes to His ascension. And over the next days and weeks His followers would see all of this come to pass.

To be certain, this was not the first time Jesus talked about His death and resurrection, but never in terms that were so clear, so plain, so understandable that the disciples proclaimed, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative language! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you…” (John 16:29-30).

Of course, even this plain speech would prove to be befuddling in the midst of the days immediately following His crucifixion, as the followers of Jesus were filled with despair. But after His resurrection? After 40 days of traveling with Him again, after watching Jesus ascend? The promises made on this day must have come flooding back, and in the midst of them one would stand out as unfulfilled. One more promise made by Jesus in the midst of those final moments of teaching. One more promise that Jesus even promised they would remember…later.

In John, chapter 14, it is recorded Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:15-21; 25-26)

Jesus promised them, they would not be left as orphans, they would not be alone, He would send them the Holy Spirit. Indeed, if this were not enough, His final words before ascending to the Father emphasized this very point just a few days before Pentecost. They want to know when Jesus will return and He tells them plainly, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8)

And so, as they sat once again in the upper room it is hard to believe they sat in fear; rather, they waited with eager anticipation for this promise to be fulfilled as well. For the Spirit to come. When would He come? This they didn’t know, but doubt He would come, certainly not.

And when the Holy Spirit arrives it is with a mighty rush of wind. His presence immediately unites people, going so far as to even unite them in language. Truly they are not alone, truly they are not orphans, and the message of hope entrusted to them cannot be kept to themselves. The starting pistol has been fired and the horses are out of the gate, the buzzer has rung and the swimmers have launched themselves into the race. The Gospel must be proclaimed. And once again His followers find that Jesus keeps His promises, all of them. For not only are they not alone, not only is the promised Spirit with them, but by His power they have immediately become witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea and all the earth. They are surrounded by people from all over, and Luke tells us “there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:41)

Luke records all of this in chapter 2 of the book of Acts. We read: “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

“Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? …We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others, mocking, said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

“But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'” (Acts 2:1-21)

And of course this was just the beginning. Just the first fruits of the harvest of Pentecost. Here on a holiday that commemorated the beginning of the harvest we see the Spirit begin to bring in the harvest. But it is just a beginning. Here on a holiday that became associated with the beginning of God’s people as a sort of Old Testament church we see the Spirit uniting people into the body of Christ—into the Church. And it is just a beginning. The book of Acts is filled with stories that show the Gospel through the power of the Spirit spreading to the ends of the earth. Because God Keeps his promises.

God keeps his promises. Not just to 12 men 2000 years ago, not just to them and the women who followed, or even the 120 other persons but to all who follow Him. To all who will hear Peter’s sermon on Pentecost and by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Helper sent just for this reason, come to faith. To all that we see throughout the book of Acts as the Church—the body of Christ— begins to be that witness to “Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth,” not just to them, but all who have come after. The generations who, like Peter, are able to call Jesus Lord, because of the Holy Spirit. To them and to me…and to you. God gives His Spirit, so that we are not left as orphans. We are not alone. You are not alone.

That can be hard to believe sometimes. There are times in our lives where we feel very much alone. Where we feel lost and abandoned by everyone, even God. But despite the very real loneliness and even at times despair we experience in these moments, we can cling to and find comfort in the promises of Christ.

This is what my grandfather did during all those long hours trapped between a tractor and tree. He clung to the promise. When I finally asked him what it was like to be alone, he told me simply, “I wasn’t alone.” And he wasn’t.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Spirit who came to the disciples on Pentecost, this promise from Christ, has come to you as well. He is active and at work in the body of Christ, the Church. In the waters of baptism, He has sealed the promises of God on your life, He has linked you to Christ’s death and His resurrection. Christ’s death is now your death, and His resurrection is your sure and certain resurrection. But more than that, He dwells within you now, nurturing and feeding your faith. Christ has kept His promise to you, to you personally. He has not left you an orphan. You are not alone. Even when you think you are. Amen.

Reflections for May 19, 2024
Title: Waiting, But Not Alone

Mark Eischer: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour. To hear more and learn about the program and its speakers, go to lutheranhour.org. Joining us now, here’s Lutheran Hour Speaker Dr. Michael Zeigler.

Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark. And thank you to our colleague, Dr. Jason Broge, for the Pentecost sermon today. And welcome back to Dr. Jeff Gibbs, a regular conversation partner with us. Blessed Pentecost to you, Jeff.

Jeff Gibbs: Thank you. Also to you, Mike.

Mike Zeigler: As Dr. Broge said in the message, the gift of God’s Holy Spirit means that even as we wait for Jesus, we don’t wait alone. We wait in the presence of God, in the presence of the people He’s brought around us, and this is a gift for all people. But in Acts 2, it’s not all people yet. It’s just the Jewish people, the people of Israel, or perhaps people who’ve been called into or converted to the faith of Israel.

Jeff Gibbs: Yes.

Mike Zeigler: Why is that an important detail to notice?

Jeff Gibbs: It’s a way of honoring God’s choice and plan of salvation. So, for instance, you could say, “Well, why Abraham?” The answer is, well, God decided to do it, start with this one man. And so, the promises of God, even all the way to Jesus, faith in Christ makes you a son or daughter of Abraham. And now at Easter and ascension at Pentecost, God has done something new, qualitatively new, and it begins with the people of promise. But it doesn’t stop with them.

Mike Zeigler: If you read on in Acts 8, something similar happens in Samaria, which is to the north and then further north in Caesarea, and there’s this Roman man, Cornelius, and his household now, and they’re speaking in other languages. So, it’s almost like-should we think of this as second Pentecost or third Pentecost?

Jeff Gibbs: Yeah. Well, sometimes people who have written on this, actually they do kind of nickname it the “Gentile Pentecost,” just to reflect some of the things that you were just saying. Yeah. And then there’s one more. There’s in Acts 19, when Paul is traveling through Turkey on his way to Ephesus, he finds this group of 12 disciples. It calls them “disciples” who had been baptized with John’s baptism. And then, apparently they left and they never got to see the completion of the Lamb of God to whom John pointed, right?

And so, Paul says, “Well, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you were baptized?” And they said, “We haven’t even heard of the Holy Spirit.” So, they’re kind of like little outliers. So, it actually occurs several times, and people talk about this, and they make guesses. For my money, the best suggestion is that it’s God showing without any debate possible that the all, the all of Pentecost is actually for all kinds of people, all nations, all tribes, and so forth. And so, it’s first in Samaria…the Samaritans? And the answer is, well, yes, actually, yes. Gentiles? Romans? Well, actually, yes. And then there’s this funny group of people.

Mike Zeigler: Yeah, well, on that we see Peter get criticized in Acts 11. Because he goes to Cornelius, the Roman Gentile unclean person’s house. “Why are you eating with them?” Why was that? Say more about why that was a scandal for Peter, a Jewish follower of Jesus, to break bread and sit at the table with Cornelius.

Jeff Gibbs: Yeah. Well, it’s kind of on two levels, actually. One is one we might kind of, well, we could identify with it. Part of it would just be prejudice and arrogance. We’re better than they are. But there’s another one that we don’t actually talk about as much. At least I think I don’t hear us talking about that. And that is, not to eat certain kinds of foods was a divine commandment. This isn’t something that people just thought up and oh, this is a good idea, and then it became a barrier. To circumcise your male children, this is not some human invention or human tradition, this is God’s commandment. And it shows the newness of what’s happened. Now that Jesus has fulfilled the law of Moses, His followers have a changed relationship to the law of Moses.

Mike Zeigler: In our context of having left a lot of these issues behind culturally, we might hear the account of Peter visiting with a Roman and sitting down and having dinner with him be something like a message of non-prejudice or just kind of accept everyone as they are. Now, Luke seems to be saying more than that.

Jeff Gibbs: Yes, yes. It’s the “J” word. How fully is Jesus for that kind of person? And of course, the answer is just as fully as He is for me. And Cornelius is described as a God-fearer. He was praying, fasting, and he just hasn’t heard the story yet. So, it’s not, let’s accept everybody for who they are and what they do, no matter who they are and no matter what they do. Of course we should love even our enemies, so that’s not the point here. It’s for whom is Jesus as fully as He is for me? And the answer is, He’s for everyone. Now, people turn away, they reject Him, and so forth. But that’s the message. And of course, Cornelius, when the Holy Spirit falls on him, Peter is, I don’t know if he’s surprised and say he was surprised, but he turns to the other Jewish believers, he said, “Holy smokes, let’s baptize these people.” It’s really, it’s a beautiful account.

Mike Zeigler: Thank you for being with us, and we’ll do this some more.

Jeff Gibbs: That sounds good, Mike. Thank you very much for the invitation.

Music Selections for this program:

“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.

“Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.