Wine Makes Glad The Heart

Wine makes glad the heart of men; the Bible says that. We sometimes think joy and the goodness of creation are unnecessary, but in fact, it is part of the established order in what God gave, and He wants us to enjoy His creation. There is a sense wine is always luxurious; it's superfluous, and you don't really need it in order to live. But there is something about wine that is needed, not just simply to, you know, grease the social machine, but human beings need to rest, they need to relax, they need to rejoice, and wine aids in that. There's also this reality in the Bible that wine turns a meal into a feast, and wine is associated in the Bible with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

-Pr. David Petersen

Holy Spirit

 "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." (Joel 2:28)

You might be thinking; I've never prophesied or seen visions; does that mean I don't have the Holy Spirit? Remember, prophecy is first and foremost not predicting the future things; it is only sometimes that, but above all, speaking forth the words of God and the visions those words give us of God's will and the perfect fulfillment on the day of Jesus' glorious appearing.

In the great initial fulfillment of this verse on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit comes first on the twelve and those with them, but then before the days' end, Peter had directed no less than three thousand to the water where they too would receive the same gift, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:38-39)

What happens to these people? They are filled with the Spirit, and they attend to the apostle's word, and they begin speaking it among themselves; they prophesy and sing their joy in the word of God into each other's hearts and minds. So it was that day, so it has been in all the years since as the baptized receive the Spirit, give themselves to the hearing and speaking of the word, and sing out their joy in the Lord.

-Pr. Will Weedon

Gathers

The eight verbs Luther's Small Catechism assigns to The Holy Spirit, which are drawn out from the Scriptures, are: calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, keeps, forgives, raises, and gives. Here is a closer look at the Holy Spirit's work of gathering.

The evangelical instinct to think about the Holy Spirit is very individualistic. Our Lutheran instinct goes against this. It is true the Holy Spirit works in each one of us to give us faith; each one of us believes, but we do not remain alone, and the Holy Spirit gathers us to the preaching of the Word. He gathers us through the preaching of the Word, and to the preaching of the Word, and this is what it's meant to be "Church," to be brought and adopted in the family of God, so that not only Jesus our brother, but we also have brothers and sisters in Christ in the holy Christian Church. The Church is the fellowship of all those who believe in Jesus.

We can't see faith, so the Church is made known by the preaching of the Gospel, which creates faith, and the right administration of the Sacraments, which creates faith, and those means the Holy Spirit uses to create faith is the way we also identify the holy Christian Church. Christians are gathered together people; we were never meant to believe on our own. Yet while it's possible to have faith and be apart from the visible Church, it's dangerous, and it's also sinful.* The Holy Spirit gathers His people, and He gathers so we can hear the Word together, pray together, give thanks to God together, and eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus together. This is all the Lord's will for us.

*Luther's Small Catechism - The Third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we may not despise preaching and His Word but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

-Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller