Welcome to Zion Lutheran Church (LCMC), a Downtown Tampa church and a place of faithful preaching, worship, and Christ-centered teaching serving the greater Tampa area, including the surrounding Ybor City church community.

Today’s Pentecost message is preached by Pastor Kenneth Redmann, bringing us into the power and promise of the Holy Spirit as revealed in God’s Word. This sermon invites us to reflect deeply on the life-changing reality of what it means to believe in Jesus Christ and receive His gifts.

SERMON

kPent AG — The Results of Believing in Jesus

Rev. Kenneth Redmann

May the meditations of our hearts and the words of my lips be acceptable to You, O Lord. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pentecost: The Coming of the Holy Spirit

Beloved in the Lord, Happy Pentecost Day! Pentecost. 50 days ago was the resurrection of our Lord. Pentecost. 10 days ago our Lord was ascended into Heaven. Pentecost. The day when the Holy Spirit came in magnificent manifestation with flames of fire dancing over the heads of Jesus’ disciples. They were speaking in audible real languages that were not their native tongue. It was not gibberish.

The event was so peculiar, so confusing, that, at first, it was thought the whole lot of them, all 120, were drunk with wine. You see, Jerusalem was once again filled with “devout men from every nation.” This is the day that Jesus fulfills His promise from ten days earlier when He ascended into heaven. Jesus said,

49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

Talk about power! Now, that’s what I’m talking about! And Scripture records that the multitude came together at the sound of this rushing volcano of voices. They were “bewildered”, “amazed” and “astonished.” The only thing they knew for certain was that these men from Galilee were speaking in foreign languages and in everything they said, they were proclaiming that Jesus was the Promised One. Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus was risen from the dead. Jesus was the Way, the Truth and the Life—no man comes to the Father except through Jesus.

Peter’s Sermon at Pentecost

Dear friends of Jesus, this is the prophecy that Moses was talking about, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them” (Numbers 11:29). Peter lifted up his voice and addressed the multitude. “It is not what you think”, Peter was saying. Peter quoted the prophet Joel. Peter urges them; encourages them, “that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).

Beloved in the Lord, Peter preached the fullness of the Gospel starting with the Word of the Law, “36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). “You crucified the Christ!”, Peter said.

Conviction and Repentance

Please understand, Peter knew full well that these were not the soldiers who laid Jesus upon that cross; who drove the spikes through Jesus’ hands and feet; who hoisted Jesus into the air for all to gaze at and mock and scorn. YET, Peter, rightly was charging that generation-of-old that because of their SIN—they crucified Jesus.

Dear brothers and sisters, God’s Word, rightly, today, charges you and me that because of our SIN—you and I have crucified Jesus. We must repent!

On Pentecost Day, the Holy Spirit pierced the hearts of many within that multitude and they were convicted of their individual responsibility and they cried out in confession, “Brothers, what must we do?” (Acts 2:37b).

And Peter provided the glorious Gospel message, “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).

3,000 souls were added to the Kingdom of Heaven that day! Then what?

The Question: Then What?

This morning I want to ask, “Then what?” What are THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING IN JESUS? What do Christians believe and what difference does that make in the living of these days?

Jesus: The Only Way of Salvation

For starters, Christians believe that Jesus IS the Promised One! The Son of God is born the Son of Man and his name is Jesus—which means “He saves.” Christians believe: 12 . . .there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven [other than Jesus] given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Christians believe, like the thief on the cross, that: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead—you will be saved” (Romans 10.9).

Faith and the Reality of Suffering

THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING IN JESUS means that we denounce all other gods. ONLY the Triune God of the Bible and of our confessions and of our Christian Creeds is to be worshiped. As we conclude in our Athanasian Creed, “whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.” So, the first result of believing in Jesus is that—well—we believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior!

Secondly, believing in Jesus does NOT mean that we are immune from the world and its pressures and its trials and tribulations and the devil’s temptations.

The Miller Testimony: Living Faith

Earlier I posed the question, “What difference does believing in Jesus make in the living of these days?”

Please allow me to introduce Leonard and Sally Miller. When I arrived at Lutheran Church of the Cross in the fall of 2000, Leonard and Sally were one of the most encouraging couples in church. They were extremely faithful in their worship attendance and never missed, as far as I can remember, a Thursday morning Bible study. Although neither one of them, at that time in their lives, served on any boards or committees, their steadfast faithfulness was exemplary. At the time, Lutheran Church of the Cross, was in the midst of designing, seeking quotes, firming up our finances, and breaking ground on, what would become, a $1.4 million dollar Fellowship and Ministry Center.

At the age of 92, our gracious Lord called Leonard home to heaven in the fall of 2003. In March of 2004, the Lord called Sally home to heaven. For me, it was too soon. It had only been four short months since Len had passed and now Sally was not doing well. I was deeply saddened. I remember a visit with Sally when she “schooled” me! The ol’ pastor was about to learn firsthand the active and personal RESULTS OF BELIEVING IN JESUS.

I remember taking her hand and I was fighting tears trying to read the Scripture that was before me. Sally scolded me! She told me something like, “Pastor, don’t you cry! I’m a Christian and I believe that Jesus died for my sins and I am ready to go home and be with Jesus and with my Leonard.” Well, it was just a few weeks later when the Lord called Sally home and I assure you that I did not shed another tear—at least not in her presence!

What I did not know. I had zero idea. Leonard and Sally had made arrangements for a duplex in Ft Myers to be given to the Lutheran Church of the Cross. Long story short—their gift became the Miller Endowment for the Advancement of Christian Education. The Fellowship and Ministry Center was completed, and eventually, the preschool was launched—utilizing, primarily, the funds from this endowment.

The Church and Its Mission

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING IN JESUS causes individuals to join with the Body of Christ and for that Bride of Christ, the local church, to Go and make disciples into their community—even to the ends of the earth.

Sermon Summary

THAT is my summary of THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING IN JESUS. It is what Christians do—live a new life in Christ; strive to live holy and righteous lives as witness to Jesus; be faithful witnesses that believing in Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven; and returning to God a portion of our time, talent, and treasures for the sake of God’s Kingdom on earth.

God grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Christ’s love compels us… 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (II Corinthians 5:14-15).

Living as a Downtown Tampa Church | Ybor City Church

This message from Zion Lutheran Church (LCMC), a Downtown Tampa church and Ybor City church, reminds us that the results of believing in Jesus are not abstract ideas but living realities that shape how we think, suffer, serve, and hope.

Through Christ, we are given new life, lasting peace, and eternal purpose.

RESULTS OF BELIEVING IN JESUS

• Jesus is confessed as Lord and Savior, the only way to salvation
• Believers are not exempt from suffering, but are sustained through it
• The Holy Spirit dwells within believers, bringing peace and hope
• Trials are reframed through Christ’s victory over the world
• Faith produces a new life marked by obedience, witness, and generosity
• The Church is strengthened to make disciples and serve the world
• Believers live with eternal perspective and kingdom purpose

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