S11E46: On the Holy Spirit (Pentecost 2024)

Sermon #607

At Pentecost, Christian churches around the world celebrate the birth of the Church and the giving of the Holy Spirit as related in the Book of Acts, chapter 2.  There were 120 disciples in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon them and they ran out into the streets proclaiming the gospel in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.  We are told that three thousand were added to their ranks that day.  Two thousand years later there are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to how churches approach the work of the Holy Spirit among us.  Some would diminish the importance of the work of the Spirit.  Some would over-emphasize it to the point of making the Holy Spirit the central object of their worship.  But as we see in today's lesson from the Farewell Discourse of Jesus, recorded in John's Gospel, the role of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, is to point us to the Second Person of the Trinity, that is, Jesus Christ, and to glorify him.  We can neither ignore the work of the Spirit in the church, nor can we make it the only thing we focus on, but Pentecost shows us that the Spirit is living and active among us and points us to the saving work of the Father in Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Recorded at Hudson UMC on May 19, 2024

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S.D.G.