PENTECOST

HIS OWN SPIRIT

I. Today is Pentecost, or the festival of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the most important festivals of the Christian year. On such a day as this, the promised gift of the Holy Spirit was poured upon the early Church, as they sat waiting in the upper room, waiting for the fulfilment of Christ's promise of the Holy Spirit to the churches.

a) This inportant event is described vividly in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. There we read that the Holy Spirit came down in great power and rested upon each and every one of the 120 people gathered there. He appeared in tongues like flames of fire that rested upon each one. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them power of utterance. Acts 2:3,4

b) From that time onwards, the Holy Spirit has remained within the Church, strengthening it, sanctifying it, guiding it and upholding it, specially at the times of its severe persecutions. It is through His power that the Church has proclaimed the Gospel far and wide; spreading to the uttermost parts of the earth starting first at Jerusalem.

II. So, on this day, our first duty is to thank God for His most wonderful gift to the church, the gift of His own Spirit. It all happened according to the promise of our Lord, who, before He left this world, told His disciples, "I will ask the father, and He will give you another helper, that He may abide in you forever, even The Spirit of truth." ( John 14:15,16 ) So He has come to stay with us forever as a permanent guest and not as a 'temporary visitor'.

It was about this permanent guest that St. Paul wrote in his epistles praising and thanking God. In Ephesians 1:3, Paul writes, "Praise be to God who has bestowed on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms" and in Ephesians 1:13,14, "And you too, when you have heard the message of truth, the good news of your salvation, and have believed it became incorporate in Christ and received the seal of the promised Holy Spirit: and that spirit is the pledge that we shall enter upon our heritage, when God has redeemed what is His own to His praise and glory."

III. Today, we should also try to understand a little of the work of this Holy Spirit in three important spheres – in the world, in the church, and in the heart of the individual believer.

a) In the world, it is the work of conviction, to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.

b) In the church, it is the work of of leading or guiding – our Lord had said in John 16:13, "When the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth." This history of the church is the history of how the Holy Spirit has been guiding and leading the church into all truth through the centuries. Since Christ is the whole truth, the Holy Spirit leads us by helping us to have a truer and better underszanding of the greatness of our Saviour. Again, since the church is the instrument in God's hand for the proclamation of the truths of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit leads by empowering the church to witness boldly. But chiefly, the Holy Spirit guides the church by helping in the formulation of its own faith. But for His help, the chuurch would have fallen into many kinds of miry pits, the pits of heretical doctrines. There were at the beginnning of the Christian era, quite a number of such pernicous doctrines, even inside the church. One such example was the 'Arian heresy', which denied the very deity of Christ and tried to make Him just an ordinary creation. We have now got our creed, specially the Nicene Creed which 'enshrines' the chief doctrines of our faith regarding the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, and regarding the church and so on. It was the Holy Spirit who guided the Church through all these pit falls while the Church was under the leadership of the early fathers and bishops of the church.

c) Thirdly, the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer. This concerns each and every baptized person the church. What does the Holy Spirit do in him or her? His work in those who believe, whether they are children or adults is 'sanctification.' This is cleansing of the life of the Christian so that he may grow in true holiness more and more. It is a process which must finally end in the attainment of a perfect life to which God has called us in Christ. The sanctification is not only to purify the Christian, but also to strengthen him in the battle against the world, the flesh and the devil. But chiefly this sanctification is to mould us into the "very image of Christ" so that we may be transformed into the very likeness of Christ, to be endowed with and to reflect His humility, His compassion, his love, His holiness, His selfless sacrifice and His unbounded zeal always to do the will of the Father. That is the kind of sanctification that the Holy Spirit effects in us.

IV. So on this day, what must we do?

a) Let us first thank God wholeheartedly for His gracious giftt of the Holy Spirit – with real thankfulness and gratitude.

b) Secondly let us surrender ourselves more to the Holy Spirit so that He may guide us, cleanse us more thoroughly, 'fill us' more completely with Himself and 'transform us inot the image of Christ' with a full surrender of our own will – with full surrender.

c) Thirdly, let us yearn to possess more of the gifts of the Holy Spirit – the gift of wisdom, the gift of prophecy, the gift of faith and the gift of earnest praying and pleading for others. This is perhaps one great gift.

d) Lastly, let us always endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. St. Paul says this in his epistle to the Ephesians (Ephesians 4:3). Let us then grow in the fellowship which He gives to His Church. The greatness witness we can bear before a non-Christian or godless world is this witness of fellowship and love which the Holy Spirit gives. We belong to one family, the family of God. The Holy Spirit is the one, cementing our union whatever our race, country, colour, culture or language. Let us earnestly ask ourselves – do we work earnestly for this fellowship and love?

May God help us all to live more fully in the power, purity and felowship of the Holy Spirit. Amen.