Each year, the Christian church celebrates the events of that first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Peter to declare before a gathered crowd that the man Jesus, publicly condemned and executed before their very eyes only weeks before, was not only risen from the dead, but, having ascended to the right hand of God, had received the promise of the Father which had now been poured out. (Acts 2:33).

In the Upper Room on the night before Jesus was arrested he gives some encouraging words to his disciples as he prepares to leave them, at least in terms of his bodily presence. In his place the Holy Spirit will come, not only to comfort and to guide them, but, perhaps most importantly, to impress upon their minds the reassuring truth, that in Christ and in him alone they have all sufficiency.

Have you ever wished you could have been around at the time when Jesus walked the streets of Galilee, preaching and healing the people. Imagine yourself sitting there among the crowds, in the sun-bathed Judean countryside, hearing those beautifully told parables first hand, perhaps bearing witness to some of the Lord’s miraculous deeds. But the crowds never really got to know Jesus in a truly personal way as the apostles and disciples did, and even they, though they enjoyed his intimate presence, only knew him so very briefly and then only partially. Jesus was with them, but how much better if he could be ‘in them’.

The disciples were naturally grieved at the prospect of Jesus’ imminent departure, but their Lord is not going to leave them fatherless or comfortless (John 14:18). He must leave them bodily, but will return to his Father who, at the Son’s request, will send the Holy Spirit (v. 16), another comforter who will never leave them but will abide with them forever (v.16). The Holy Spirit had already been active in their lives, but now they will have a new relationship with him, since he will not only dwell with them but ‘in them’ (v.17), manifesting the internal presence of the triune God that has been revealed in Jesus. The wonderful promise is that the Holy Spirit will be to the disciples all that Jesus was to them, and more, because he will be universally ever-present.

The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ legacy to his church and that legacy is a person, the third person in the Godhead, who will bring to the memory of the disciples all that Jesus did and said during his earthly ministry (v.26), and, through Jesus’ ongoing ministry in the Spirit, will lead them into all truth (John 16:13-15). In addition, Jesus promises: “…I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). Just as the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to magnify Jesus (John 16:14), so too, the church, graced with the presence of the same Holy Spirit, has no power without reference to Christ, which is why we ask in his name, for his glory, through whom the Father is also glorified (John 14:13).

All these promises of Jesus were fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples on that first Pentecost, which the church continues to celebrate and proclaim.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion Peterborough
Farcet Village Hall                             
Main Street
Farcet
Peterborough
PE7 3AN

Meeting time:
Sunday 11.00 am

Local congregational contact:
Richard Dempsey
Email:  richard.dempsey@btinternet.com
Local church website: GRACE COMMUNION CHURCH PETERBOROUGH – Landing Page

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church