Pentecost, 2022 - Pentecost: the Gift of the Spirit

Pentecost! The gift of the Spirit!

Pentecost is possibly the most overlooked, undervalued holy day in the Christian year. If we understood the gift of the Spirit, our lives as the followers of Jesus would be radically different.

Jesus had taught his disciples about the gift of the Spirit (John 14:15-28; 15:26-27; 16:7-15). As he ascended back to the Father, he instructed them to wait for the gift of the Spirit to be given. On the day of Pentecost, that gift was given. God poured the Spirit out on Jesus’s followers (Acts 2:1-4).

In the Spirit, we experience the presence of God. The Spirit is the indwelling presence of God in our lives as individuals and among us as a spiritual community. “He abides with you, and he will be in you” (John 14:17). “We (the Father and Jesus) will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23). Christ lives in us and through us through the indwelling Spirit (Romans 8:9-10).

In the Spirit, we experience the transforming power of God in our lives. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). The Spirit empowers us to do what we cannot do in our own strength (Romans 7:15-20). The Spirit empowers us to live the ways of God. “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do; by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4, emphasis added). The Spirit empowers us to move beyond the self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me ways of our innate human nature (what Paul called “the flesh”) to live a Christ-like life. The Spirit empowers us to love as Jesus loves. As we learn to live in the power of and under the guidance of the Spirit, we move beyond trying-harder-to-do-better. We no longer settle for the mediocrity of as best I can.

The Spirit empowers us by transforming our hearts and minds. “All of us … are being transformed into the same image (of Christ) from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Spirit matures us into the likeness of Christ so that we love out of the Christ-like character the Spirit engrains in us (Ephesians 4:13-15). Through the Spirit, we grow spiritually into the likeness of Christ.

The Spirit grows us up spiritually by teaching us the ways of God Jesus taught. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (John 14:25). The Spirit teaches us the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-13) and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 2:7) so that we think with the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). This Spirit-led change in how we think leads to a cleansed heart and a transformed life. “Stop being conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds” (Romans 12:2, personal translation). The truths the Spirit teaches us confronts the attitudes we harbor in our hearts. As the Spirit cleanses our hearts of these old attitudes, our lives are transformed. Learning to think in line with the character of God and the ways of God, i.e., the mind of Christ, leads to a cleansing of our hearts. With our minds renewed and our hearts cleansed, our lives are transformed. We live with the mind of Christ, living the ways of God he taught. (This pattern of spiritual growth, rooted in the renewing of the mind, is expressly stated in Ephesians 4:22-24 and Colossians 3:9b-11.)

As we learn to think with the mind of Christ, the Spirit guides us in living out God’s ways of self-giving love in specific situations. We are led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14-17, Galatians 5:18). Thus, we no longer depend on the law or need the law. Rather, we seek to keep in step with the Spirit as the Spirit guides us (Galatians 5:25). The Spirit leads us to love as Jesus loved (Galatians 5:22-23).

As the Spirit teaches us and empowers us to love as Jesus loved, we experience the peace of Christ (John 14:27). We live out of an inner spirit of joy and peace (Galatians 5:22) that results in patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and gentleness (Galatians 5:22-23). Living out of joy and peace frees us to love as Jesus loved.

The Spirit’s presence and work in our lives is evidence that we are the children of God, claimed by God’s grace in Christ Jesus (Galatians 4:4-7, Romans 5:5; 8:14-17).

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25, personal translation).

(To learn more about the Spirit and the Spirit’s work, see my books — Life in the Spirit: Reflecting on the Work of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives and The Fruit of the Spirit: the Path That Leads to Loving as Jesus Loved – available through pastorstevelangford.com)