Pentecost - Help Has Arrived for Knowing, Doing and Being
June 5, 2022 Speaker: The Rev. Mike McDonald Series: Pentecost Sunday
Topic: Pentecost Passage: John 14:8–21
Jesus promised to send “another Helper” to be with his disciples (verse 16). This came true on the day of Pentecost, 50-days after Easter. The word translated “helper” is the Greek paraclete which can have a variety of translations, including counselor, comforter, companion, and advocate. It literally means “the one called alongside.”
Since Pentecost, Help has arrived for knowing, doing and being.
1. Help has arrived for knowing God. In the upper room (John 14), Philip is confused about the relationship between Jesus and the Father. Jesus explains the essential unity, that he is one with the Father. Impressively, a Christian is made one with Christ by the Helper’s power (v. 20, 23 & 26). He speaks to our hearts that we belong to God and he helps us understand Jesus’ teachings.
2. Help has arrived for doing deeds. In verse 12, Jesus said that his followers will do greater things than he did. He was referring to the eventual global witness and reach of the Church, which was empowered by the Helper.
3. Help has arrived for being like Christ. Jesus tells us that those who love him will keep his commandments (v. 15, 21, & 23). This is not to earn salvation but a work of sanctification. The believer undergoes a spiritual heart transplant in which God writes his laws on our hearts and causes us to walk in them (see Ezekiel 36). This is not automatic, however. Paul tells us to “be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). Because the Helper has come, we have a real choice to walk by our sinful desires or walk by the Holy Spirit.
Taking It Home: Add the practice of solitude and silence to your life to listen to the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
More in Pentecost Sunday
May 28, 2023
God is Making a New People Who Experience Him PersonallyMay 20, 2018
Pentecost SundayJune 4, 2017
Pentecost-Mike McDonald from Saint Peters, S.C.