This sermon was preached on Pentecost, Sunday 8th June 2025.

Bible Reading – Acts 21.1-21; John 14.8-17, 25-27

What do you expect to happen when we gather here together as brothers and sisters? Do you hope for some joyful hymns or an entertaining sermon, or are you holding out for the cake and biscuits at the end? These are lovely and good things. But as we gather as fellow followers of Jesus, I believe that we should be hoping for more than that, that God is going to meet us and fill us with His Holy Spirit. 

Let’s look back at the first disciples. After Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples and the other believers were all gathered together in one place in Jerusalem. They would have been singing hymns, praying and reading the scriptures together like we do when we gather together. But they were also waiting. Jesus had promised to send the disciples a helper, the Holy Spirit. The disciples were waiting for the arrival of the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is the third person of God, the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is an equal and full person of God. It can be confusing trying to understand how the Three Persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, work together. But what I want us to hold onto is that the living God comes in the person of the Holy Spirit to indwell in us fully. 

On the day of Pentecost, as the disciples gathered together, God’s Holy Spirit came and filled them. The living God was living in them—not a third of the living God, but the whole of the living God—through the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit spread among them like a fire, and as it touched each person, they each began to speak in different languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.  

When you come to church and gather together as believers, do you expect the Holy Spirit to come like a fire and fill you with the living power and presence of the Holy Spirit? Because on the day of Pentecost, that is exactly what happened to the believers. 

There are many of us who like a nice, quiet church service, but when we look at the day of Pentecost, we see that there was nothing quiet about it as the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. The surrounding crowds heard the noise and gathered around the disciples to see and hear what was going on. Jerusalem was a diverse and cosmopolitan city, so as you would expect in the big cities in the UK, such as Leicester, Birmingham, and London, the crowd was made up of various nationalities who spoke various languages. To the crowd’s amazement, they could hear the disciples speak in each of their own languages. They were amazed to hear this group of Galileans speak such a plethora of languages, languages that they definitely would not have known. Many in the crowd were amazed. But many also made fun of the believers, saying that they were drunk.

Peter pushes back at the cynics. ‘We are not drunk, it’s only 9 o’clock in the morning.’ (Clearly, Peter hadn’t been to Wetherspoons in the UK.) No, this was what the prophet Joel had spoken about: that God would pour out his Spirit on all people. What strikes me is that this pouring of the Holy Spirit on people was so incredible, exuberant, and loud that the disciples were mistaken for being drunk. Now, have you ever come out of a church with people accusing you of being drunk? To clarify, the communion wine is not that strong, so I would be surprised if any of you were affected by it. But have you ever come away from church feeling such an overwhelming sense of God’s Spirit that you go out into the world with people thinking that you are drunk or crazy? Some of us have, and some of us have not, at least not yet. 

You might be wondering, surely, the vicar is not encouraging drunken behaviour, because I am not. But, on the first Pentecost two thousand years ago, as the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were so overcome by the power and presence of God in their lives that they appeared drunk, crazy and like fools to the onlookers.  Like wine changes a person, the Holy Spirit changes a person. The question that I am really asking is: Is God’s Holy Spirit changing your life? Is the Spirit filling you and enabling you to live more in the ways of God and to proclaim his message, to do his miracles, and discern his prophetic leading? 

It can be easy for us to suppose that the coming of the Holy Spirit only happened at the first Pentecost, because you don’t see me preaching in a dozen different languages. But that is not what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that God will ‘give another helper, who will stay with you forever.’ The coming of the Holy Spirit wasn’t a one-time thing, but it has been a continual thing since the first Pentecost. It lived not only in the first disciples, but it lives in each and every one of us who believes in Jesus, every one of us who is also a disciple of Jesus. Do we not say, every week: ‘The Lord is here, His Spirit is with us.’ God’s Spirit is with us now and dwells in each of us. 

So if God’s Spirit dwells in each of us, why am I not feeling drunk all the time? Why am I not speaking in multiple languages? The reason is that God’s Holy Spirit works in each of us differently. Some of us can relate to an overwhelming sense of God’s power and presence. That’s the Holy Spirit. Others might find themselves able to speak words they didn’t know they had, or find strength or confidence when you feel at rock-bottom. That’s the Holy Spirit. Some of you may gain understanding about God and recognise his work in this world? That’s the Holy Spirit. Some may be filled with inspired ideas or dreams that lead us as a Christian community to worship and love God and his people better. That’s the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit works in us in different ways, but there are three things that I want us to remember about the Holy Spirit. 

First, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as a helper. The Holy Spirit helps us in our lives. He helps us to follow God and walk in his ways. The Holy Spirit helps us to know more of God. The Holy Spirit helps in our day-to-day life, including our struggles and challenges. The Holy Spirit is God and work in us and helping us each day. 

Second, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to stay with us forever. God’s Holy Spirit is not something that comes and goes, but Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever. So even in the times when we find it hard to see where God is in our lives, know that the Holy Spirit is always there with you. You are never on your own. God is with you in His Holy Spirit. If you ever feel like something is impossible for you, remember that the God who makes all things possible is in you and working in your life. He will never stop. The Holy Spirit is always with you. 

Third, the Holy Spirit changes us. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, he changes us and transforms us. He makes us new and washes us clean of our sins and mistakes. The Holy Spirit gives us new gifts and abilities; he gives us new strength and courage; he gives us new understanding and wisdom. We are changed by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

This Pentecost, let us pray that God’s Holy Spirit would come and fall afresh on us like the first Pentecost. It doesn’t mean that we will all experience the Holy Spirit like the first disciples did, but it also doesn’t mean that we won’t. But, however the Holy Spirit works in us, we know that the Holy Spirit will be our helper, stay with us forever, and will change us more into the people God called us to be, to dream dreams, see visions, and proclaim God’s message afresh to every corner of the world.

Come, Holy Spirit, Come. 

Amen.