23/05/2026
Today is Pentecost Sunday.
At Pentecost, we remember the events of Acts 2. There, Jesus keeps his promise to send the Holy Spirit to his church.
In Acts 2, a large crowd of Jews had gathered. People from across the Roman world, and beyond, had flooded to Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks, an OT festival marking the harvest.
Suddenly, a rushing wind filled the room, and tongues of fire rested upon many of Jesus’s followers. They began to speak in the full range of languages known to the crowds. The Apostle Peter explains to the crowd that in that moment, God had poured out his Spirit.
This Pentecost, there are three great truths we should find encouragement in.
1. Jesus is still with us.
Jesus had promised not to leave his people as orphans. And it is in the Holy Spirit that he keeps that promise. Jesus had ascended into heaven, where he will remain until the final Judgement. Yet we are not without him. By his Spirit, Jesus continues to be with us.
2. Jesus empowers us.
In the Old Testament, Israel’s Prophets, Kings, or great military leaders might be empowered by God’s Spirit for particular tasks which God had given them.
Now, however, the Holy Spirit was being poured out on “all people’ (Acts 2:17). That is, the Holy Spirit would be given, not only on some of God’s people for a time, but to equip ALL of God’s people to live for him. ALL who trust in Christ can lean on the promise that the Holy Spirit will guarantee we stand firm in faith (Eph 1:14), enable us to grow in wisdom (Eph 1:17), cry out to God in prayer (Rom 8:26-27), and bring forth in us the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-26).
3. The Spirit leads us to Jesus.
Jesus had promised that the Spirit would empower the Disciples to witness to the Gospel (Acts 1:8). At Pentecost, the crowds heard, not just languages for their own sake, but the disciples, “declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues” (Acts 2:11).
At the Tower of Babel, humanity had tried to make a name for itself. God, in his judgment, confused our languages, frustrating this self-aggrandising work. At Pentecost, Jesus reverses this curse. In mercy, God enables the Gospel, which declares the grandeur of Jesus, to be heard in every corner of the earth.
Cyril of Jerusalem once said, ”A fiery sword barred of old the gates of Paradise; a fiery tongue which brought salvation restored the gift.”
It is by the same Spirit that the Church today speaks the truth of the Gospel. And it is by His Spirit that Jesus will make our words intelligible to those who hear us, so that they, too, might receive the mercy of salvation and the hope of heaven.
A prayer for Pentecost
GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
