I have in past blogs referred to a habit or practice which I have named “surface read” being nothing more than skimming over the chapter or verses which for those of us that read our bible often do, which creates a false sense of understanding. This week we take a look at the churches celebration of Pentecost, an in-depth look…going beyond the words so to speak. In the Revised Common Lectionary, the Gospel reading for Pentecost Sunday is always from the Gospel of John. Following is just another bit of information that I read in preparing for this blog. Homiletics is the application of the general principles of speaking or writing to convey or teach. I like the tail end of this when the writer simply writes “One who practices or studies homiletics may be called a homilist, or more simply, a preacher. Don’t know if this is of any value to this blog…just thought I would share this with you. Pentecost is the time I often refer to as the end of Jesus’ ministry on this earth and the introduction of the “helper” soon to come, thus “The Beginning of the End…” But those of us of the faith know that this is the beginning of the rest of the story.

The beginning of the rest of the story starts here for me. So let’s break it down…Pentecost John 15:26-27… 26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. 

In the previous verses 15:26-27 the disciples realize that Jesus is about to leave them and at this point we then move to chapter 16. 16:1-4 Jesus speaks of the persecutions they will endure and Foretells his death, and promises them the Comforter, (verses 5-7.) Here they are introduced to the coming of Holy Spirit, also referred to as the Comforter. Jesus from the beginning of his ministry had told the disciples that to follow him would not be easy, there would be hard times ahead. Jesus knew this before hand and he did not want his disciples or anyone to be able to say that they had not known what to expect when they became a Christian. John as he was writing this knew that by this time many early Christians were falling away from the faith. Jesus shared with them that a time would come when people would kill them and consider such an act as rendering a service to God when they killed his followers. As you read through these first four verses consider this. Jesus offered, and still offers, not the way of ease but the way of glory. He wants men and women who are prepared with open eyes to venture out for his name. In these next verses 5-11 Barclay writes we have an almost perfect summary of the work of the Spirit. It just so happens that the word used to describe the work of the Spirit translates to mean convince. There is more detail to this which we will pass on but for now I leave this one thing for you to consider. When we are able to recognize our own sin it is usually the result of our being convinced of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is the cross of Christ, our salvation thru the blood of Christ that we are saved from the judgement to come. This is the work of the Holy Spirit through which we are convicted of our sins and because of Him we are convinced of our salvation.

We close out this week’s blog reading from John 16:12-15… ‘I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of Truth has come, he will lead you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority and out of his own knowledge, but he will speak all that he will hear, and he will tell you of the things to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of the things which belong to me, and will tell you of them. All things that the Father has are mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will take of the things which belong to me, and tell them to you.’

To sum up…this these two verses in chapter 15 and those that follow in chapter 16-1-15 are considered by some people to bring to us God’s Truth…it could also be called a revelation. It brings us to the understanding that this comes to us not from any book or creed, but from a living person. Pentecost is special because it marks the start of our finial journey to our salvation and our savior Jesus Christ.

We are writing this from the rehab facility so please understand there may be some mistakes. Remember that CCR song during the war in Nam…well that is my song now… “We Gotta Get Out Of Here” Ditto!!

Life is Good

jk