Christian Pathway

Today’s reading is the Pentecost account from John, rather than the one we often use from Acts 2, with fire and people speaking in tongues. John gives us the Spirit on Easter evening. Acts gives it to us 50 days later.

That’s because the authors of these passages were trying to highlight two very different things. Luke’s version of Pentecost is about the extrovert mission facing Pentecost — the Church launched into mission.

John’s version is an inward, intimate Pentecost — the Spirit forming the disciples from the inside. But both are talking about the same thing.

Acts is an external public show of the spirit with fire and people speaking in tongues.

“John is the breath. Acts is the fire.” Acts shows the Spirit giving courage, mission, energy, and boldness.
This is the Spirit launching the Church into the world.

John shows the Spirit giving inner life, inner peace, and identity authority
This is the Spirit forming the Church from the inside. So if you look at how the spirit works in the world, you can see it acts dynamically.

They’re not contradictions — they’re two moments of the same gift.

Because Jesus still has much to do in this now/not yet period we live in. He does that through us, as Wesley said:
“The Spirit is the breath of God in the soul.”
This breath of God in our souls sweeps away whatever it needs to, emboldens, enables, softens, turns cowards into martyrs, and so on.

I am going to ask you all for your take on the questions I asked in today’s handout.

to start that off , and maybe give you some ideas heres where I felt the spirit working with me

It became one with me the day I gave my life to Christ, and I can feel him inside me every day.

When I started my LLM training, my biggest exam passes were an O-level in English language and a CSE in metalwork. The Spirit pulled out of me a respectable diploma in ministry, mission, and theology from Durham University.

It gives me words to say, so long before I knew hardly anything of the Bible, yet I still wanted to talk about him.

On one occasion, I found myself paraphrasing Paul, where he says that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Showing a very distressed person, whose life had taught him that he was without value, that nothing in this life sets your value — your value comes from the love of a God who died for you; you are that precious. This is without any great knowledge of the bible at the time

I like to think some of my sermons are constructs of the Holy Spirit, especially if you need a nap!

The Spirit makes Jesus real to us, keeps hope alive, heals people mentally and physically, gives courage when we are lacking, comforts us when we mourn or worry about our family and friends, encourages love and generosity, and steers people’s lives away from anger, drugs, crime, and so on. In short, transforming us so we can show the love of Christ in our communities, and then allow the Spirit to work in those transformed communities.
so hopefully you have had a think and that may have sparked some ideas . To help extend this understanding beyond me Let’s do some being with style wonderings

I wonder if you ever felt called to something
I wonder if you ever felt emboldened
I wonder if you ever felt called to act
I wonder if you ever surpassed your expectations when God called you

Outside of just me, I’ll give some examples of what I think the spirit is doing, what it does

For instance Our church has many new members, both here and across this land. They call it the quiet revival, and all our churches are reporting growth, especially post-COVID. God claimed all those people for Jesus, and the Spirit brought them to the community of Jesus followers.

also there are always many, many people who aren’t even part of any religious community reacting to the nudging of the spirit.

I have numbers to back that up

So like In England and Wales, 37.2% said they had “no religion” in the 2021 Census. ons.gov.uk]

• In a YouGov survey, 16% say they believe in a higher spiritual power but not “a god”.

all reacting to the spirit, but giving it a different name

That’s like just over 50% of the population so many of them out there right now reacting to the spirit

Those things are all the work of the spirit, and soooo much more than we will ever know, because sometimes we don’t even know?

Like when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus, that was God using what was likely the spirit

Here’s a thing: you’re all here today, and that is almost certainly the spirit. Like the time I wrote a sermon here about how on International Women’s Day, misogynistic theology still exists. I was really wondering whether to give it, and then 80% of our congregation was people who don’t normally come, and 90% of those women!

When our church looks for what’s next, in my opinion, its course of action should always be to find out what God and the Holy Spirit are already up to in our communities, which is why I joined the street pastors.

Buy look at foodbanks , people running essential charities, street kitchens , a 1000 things

So God is active in me, in you, and in this world. In You and the things going on in our communities are proof that the spirit is alive and well and preparing this messy old world for when Jesus comes again

So John was on about that version of the spirit; there wasn’t any speaking in tongues or flames, but like most of these stories, people stirred into action, as Jesus did when he said Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

So peace breathed the spirit into them, Jesus breathed the breath of God, and as we can see, the rest is history, and he is still breathing his life into our communities today.

If you want proof that our God is alive and active, look at yourselves, and at all the times he made you better, kinder, wiser, capable of things beyond what you thought you could do, and at the things that just fell out of you.

When you take a second to look at your lives and the world around you, sometimes it’s the showy stuff the spirit does to get your attention, and sometimes we are transfixed by the bad stuff. But, as I wrote in my dad’s eulogy, true goodness is often understated and, as a result, overlooked.

That’s the reason Acts gets the headlines, and John’s version of Pentecost is less well known, because it’s quiet and undemonstrative, but just as powerful.

as shown by you all being here today

That’s the spirit that John was showing you, and God is still showing you today.

Amen