The Sermon for the Festival of Pentecost, or Whitsunday, June 8th, 2025
The Lessons: Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104:24-36; 1 Corinthians 12:4-13; St. John 14:8-17
The Text: St. John 14:15-17
INTRODUCTION
Today, on this Festival of Pentecost, or Whitsunday, as the Prayer Book calls it, I will preach on the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth.
Leading up to Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit to his disciples, he emphasizes that keeping his commandments shows their love for him (John 14:15). In the context of the disciples’ love for the Lord demonstrated in keeping his commandments, he will ask God the Father to give them another, the Paraclete, or Comforter, to be with them forever, and this is the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17a). The Spirit of truth cannot be received by the world, that is, those who are hostile to Christ, because it neither sees him nor knows him, though the disciples at the time knew him because he dwelt with them and would be in them (John 14:17). The Holy Spirit dwelling in them happened at Pentecost and continues to happen with everyone who turns from sin, believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, is baptized in water in the name of the Blessed Trinity (Acts 2:38; Matthew 28:19), and follows Jesus Christ as Lord (John 1:12).
The Spirit of truth leads people to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and believe in him for the forgiveness of sins. In other words, the Holy Spirit leads people to follow Jesus the way, the truth, and the life. The Holy Spirit continually bears witness to the truth that Jesus is, for he bears witness to Jesus (John 15:26).
The Holy Spirit, being the Spirit of truth, convicts the world of sin because they do not believe in Christ (John 16:8-9), and everyone who comes to faith and repentance, comes in the company of the Holy Spirit, who shows them all the sins from which they need to turn away for good, and all the evil that they need to renounce. When this happens, the new believer can easily be overwhelmed with sorrow, not having realized from much wrong he needs to repent. But this is the godly sorrow that leads to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10) and brings about “salvation not to be repented of,” and it comes by revelation of the Holy Spirit who brings us the truth of God’s judgement on sin (Romans 3:19) and makes us aware of how much we need our Savior.
Yet the Spirit of truth does far more than bring home to a soul the truth of God’s conviction of sin, but he also assures the penitent sinner of God’s forgiveness, as St. Paul testifies in Romans 8:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made free from the law of sin and death.
(Romans 8:1-2, KJV)
The Spirit of truth who leads a person to the conviction of sin, also assures the same person, who repents and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ that God has forgiven him and that he no longer faces God’s condemnation!
Further, as we continue on the Christian way of life with the Holy Spirit as Guide, he guides us into all the truth, because he hears from the Father and the Son all the truth that God wants to reveal to us, including truths concerning our future or the future of the world, as St. John wrote later in his Gospel account:
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
(John 16:13, KJV)
This verse points to the comprehensiveness of the wisdom and knowledge of God that the Holy Spirit can reveal to his people.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to set aside enough time daily for us to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking the truth to us about ourselves, perhaps about others, perhaps about the future, or the past, or the present, so that we may learn the ways of God, be instructed, and become wise. It is thus appropriate that we pray in the words of today’s Collect “Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort” (Collect for Whitsuntide, p.180, Book of Common Prayer, 1928).
A child was told by his father during a concert, “Listen for the flutes in this song. Don’t they sound beautiful? The child looked up at his father with a puzzled look, “What are flutes, Father?”
A child first needs to learn what flutes sound like on their own, separate from the whole orchestra, before he can hear them in a symphony. So, it is with us as children of God. Unless we take the time to hear his voice in the quiet moments of life, we will not be able to hear him in the symphony sounds of life.
– Stephen Macchia, Becoming a Healthy Church (Baker. 1999)[1]
CONCLUSION
If we are listening well to the Holy Spirit, we will allow Him to speak the truth to us at all times concerning the direction of our lives, or about any attitudes, beliefs, opinions, habits, words, or actions that conflict with God’s holy will and commandments, or even tell us to give up what we are doing and do something else. For example, at high school level, I thought I was going to be a chemist or an engineer, but the Holy Spirit called me into the ordained ministry of the Anglican Church.
What is the Holy Spirit showing you or telling you to do for God’s glory?
[1] Quoted on p.411, Craig Brian Larson & Phyllis Ten Elshof (General Editors): 1001 Illustrations that Connect. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, Christianity Today International, 2008.