Pentecost Is A Gift That Keeps On Giving

5.31.20 John 16:5–11

5 “But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Yet because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment: 9 about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; 11 about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

Pentecost is a Gift that Keeps on Giving

Today is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. He is the One who opens our eyes to see Jesus through the eyes of faith. If you think about it, it takes faith to believe in the Holy Spirit too. We can’t see Him. Throughout history he has appeared in the feathers of a dove and in fire and in water, but never apart from these physical elements.

The Bible doesn’t talk about Him as much, and He doesn’t want the attention in some senses. Jesus compared the work of the Spirit to the blowing of the wind. You can see what it does, but you can’t actually see the wind. So it is with the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we could think of Him as the unsung hero of the Trinity. Without Him we couldn’t have faith and we wouldn’t be Christians. He is integral to our lives as Christians.

Jesus promised the disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit, even though they had never seen Him, or much less heard from Him directly either at this point. The disciples would go from a face to face experience with God in the flesh to a behind the scenes verbal experience with God. If we had a choice, our sinful nature would probably say, “No thanks!” We’d prefer the personal relationship with someone who walks with us and eats with us and speaks on our behalf. We are physical creatures. We are visual creatures.

But some might argue that the Holy Spirit is even more visual than seeing Jesus face to face. They think that the Holy Spirit is measured by the excitement in the air, the volume of the song, the emotion of the preacher, or the ability to speak in some strange language that no one can understand.

What about Pentecost? The baptism was an amazing thing for those who were there, with a tongue of fire floating through the air and touching on their heads. There was a sound of wind, but no source from where it came and no trees moving or hair blowing. Those were visual and audible signs of the Holy Spirit. But after that, it was all a matter of speaking for them and for those who came. They spoke in INTELLIGIBLE human languages. They weren’t rolling around in the streets and being healed with fainting spells.

In today’s text, Jesus doesn’t point us to anything like speaking in foreign languages or tongues of fire in His prophecy. In John 14, just prior to this, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would be the great REMINDER. “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” This is how we received the entire Bible. The Holy Spirit is the One who would verbally inspire the Word of God. 2 Peter 1:20–21 says, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” So also in chapter 16, our text for today, Jesus only points us to the Holy Spirit as the COUNSELOR, who comes by our side, as One who SAYS what we need to hear and reveals things we could never know.

The disciples were saddened by Jesus’ talk of departure, so saddened that they didn’t even want to talk about it. They ignored it at all cost. It was a tactic that my wife and I used in Mexico. We had to sit through a presentation, so we decided beforehand, “Don’t ask ANY questions.” That way the presentation would get over quicker and we could get back to the beach. It worked! But Jesus didn’t want this conversation to die. He said, Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. There’s a progression here, isn’t there. Jesus has to go for Him to come. It’s the only way He CAN come, if Jesus goes.