Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, first at Pentecost, but ever since in the life of every Christian. But the problem is that we can find it difficult to understand the Holy Spirit and his work in our lives, and even more difficult to visualise this mysterious presence and power. So today I offer three pictures which I hope may help.
1. First Picture. If you drive out of Guildford on the A3 at night, you will see Guildford Cathedral standing proud and magnificent on the top of Stag Hill - looking indeed even better than it does in daylight - because it is floodlit. When I was a member of the cathedral chapter, I can remember the floodlights being installed and the enormous difference it made. There was a ceremony to mark the switching on - which was in a way like a sort of Pentecost, because suddenly out of the darkness the building appeared, illuminated in the most beautiful way by this brilliant light. What was previously barely visible now shone clearly and in glory.
Now you are not supposed to look at the floodlights! If you do, all that happens is that you are blinded and can see nothing at all. Christians sometimes want to see the Holy Spirit - to get a grip on this member of the Holy Trinity who seems so hard to imagine, or picture in the mind. But on the whole the Holy Spirit doesn’t want you to look at Him. Like the floodlights he directs your attention away from himself, and on to Jesus, whom he illuminates in a bright and beautiful, if challenging, light. Jesus tells us in John 16:14 that ‘When the Spirit comes, he will glorify me.’ So when Jesus becomes real for us, that is the work of the Holy Spirit shining his light so that we can see him clearly. And when that happens, as Jesus continues in that passage, the Spirit convicts us of sin, and righteousness and judgment. The Spirit urges us to look at Jesus, and believe in him, and give our lives to him. Jesus emerges out of the shadows of history and imagination. Jesus lifts off the pages of the New Testament, and becomes real and alive and present, and his presence leads us to the point of decision – either of faith and commitment, or of rejection. So imagine the Holy Spirit as a floodlight that reveals Jesus to us and leads us to faith. The Holy Spirit is God’s gracious gift to every Christian, so we need to pray always for his light and his guidance.
2. Second picture. Spiritual birth. In John 3:3 Jesus said: “Unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “You must be born anew by the Spirit” Jesus tells Nicodemus, “The wind blows wherever it will. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” You can’t see the wind. You can only observe and feel its effect. When I was in the garden this past week, I could see the trees around me swaying to and fro. I could hear the rustling of the leaves and branches. I could feel the wind blowing on my cheek. I couldn’t see the wind. But I could see and feel its effect and its work only too plainly.
You can’t see the Holy Spirit. But you can see and feel him at work. Jesus compares him to the wind that stirs up spiritual life within you. You feel dissatisfaction with things as they are. You hear whispers of spiritual gold. Sometimes inspite of yourself, you know there is something you must do. There is a prayer to be said, that must be said now. There is a decision to be made that must be done now. There is something in your life which you have known in your heart must change for some time, but now you know for certain that you have to do it, and do it before the wind has blown on and past and left you. There is an act of faith and commitment to be made, and now is the time - there is an imperative about it - because the wind of the Spirit is blowing now - now and not yesterday or tomorrow.
And if you go with the Spirit and do not resist, you find yourself emerging into another world - you are born into the world of the Holy Spirit - where Jesus is Lord, and stands illuminated. And you blink and realize that everything that was hazy and unclear before, you suddenly see clearly, and now you know what you must do in response.
Your life has been touched by the Spirit. That is certain because otherwise you wouldn’t be here now. Whether willingly or not, and whatever our motivation, we are here this morning by the Spirit’s appointment. He has something to say to us. There is something He wants us to do. Listen and he will tell you. The wind blows - the light shines and illuminates Jesus. And we ought not to go home until we have heard his voice and obeyed. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Behold today is the day of salvation, as St Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:2.
3. Third picture. It is the day of Pentecost, and the disciples are together in a room praying. And the wind blows, and the fire descends, and the Spirit is poured out, and they are thrust out of the room and on to the streets, proclaiming the great things God has done in Jesus in languages they didn’t know they could speak.
What happened that day was marvellous and miraculous, and would it might happen this morning as well. But the significance of the day of Pentecost did not lie so much in the miracles - the Spirit had come on individuals to do miraculous things for centuries - but on whom the Spirit came.
The prophecy of Joel was being fulfilled at last, as Peter makes clear in his sermon, which he quotes in our Epistle from Acts 2. The Spirit was being poured out, not just on one or two privileged prophets for a specific time - but on everyone who heard the message. Old men and women; young men and maidens, said Joel, irrespective of position or privilege or class, age or status. And even more importantly, irrespective of race. The story of the Acts of the Apostles is the story of the Spirit being poured out on Jews and then Samaritans and then Gentiles, until Paul can write (Gal 3:28) that we have all been made to drink of the same Spirit, and have become heirs to God’s promises - Jews and Gentiles and Barbarians, male and female, slave and free. No-one is now excluded from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That was what was different about the day of Pentecost. A whole new era in God’s work began that day, and continues today. We live in the age of the outpouring of the Spirit.
We are God’s people, gathered here this morning to celebrate that day when the Holy Spirit fell on everyone who believed in Jesus as God’s chosen Saviour and Lord, crucified, risen and glorified. They saw at last the truth about Jesus, as he was illuminated in their minds by the Spirit. The Spirit brought them to the point of faith and personal commitment. He blew into their lives, challenging, convicting, urging, warning, encouraging, guiding, bringing to personal faith. And as we celebrate Pentecost by opening our lives prayerfully to the wind of the Spirit this morning, so we come to new birth - new life - because the wind that the Spirit breathes is the very life of God himself, and so we are filled with the divine life through the Spirit’s breath - eternal life - real life at last. The wind of which Jesus speaks is the breath of life.
So we pray today that the Holy Spirit will breathe, and infill our lives in every part with the life of God. We want to pray this morning that the Spirit will bring us to new birth, new life, a new future full of hope. Come, Holy Spirit, - refresh and renew our lives today, and make us your witnesses that Christ may be proclaimed and glorified here in Camberley as we all - from every church - are filled with the Spirit, and proclaim the great things God has done for us. May we see the fruit of Pentecost in our own personal lives, in our churches, in our town, and in our world, until Jesus is acknowledged as Lord in all the world, and the Spirit’s work is complete at last.
I want to suggest a very simple discipline. Will each of us pray every single day: “Lord, today I open my life to the Holy Spirit. Fill me today with your Spirit.” Just that. If we will – every one of us and without fail – pray that prayer every day – then let’s see what will happen! Let’s see what great things God will do in our lives, in our church, and here in Camberley.
Discussion
1.Do you find these pictures helpful? Which one helps you most, and can you explain why?
2.Have you ever felt the Holy Spirit touch your life in a very special way? Did it have a lasting result? Can you share the experience and its consequences with the group?
3.Can you suggest ways in which the Holy Spirit might infuse a greater spiritual life into our Church and guide us into the future? Discuss.
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