Posted June 14, 2025

This week of 2025, Christians around the world observed Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is often noted as the birthday of the Church. Sundayreadings.org says, “On this day, the Church celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the apostles’ mission to proclaim the gospel to all nations....Pentecost is the fulfillment of Easter and the commissioning of the Church. It closes the Easter season and marks the beginning of our life in the Spirit.” Pentecost is about the Power of the 3rdperson of the Godhead, of the Holy Trinity. God the Father demonstrated Power as the Creator of the world, and then He rested. God the Son demonstrated Power through miracles and as the Risen Savior of the world, and then He ascended to sit down in Heaven, His assignment completed. God the Holy Spirit arrived from Heaven as promised, to be our Comforter, our Helper, with the same Power that created the world and resurrected Jesus back to life.

In the Book of Acts, after we see the entrance of the Holy Spirit, Paul the apostle comes up on a group of followers of Jesus. He asks them if they received the Holy Spirit when they were baptized. They answer, “No, we’ve never even heard of the Holy Spirit” (19:2, GWT). My Blog “Your Help is Here!” from August 25, 2023 is a study into the Holy Spirit. How many of us would say and believe, “God loves me”? How many would say and believe, “Jesus loves me”? How many would say and believe, “The Holy Spirit loves me”? How many would say, “I’ve never even heard of the Holy Spirit"?

Paul asks these disciples about their baptism. They tell him they were baptized into John’s baptism of repentance. Paul lets them know there is no discipleship apart from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers us to love that neighbor, to forgive that trespass, to give someone another chance. The Holy Spirit is what’s inside us, encouraging us to share the good news of the Savior, to take every opportunity to share our faith in Jesus Christ with somebody else. The Holy Spirit is our Power operating in the world today. He empowers today’s disciples to be witnesses to share with others what we have seen God do. As we remember the Day of Pentecost, we pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on us all, the same as the Lord did on the Acts 2 church, so that we are always found sharing the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.