Dear Christian friends:

Today, as you know, we are celebrating Pentecost. The word, Pentecost, means 50. Fifty days after Easter Jesus kept His promise and sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples, as we just read in the Epistle Lesson.

Who is the Holy Spirit? What work does He do? Our text answers these questions. Often people do not understand about the Holy Spirit and His important work. You perhaps think that you know all about the Holy Spirit, but perhaps not. We all can understand better about the Holy Spirit - our weakness of faith proves that.


I. Who is the Holy Spirit?

A. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. We always begin our church services in the name of the Triune God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons in one God. In our text Jesus explains about the Holy Spirit, who He is. Jesus says, "I will send Him unto you." (16:7c) "I will send Him unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which comes from the Father." (15:26) The Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son. The Father is the First Person, the Son is the Second Person, and the Holy Spirit is the Third Person Person of the Holy Trinity.

B. Therefore we praise and worship the Holy Spirit the same as we praise and worship the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is not under the Father and the Son, but is equal with them. He has equal power, and glory with the Father and the Son. Thus we praise and honor Him!

C. Jesus here calls Him "the Spirit of truth." (15:26) Why? Because He comes to our hearts and minds through God's Word, which is the truth. On this same evening before He died Jesus prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them (the disciples) through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth." (17:17) Therefore it is most important for us to hear and learn God's Word regularly that we may receive the Holy Spirit, and have His precious gifts and worship Him equally with the Father and the Son.

II. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. What is His work?

A. We call the Father, Creator, and the Son, Redeemer. But what do we call the Holy Spirit? We call Him Sanctifier, the one who makes us holy. Here in our text Jesus calls Him the "Comforter". (verse 26) The Holy Spirit comforts us when He comes to our hearts and minds through God's Word and helps us believe in Jesus and rejoice in Him and testify.

B. The Holy Spirit did this wonderful work for the disciples. They were sad and afraid because Jesus had told them that He must suffer and die and arise from death and then go back home to heaven, Jesus also had told them that the world would hate them and persecute them as the world had persecuted Him. (15:18-16:1-6) They did not understand that Jesus' suffering, death, resurrection and ascension was good for them. So Jesus assures them and says to them: "I tell you the truth; It is good for you that I go away: because if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." (16:7) "He shall testify of Me."(15:26) By His testimony the Holy Spirit will strengthen the disciples' faith in Jesus and give them courage and wisdom to testify to the hostile world. Jesus says to the disciples, “And you also shall bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning." (15:27) This happened exactly on the first Pentecost Day. (Acts 2) After the Holy Spirit had come to them and filled them, they all stood up and preached with courage and great power to the crowd. Three thousand people were baptized and joined the Church that Day. And after that the Church continued to grow rapidly as the disciples continued to preach and witness about Jesus as the Holy Spirit led them. The Holy Spirit did wonderful work for those disciples.

C. And He can do the same wonderful work in us. We are Jesus' disciples today. Jesus has commanded us to testify about Him to the world same as He commanded the first disciples. We, too, often are afraid to testify about Jesus to the wicked, hostile world. We don't want any trouble, or problems or persecution connected with that mission evangelism work. We, too, like the disciples, love this world too much and don't wait and hope for heaven as we should. When Jesus told the disciples that He was going away back to heaven, they did not feel glad about that but sad. Jesus scolds them and says, "Now I go My way to Him that sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where go You?' But because I said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart." (16:5-6) None of them were interested to learn more about heaven where Jesus was going. If they had asked Him about that He would have told them wonderful things to make glad their hearts. But they loved this life here on earth too much and wanted Jesus to stay here and establish an earthly kingdom on earth. We often are like that. We are too much interested in our work and jobs and pleasures here on earth and don't care about our real home in heaven. We, like those first disciples need the Holy Spirit to awaken us about our real home and awaken us about our real work, which is to testify of Jesus, so that others can believe and go to the real home also.

D. The world needs our testimony because it misunderstands. Jesus says, "When He (the Holy Spirit) comes, He will correct the world about sin, and about righteousness, and about judgment: About sin, because they believe not on Me; about righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you see Me no more; about judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." (16:8-11) The world, also ourselves, misunderstand about these three things: sin, righteousness and judgment. Through Jesus' Word the Holy Spirit corrects us so that we have right understanding and true faith, joy and hope in Jesus, not in our own righteousness. Then we will be excited, inspired about Jesus and eager to testify to others. The Holy Spirit corrects the world through our missions and personal evangelism.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, once explained why many, many people always came to hear him preach. He said, "God has set me on fire (given me the Holy Spirit) and people come to watch me burn." Are you "on fire" by the Holy Spirit? Are people attracted to you and watching you "burn" for Jesus?

Let us close with this beautiful prayer to the Holy Spirit:

"Thou Holy Fire, Comfort true,
Grant us the will Thy work to do,
And in Thy service to abide;
Let trials not turn us aside.

Lord, by Thy Power prepare each heart,
And to our weakness, strength impart,
That boldly here we may contend,
Through life and death to Thee,
our Lord ascend,

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
(TLH 224 verse 3)

Amen.