The Collect for Whit-Sunday
(The Day of Pentecost)
God, Who at this time taught the hearts of Your faithful people, by sending them the Light of Your Holy Spirit ; Grant us by the Holy Spirit to have right judgement in all things, and evermore rejoice in His Holy Comfort ; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, Who Lives and Reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, world without end. Amen.
Whit-Sunday Hymn
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire
and lighten with celestial fire;
thou the anointing Spirit art,
who dost thy seven-fold gifts impart.
Thy blessed unction from above
is comfort, life, and fire of love;
enable with perpetual light
the dullness of our mortal sight.
Teach us to know the Father, Son,
and thee, of both, to be but one,
that through the ages all along
this may be our endless song:
Praise to thine eternal merit,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
For The Epistle. Acts 2:1-11
2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
The Holy Gospel of St John 14:15-31
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, 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. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
Bishop Ian’s Thoughts
Today’s Reading for the Epistle is taken from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 2, Verses 1-11.
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles was written by St Luke, the author of the Holy Gospel of St Luke.
We can think of the Holy Gospel of St Luke as the first part of St Luke’s narrative, concerning the Life, Works, Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
The Book of the Acts can be regarded as the second part of the narrative of the Lord Jesus, beginning with His Ascension into Heaven, followed by the Missionary work of His Disciples.
St Luke commences today’s Reading by focusing on the Lord Jesus’ Disciples gathered together, in a room, on the Day of Pentecost.
“2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.”
The Christian celebration of the Day of Pentecost falls within the Jewish “Feast of Weeks” which commemorated the Giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai approximately, 1,500 years before.
The word “Pentecost” means the fiftieth day after Easter Sunday. Also it was the time of the Jewish harvest festival of “Shavuot.”
The one place where the Disciples were all gathered together may have been the upper room where the Lord Jesus celebrated His Last Supper with His Disciples. They were probably still keeping a low profile, for fear of the Jews, even fifty days after the Resurrection.
The Holy Gospel of St John records the fear of the Disciples, prior to their initial witness of the Risen Lord Jesus in Chapter 20, Verses 19-20:
“19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”
The Lord Jesus appeared to His Disciples a number of times over a period of forty days after after His Resurrection and on one such occasion He commanded them to remain in Jerusalem until they had received the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. St Luke records this command in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 1 Verses 4-5:
“4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
As the Disciples were gathered all together, The Lord Jesus’ promise was fulfilled and God’s Holy Spirit is bestowed upon them:
“2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
The Disciples’ reception of the Holy Spirit must have been a spectacular and startling sight.
The Disciples experienced visual and audio confirmation of the Holy Spirit’s presence and indwelling. There was the sound of a mighty wind that filled their house and the appearance of what seemed to be a tongue of flame that separated with a flame coming to rest on each of the Disciples.
Immediately, on receiving the Holy Spirit, the Disciples began to speak in tongues other than their own native language.
The nature of these tongues is revealed by St Luke:
“5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.”
From this narrative it is clear that the initial phenomena of speaking in tongues was that the Disciples spoke in foreign languages, not understood by Galilean speaking Jews, but clearly understood by the Jewish converts from all over the Middle Eastern areas of the Roman Empire.
The geographical list of distant lands encompassed most of the ancient Middle Eastern lands, and then some:
“7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
The Lord Jesus’ Disciples were proclaiming His Holy Gospel in a truly remarkable way so that the people of those areas far removed from Jerusalem were able to hear of the Mighty Work of God in His Provision of the Holy Gospel to save all those people who call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus, irrespective of where they are from.
Also let us consider this important aspect of the events of the Day of Pentecost, that it, in a figurative way, represents a reversal of God’s curse upon mankind during the building of the Tower of Babel.
Where God aborted the work on the Tower of Babel (an attempt to reach, and be like God) by confusing the speech of the workers so that they could not understand each other, and so they were unable to communicate, and continue to build the Tower. God, on the Day of Pentecost, gave people, from diverse areas and different languages, the Gift of the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus, the true and only way to reach, and be like God, proclaimed in their own language, so that each could understand and receive this Holy Gift of God.
The Tower of Babel was aborted by God’s confusing of language. The Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was proclaimed, and promoted, by God’s gift of foreign languages, and hence good, clear, communication with foreign hearers, through the Holy Spirit’s Gift to the Lord Jesus’ Disciples.
Let us give God thanks for His Gift of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and for the comfort and Peace that the Holy Spirit brings with His indwelling. Also let us thank God for the courage and confidence that the Holy Spirit gives us to enable us to boldly proclaim the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all people, so that they might not perish but have Everlasting Life. Amen.
Today’s Holy Gospel Reading is taken from the Holy Gospel of St John Chapter 14, Verses 15-31.
St John opens this portion of his Holy Gospel in the midst of the Lord Jesus’ discourse with His Disciples, as He prepares them for His departure from this world and His return to His father in Heaven.
The Lord Jesus tells His disciples that they must show their love for Him by obeying His commandments:
“15 If you love me, keep my commands.”
In response to their love and obedience the Lord Jesus promises to send the Disciples “another advocate” to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth.”
This “other advocate” is the Holy Spirit:
“16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth.”
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity and is described, by Theologians, as “proceeding” (going forth) from the Father and the Son.
The Work of the Holy Spirit is to be God’s Holy Counselor and Comforter of His People, giving them faith and encouragement as they face the spiritual danger and trials of living in a fallen, sinful world, oppressed by Satan and his followers.
The Lord Jesus then tells His Disciples that the world cannot recognise or accept the Holy Spirit because it does not see or know Him. The world has no faith, or desire, to know the things of God as they are under the control of Satan.
Only the Disciples and God’s faithful servants can recognise and joyfully accept the Holy Spirit:
"The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."
The Lord Jesus then promised that He would not leave the Disciples and His other followers desolate like orphans. The Disciples would shortly see the Lord Jesus again, after His Crucifixion, in a physically different way, as a result of His Resurrection from the dead.
The Disciples would see the Lord Jesus in His Resurrection Body.
The Risen Lord Jesus was able to pass through walls, and to disappear and re-appear at will.
An example of this miraculous ability was the Lord Jesus’ appearance to two of His Disciples as He joined them while they wee walking to Emmaus,
During their walk he Lord Jesus opened their minds to the truth of the Scriptures that testified to the Lord Jesus as being the Holy Messiah of God, and that He must Suffer And Die, to be raised from the dead.
The Lord Jesus appeared to the two Disciples, and joined them as they were eating their evening meal. This account is recorded in the Holy Gospel of St Luke, Chapter 24, Verses 30-32, and Verses 36-39:
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
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36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
The two Disciples had returned to Jerusalem and told the other Disciples about their encounter with the Lord Jesus when He appeared to the Disciples.
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
The world would not see the Lord Jesus anymore, after His Ascension to Heaven, but the Disciples, and all believers, will continually experience the presence of their Master and His Heavenly Father through Faith, given as a Gift, and Sustained, by the Holy Spirit.
“18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
The Lord Jesus then told His Disciples that their love for Him must be demonstrated by their obedience to His Commands. The person who keeps the Lord Jesus’ commands will be loved by God:
“21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but another Disciple) asks why the Lord Jesus will not reveal Himself to the world (all people) as well as His Disciples and other believers:
“22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
The Lord Jesus responds to Judas’ question by telling him that the main ingredient in the Manifestation, by the Lord Jesus, of His Love and Presence with a believer, is the response of faith within that believer, and the desire to show their love of the Lord Jesus and His Heavenly Father by obedience to the Lord Jesus’ commands:
“23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
The Lord Jesus then promised that after He had left His Disciples, and ascended to Heaven, the Holy Spirit Who will be sent by God, in the Lord Jesus’ name (by the promise of the Lord Jesus), will provide them with understanding concerning the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus, and will bring to remembrance all the Words and Instruction that the Lord Jesus gave to His Disciples during His Earthly Ministry:
“25 All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, 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.”
The Lord Jesus then declared to His Disciples that He would give them His Peace. The Lord Jesus’ Peace is not like the fragile peace that the world, and men, can provide, but rather a Robust and Eternal Peace that comes from God who rules over all of Creation and Who has, and will, overcome all enemies and adversities, so that the Disciples have no basis for fear:
"27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
The Lord Jesus then gave a gentle rebuke to His Disciples regarding their apprehension at His soon approaching departure (Death) from them. The Lord Jesus told them that if they truly loved Him they would be glad that He is going to His Father in Heaven, for in going to His Father the Lord Jesus would be in the process of Glorification because His future position will be greater than His present position, as His Father is above all things.
“28 You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”
When the Lord Jesus takes His seat at the Right Hand of God His Father, His Father will deliver all Might, Majesty and Dominion into the Lord Jesus’ Hands, so His Glorification will be complete.
The Lord Jesus then informed His Disciples that He has told them about these things before they happened in order to prepare and strengthen them to meet the coming trials and adversities:
"29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe."
The Lord Jesus concludes our Holy Gospel Reading by telling His Disciples that Satan, “the prince of this world is coming,” but He adds that “ He has no hold over me.”
"30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me."
Satan’s coming onslaught of evil throughout the ages remaining, until the second coming of the Lord Jesus, will give all God’s Chosen People, the opportunity, and power, to resist and defeat Satan’s evil, before the face of all the world, by showing their love of God in their desire to obey His Word and Command.
Satan is always defeated by a person’s faith and belief in the Word and Command of God.
God’s Word and Command is to believe in the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus resisted and defeated Satan during His temptation in the wilderness by using the Word of God in its true context and meaning. This is recorded in the Holy Gospel of St Matthew Chapter 4, Verse, 1-11:
"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him."
Let us give thanks to God for the Faithfulness of His Beloved Son, during His Earthly Ministry, and also let us give thanks that the Lord Jesus showed us the way to defeat Satan and his followers, using the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Commandment to Love Him, and other people, and in so doing give Praise and Glory to our Heavenly Father. Amen.
Bishop Ian