In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit comes during the Feast of Pentecost with wind, fire, and power to send the church out on mission to the ends of the earth. This is a decisive moment in God’s redemptive plan—one we’re tracing throughout the book of Acts and in which we ourselves are participants today. Jesus previewed this coming of the Spirit in John 14 even before He went to the cross. His words are a helpful backdrop for our study this morning.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you….If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe” (John 14:15–20, 23, 25–29).
Sure enough, just two months later, after Jesus died, rose again, and ascended to His Father, the Holy Spirit came just as Jesus promised. The Spirit is our Comforter, Helper, Reminder, Advocate, Encourager, Strengthener, and Empowerer. Without the Spirit, there is no life. Without the Spirit, there is no peace. Without the Spirit, there is no mission.
We have been commissioned by Jesus to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. But we cannot do anything without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. As we wrap up this Missions Week, I pray that the Lord would fill us afresh with His Spirit as we go to “be the church” here in Chicago and around the world! He has not left us as orphans; He’s given us the Spirit. We are indeed loved, more than we know! Now let’s go and be the church!
