Pentecost Sunday

Article for June 8, 2025

Pentecost

John 14:22–24 John 14:22 (ESV)

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23Jesus answered him, “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. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

Jesus has already manifested Himself as a man, but now Judas (not Iscariot), is asking how Jesus will manifest Himself in other ways and yet leave the world blind to Him.  Not that this is a strange question to ask, but that this is a question that needs to be asked for all who listening at this time.

The world does not know Jesus and the world will not know Jesus.  For our understanding, there will be people who come from the world who will believe, and these people will know Jesus, but not so much this world.  It is like this: a person can be smart but gather them altogether and their smartness become less.

Jesus had told His disciples that He is going to the Father, and they will not be left as orphans.  Jesus is also letting the disciples know that a helper will come and be with them forever.  The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth whom they will receive but the world will not receive.  We should understand that the world then and even now, are blinded by their disbelief and their self-absorbance.

We know it is hard to believe in what we cannot see, so Judas (not Iscariot) is not asking a strange question but maybe asking from one who does not know the Holy Spirit yet.  We know the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one and one God, but this could be a new concept to those disciples who are listening to Jesus.

Jesus says if we love Him, we will keep His WORD, and the Father will love us.  For those who do not believe in God’s WORD they will lose the Father’s love.  But if we Love God then God will make His home in us.  We are the temple of God, each and every believer is a temple of God’s.  That is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Truth) will live in us (those who love Him), forever.

John 14:25–26 25“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26But 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.

It is the Father who sent to us the Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  And it is the Father who sends us His Holy Spirit.  The Father also sends us the Holy Spirit in the Name of Jesus Christ.  That is to say that the Father sends the Spirit of Truth in the WILL of Jesus Christ, which is the same as the WILL of the Father.

The Holy Spirit will come and teach all disciples all that Jesus said and help all disciples remember all that Jesus Christ has said.  We, the disciples of Jesus Christ, have the Word, and the Spirit of Truth in the Holy Word of God and help from the helper (the Holy Spirit) to understand God’s word. 

How else can scripture be fulfilled if God’s word is not His and is only man’s?  If we cannot trust what man says then how can we trust those who tell us to not trust man, and how do you even trust ourselves.  We the disciples of Jesus Christ trust His word and can believe it because it comes from Him.  God gave us the inspired word for our learning and understanding which is helped through the works of the Holy Spirit the Helper.  In other words, God has not left anything to man’s reasoning but gives us His more superior reasoning which leads to true salvation.

John 14:27–28 27Peace 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. 28You 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.

Given the History of mankind, even those who were God’s first chosen we might think God should not trust us to our own means.  Though we are sometimes

know-it-all wannabes, we don’t measure up to God.  Thank God that He knows we do not measure up to Him and thank Him more that He loves us enough to give us the gift of salvation.

So let us rejoice in God for He loves us, and we who are disciples of Jesus Christ love our God very much.  Jesus who is the Son, in Himself, is not greater than the Father, but with the Father they share in the greatness of one God now and forever.  We can put our faith in God where we cannot put our faith in mankind.

John 14:29–31 29And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.”

The ruler, the one who fools, is here and we are duped by Him every day.  The ruler of this world is the world; we who believe in Christ try to run from the world every day.  Jesus said we will have trials and tribulations in this world but that He has overcome the world.  Jesus overcame the world on the cross.

Jesus has overcome the world in the most unlikely way.  It is our Lord Jesus who died for our sins, entered Hades, defeated the devil, and defeated death to overcome this world.  This Jesus Christ did for us what the world cannot do.  This is not our doing or our will, but the WILL of Jesus Christ, the LOVE of Jesus Christ, the WORD of our God given to us now and forever more in the form of salvation forever with our God. 

Amen.