As we meet here for worship today, we are replicating the events of that first Pentecost morning, that looked like such a spectacular chaos.

While we missed the sound of a mighty wind that was there on that first day of Pentecost, we replicate the fires on people’s heads by so many of you having dressed in red, and there are even different languages in this service.

Our Acts reading says that on that first Pentecost, they all spoke in different languages about God’s deeds of power. The great things God has done in Jesus. Coming to this earth, living a full life, healing many and showing great signs of who He was. Who then was arrested, crucified, and rose again from the dead. And, as we think about the Bible, as we sing our songs, as we confess our faith, as we speak to each other about what our Christian faith means, we too are speaking together about God’s great deeds of power.

Amazing things happen when the Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost, and those amazing things continue today. In the next few minutes, we’ll think about three things the Holy Spirit does.

• The Holy Spirit helps us to know Jesus.
• The Holy Spirit helps us to talk about Jesus.
• The Holy Spirit helps us to live with Jesus.

It is often not easy to understand who exactly the Holy Spirit is. This is partly because the Holy Spirit is often described as things we cannot see. Breath and wind. We see the effects these have, but not the person who causes them. We see the ‘results’ of what the Holy Spirit does, but not the Holy Spirit Himself.

But there is a more important reason why it is difficult to know who the Holy Spirit is.

This is because the Holy Spirit role is to always show Jesus. The Holy Spirit never speaks about Himself, but always speaks about Jesus.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit is called the love of God. And when someone has just fallen in love, they often can’t stop talking about how amazing their boyfriend or girlfriend is. They get all smiley and happy, cheeks often turn to the colour of fire as well, and they focus all their attention on the object of their love.

The Holy Spirit is a little bit like that, the Holy Spirit fully focuses on Jesus and helps us to focus on Jesus as well.

That brings us to the second point,

The Holy Spirit fills us with that love, excitement, so we begin behaving the same way. We begin sensing, and maybe even talking about how good God is as the Holy Spirit fills us with love for God. We may not always feel like that, I know I don’t, but hopefully we begin to feel this love, this passion, this excitement.

It is astonishing what a difference the Holy Spirit makes that is now given to everyone, men and women, young and old, free men and slaves.

In only a couple of weeks Jesus’ followers are changed from staying indoors out of fear to bold men and women who are out there, talking to people from nations they might never have heard of, telling them what God has done in Jesus.

Only a couple of weeks earlier they ran away when Jesus was arrested. Over the next couple of decades, having received the power and encouragement of the Holy Spirit, nearly all of them are killed for their faith in Jesus.

When Peter begins his proper sermon – just where our reading stops – he immediately begins to talk about Jesus, what He did, and how He was crucified and rose from the dead. The Holy Spirit helps Him to talk about Jesus and give him the boldness to talk about Jesus for quite an audience.

So, the Holy Spirit helps us to know Jesus, helps us to talk about Jesus, and then third, helps us to live with Jesus.

The Holy Spirit sometimes works in spectacular ways, like on Pentecost morning, but much more often in a gentle, quiet, comforting way, strengthening our faith, and encouraging us.

The word that Jesus uses in John’s Gospel for the Holy Spirit is Advocate. Sometimes people use the word Paraclete, the Greek word, because it is so difficult to translate. The word also means intercessor, mediator, helper, adviser, and comforter. The Holy Spirit helps, comforts, encourages us as we try to follow Jesus in our daily lives.

Trying to follow Jesus in our daily lives, we might not always feel like we have the level of confidence, the level of faith, or the gifts of the Spirit. It is worth remembering that even the smallest faith is powered by the Holy Spirit: As Paul says later on in the New Testament: No one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). If we have even the smallest of faiths, that is the Holy Spirit working in us. And it can help to consciously ask for the Holy Spirit to come and bring his encouragement, his strength, his comfort, his gifts.

Preparing this sermon confronted me with how easy I find it to forget this and how easy it is for me to start doing things in my own strength and just to forget to ask for the Holy Spirit to power me, to guide me, to comfort me. But I also found it makes a difference when I do ask!

So shall we all pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit afresh in our lives as we close:

Come Holy Spirit, strengthen and comfort us as we try to follow Jesus, give us that boldness and courage Jesus’ followers had on that first Pentecost, and fill us with your love. Amen.