Sunday’s Blessing – 06/08/2025 – Pentecost Sunday

Sunday’s Blessing – 06/08/2025 – Pentecost Sunday

One of the most important aspects of our salvation is when Jesus fulfilled His promise to send the Holy Spirit to the earth to fill those who would become identified with Christ through His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating at the Father’s right hand. This is the process of salvation described by Paul in Ephesians 1 & 2. Before Jesus ascended to take His position of authority next to the Father, He promised to send “another” comforter. This word “another” means one of the same kind. Jesus explained that He had been “with” them, but the One coming later would live “in” them, to empower them to be witnesses of all they had seen and heard.

For many years, I had missed one vital part of this process. Most “plans” of salvation I had heard placed the onus of being saved on the individual. It included things like, “if you believe and confess, you would be saved,” or “be baptized for the remission of sin,” or … There are many more. While these are verses in the Bible, they do not encapsulate the salvation experience. The end result of salvation is to be “in Christ.” I have only found one way for this to occur: the Holy Spirit must baptize us into Christ. Who does He baptize? Those who have identified with Christ in all of the aspects mention by Paul: the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating of Jesus.

Pentecost is not an “experience” for the believer. It was an “event” in the history of God’s saving of humans on earth from their sin and restoring fellowship with the Father which was lost because of sin. There is no salvation without Pentecost (the sending of the Holy Spirit to the earth). The Holy Spirit, or paraclete (I’ve heard described as “one who walks along side together with”), would be sent to help us. He would lead us into salvation by showing us the love of the Father. He would then baptize us into Christ. And finally, the Holy Spirit would dwell in us to empower us to be witnesses of this “love of the Father” to our world.

It's important for us to remember these things. That’s why I am enjoying learning about liturgy; not as a way of expressing my Christianity, but to strengthen my  Christian experience by constantly being reminded of why God did all He did to provide a way back into complete fellowship with Him.

Now for today’s blessing:

May you encounter the Holy Spirit in every way

So you may know, completely, the love of the Father

Which is the only reason Jesus came – to show us the Father

So you could be restored into full fellowship with Him 

My you learn to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit – the inward witness

So you can share outwardly all that He has brought about in you

By baptizing you into Christ, guiding you into the Truth about the Father

So you could receive all He has provided for you in the New Covenant

May this Pentecost Sunday become a time of revelation

May the Holy Spirit bring you to full understanding of why He came

So you would be able to live in the perpetual Sabbath Rest

Which is found in Jesus Christ, your Lord