Pentecost 2026: The Holy Spirit and Fire — Sermon by the Very Rev. Dr. Craig Stephans

Let us pray. And Father, we thank you

for the helper, the Holy Spirit, our

advocate, our comforter,

the presence of you and Jesus in us and

with us. Help us today. Holy Spirit,

grant us wisdom and revelation to know

you better. Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit. Amen. Please be seated.

As I was approaching the

Pentecost Sunday and the Holy Spirit, I

was reminded of how when I was in my

previous church in North Carolina where

I was for 10 years prior to coming to

Savannah. In my third year there, I

preached a series of 11 sermons on the

gifts of the Holy Spirit. And I began

that series with an overview of the Holy

Spirit and how he empowers his gifts in

each one of us for the common good and

building up of the church. And I

compared that work of the Holy Spirit to

how a house is built from scratch, from

the ground up with people preparing the

site, the foundation, plumbers doing

their work, people building the frame,

pouring the concrete, the electricians

working, all the people who build in the

inside of the house with all the

accutrants and fixtures and then the

roof and the landscape and all of that.

how people with different skills and

gifts labor together for the building up

of that of that house for the people to

come and live there. And how that is an

analogy of how the Holy Spirit empowers

his gifts in each believer for the

common the common good, the edification

and building up of the house of God for

his family to come and to live there.

And I followed that up with a sermon on

the fruit of the Holy Spirit, primarily

love as the basis and foundation from

which the gifts can be activated and

impactful and fruitful in people's lives

in the lives of the church. We have to

have that foundation of the gifts of the

spirit to make I mean of the fruit of

the spirit to make the gifts effective

and impactful in the right way. And then

I preached nine sermons on the different

gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And later that year, just several months

later, our bishop, Bishop John Gernzie,

came for his yearly visit. And he was

teaching on Saturday evening, he was

teaching on the Holy Spirit and praying

for others and the gift of healing

especially. And during the time of

question and answers after his teaching,

one of the older members in the church

who was very active and participative

turned around and looked at me and said

out loud in front of everyone, Craig,

why don't you ever talk about the Holy

Spirit?

I was like, seriously?

And I was and I I mean I had to assure

the bishop. Bishop I I did I did I did a

whole series

and you know that always made me wonder

why you know did he think I never talked

about the Holy Spirit. And one of the

elements is I wonder if we have such a

hard time wrapping our minds and our

reason and understanding around this

reality that the Holy Spirit whom Jesus

calls the spirit of the father and the

son comes to live not just with us but

as Jesus said and taught in John 14 that

was just read comes to live in us.

The spirit of God who created all things

lives in each believer

who has received Christ as Lord and

Savior. Do you ever wonder about that?

Or do you do what I think we tend to do?

Just I can't I don't understand that.

How is God living in me? The holy and

mighty God lives in me like all the

time. my coming and going,

doing the things that I do, he's with

me. I can't I can't deal with that.

Or it's just too much to imagine

how God, the very spirit of Jesus, can

live in us and animate us and activate

us and be with us all the time, yet

loves us and really enjoys being with

us. And that fulfills the desires of his

heart to be with us all the time, even

in our ugliness, our failures, our

mistakes. He sees beauty. He sees a son

or daughter in the righteousness of

Jesus. And it can be too much. But that

is exactly what Jesus and the scriptures

exhort us to live into this reality of

the spirit of the living God living in

us. Not just coming and going some of

the time when we're doing really well

when we've had our hourlong devotion in

the morning, which I hope you all do, or

at night, but not just on those good

days does he come and live with us, but

all the time working in us, wooing us to

a closer relationship, convicting us and

counseling us, giving us guidance and

help all the time. And this is at the

beginning of the church is how the

church started. It's during those 10

days between the ascension and

Pentecost. This is what Jesus taught his

disciples on and what he commanded them

to focus on. And so I want to go back to

ascension

and look at how Jesus prepared his

disciples for the Holy Spirit and how he

emphasized two priorities or how God

emphasized two priorities to them. And

this begins in the very beginning of the

book of Acts. In Acts chapter 1,

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Jesus had been with his disciples 40

days following the resurrection. Luke

tells us in Acts that during that time,

Jesus through the Holy Spirit taught

them about the kingdom of heaven.

And then in verse four, Jesus ordered

his disciples. He commanded them not to

depart Jerusalem, but to wait for the

promise of the father, which he said,

you heard from me. For John baptized

with water, but you will be baptized

with the Holy Spirit not many days from

now. Jesus gave them a command.

Don't do anything. Don't go anywhere

until you receive the promise of my

father. You will be baptized. you'll be

immersed in and with the Holy Spirit.

That was the command he gave to them.

And then as Jesus is talking to them,

they want to know the in and outs of

what and when things are going to

happen. Are you at this time going to

restore the kingdom to Israel? They ask

him. I mean, it's like us. We want to

know the details of what is happening in

our day-to-day life in the world. you

see an event and if you're like me, you

will go on media or social media and

you'll try to find out what really

happened, what is going on, when are

things going to change, when is this

going to happen, who did it. The

disciples were not different. And so

they have Jesus right there who knows

everything and they want to know when is

the kingdom going to be restored to

Israel. But Jesus

shoes him away from that type of

knowledge. And he tells them in verse 7,

"It is not for you to know the times or

seasons that the father has fixed by his

own authority." Don't worry about that.

Don't trouble yourself with those

things. But you will receive power when

the Holy Spirit has come upon you and

you will be my witnesses. This is the

priority for Jesus. It's not that you

have all the insider knowledge. It's

that you have power from the Holy Spirit

to be my witnesses to take my message to

all the places where I send you and not

only speak it but demonstrate it with

the power of God working in your lives.

This is your priority. So seek this.

Wait for it. Don't do anything until you

receive this power from on high.

And then as we know Jesus is taken up

out of their sight into heaven and they

are standing there gazing up into heaven

because who wouldn't be if all of a

sudden heaven is open and you can see

into heaven something that they hadn't

before. It's not just I don't think

looking in the clouds. They saw heaven

open and Jesus ascending into heaven.

And they're looking and gazing. And then

two angels appear beside them in verse

11 and ask, "Men of Galilee, why do you

stand looking into heaven? This Jesus

who was taken up from you into heaven

will come in the same way as you saw him

go into heaven." And there in those

first 11 verses of Acts, we have the two

priorities for the disciples and the

followers of Jesus to receive the Holy

Spirit and to be clothed with his power

in order to be witnesses to Jesus in the

gospel and also to live in light of

Jesus's returning.

The disciples were thinking this return

of Jesus was imminent. The angels told

him, "As you saw him ascend into heaven,

you will see him descend again."

And they are living with the

anticipation of Jesus returning

sometime, probably thinking pretty soon.

While

they have that in their minds, they

devote themselves to prayer. In verse

14, together with the women and Mary,

the mother of Jesus, his brothers and

sisters, they devote themselves in

prayer, waiting for the promise of the

father, the Holy Spirit, who will clothe

them in power so they can be witnesses

in the world as they anticipate Jesus's

return.

As a church, we have to make those our

priorities as well. the power of the

Holy Spirit working in and through us to

be witnesses of Jesus and to live in

light of his promised return

that could be imminent, could be today,

it could be tomorrow. And we live with a

sense of urgency, knowing that Jesus

died for each and every person. And each

and every person near us and far from us

is one that needs the gospel of Jesus

and the salvation of Jesus so that they

can spend eternity with the father in

heaven rather than hell in exile of God.

And so the disciples are devoting

themselves to prayer to receive the Holy

Spirit and power as Jesus commanded

them. And we pick up our reading on the

day of Pentecost on Acts chapter 2 verse

Acts 2 · chapter mention

one. They're all together again in one

place and suddenly there came from

heaven a sound like a mighty rushing

wind and it filled the entire house

where they were sitting and divided

tongues as a fire appeared to them and

rested on each one of them. And they

were filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak in other tongues as the

Spirit gave them utterance. The Holy

Spirit came from heaven with a mighty

rushing wind. It landed on them and

rested on them like with tongues of fire

with that appeared like tongues of fire

on them. And then immediately

they demonstrated a gift given to them

by the Holy Spirit that they didn't have

before. This gift to speak in other

languages at that time and in that place

to the multitude of diverse people who

had gathered around them. And those

people respond by saying, "We hear them

telling in our own tongues the mighty

works of God." And we see Jesus's

promise and command fulfilled that they

would receive power from on high to be

his witnesses in the world. They've

received the Holy Spirit. And the

demonstration is that they speak in

other languages declaring the mighty

works of God,

being his witnesses. And the Holy Spirit

comes with power into the believer's

lives. He transforms that person not for

our own sake and arandisement for the

sake but for the sake of us being

witnesses to Jesus, his death, his

resurrection, his exaltation and his

coming again as Lord of all to declare

the mighty works of God in Jesus Christ.

the gospel. That's what we need the Holy

Spirit to accomplish. We need him to

transform us, to activate in us

spiritual gifts that we don't have apart

from him in order for us who are just

ordinary people to be witnesses of this

extraordinary

life

and message and kingdom of God.

That's why we need the Holy Spirit.

That's why Jesus commanded them to wait.

And as the people gather around, and you

heard in the reading, some want to know

what this means. Some think they know

what it means. It means all these people

are drunk

because what they're seeing has come

from heaven. It's not of this world.

That is something that can make us very

uncomfortable that into our lives, into

ourselves that are from this world comes

heaven. Comes the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus who said to those around him, "The

kingdom of heaven is in your midst."

Speaking of himself, now the kingdom of

heaven is in us. The spirit is not only

with us, the spirit

inhabits us as we come to faith in

Jesus. And that can be uncomfortable

because when the spirit is in us,

there's no getting away from him.

There's no hiding. There's no having our

own life. just to ourselves anymore. We

have given ourselves over to one who is

Lord, to one who is almighty, all

powerful, to one who is holy, to one who

wants the best for us and brings it

about.

As Peter goes on to speak on that day of

Pentecost,

he himself is transformed and he makes

this message, this gospel known boldly

as he hasn't before. And he refers them

to the prophet Joel in verse 16. He

says, "What you are seeing and

witnessing." This is what is fulfilling

the prophecy of Joel. And then he quotes

from Joel who said, "In the last days it

shall be, God declares, I will pour out

my spirit on all flesh and your sons and

your daughters shall prophesy and your

young men shall see visions and your old

men shall dream dreams. even on my male

servants and female servants. In those

days I will pour out my spirit and they

shall prophesy. In the Old Testament

when you read it, you see the spirit

come upon certain men and women and

often the sign of the spirit coming upon

someone is that they prophesy. Often

those prophets also see visions and they

see dreams. So in the Old Testament

language to describe someone as having

the spirit you would describe them as

prophesying or being a prophet who sees

dreams or visions. And what Joel is

saying and what Peter emphasizes is

being fulfilled right then and there and

is to this day is that God is pouring

out his spirit on anyone who will call

upon his name in faith through Jesus. No

longer is the spirit just reserved for

special people chosen by God. The spirit

now is available for all for whom Christ

died, which is everyone whose sins he

took upon him on the cross

and whose eternal life he won in the

resurrection.

Now the spirit is available to everyone

to come. And Joel is pointing that out

by saying they will prophesy. They will

see dreams and visions just like the

prophets of old on whom the spirit came.

Now it's up to you if you will receive

him.

Joel goes on to give some apocalyptic

language. And he says, "I will show

wonders in the heaven above and signs on

the earth below, blood and fire and

vapor and smoke. The sun shall be turned

to darkness and the moon to blood before

the day of the Lord comes, the great and

magnificent day. And it shall come to

pass that everyone who calls upon the

name of the Lord shall be saved. Here

again are the two elements that were

pointed to in Acts chapter 1. The power

Acts 1 · chapter mention

of the Holy Spirit also the coming of

the Lord on that great and magnificent

day. And on that day that he comes a

person's eternal destination will be

determined about by whether they have

called upon the name of the Lord and

been saved. Again, it's for anyone.

Anyone who calls upon the name of the

Lord shall be saved. from any

background, from any place on earth,

from any parents,

anyone who has failed in their lives,

who has been super successful in their

lives, who feels worthy, who doesn't

feel worthy, anyone who calls upon the

name of the Lord shall be saved and

shall receive the spirit with power to

be a witness to Jesus and to have

eternal life. So those same elements are

what needs to

animate and inspire the church. The

power of the Holy Spirit and this this

anticipation of the fulfillment of

Jesus's promise that he is returning and

it could be today, it could be tomorrow,

it could be another thousand years. But

we are to live in light of that promise,

knowing that our eternity is not going

to be here in this world, but in the

kingdom of heaven. And there is an

urgency to share this message that all

can be saved.

And so Jesus or excuse me, Peter's

conclusion at the end of this sermon

when people are cut to the heart by his

words and they ask, "What shall we do?"

His message to them is the message to

all people.

Repent and be baptized every one of you

in the name of Jesus Christ for the

forgiveness of sins and you will receive

the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Just like we know

by faith in the words of scripture that

Jesus died so that anyone and everyone

can be forgiven of sins, he also died

and rose again so that all those that

receive forgiveness of sins can be

filled with the Holy Spirit.

As forgiveness of sins is for all. The

Holy Spirit is for all who believe, not

just a select few.

Repent and be baptized, every one of

you. Turn to Jesus.

And the gospel message is these two

things.

Forgiveness of sins and receiving the

Holy Spirit. Could we have any better

message to give to people in this world?

God forgives your sins

each and every day.

And God wants to come and to make his

home with you and to live in you. Not to

condemn you,

not to be an authoritarian dictator in

your life, but to be a loving and

gracious presence to you, a wonderful

counselor, a mighty God.

God with you. That's the message of the

gospel. That is the message that the

Holy Spirit empowers in believers lives.

And through his gifts that he gives to

us, demonstrates in supernatural ways.

Again, not for our arrandisement,

but for the sake of others, that they

may know that their sins are forgiven

and that God loves them and wants to be

with them now and forever.

So our responsibility is to accept

that gift of forgiveness of sins and to

accept and receive that gift of the Holy

Spirit that Peter says wasn't just for

those who were there hearing him but for

their children and for all people whom

the Lord would call to himself at any

time in history.

The apostle Paul gives us some teachings

regarding the Holy Spirit. That which

was read in 1 Corinthians 12 about the

different varieties of gifts of the

spirit that the spirit gives to each and

every person as he wills for the benefit

and building up of the church. But he

also

in first Thessalonians when he's writing

to that church in verse chapter 5 verse

18 and 19 he says this is the will of

God in Christ Jesus for you do not

quench the Holy Spirit or do not

extinguish the Holy Spirit.

In Ephesians 4:30 he says and do not

Ephesians 4:30

grieve the Holy Spirit of God. So Paul

gives those two warnings. In addition to

encouraging the people to be filled with

the spirit, to stay in step with the

spirit, to walk in the spirit, he gives

the command, don't grieve the spirit.

Don't quench the spirit, which is really

the same way you would quench the spirit

of a person you love. Or you would

grieve the spirit of a person that you

love. You would do it through neglect,

through being mean, through sinning

against that person, through

treating them in a way that isn't

respectful or loving. That's the same

way that we quench the Holy Spirit's

fire and presence in us or that we

grieve him as a person.

Paul is rather encouraging us to be

filled with him, to live by him, to

invite him into our lives all the time,

to come to speak to us, to counsel us,

to guide us, to empower us, to do the

work he's called us to do, to excel in

school and in our vocations, to minister

to other people, and also for the

building up of ourselves. that the gift

later that Paul describes in 1

Corinthians 12 and 14, the gift of

praying in tongues. Paul says, "He who

prays in a tongue edifies himself." He

goes on to say, "Whoever prophesies

edifies the church." The Holy Spirit and

the gifts of the spirit are both for our

building up in the faith and for the

building up of the church in the faith.

So in verse in chapter 14 verse one of

first Corinthians Paul encourages the

people pursue love and earnestly desire

spiritual gifts.

Earnestly desire spiritual gifts. These

gifts of the spirit that are for the

sake of the building up of ourselves in

the faith and the church.

So as as I close, I want to encourage

you even today as you come forward for

communion and receive the body and blood

of Christ. Invite the Holy Spirit to

come and to fill you and to empower you

to be a witness for Jesus. And every

Sunday during our liturgy, we proclaim

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ

will come again.

Invite the Holy Spirit to help you to

live in the reality of Christ's coming

again in a way that he desires.

And as you go forth from here, one of

the things Paul encourages us to do is

pray continually. Something to pray

continually for is for the Holy Spirit

to fill you, to come and to fill your

being and to guide you and strengthen

you and to lead you. So I encourage you

to do that. And as I close, I'm going to

pray that for us.

And Father, we thank you for your

salvation in Jesus Christ. And we thank

you for the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of

the Father and the Son who comes and

lives with believers. Holy Spirit, come.

Come like a fresh wind. Come like the

fire

and fill us.

Clothe us with power from on high. both

that we might be built up in the faith

and sanctified,

that we would be conformed to the image

of Christ, and that we might be

witnesses for Jesus, and help us to live

in the light of the reality of the

kingdom of heaven, and that Jesus is

coming again.

It's in his name that we pray. Amen.