“For where two or three are gat­he­red in my name, there am I among them.” Trus­ting in this pro­mi­se, we of­ten gat­her to lis­ten to the word of God and its exp­la­na­ti­ons. The pro­mi­se is great, but how is it pos­sib­le?

Je­sus has as­cen­ded in­to he­a­ven and is now sit­ting on the right hand of God. We can­not see or hear Him with our na­tu­ral sen­ses. Yet, He is among us. This is pos­sib­le on­ly be­cau­se He is pre­sent in the midst of His king­dom in the word and sac­ra­ments through the Holy Spi­rit.

The dis­cip­les were gi­ven the task of brin­ging the mes­sa­ge of Je­sus in­to all the world. This is a great and de­man­ding task: all na­ti­ons are to be made dis­cip­les of Je­sus and they are to be bap­ti­zed and taught to obey Je­sus’s te­ac­hings. It was an im­pos­sib­le task for the hu­man strength of the dis­cip­les. The group of dis­cip­les gat­he­red be­hind loc­ked doors were cap­ti­ves of fear.

The dis­cip­les were con­vin­ced and re­cei­ved new strength from the ap­pe­a­ran­ces of the re­sur­rec­ted Je­sus: when Je­sus aro­se from the grave of de­ath, he ap­pe­a­red to His dis­cip­les and taught them to know the king­dom of God.

Je­sus pro­mi­sed that the dis­cip­les would not be left alo­ne. They would not be orp­hans in the world. They would re­cei­ve the Holy Spi­rit as ar­mor in their work.

The Holy Spi­rit gi­ves birth to faith

The Holy Spi­rit is God’s third per­son. Each per­son of the triu­ne God has its own im­por­tant task.

Ten days af­ter Je­sus as­cen­ded in­to he­a­ven the Holy Spi­rit des­cen­ded upon the dis­cip­les in a way that they could see with their na­tu­ral sen­ses. The dis­cip­les were fil­led with the Holy Spi­rit and be­gan to speak what the spi­rit gave them to speak (Acts 2:1−13). We re­mem­ber this event eve­ry Pen­te­cost. The pe­ri­od of time from the first Pen­te­cost to the last jud­ge­ment is cal­led the time of the Holy Spi­rit.

God’s Holy Spi­rit gave the first dis­cip­les the po­wer, will, and bold­ness to proc­laim the gos­pel as Je­sus had taught. Je­sus’s work on this earth con­ti­nu­es as the work of the Holy Spi­rit.

On the first Pen­te­cost, 3000 pe­op­le af­fec­ted by Pe­ter’s ser­mon were pric­ked in their cons­cien­ce. They be­lie­ved the gos­pel and re­cei­ved the grace of re­pen­tan­ce. The Holy Spi­rit gave birth to faith in the he­a­rers.

The prop­hets’ pro­mi­se of a new co­ve­nant and the out­pou­ring of the Holy Spi­rit was ful­fil­led. God’s signs were in he­a­ven and on earth. Mount Zion was a re­fu­ge, and those who God cal­led were sa­ved (Jer 31:31−34; Joel 3:1−5).

Faith and its fruits

The mi­rac­le of the birth of faith can al­so hap­pen to­day. A per­son who is se­pa­ra­ted from God can re­turn to be­co­me a child of God. God cal­ls an un­be­lie­ving per­son to faith, the grace of re­pen­tan­ce, and in­to the king­dom of God through the ser­mon of re­pen­tan­ce pre­ac­hed in the king­dom of God.

When a per­son re­cei­ves the mes­sa­ge of joy of God’s king­dom–the gos­pel of for­gi­ve­ness of sins of Je­sus–that per­son be­co­mes a ci­ti­zen of God’s king­dom. He or she be­co­mes a par­ta­ker of all of God’s good gifts, which Je­sus has ear­ned with His in­no­cent life, suf­fe­ring, and de­ath. The Holy Spi­rit re­ve­als Christ as the on­ly righ­te­ous­ness.

A per­son who has re­cei­ved the grace of re­pen­tan­ce is righ­te­ous – ac­cep­tab­le to God.

Faith is not born by one’s own re­a­son or po­wer. Our mind can­not comp­re­hend God nor the mys­te­ries of God’s king­dom. The Holy Spi­rit cal­ls man to be with God by the gos­pel, gi­ves birth to faith, and en­cou­ra­ges a per­son to pre­ser­ve faith and a good cons­cien­ce.

In ad­di­ti­on to the gift of faith, the Holy Spi­rit al­so gi­ves ot­her gifts. The fruits of the Holy Spi­rit are love, joy, pe­a­ce, pa­tien­ce, kind­ness, good­ness, faith­ful­ness, gent­le­ness, and self-cont­rol (Gal 5:22−26).

The most pre­ci­ous gift is love. With the gifts of the Holy Spi­rit it is pos­sib­le to be vic­to­ri­ous over the ac­comp­lish­ments of the flesh – all kinds of unc­le­an­ness. The Holy Spi­rit helps and gui­des a per­son to have such a will and un­ders­tan­ding where sin is seen as sin and grace as grace. This is a qu­es­ti­on of the work of the Holy Spi­rit and the state of the he­art. This work of the Holy Spi­rit is cal­led sanc­ti­fi­ca­ti­on. Grace te­ac­hes a per­son to re­ject sin and to live in such a way that the will of God is re­a­li­zed. This way of life, this will, this bat­t­le against sin and its po­wers is cal­led the Chris­ti­an’s en­de­a­vor.

The priest­hood of the Holy Spi­rit

Eve­ry be­lie­ver has the right, the pos­si-bi­li­ty, and the ob­li­ga­ti­on to tell about Je­sus. A be­lie­ving per­son is a priest of the Holy Spi­rit.

The task gi­ven by Je­sus is pre­ci­ous: with the po­wer of the Holy Spi­rit we pre­ach the for­gi­ve­ness of sins with the aut­ho­ri­ty that Je­sus has gi­ven. The Fat­her sent Him and He sent us.

“The one who he­ars you he­ars me,” our re­sur­rec­ted Lord sta­tes (Luk 10:16). Who­e­ver he­ars the re­mis­si­on of sins proc­lai­med by a be­lie­ver who has re­cei­ved the gift of the Holy Spi­rit does not hear just the voi­ce of a hu­man, but rat­her the call of Je­sus him­self. This is then God’s call.

The Holy Spi­rit cal­ls, gat­hers, and en­ligh­tens. The Holy Spi­rit as the Spi­rit of truth le­ads a per­son to the light of God’s word, and as the Spi­rit of grace com­forts and for­gi­ves sins, will one day awa­ken us from the grave of de­ath, and will give us ever­las­ting life.

Text: Mau­no So­ro­nen

Pub­lis­hed in the book Us­kon aak­ko­sia, SRK 2012

Trans­la­ti­on: K.K.