Themes
Pentecost • Holy Spirit • Fire • Incarnation • Cross • Resurrection • Ascension • In Christ • Christ in us • Forgiven • Recreated • New life • Spirit of Christ • Life of Jesus • Prayer • Weakness • Stuck • Overwhelmed • Fearful • Uncertain • Bold • Courageous • Confident • Joy • Body of Christ
God no longer speaks from above or alongside. By His Spirit, He moved in. Not just near us. Not just for us. But in us. God, dwelling in us, bringing His own life into our lives. The very Spirit of the risen Jesus, now shared with us.
Scripture reading
John 14:16–20 Acts 2:1–7, 32–33
This call to worship1 is for Pentecost Sunday.
Jesus told his disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He said this to them: I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know hHim, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. Luke in his Book of Acts describes what happened at that Pentecost event. He wrote the following: When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. When Peter preached after this event, he spoke the following: God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
Prayer
Father in Heaven, You sent Your Spirit, and Your Spirit filled us. In the past, You had spoken through prophets, and through Scripture, and in Jesus Christ— in whom all Your fullness was pleased to dwell. But at Pentecost, You shared with us Your very self. And now, You no longer speak from above or alongside. By Your Spirit, You moved in— You moved inside us. Not just near us. Not just for us. But in us. You, dwelling in us, bringing Your own life into our lives. The very Spirit of the risen Jesus, now shared with us. His love, His mind, His mission— those didn’t stop when He ascended to heaven. They continue, through the Spirit, in us. You have given Yourself to us. To be known, To be shared, To be lived. You did not give some new rules or new ideas or new information about Yourself; You gave Yourself— personally, relationally, powerfully. And when You did and when You do, we are changed. We speak boldly. We worship freely. We love radically. We form community. At the Incarnation, You came to be with us. And at Pentecost, You no longer walked among us; You entered us and now live within us. At the Cross, You took on our sin, our shame, our guilt, our death. You bore our brokenness. And because Jesus has dealt with our sin, we have been made clean, and at Pentecost we became Your dwelling place. At the Resurrection, death was defeated, and You brought new life— an eternal, incorruptible, resurrected, full-of-power kind of life. And at Pentecost, that new life was poured out into us, and so we are not just forgiven, we are recreated with His new life. At the Ascension, Jesus was exalted and glorified, and He took with Him our humanity. And then, at Pentecost, from Your throne, He poured out the Holy Spirit, just as He had promised. And You now live in us, so we can live in You. It is real. It is no longer a promise. He has poured out His Spirit from heaven. This is not a special bonus level or an add-on to our faith. This is the VERY life of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, now dwelling in us, all the time. When we’re driving. When we’re doing dishes. When we’re having a hard conversation. He is in us. Never abandoned. Never forgotten. Constant. Personal. Present. You, God, are not just with us— You are in us. Jesus is no longer alongside His disciples, telling them what to do— He is within them. He is within us, through the Spirit, helping us live it. When we can’t pray, Your Spirit in us prays and helps us pray. When we’re too weak, Your Spirit gives us strength. When we feel stuck, Your spirit gives wisdom. When we’re overwhelmed, Your Spirit reminds us: we belong to You. And the disciples there at Pentecost, and us with them now, move from fearful and uncertain and quiet to bold, courageous, confident, loud, and filled with joy. Before Pentecost, the disciples were only followers. After Pentecost, You formed them—and us with them— into the Body of Christ— bound together, and unified, and empowered to become the visible extension of the Incarnation— Christ’s body continuing in the world. In the name of Jesus, whose Spirit unites us to Himself so that His life becomes our life, His death becomes our death to sin, His resurrection becomes our new life, His ascension becomes our access to the Father, and His Sonship becomes our adoption, Amen
1
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on June 8, 2025.