Pentecost: Week 1 (17/05/2026)
Jon Searle shared with us today about the remarkable story behind Pentecost — not just as a New Testament event, but as the fulfilment of something God had been building toward for centuries.
From Passover to Pentecost: The Bigger Story
Most of us, when we hear the word "Pentecost," immediately think of the Holy Spirit. And rightly so. But Jon opened up a much richer picture by taking us back to the very beginning of Israel's story. Passover, he explained, was God's act of rescue — freeing His people from centuries of slavery in Egypt. That Liberation, celebrated annually, was never meant to be the end of the story. It was the beginning.
God then instructed Israel to count fifty days from Passover, and on that fiftieth day - Shavuot in Hebrew, Pentecost in Greek - to celebrate the Feast of Weeks. Over time, Jewish tradition came to associate this festival not just with the harvest, but with another great event: God meeting His people at Mount Sinai.
At Sinai, there was fire, smoke, thunder, and God's voice. God gave His people the law — not as a burden, but as a lamp. "They saw it as a light," Jon reminded us. The law showed Israel how to walk with God. It was precious to them. But it had a limitation: it could show the way without providing the power to walk it.
What Changed at Pentecost
Jon used a vivid image to bring this home. Imagine a ship at sea at night, engine broken, waves crashing. Then light breaks through - the captain can suddenly see the rocks ahead. The light is genuinely helpful. But it does nothing to fix the engine.
That, Jon said, is what the law did. It illuminated the danger, showed the path, but left people without the power to change course.
When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost in Acts 2 - with fire, sound, and rushing wind - those present would have immediately recognised the echoes of Sinai. God was doing it again, but differently. As theologian Gordon Fee put it: "Torah observance does not work. It may make people religious, but it fails to make them truly righteous."
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit didn't just shine a light from outside. He got in the boat. He fixed the engine. As St Augustine wrote: "What is God's law written by God Himself in the hearts of men, but the very presence of the Holy Spirit?"
Walking with the Spirit
The final section of the sermon brought this beautifully to earth. Jon described the Christian life not as being handed a map and told to get on with it, but as a journey — the Holy Spirit walking with us, forming us, empowering us.
In Jesus' day, disciples walked behind their rabbi, watching how he lived, how he spoke, how he treated people. They believed that if you followed someone long enough, you'd begin to resemble them. Jon quoted Gordon Fee again:
"Walk with the Spirit long enough and, almost without realising it, you begin to resemble the one you're walking with."
This has practical weight. Jon was direct: it matters how we live - our relationships, our thought lives, how we speak about people behind their backs, how we handle money, whether we forgive. Not because God is standing over us with a clipboard, but because He loves us and wants to occupy us. Holy Spirit, Jon said, is sometimes depicted as a dove - and if a dove rested on your shoulder, every step you took would be with that dove in mind. Slowly. Gently. Carefully.
