Dock
Resource Kit
Sunday sermon, 24 May 2026
Summary
This week Mark talked to us about Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit described in Acts 2:1–21. He traced the Spirit’s work across scripture – from the ruach Elohim hovering over the waters in Genesis 1, through the promises of Jesus before his ascension, to the dramatic outpouring on the early church in Jerusalem. He framed the Holy Spirit as power for then (at Pentecost), power for now (available to every believer today), and power for what will come (the guarantee and advance payment of God’s promised future). Mark called us to ask honestly: do I want more of the Holy Spirit?
Key Points & Takeways
1. Pentecost is an anticipated gift, not a surprise – The Holy Spirit’s coming was promised repeatedly by Jesus (Luke 24, Acts 1:5, Acts 1:8) and foreshadowed in the Old Testament through Joel and other prophets. It was always God’s plan to empower his people through the Spirit.
2. The Spirit is the same power that created the universe – The rushing wind of Acts 2 deliberately echoes the ruach Elohim of Genesis 1 – the wind of God hovering over the void before creation. As Calvin wrote, “If the Lord takes away the spirit, everything will be reduced to nothing.” This is no small gift.
3. The Spirit was power then, is power now, and is power for what will come – At Pentecost the Spirit propelled the early church into explosive growth. Today the Spirit empowers believers to understand scripture, discern calling, pray, witness, and bear fruit. And the Spirit is God’s deposit in us now – the guarantee of the new heavens and new earth still to come.
4. The Spirit is a person who suffers with us – The Holy Spirit can be grieved (Ephesians 4) and quenched (1 Thessalonians 5). God is not distant from our pain, the Spirit walks with us as the pillar of cloud and fire walked with Israel, knowing what we go through and offering hope.
5. The good news is for the whole world, not just the church – The Spirit descends on the church so that it can be poured out onto the world. This is the promise of Joel that Peter preaches at Pentecost: “I will pour out my spirit on all people.” It is a gift to be given away.
Dock Discussion Questions
What stood out to you most from the sermon or passage this week? Why?
Mark described the Holy Spirit as “power for then, power for now, and power for what will come.” Which of those three feels most real, or most distant, to you right now?
The sermon listed many things the Spirit does: convicts, regenerates, leads, intercedes, transforms, empowers with gifts. Which of those do you most need more of right now
Mark said the Spirit “suffers with us.” Does that change how you relate to God in the hard parts of your life? How?
Do you want more of the Holy Spirit? What would that look like in practice this week?
Long-form, edited transcript
HEAVEN COME DOWN.
Pentecost.
Acts 2:1-21
Abby prayed us into this place beautifully, and I’m grateful. I’m Mark Bishop – one of the clergy here at St Paul’s Shadwell, ordained 18 years ago, which I find slightly hard to believe. For the last two and a half years my wife Carrie and I have been leading the House of Prayer for East London, a small community contending for the heart of the East End in prayer – not because no one else is doing it, but because the churches have been doing it here for centuries, and we get to be one expression of that call.
It’s a particular privilege to preach on Pentecost Sunday. I’ll be honest: there’s always a tension in me, because part of me would rather we just waited quietly for 20 minutes and let the Holy Spirit do what the Holy Spirit does. But we’ll get there. The question I want us to hold throughout this morning is simply this: do you want more of the Holy Spirit? You could ask it right now, in the quiet of your heart. God has more of himself to give you. And he’s good. We know he’s good because we’ve seen Jesus.
Before we read Acts 2, it’s worth remembering that this was not a surprise. The coming of the Spirit in power was something Jesus promised repeatedly. In Luke 24 he tells the disciples to stay in the city until they are “clothed with power from on high.” In Acts 1:5, just before he ascends, he says “you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” And in Acts 1:8 he says it again: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” This is an anticipated gift. And it was anticipated even further back, in the Old Testament prophets – as we’re about to hear.
Acts 2:1–21
“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… Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd… ‘No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people… And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
What is Pentecost?
Pentecost is the Greek name for the Jewish Festival of Weeks – the second of three great Jewish feasts, coming 50 days after Passover (Pent, from the Greek for fifty). Originally an agricultural harvest festival, it becomes for the church the celebration of something far greater: the fulfilment of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised, and the birthday of the church. Peter’s preaching triggers immediate fruit – people are convicted and begin asking how they can be saved, how they can be filled. It is one of the fastest-growing movements in human history, beginning right there.
And it’s worth remembering that Pentecost is being celebrated today by Christians across the entire world. Right now, in Shadwell and in thousands of other places, people are asking the same question: do I want more of the Holy Spirit? That is a powerful, global, connected thing.
Power for Then
When I think about power, I often think about a day in South Africa when I was 18. I was working with a friend called Senzo, doing schools work in KwaZulu-Natal. One afternoon we were swimming in a pool at the top of a hill when the clouds started to roll in – as they always do in that part of the world in late afternoon. I was oblivious. Senzo was not. “We’ve got to go,” he said. “Now.” We grabbed our things. And then the thunder came – the kind that makes you physically cower. We started running. And just to our left, lightning struck the tarmac with an explosion I still can’t quite describe. We were absolutely fine. No one was hurt. But that was power. Power that didn’t need explaining. Power I felt in my body.
That’s the register we’re in when Acts 2 describes the sound of a rushing, violent wind. Luke, the writer of Acts, wants us to hear in that wind an echo of the ruach Elohim – the wind of God – from Genesis 1:2, hovering over the formless, dark void before creation had even begun. The theologian Calvin wrote of that verse: “If the Lord takes away the spirit, everything will be reduced to nothing.” This is the power that created and sustains the universe. You are alive because of the Holy Spirit. Everything on earth is alive only because of the life of the Holy Spirit.
And at Pentecost, that same power is poured out in a new measure on the gathered disciples – and it propels the early church into mission. This is the birth of the church. Power for then.
Power for Now
We are a Pentecost people, and we need this power. Not power to profit at someone else’s loss. Not security through exclusion. Not the kind of unregulated, human-generated power we rightly distrust. The power of God – holy, flowing from the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; power we are supposed to have a healthy relationship with and through.
The early church named the Spirit in many ways: the wind, the gift, the paraclete (counsellor, advocate in John’s Gospel), the love, the spirit of grace, of glory, of wisdom, of truth, of life, of counsel, of might, of knowledge. The Spirit is described as a dove, as the hand of God, as fire, as oil, as a seal, as the spirit of Jesus. Such was the revelation of the Spirit to the early church that they could use those names interchangeably – because the Holy Spirit is the spirit that Jesus sends, and is part of the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
For you, now, the Holy Spirit can be the power to understand scripture; to be regenerated and convicted; to receive and operate in spiritual gifts; to know in your heart that you are a child of God; to be led, to bear fruit, to be nurtured in resurrection life – life over death. The Spirit intercedes for you when you don’t know what to pray. The Spirit transforms you into the image of Christ. We are not merely a forgiven and saved people. We are a people called into a whole new way of being. We are free.
When the global prayer movement Thy Kingdom Come writes, “when you pray ‘Come, Holy Spirit’ over the lives of your friends, you are invoking the presence of the one who brought the world into being out of nothing” – that is not an exaggeration. That is the power available to you now.
Power for What Will Come
The Holy Spirit is also called the advance payment, the guarantee. The deposit in us now that allows us to know that what God has promised in Jesus – no more tears, no more suffering, a new heavens and a new earth – is real and is coming. When we pray for revival, or sing “Come, Holy Spirit”, we are saying: Lord, awaken us to the life that is possible now, and the life that is fully coming.
And here is something remarkable: the Holy Spirit suffers with us. The Spirit can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30) and quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19). There is a part of God that knows your pain, that walks through it with you, that does not stand at a distance. Just as the Spirit manifested as cloud and fire for God’s people in the wilderness – present, guiding, close – so the Spirit is present with you now: saying there is hope, there is power, it is good, and it is from God.
This is power over addiction. Power over sickness. Power over apathy, cynicism, despair. Power to discern your calling. Power to heal. Power to lead with humility and goodness and godliness. Power to hear God’s voice. Power to save the person made in the image of God.
Do You Want More?
So – do you want more of the Holy Spirit?
You might want to let the Spirit bring to the surface whatever is specific for you this morning. The parts of your life that have been hard. The things that belong to your past but do not define you. The areas where you have been trying to do things in your own strength, when God’s power is made perfect in weakness.
Before communion, we waited together. We stood with open hands. We received. The Spirit was moving. There was grief being held. There was weakness being offered. There was hope being renewed – hope that is not naive, not too old or too young, not dependent on how things feel today.
Come, Holy Spirit. You are the same Spirit who was present at creation. You are the same Spirit who descended at Pentecost. Be present here today. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Holy Spirit,
Thank you that you are the same power that created the universe and descended at Pentecost. Thank you that you are not distant – that you walk with us, suffer with us, and intercede for us when we do not have words.
Where we have been trying to live in our own strength, help us to let go. Where hope has felt naive or out of reach, renew it. Where we have kept things in the shadows, bring your light.
Fill us afresh. Give us courage to be witnesses, freedom to be your people, and the joy of knowing that this power is not just for us – it is a gift we get to give away.
May we go from here empowered, and may the world around us encounter you through us.
Amen.