Pastor Sullivan's Blog

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. On this Sunday in between Christ’s ascension and Pentecost, our Lord teaches us about the Holy Spirit whom He promised to send. He also tells the apostles, and those who would believe the apostles’ testimony, why they would need the Holy Spirit. He calls the Spirit “ the Helper ” and “ the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father ,” teaching us who the Spirit is His work. First Christ calls the Spirit “ the Helper ,” though Helper is a bit weak of a translation. The word Jesus uses is Paraclete, which means comforter, though not like we often think of someone being a comforter. A Paraclete is an advocate, someone who comforts someone when they stand accused before a judge. This is what the Holy Spirit does in the hearts of believers when they are accused of their sins and unworthiness by Satan. In Revelation 12:10 Satan is called “ the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God d...

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In today’s gospel lesson Christ promises His apostles hardship and persecution. He says, “ The will put you out of the synagogues. ” Jesus tells them that the Jews will excommunicate them. This was already happening during the ministry of Jesus. After Jesus heals a man born blind, the Pharisees question the blind man’s parents to make sure he had really been blind from birth. They confessed that this man was in fact their son and that he had been born blind, but they stopped short of confessing that it was Jesus who had healed their son. John writes that “ his parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue ” (John 9:22). That the Jews would expel the apostles from their churches would be difficult to swallow. They had all been brought up in the synagogue. But their testimony of J...