Today, in our church calendar, we remember Pentecost- the day when the Holy Spirit came.
He is the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4 ; Jn 14:16,26) and of
the Son (Jn 16:7) to the church. Jesus
says : “ It is to your advantage that
I go away , for if I do not go away, the
Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.”
A few introductory
remarks:
The Holy Spirit is called
“ruach” in the Hebrew OT, and “pneuma hagios” in the Greek Septuagint and NT. This literally
translates as “breath”
(e.g. Genesis 2:7 ) or “ holy wind” Jesus, in Jn
3:1-8 likens the Spirit to the wind. With this in mind we must not be tempted to
think of the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force or influence. Many in history
have been tempted to think of the
Holy Spirit as an ‘it’ (a thing / influence), rather than a “He” - a Person(ality). The Lord Jesus
spoke about Him and when
He comes in John 14 & 16 [1]
in terms of a real person, who stands apart from God the Father and God the Son, yet sharing the very attributes of God. For this reason the church in history has often referred
to Him as the
third member( or person) of the Godhead or the Trinity .
Like the Lord Jesus Christ
(the promised Messiah), the Holy Spirit does not
simply appear in the NT. They are both known and spoken of in the OT. It is true however that they are both
revealed in a fuller measure in
the NT. In fact, the
doctrine of the Trinity has become only obvious in the light of Christ’s and the Spirit’s coming. Because
of this we can also
know the Father better.
The Lord Jesus Christ has come to
‘exegete’ and show us the
Father (Jn 1:18 ; 14:9) and the Holy Spirit
(John 14- 16).
The Holy Spirit as the
wind or breath, the Life Giver, is the eternal Holy Spirit (Hebr 9:14). This is one of God’s
attributes. The Holy Spirit has
also been there at the beginning of
creation…. “and the Spirit of
God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Gen 1:2). He
orders and completes and executes
what has been planned in the mind of God the Father. In the NT the Holy Spirit applies the redemption wrought by Christ to our fallen
natures . He helps us see the
horrible nature of our sin (through conviction) and at the same time He helps us to understand
the glorious work of Christ on the
cross (through comforting). So we see that
the Father has planned our redemption ; Jesus the Son is our redemption , and the Holy Spirit applies
that redemption by helping helps
dead sinners to see , believe and receive
that redemption .
There is yet another
work that the Holy Spirit is engaged in. Both in the OT and the NT He
empowers people. However, there
is a crucial difference in His work in
the NT. In the OT the Holy Spirit came upon people, empowering
them for various tasks for which they needed help. [2] In the NT, the Holy Spirit would be perpetually with[3]
and in the life of every true believer (see Jn 14:16 & 17 !). Ever since Pentecost, the Holy Spirit resides
permanently among, in and with
God’s people. In this He continually
empowers believers in the work of witnessing to Christ’s work on the cross (Acts 1:8), and He helps them to
produce fruit in keeping with
repentance (Gal. 5:22,23). He also helps them in prayer and intercedes for them. (Rom
8:26-27)
All this by way of a broad introduction to the person and work of the Holy Spirit,
whom we are now privileged to have in us and with us. His presence makes the living church a unique institution
upon the face of the earth. No other
body of people is so favoured and indwelt by God as the true church is. No other organization has as much real
power and authority and the presence of
God as the true church has. I say “true
church”, because not every church is a
true church. Many so called churches no
longer walk in fellowship with the Spirit. Many have grieved the Holy
Spirit. They have been abandoned by Him, as
He had abandoned the temple of Israel in the days of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 10).
Let us frequently learn to examine
ourselves and pray like David : “Cast me (us)
not from your presence , and take
not your Holy Spirit from me (us) .”
Frequently Asked Questions
And now we shall
look at some peculiar
questions relating to the coming of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. It is
worth our while to take some time to answer
these, since the church in the 20th
century has suffered severely from a
lack of
mature reflection upon the nature
of Pentecost - the coming of the Holy
Spirit . We will deal with four
questions frequently asked
concerning Pentecost : [4]
1. Were the disciples of Christ genuine believers before
Pentecost? What difference did Pentecost
make?
2. How is the day of Pentecost (Acts 2)
related to subsequent outpourings
of the Spirit in Samaria (Acts 8:4-25) ,
in Caesarea (Acts 10:1ff) , and Ephesus (Acts 19: 1-7) ? A related question
to this is: do these passages about
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit after
Pentecost point us to a second experience of the Holy Spirit?
3. What is the relationship between Pentecost and
the baptism of which Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 12:13?
4. Is Pentecost a repeatable event ? Should we expect tongues and fire to descend
on modern congregations ?
Since these
questions cannot be dealt with in the course of the time that we
have available this morning, I will only
answer the first question and deal with
the next three questions in our evening service.
1.
Were the disciples of Christ genuine believers before
Pentecost ? What difference did
Pentecost make ?
The question is sometimes asked whether the
disciples of Jesus were true
believers before Pentecost. If the Holy Spirit is needed to help us to see our sin and our need for Christ, then it is sometimes
argued that they may have become
true believers only at
Pentecost, for that is when the
Spirit was given! To say that is to
portray one’s ignorance concerning the work of the Holy Spirit in the OT. The
Holy Spirit of the OT is the same
Spirit of the NT. He is mentioned
88 times in the OT, although the actual
term “Holy Spirit” is only
mentioned 3 times in the OT (e.g. Ps
51:11) . Other terms used are e.g. “the Spirit of God” (Gen 1:2). 23 OT books refer to the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit certainly was known before Pentecost. He is frequently mentioned
in the gospels which all refer to events before Pentecost [5].
Jesus taught about the Holy Spirit in John Chapters 14 and 16.
The Holy Spirit was certainly known and active in the OT and in the days of Christ on earth.
There can be no doubt that the disciples (minus
Judas the traitor) were genuine believers before Pentecost. In John 13 Jesus
makes it explicitly clear that all
of the disciples were cleansed (Jn. 13:10) and united to
Christ (Jn. 15:1-11) - all except
Judas (cf. Jn. 13:10,11,18,21 ; Jn. 17:12). How then were OT
believers justified, since neither Christ, the Messiah (who provides atonement) nor the Holy Spirit (who convicts us of our sin and opens our eyes to receive Christ) had yet
been given?
The answer is deeply
profound , but not difficult: All God’s people
were ultimately chosen (predestined) in eternity past (see Eph
1:3-14 ; Romans 9 ; 1 Thess 1:4,5).
All God’s chosen people were seen as being in Christ , before the
work of the cross actually
happened in the course of time. How was
Abraham, for instance, redeemed from
his sin and accounted righteous
before God, even though He had not yet heard
of or seen Christ? The answer is
that it was the Holy Spirit in him that stirred his faith, and made him believe in God’s future provision of grace. He looked forward, in faith. to the
fulfillment of God’s promises ? And
how are you redeemed? In the same way .
The Holy Spirit stirs up faith in you and you look backward to the cross of
Christ and by faith in Him you are saved . The cross is found at the center of history. The OT believer looks forward to
the cross, by faith, to the fulfillment of God’s promises and the
NT
believer looks backwards to the cross, by faith , helped by the Holy
Spirit ( who shows you the Scriptures) , and so
you are redeemed ,
justified and adopted
into God’s family! Christ’s death
is the ground for every believer’s
justification- whether they live before
the cross or after the cross . From the perspective of the Pre – Pentecost disciples
of Jesus, they were saved because Jesus was going
to lay down His life for them (minus Judas)
But what was the difference between their pre Pentecost and post Pentecost experience? Was there any
advantage gained for them by their Pentecostal experience? Is there
an improvement of the knowledge of God from the OT to the NT ? Absolutely !
B.B.
Warfield writes in his book : “The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity” :
The Old Testament may
be likened to a chamber richly furnished but dimly lighted; the introduction of
light brings into it nothing which was not in it before; but it brings out into
clearer view much of what is in it but was only dimly or even not at all
perceived before. The mystery of the Trinity is not revealed in the Old
Testament; but the mystery of the Trinity underlies the Old Testament
revelation, and here and there almost comes into view. Thus the Old Testament revelation
of God is not corrected by the fuller revelation which follows it, but only
perfected, extended and enlarged.
At Pentecost a
phenomenal leap took place. The disciples
gained a confidence, knowledge,
power and a equipping for the
task of making the ancient plan
of God, the gospel, (embodied in His
Son, the Lord Jesus) effectively known
to the entire world. Because of
Pentecost they and we were enabled to effectively
carry out the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) to the nations. You
and I have not only become
recipients of that gospel, but we been also empowered to share that Gospel today.
Thank God for Pentecost !
[1] See
especially John 16:12-15
[2] E.g. Bezalel & Oholiab (Ex
31:1ff); Judges 3:10 ( Ehud) ; 6:34 ( Gideon); 14:6,19; 15:14 ( Samson); 1 Samuel 10:10; 11:6 (Saul) ;
Ezekiel 2:2; 3:12,14 etc ( Ezekiel)
[3] One of his names is the ‘ paraclete’ lit. one who comes alongside , hence ‘ with’
[5] Luke speaks about the Holy Spirit in the gospel
a number of times, particularly in the life of John the
Baptist and Jesus. Jesus teaches His
disciples also to expect the Holy Spirit
to help them prior to Pentecost (see for
example Lk 11:13; 12:12 ; and again in John 14 & 16)
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