It’s Pentecost. And when we think of Pentecost we think of the sound of a rushing mighty wind that filled the whole house where the Pentecost church was gathering so that “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:4a). Yet the work of the Holy Spirit has been ongoing from the beginning.
He has been busy on earth ever since creation when the Spirit of God hovered with life-giving power over the face of the waters of the formless flood God had created. The Spirit develops the work of God, sustains it and renews it. “You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104:30).
And so we see that the Holy Spirit is not only involved with our sanctification, with the renewal of our life, but also with creation and its renewal. The Spirit is involved with spring and summer, with the blossoms and the ripened fruit in nature, with man’s talents and the beauty in God-honouring culture.
Yes, with man’s talents. Just think of Bezalel and Aholiab, the builders of the ark, who were filled with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze (Exodus 31:3). That work of the Spirit in giving us talents is sometimes forgotten among us.
It is that same Spirit who fills and sanctifies also the life of man who was, in the beginning, created in His image but who fell away from Him. The Spirit fills and sanctifies people so that they can again serve God.
The Spirit does it where God the Father chooses people and calls them to eternal life, and where people confirm their election by answering that call. All are filled with the Holy Spirit – all who believe the apostolic Word and assemble where Christ gathers His church. There, through the proclamation of God’s Word in Christ our Saviour, the Spirit fills and renews the hearts and lives of them all.
The Gift of the Spirit
So, the Spirit is a wonderful gift of God. He promised that Gift when Joel prophesied: And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh. That happened especially at Pentecost (Acts 2:17a), where the Spirit was given in abundance.
That didn’t only happen to some Israelites, but to “all flesh”; to people of different class, tribe and age who are added to the Pentecost church.
This gift is not in conflict with the Spirit’s divinity. Remember that God the Son is also a gift of the Father. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” That gift of the Spirit speaks of God’s grace; of that which we do not possess in ourselves, but of what God gives us through Christ.
And the Spirit who participates in perfect unity, in beautiful cooperation with the Father and the Son, allowed Himself to be given. He was Himself active in coming to dwell in the church of Christ here on earth. He came to take Christ’s place on earth after Easter and Ascension, to continue Christ’s work and to finish it.
Not that the Spirit was absent from the earth before Pentecost; for as we have seen, He was already active from heaven during the ‘old’ dispensation among the people of God, now and then, and here and there. For example, when David had fallen into sin and repented, the Spirit led him to pray: “Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11b). But during the old covenant the Spirit did not dwell permanently in the church.
However, at Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to dwell in the congregation. He changed his place of residence; from heaven He came to the earth, where He was poured out on all flesh; given to the church of Christ.
And when I am a living member of the church, it is evident that He is also given to me.
The Signs of the Spirit
Some people long for the same signs of Pentecost today: the rushing wind, the speaking in tongues, the flames of fire, faith healing. However, the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost was an event that does not repeat itself. We should therefore not be surprised that the mighty signs that attended the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost are not seen and heard today.
Someone compared the outpouring of the Holy Spirit with a river which roars and swirls down from the mountain but afterwards carves a channel through the plains and settles into a calm flow. It is the same river and the same water, but the current is much calmer.
The same can be said about the Holy Spirit. He was poured out by Christ at Pentecost, accompanied by amazing and unusual signs. During the first period of the apostolic church, when the Word of the Spirit had not yet been completed in the scriptures, the Spirit gave the apostles and congregations charismatic gifts, special gifts of grace.
But after Pentecost that same Spirit now flows like a peaceful river. His ongoing work is there in the gathering of the church, in the preaching, and in the work of the office bearers. He is there in the working of faith and of daily repentance, in the struggle against sin and in the love to Christ and His Church and … in the love to one another.
It is not to be held against the Spirit that He is working so quietly. No, if blame is to be laid anywhere it is in the fact that we do not always let the Spirit work in us through the Word so that our life and the life of the church are more and more governed by that Word.
Speaking in tongues, faith healing and other charismatic gifts belong to the temporary signs of the beginning: to the roaring, swirling mountain stream. But now we have the promise of the quiet continuation of the work of the Spirit. “He is also given to me to make me by true faith share in Christ and all His benefits, to comfort me. And to remain with me forever.”
The Spirit abides
Christ promised the Spirit to His church. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you, and will be in you (John 14:16,17). He gave it at Pentecost and continues to give it.
Everyone who knows Christ and belongs to the community of the church may confess: He is also given to me!
You will understand that this confession is not reached by simply concluding: “The Spirit has been given to the church. I am a member of the church. Therefore, the Spirit has been given also to me.”
To be sure, the Spirit is a promised gift in the fellowship of the covenant and the church. For we confess that the Holy Spirit, who works faith, is promised to the children no less than to the adults of the congregation. But that which has been promised at our baptism and is continually proclaimed in the preaching – the gift of the Spirit – must also be accepted in faith.
We must pray for it. For “God will give His grace and the Holy Spirit only to those who constantly and with heartfelt longing ask Him for these gifts and thank Him for them” (LD 45). The Spirit is given to me in the way of faith and prayer.
That is why God has the law of thankfulness preached to us so strictly: in order that we should ask Him earnestly for the grace of the Holy Spirit and be more and more renewed after God’s image.
However much and often I might be inclined to say, “Spirit of God, depart from me for I am a sinful person”, I know of the promise that He remains with me and will be in me. And I may plead on that promise which Christ has given to His church and also to me.
Through faith I know that He will remain with me forever:
Yet you will hold me by my hand,
And keep me with you to the end.
Your counsel guides me in my ways,
And you will me to glory raise. (Psalm 73:7b Book of Praise)
Slightly amended and edited from meditations about the Holy Spirit by Rev. L Douw in Rev. Joh. Francke’s Your Only Comfort: A Bible Daybook (a compilation of meditations from various ministers) published by Pro Ecclesia Publishers, Armadale, Western Australia, 2017, pp. 145-148.