Happy Pentecost!
Today we celebrate one of the most important events in the entire Christian calendar. The feast of Pentecost is just as important as Christmas and Easter. Every year around Christmas, you see articles ‘dis-proving’ the virgin birth. Every Easter, someone writes about how the crucifixion was cosmic child abuse and the resurrection is a myth. Do you know what horrendous thing the unbelievers think about Pentecost?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! Do you know why? Because they don’t care. In fact, if you are visiting today, you only really know what’s going on if you grew up in church.
If Pentecost is as important to the Christian faith as we say, why does our culture not think to even give Pentecost enough credit to try and discredit it? Because it’s weird, and they don’t understand it. We can understand the birth of a savior. We can understand the death of a martyr. We can understand resurrection as a principle. For some reason, we cannot understand what it is we celebrate on Pentecost.
Why can’t our culture understand what happens on Pentecost? For the simple reason that when we think of the term “The Holy Spirit” we tend to think of it in a way that is absolutely alien to that of the world of the First Century Church.
When we think of the Holy Spirit, we tend to think of three things.
a) It is the spirit filling all things. i.e. the spirit of the world, a world consciousness
b) It is, therefore, impersonal
c) It is tapped into by human effort, and therefore is really only accessible to the super spiritual
Whether you think of the Holy Spirit in those terms or not, the fact of the matter is that a First Century Palestinian Jew would never have thought of the Holy Spirit in that way.
For the Jews of Jesus day and for the early church, the Holy Spirit, and it’s coming, is part of their story about themselves, and the whole world as well.
We first see the Spirit of God mentioned in Genesis Chs. 1-3. In Genesis chapter 1, the Holy Spirit moves over the water in creation. Which is to say that in the Old Testament, and for the Jews in Jesus’ day, the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit that inhabits the universe as its ‘life force’. Rather, than the Spirit being the ‘life force’ or spirit of the universe, the Spirit in the Old Testament is the Spirit of God. It precedes creation, and while it is in operation throughout Creation, it does so independently of Creation’s existence.
We next see the spirit alluded to in the creation of Adam. After God makes everything in heaven and earth, He makes Adam. When He does so, He stoops down and breathes life into Adam. Both the Hebrew (Ruach) and Greek (Pneuma) words for Spirit have multiple meanings. They can both mean either spirit, or wind, or breath. Thus, when God ‘breathes’ life into Adam, He is imparting His ruach Spirit particularly to Adam (and with him, humanity).
When God places Adam and Eve in the Garden, He tells them not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”(Gen 2:16-17) This death did not immediately happen in their physical lives, but it did happen to them in their spiritual lives as they lost the ruach life that God had breathed into them.
Thus, the Jews watching what happened on Pentecost would have had a theological understanding of what the return of the Spirit meant based on Genesis 1-3 and the rest of the Old Testament. You see, for the people of Israel, The Spirit was
a) God’s Spirit (and therefore not the world’s)
b) Personal, because it was the spirit of a personal God
c) Not to be controlled by spiritual guru’s, but came when and where he willed
After Genesis, throughout the OT, the Holy Spirit shows up sporadically to empower specific leaders for specific tasks for specific measures of time
One specific instance of this that everyone would have thought of on Pentecost is found in Numbers 11. In numbers 11, Moses needs help to lead the people of Israel. So, God tells him to gather the elders of Israel in the Tent of Meeting, and He will fill them with the Spirit so that they too can go help lead the people of Israel. Meanwhile, something is happening back at the camp:
Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
(Numbers 11:26-30 ESV)
Moses’ longing was to see all the people of Israel filled with the Spirit, not just the super-spiritual, the super-holy, the super-perfect, everybody. That hope carries through the OT.
Moreover, that hope was spoke on of in the reading from the prophecy of Joel. Not only did they hope that someday God’s spirit would fill all of His people, God had promised that some day it would be so. That’s the context leading into the story of Pentecost that we just read, and the Jews watching would have understood this and so much more!
This isn’t simply a case of the spiritual elite uttering non-sense while the uninitiated watch bewildered. It’s the fulfillment of Israel’s hope for the whole world! Not only that, but it amounts to a religious revolution for two reasons:
Religion seeks to either stifle or silence the Holy Spirit
a) It either stifles the Spirit by assigning it to a super class of spiritual people. (like the Dalai Llama, the Pope, the Priest, or even the Pastor.)
b) Or it silences the Spirit by removing any specific content from its work.
Pentecost, and the Christian view of the Holy Spirit does the opposite.
First, we need to understand the promise of Joel:
“And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
(Joel 2:28-29 ESV)
This prophecy is saying two things.
First: it says “your sons and daughters shall prophecy… dream dreams… see visions…”
This amounts to a promise that the revelatory work of God will be present in the entire community of faith. By using the words “visions,” “dreams,” and “prophesy,” Joel indicates that the work of the revelation of God won’t just be assigned to a class of prophets, but that all of God’s people will have the Spirit to be able to discern what God has revealed.
Notice what the apostles are doing. They aren’t rolling around on the floor barking like dogs. They aren’t making pseudo-spiritual sayings expecting everybody to believe them. They’re preaching about Jesus.
Do you see why this is revolutionary for religion? Because before, if I claimed to be filled with the spirit of God or the spirit of a God, you had to accept whatever I said
In ancient Greece, there was an oracle at Delphi. This woman would go into a trance and utter unintelligibly to priests who would then interpret what the spirit spoke through her. No matter what the pirest told you, you could not contradict it. The Apostle John tells us that we can actually test the spirits!(1 John 4:1)
How do we do that? By comparing it with Scripture and seeing if it glorifies Jesus.
People think that Scripture constrains us, it actually frees us from being constrained by other people. This is what turned the world upside down in the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther said that all believers have access to the Spirit so that they can interpret the Word of God. What this means is that no authority can exist in the church that another Christian can’t challenge by seeing if their teaching conforms with the Bible.
Second: It says “I will poor out my spirit on all flesh… sons and daughter… old men… young men… slave and free…”
Which means, God has made His Spirit available to anyone who will have it! You can no longer stifle the spirit by saying, ‘that class of people can’t have the spirit.’ When this doctrine reaches the caste system in India, slavery in the west, misogyny throughout the world and history, it levels them. This is why the religious Jews would continue chasing the apostle Paul around the world, because he supported the notion that even Gentiles could receive the Spirit. Pentecost opens the gate for anyone who will repent and believe the Good News that they too can receive the Spirit of God.
Application for Believers
Test the Spirits!
Not everything that makes your hairs stand up on the back of your neck is God’s Spirit! Not everything that someone claims is the Spirit is. Not every thing someone teaches is of the Spirit (INCLUDING ME AND ROB!!!)
Learn your bibles, and test the Spirit!
Application for Believers and Non-believers
Jesus promises the Holy Spirit so that we can know His presence at all times. Do you? Do you know him in calamity? In prosperity? If not, you need the Spirit.
Jesus promises that God will hear us when we ask for the Spirit
Don’t gag the Spirit!!!
Don’t ask for the Spirit just so you can have warm fuzzies, but so that you can know Jesus better
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