Our greatest need is to be filled by the Spirit

Does your church mention Pentecost? Many churches, especially those that do not follow the liturgical year, barely mention it at all.

The gift of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost was a turning point in salvation history. It was a never-to-be-repeated moment that applied the finished work of Christ to the disciples and implemented Jesus’s heavenly reign over the church. Jesus baptised His disciples with the Spirit, just as John had prophesied and He had promised. They received the same anointing He received at His baptism so they could continue His ministry on earth. The Book of Acts records all Jesus continued to do through His disciples by the empowering presence of His Spirit.

The Spirit came and made His dwelling in all of Jesus’ disciples. This was manifest when tongues of fire rested on each of them individually. Peter’s sermon, explaining that Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled, highlighted the democratising effect of the coming of the Spirit. All disciples, male and female alike, would be able to prophesy and receive revelation. In contrast, in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was only given to some individuals to enable them to serve in specific roles, for example as kings or prophets.

The universal gift of the Spirit to all disciples marked the inauguration of the new covenant. The Old Testament made clear that the old covenant, meaning the Sinai covenant of the law, was ineffective because the hearts of the Israelites had not been changed. Their repeated unfaithfulness and apostasy proved the need for a new and better covenant, and this is what the prophets promised. Jeremiah and Ezekiel announced that a key blessing of the new covenant would be the gift of the Spirit.

Jesus established the new covenant by His death and resurrection, taking away the sin of His people and sending them His Spirit. Pentecost ushers in the “last days”, the final era of human history before the end of the age and the new creation. The dead hearts of God’s people became hearts of flesh, on which the law was written, meaning they would desire to obey it and be empowered to resist sin in a new way. The old covenant was fulfilled and rendered obsolete, so Christians no longer live in the old way of the written code but in the new way of the Spirit. It is not that God’s demand for holiness revealed by the law has been reduced. Rather the Spirit now enables believers to mortify the desires of the flesh and to produce the fruit of love.

The gift of the Holy Spirit constitutes both individual Christians and the church as a whole as the new temple of God. God takes up residence in the Holy of Holies of renewed human hearts, just as He did when the Tabernacle was erected and the Temple constructed. Christians are now the dwelling place of God. This assures us of our complete forgiveness and cleansing. God could not come and dwell in an unclean place; we do not need to go to any special place to meet with God, but have access to the throne room of grace by the indwelling Spirit.

The Holy Spirit makes evangelism both possible and effective. He grants disciples boldness to speak the gospel even in the face of severe threats of persecution. He convicts hearers of sin, coming judgement and the truth of the message. He revealed Jesus to them and works regeneration that enables them to respond with repentance and faith. He gives gifts to the church so that it can do the work of mission and edify one another to maturity. He enables us to have the mind of Christ so that we can make judgements about all things.

Pentecost was the feast of first fruits, and the conversion of 3,000 was just the beginning of the gathering of a great multitude from every tribe and nation. The gift of tongues, which enabled people to hear the praise of Jesus in their own language, was a symbolic reversal of the judgement of Babel. This anticipated the union of divided humanity in Christ, transcending divisions of culture and ethnicity. The gift of the Spirit to Gentile believers without the need for circumcision was a confirmation of God’s acceptance of them by grace and faith alone.

We live every day in the light of Pentecost. It is just as foolish to try to go back to the old way of the law as it is to go back to animal sacrifices. We will never properly understand Biblical theology, nor the Christian life, unless we appreciate that the new age of the Spirit is the fulfilment of all that was promised, and marks the in-breaking of the new creation into this present evil age. The Spirit is the deposit guaranteeing our future inheritance.

We ought to give thanks and rejoice that we live after Pentecost. As we read the Old Testament and Gospels, we must remember how much more privileged we are than any of those who went before us.

The greatest need we have, as individuals and the church, is to be filled by the Holy Spirit. This is what we ought to long and pray for.