The Spirit at Pentecost

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” — Acts n. 1-4.

THE only event recorded in the interval of ten days between the ascension of Christ and the mission of the Holy Spirit is the election of an apostle in the room of Judas, which occupies the latter half of the first chapter. The disciples waited at Jerusalem for the promise, and the promise was in due time fulfilled — “When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” They waited for the Spirit as those who wait for the morning; as eager for its coming, and as sure that it will come at the set time. Although they were sure of the event, they did not relax in the use of the means to procure it. Persevering prayer and oneness of heart, were the forces by which they drew the blessing down. At the feast of the Passover, the lamb was slain; at the feast of Pentecost the law was given. Coincident with the slaying of the lamb was the death of Christ; coincident with the giving of the law was the descent of the Spirit. The long-continued, oft-repeated prophecy was at length fulfilled. Passovers and Pentecosts may now cease. Like i the seed cast into the ground, they perish in the act of producing. As the sacrifice of Christ was the substantial fruit from the typical promise of the Passover, so the descent of the Spirit was the real and effective giving of the law to men. On the first Pentecost the law was written on tables of stone;! on the last Pentecost came the Spirit, whose office it is to write that law on the living tables of the heart.

“Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind,” Not a rushing mighty wind, but a sound that seemed like it. It pleased the Lord to manifest the descent of the Spirit by signs that appeal to the senses, that by the mouth of two witnesses the fact might be confirmed;! — the sense of hearing, this sound; the sense of sight, the tongues of fire. The fire was like cloven tongues — that is, it was distributed so that a tongue touched each, licking his head like a flame. The tongue was not of fire, but “like as of fire;” there was the brightness, but not the burning. The tongues indicated speech, and the fire promised that the i words spoken to spread the Gospel would be burning words.

At an earlier period the Pharisees, tempting him, asked a sign from heaven. He refused; he would not give a sign to satisfy the curiosity of unbelievers. But when his own dis- [ ciples are sad, he gives them, without being asked for it, a, sign from heaven to cheer them; to prove that he is there,! L and that all power is in his hands. When Joseph sent the i royal chariots from Egypt to bring his famishing father into jjjj a land of plenty, the sight of the vehicles — with perhaps the royal arms emblazoned on their sides, according to the fashion j

The Spirit at Pentecost. of Egyptian art — restored J acob’s fainting heart, convincing him that his son was alive, and possessed of kingly power (Gen. xlv. 26-28). In some such manner this sign from heaven was fitted to confirm in the trembling hearts of those primitive disciples the struggling conviction of their faith, that Jesus their elder brother lived, and reigned, and remembered them with all his wonted love.

“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Hitherto communications of the Spirit had been made in smaller measure, as foretastes of the promised blessing. Man, by the Fall, lost communion with God. He became flesh, not only in the sense of being human, but in the sense of being destitute of the Spirit, without God in the world.

Through the covenant by which Christ undertook redemption, glimpses of the Spirit were vouchsafed in the earlier times, so that the world was not left in complete darkness. The Spirit of God did strive with man in the evil days both before and after the Flood; but it was only when the Word I became flesh and dwelt among us that the Spirit in fulness returned to the earth. In the second Adam the Spirit dwelt without measure. He had no sin, and when he became flesh the Spirit was restored to humanity. When he ascended up on high he retained a connection with his disciples on earth through their faith; and by that thread the Divine Spirit thrilled down from the Head into the members, i “They were filled with the Holy Ghost.” The vessels were prepared and gathered together. The long- cherished i expectations and the long-continued prayers were all brought >, L to a point when the day of Pentecost was fully come. To ie |’ that point drawn, the Spirit came, and all the vessels were i i filled to overflowing.

it! Then was the disaster of the Fall remedied. First fruits the i i Church had previously obtained, but now came the full harvest.