THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST

Dear Readers:

On Christmas we commemmorated the coming of the second Person in the Divine Being on this earth, that Christ assumed our human nature. Now on Pentecost our attention is asked for the descending of the third Person in the Divine Being. The great importance of Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit took habitation on this earth in the midst of the church.

Under the Old Testament the labor of the Holy Ghost was felt, otherwise nobody then could be saved, but on the day of Pentecost it became different. First of all, the wall of partition was taken away. We may not forget that under the New Testament it is a richer, a clearer administration; under the Old Testament everything was under the veil of the Law and Ceremonies. Did Christ not say in John 10:10: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

So the Apostle Paul writes to the Romans, chapter 8:15: "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."

How regrettable it is, that so many of God's children have so much resemblance with the Old Testamentical church and are under guardians, possessed by a spirit of bondage.

We may not blame the Holy Spirit, but we should complain about ourselves being without need. How different it has been on the day of Pentecost! More has happened over there then that was seen and heard. It is understandable that we give most of our attention to the things that we hear and see. But it is of the greatest importance to know how it was possible, that these things could happen. We can find this in the sermon of Peter. The apostle stood in the power of the Lord, anointed with the new oil of the Holy Spirit. He sought the honor of the Lord and the welfare of his hearers. Under the administration of the Holy Spirit he remembered what the Lord had said. The Lord Himself opened the Ups of Peter. The Spirit, that went out from the Father and the Son, had taken habitation in the heart of Peter and knowledge of the fulness of the salvation in Christ was given to him. So he could speak to the honor of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

After he made known to the people, that the happening of that day was the fulfillment of the prophecy of the prophet Joel, he draws Christ in his humiliation and exaltation. In our text he says that the outpouring of the Spirit is according to the promise of the Father: "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost." See also John 14:16, 26 and Acts 1:4, which were before the Ascension of the Lord, where He has spoken to pray the Father for the Holy Spirit, but also that the Father will send the Spirit. This could only happen when He was ascended.

It was already from eternity, in the Counsel of Peace, that the three Divine Persons had counsel about the deliverance of the elect, out of the fallen human race. The Father asked who would give Himself to be Surety. The Son has given Himself freely, voluntarily, whereupon the Father promised to give as a wage the ends of the earth to His possession, which would be worked out by the Holy Spirit. As we know, this promise is repeated time and again in the Bible. So the outpouring of the Holy Spirit should take place, also according to the Truth of God. In the Counsel of Peace satisfaction is required from the Mediator, and now that this was given, the Lord will fulfill also the other side, what He has promised: The coming of the Holy Spirit.

It is such a great blessing that we may commemmorate this again, not only that we are yet in the land of the living, but that the work of the Holy Spirit continues yet, which means that we can become converted. By nature we are full of other things, which are visible and audible, which seem to be more important, but here we make a big mistake because they are temporal, but what the Lord bestows upon His people is everlasting, and therefore of the greatest importance.

This was emphasized by Peter in his sermon. When you read this sermon, it is very well possible that you are a little bit disappointed, that you hear so little about the Holy Spirit. But we make a mistake if we think that but little is said about the Holy Ghost. Everything that is said about the Father and the Son is related with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit did not come to seek Himself, but to glorify Christ. This is what we can read so clearly in this sermon on the great day of Pentecost: Christ is glorified. "This Jesus has God raised up. whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted." The multitude does not know of these things, because they have heard the He of the keepers, and the Lord did not appear to the people in general anymore, but only to His children. If we never have felt and seen our sins, then the Mediator has no value at all. If we are reproved of sin, we learn of the breach between God and our soul, then in the further leadings of the Lord we will learn also that we cannot give satisfaction ourselves, and then it is, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, that room is made for the Mediator. In Him is deliverance, as He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Did we learn something of it in our life? Then we know it is not a way wherein we increase, but wherein we have to decrease, to become nothing before the Lord, then the richness of Christ is revealed in beginning.

In His humiliation Christ merited the salvation, and in the exaltation He applies it. Although He is at the right hand of God the Father, He will not forget His church. No, He always prays for His children. He listens to those people, who flee to Him by day and night with all their needs. Also when it seems that the heaven is closed and they go over this earth with an open debt, crying: how can I ever be reconciled with God. Then it is the same Spirit, Who discovers God's people and shows them their sin, but He also reveals the work of Christ and applies it to the heart. Great is the fulness which is seen in the Mediator in His humiliation, but yet greater in His exaltation. As it was for Christ to go through death to life, so it is experienced by the church too. Peter may say here: "And having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He has shed forth this." The miracle of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Ghost, is related with the exaltation of Christ, according to John 7: "The Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified."

This means, that without Ascension, there could not be Pentecost. But Christ is glorified and now the Holy Spirit took habitation in the body of Christ on earth and filled them with His influence. So it should be also today, but it is not! We should be ashamed, when we see the sad reality that so little is seen of the work of the glorious Pentecost-Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, empty vessels were filled, broken hearts were healed. We see so little of the work of the Spirit because there are so few empty vessels. When there are no broken hearts, so few who continue with one accord in prayer and supplication, then there is no work for the Spirit. A superficial Spirit rules in our days, of believing and accepting, which is not the way of the Lord. Where the Lord begins, we find humbled sinners, lost sinners, who can not help themselves anymore.

Such a work of the Lord will not be hidden for ever, as we see here in this history: "Which ye now see and hear." When we repeat those things which were seen and heard, then we know that first of all the wind was heard in its great power; by the wind of the Spirit the enemies are cast down, but also the heart is broken of the elect. The second sign was the fire, which pointed to the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, whereby the apostles also would be enabled to preach the Gospel. The third sign was that these simple men out of Galilee spoke, in other languages, of the great works of the Lord. But the greatest miracle of Pentecost is the habitation of the Spirit. It is impossible that the apostles would be silent under such a blessed condition.

It does not happen in our days in the same way, because those external signs are not heard and seen anymore. Still, the working of the Spirit is not different. He makes poor and dependent, He makes our heart dry and barren; why? That at God's time He may make it fruitful, that we may seek the glory of God. He takes away all things whereupon we are resting, to show that in Christ we have everything. So a triune God is glorified, because the Father receives His child, the Son in His people His wage, and the Holy Ghost the renewed habitation.

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