PENTECOST: FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST

Pentecost is the last feast day the church commemorates in its annual cycle which commences with the advent of Christ. In the past season we have commemorated the birth of Christ on Christmas, the death of Christ on Good Friday, the resurrection of Christ on Easter, and the homecoming of Christ on Ascension Day. All of us, boys and girls inclusive, readily understand what the majority of these feast days outwardly proclaim. But can we explain what Pentecost is?

Perhaps you will answer: “Pentecost is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of the disciples gathered at Jerusalem.” Indeed, this is the fact of Pentecost; but if your children ask what this outpouring actually means, is it not difficult to put into words?

Pentecost is the most difficult feast to comprehend becaue it is the most invisible feast. We cannot see the Spirit poured out.

Pentecost is the most misunderstood feast because of its highly internal nature. It is uniquely subjective. Christmas proclaims to the living Church, “God with us”; Easter, “God for us”; Pentecost, “God in us.”

Pentecost receives the least recognition of the feast days from the church and the world because the need for the Holy Spirit and His personal application is so dimly felt. In general, the world denies such need, and the church pays only lip profession to it. Far too often even true believers can live on without the Third Person of the holy Trinity.

Nevertheless, Pentecost is essential. The Church of God not only needs the Father Who descended to Paradise immediately after the fall to reveal the covenant of grace, and the Son Who descended to merit the covenant of grace through suffering and death, but also the Holy Spirit Who descended in abundant measure on Pentecost to pour out the benefits of the Father-decreed, Son-merited covenant.

Historically, Pentecost will never be repeated on earth, but spiritually the Holy Ghost must be poured out in, and fill, our hearts and lives. We need the “It is finished” not only of one or two Persons, but of the triune God. We have tragically marred the “It is finished” of the Father’s creation, and the Son’s “It is finished” of Calvary we cannot assume to ourselves. We need the applicatory, finishing work of the Spirit shall we be rightly convicted of sin, righteousness, and judgment experientially. We need not only the Christmas feast day of the Father, and the Easter feast day of the Son, but also the Pentecost feast day of the Spirit.

This feast-day Spirit the apostles experienced on Pentecost: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost”( Acts 2:4a).

None were excluded. All received the Third Person of the Trinity in abundancy.

Previously, the apostles were not destitute of this Spirit, for He had been working in their hearts for several years, and the Lord Jesus breathed on them after He arose, pronouncing, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (Jn. 20:21). But now they received the Spirit in the fulness of His Person and work. Not in drops of scarcity, but in showers of overflowing copiousness, they were filled with the fulness of God Triune. Pentecost is indeed the feast of fulfillment.

(1) They were filled with the blessings of the Holy Spirit. They were filled with the Spirit’s mighty wind, purging fire, and illuminating light, symbolic of a Divine reception of the unspeakable blessings of Jehovah’s covenant, justification and sanctification inclusive. They were filled with the heavenly dew of the Spirit as He descended into them, and set them apart through His anointing oil to the conscious priesthood of saints.

(2) They were filled with the fruits of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22–23a).

(3) They were filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. “They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Miraculously, articulately, and doctrinally they spoke in languages that they never knew before of the wonderful works of God through Christ.

(4) They were filled with the greatest work of the Spirit: to glorify the benefits and Person of Christ. Though they had experienced the commencement of this work in years gone by through Spirit-wrought room in their souls for Christ via saving conviction, in these pentecostal moments they tasted a fullness of communion with God in Christ to a degree never enjoyed before.

Heaven and earth were not separated within them in this pentecostal hour. Personally assured of vital union with God through His Son, they were persuaded that Jesus Christ was their Prophet, Priest, and King. Consciously, they no longer belonged to themselves, but to their faithful Savior, Who had fulfilled all things in their behalf, and now sent His Spirit to fill them with all that He fulfilled for them. Not only a believing in, but an embracing of, Christ was wrought within them by this Spirit. God became their Father, Jesus Christ became their elder Brother, and the Spirit sealed within them that they were adopted sons of God.

(5) Ultimately, however, they were pentecostally filled with the Holy Spirit Himself as the Trinity’s Third Person. Not only did they experience the blessings, fruits, gifts, and works of the Spirit, but also they “lived in” what the Heidelberg Catechism states so succinctly: “He is given me.. . to comfort me and abide with me forever.”

Unspeakable blessing! The Spirit did more than apply the benefits and Person of Christ to thensouls; more than allow them to appropriate and embrace their blessed Immanuel by faith. It not only became Easter within, so that they could speak of sin-forgiveness and eternal life rights, but it became Pentecost as well: they received the Third Person Himself in their hearts as the true and eternal God, causing them to end in the Triune God with Whom they were filled by the Spirit.

Filled with the Holy Ghost! All that was taken away in the first Adam was fully restored through the application of the Second Adam by the Spirit: they were privileged to embrace God Triune. In His Person, the Holy Ghost became Comforter, Sealer, and Intercessor within their souls. They were not only allowed to rest in the father-heart of God and the Mediatorial-heart of the Son, but also in the Person of the Spirit, their everlasting seal and Sealer. On that day the Spirit not only sealed Divine inheritance within them, but was Himself the seal in their souls. They were not only sealed by the Holy Ghost, but with the Holy Ghost, resting in Him (cf. Eph. 1:13). The Holy Spirit sealed His own Person to them on the foundation of His sealing Christ within them, Who, in turn, is sealed by the Father—”for Him hath God the Father sealed” (Jn. 6:27).

Pentecost is true rest in the Triune God and His sealed covenant of grace. Though this experiential rest is rare in our days, God will never utterly remove it from His Church. He will still grace a remnant of His remnant with David’s bold confession: “He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure” (II Sam. 23:5). In this covenant, the Son not only rests in the Father’s love, but the Father also rests in the Son’s love. Moreover, both the Father and Son rest in the Spirit’s effectual love for the elect, while the Spirit rests in the Father’s choosing love and the Son’s redeeming love.

How can there be a deeper rest on earth than resting in the very love and sovereignty in which God Himself has rested within Himself from eternity, as Zephaniah tells us: “He rests in His love” (3:17)?

Blessed are they who may be included in this pentecostal outpouring: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Indeed, the gospel-beat of Pentecost is that this filling is for empty vessels, for bankrupt sinners.

May God make room through the mighty rushing wind and purging fire of His Spirit in our hearts for the feast of fulfillment by emptying us of all that is not Him.

Rev. J. R. Beeke

JESUS ASCENDED

He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. Ephesians 4:10

Before Paul speaks of the height to which Christ ascended, he shows us the depth to which Christ descended. His descending to hell preceded His ascending to heaven! For He Who as well as the Father has heaven for His throne and the earth for His footstool, freely left the place of His glory to sojourn on this earth.

How low He stooped, for He was laid on a handful of straw in a manger. And that was not the whole of it, for His entire sojourn here on earth was one long descent. He sank lower and lower. He was despised, abused, reviled, and disdained as a glutton and a winebibber! And He descended even deeper! For see how He creeps as a worm in the dust in Gethsemane, with strong crying and tears to His Father, while the earth was soaked with blood that in the anguish of His soul was forced out of His pores.

Then He was apprehended, led before the judge, cast out of the camp, and nailed to the cursed cross. He was numbered with the transgressors. Worse still! He descended to hell when He, cast into outer darkness, cried out: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He descended into hell, yea, into the lowest parts of the earth, for He was laid in the grave.

And what shall we say more? Who can fathom the depth of His descent? Who can understand that He entered into the fire of God’s wrath that burned against the sins of all mankind in order that a people who were guilty of death, who deserved to sink away eternally under that full wrath, might be plucked as a brand out of the fire? What a sweet Gospel that becomes for people whom the Holy Spirit has taught that they are lying in the midst of death, and that they can never climb up to God out of the depth of their misery! Oh, what a sweet secret it is when that is explained in their hearts that Christ was willing to descend into the deepest depth of their misery to lift them up and to reinstate them into fellowship with God! For He Who had descended into the lowest part of the earth, did not remain there. He has ascended far above all heavens. If He had remained in that depth, there would have been no hope of deliverance. Then we would all sink away into the eternal night of death! But He that descended is the same also that ascended. After having finished all that was necessary to save a generation that had fallen dead, He ascended. After having quenched for His people the fire of God’s wrath, He is exalted in glory. As the mighty God of Jacob He arose out of the depth of death. He rent the jaws of death apart, having destroyed him that had the power of death. And when He had risen from the dead, and had appeared to His own, He immediately spoke of His ascension. I ascend to My Father and to your Father, to My God and to your God! And He is ascended! The same Christ! He Who shed His blood in the court, as the true Highpriest, entered with His blood through the rent veil into the Holy of Holies, into the heaven of glory to appear in the presence of God for us!

Indeed, the same that descended also ascended. No, the ascension is no cunningly devised fable. The disciples have seen it with their own eyes. In spite of all the theories of unbelief, that do not want to know of a physical ascension, as if that would be impossible, Scripture tells us that Christ rose higher and higher, through the heaven of clouds, through the heaven of stars, and far above the heavens to the heaven of glory, there to be seated at the right hand of the Father, and to be clothed with the glory His Father had promised Him. Indeed, the same that descended has also ascended. By His ascension He has not only brought our soul and body into heaven, but He also opened heaven which we by our sins had closed. And out of this opened heaven God’s loving favor descends into the hearts of His children. In Him those who are guilty of death can partake again of fellowship with God! Oh, come then, guilty ones, you who are standing afar off, while your hearts pant after God, as the hart pants after the water brooks, behold this Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels, but now is crowned with glory and honor. Is He not fairer than the children of men? Grace is poured into His lips. To Him is also given all power in heaven and on earth. All things are put under His feet. Yea, ascension day is the coronation day of Christ.

As He was anointed by His Father to be King upon God’s holy hill of Zion, so now He ascends His throne. What joy there must have been among the angels and the saints in heaven when Christ made His entrance into the courts of heaven. As the angels sang when the foundations of the earth were laid, and as they sang when Christ was born in Bethlehem’s manger, so now they also must have sung, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” More than otherwise heaven must have resounded with “Alleluja”. What must it have been for the glorified saints when they saw the triumphant Immanuel enter, Who before had descended for them into the lowest parts of the earth! They must have sung, “Thou, O Lamb of God, hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, and therefore Thou art worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing!” Yea, everyone who may enter heaven and see the Lord crowned with glory, shall fill heaven with the sound of rejoicing! Even on earth God’s children may taste the first fruits of that eternal joy when by faith they may behold their Lord and King. And though they can only see Him from far, it causes God’s people to fall at His feet to worship Him. So overpowering is that vision that there is as it were no spirit left in them!

But how great shall their worship and joy be when they shall see Him as He is, face to face!

But for what purpose has Christ ascended? That He might fill all things. He has gone to fulfill His promise. Has He not said, “It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you”? What great value the ascension of Christ then has! For if the Holy Spirit were not there, the work of Christ would be in vain. It is the Spirit that quickens dead sinners. He stops them and drives them to their knees, so that they cry out, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” It is the Holy Spirit Who opens the eyes for Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He makes Him more and more precious, lovely, and necessary, so that they cry, “Hear my never-ceasing cry, Give me Christ, or else I die.”

It is the Holy Spirit Who makes the totally lost sinner a partaker of Christ so that as an enemy, he is reconciled with God by the blood of the Lamb. It is also that Spirit Who testifies with our spirit, that we are the children of God. He causes them to stand fast in the glorious liberty of the children of God, and causes them to seek those things which are above where Christ is. Is the ascension of Christ then not a great blessing? Certainly. Christ may not be with them any more bodily, but with respect to His Godhead, majesty, grace and Spirit, He is at no time absent from us.

Indeed, Christ in heaven is the Fulfiller of all things. For in Him is an inexhaustible fulness, and out of that fulness God’s children are supplied so that they receive grace for grace! Thus He fulfills all their needs for body and soul. When they think they shall perish, He fills them with strength and might. When they are envious at the foolish, seeing the prosperity of the wicked, He leads them into the sanctuary, and gives them patience to run with patience the race that is set before them.

No, the children of God cannot complain about His ministry. He remembers them for good before the throne. He exercises His threefold office for their salvation. As prophet He shows them the path of life, and gives them sweet introductions into the truth. As priest He intercedes continually for them that their faith fail not. And as King He governs them by His Spirit and Word, and protects them from all the enemies that seek their destruction. Thus He fulfills His Word, “I will guide thee with Mine eye.”

Yes, He is with all His children unto the end of the world. Oh, what a glorious King the church has in heaven, a King Who will not rest until the last of the elect has been brought in. For also this word He shall fulfill: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, that you also may be where I am.” Yes, one day the entire church of God shall be delivered out of all their warfare, and of all their sin, and shall be where He is. Soon, people of God, when you have served the will of God, you shall hear, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Then they shall always be with the Lord. Then He shall wash all tears from their eyes. Then He shall lead them to the living fountains of waters. Be not discouraged, oppressed people. He shall fulfill all things. With Him you will never be disappointed. He shall guide you with His counsel, and afterward receive you to glory. Then, yes, then He shall truly fulfill all things, for then He shall be all in all.

Amersfoort

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Mark 8:36–37.

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