Pentecost: The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

The outpouring of the Holy Ghost is one of the facts of salvation which has an exceptional significance for the Church. Actually, this is true for all of the facts of salvation, for not one of them can be missed. Without Christmas, we could not speak about Easter, and likewise without Easter no Ascension Day, and if there were no Ascension Day, we could not speak about Pentecost.

Not one human being would have been saved if the Word had not become flesh and lived among us. No hell-worthy sinner would ever have obtained eternal life if Christ had not arisen from the dead. No human being would ever have been placed in the communion with God if the blessed Immanuel had not ascended into heaven to thereby bring His Church home. Neither would the Holy Spirit have been able to come if Christ had not fulfilled all that was necessary for the salvation of lost sinners. When Christ made perfect satisfaction to pay for the

When Christ made perfect satisfaction to pay for the violated attributes of God and entered into the sanctuary not made with hands but into heaven itself to appear before the countenance of God for us, there the Holy Spirit descends upon the day of Pentecost to come and dwell in His Church. This is all now declared in a most excellent manner by Peter who was filled with the Holy Spirit.

He pointed to the fact that Christ made Pentecost come to pass. The multitude who had come together likely thought that Christ still lay in the grave, for they had crucified Him as a criminal and witnessed His death. Yet, He can no longer be found in the grave because God had raised Him from the dead and taken Him up in glory.

Christ, Peter says in our text, was exalted by the right hand of God. God’s right hand is the image of His majesty and omnipotence. His right hand did glorious things, for it placed Christ, who had humbled Himself unto death, as a triumphant King upon His heavenly throne and handed Him the reins of the government of the world. Exalted by God’s right hand, He lives to always be active for the wellbeing of all those that are His. Through Him they may with freedom draw near to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace in time of need.

Exalted by the right hand of God, Christ had received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father. That does not mean that Christ only received the promise of the Holy Spirit after His resurrection; no, but this promise is now fulfilled, for Pentecost is the feast of the fulfilled promise.

What was that promise? That the Holy Spirit would come to continue Christ’s work upon earth until the day of His return upon the clouds of heaven. That Spirit had been promised to Christ by the Father in the stillness of the never-begun eternity when He gave Himself as Substitute for His people. Had He not said to the Son, “Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession”? For this, the Holy Spirit was necessary. By means of this Spirit, Christ would gather His congregation which had been elected to eternal life out of the entire human race.

Christ would lay the foundation of salvation through His death and shedding of blood, and the Holy Spirit would cause the congregation to arise upon that foundation. First Christ had to satisfy the Father’s justice and to pay the ransom for all those who had been given Him of the Father. Afterwards, He would receive the authority to send the Holy Spirit for the salvation of His people.

This Spirit is, therefore, also promised to His disciples by the Lord Jesus and through them to the entire Church of the new dispensation when He spoke, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth.” Just before He ascended into heaven, Christ spoke about it once more with His disciples and expressly commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to await the promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “ye have heard of Me.”

The Spirit has been poured out because of the good pleasure of the Father; it happily goes forward by the hand of Christ to glorify the people of His good pleasure and to have them partake of Christ and all of His benefits. That means not one bought by the blood of Christ can go lost. The Spirit searches for them and regenerates them. He works an unrepentant sorrow after God—a sorrow not to be repented of. It is He, who in His discovering ministration makes place for Christ and His righteousness. He opens the eyes for the Fairest among the sons of man and causes them to experience that grace is poured out upon His lips.

He makes Christ necessary and indispensable so that the sigh is born, “Give me Jesus or I die, for outside of Jesus there is no life but an eternal death of the soul.” Cut off by God’s justice, the soul is assured by the Holy Spirit that his guilt and the punishment has been forgiven for Christ’s sake and that he in Him has a right to eternal life. Yea, the Spirit causes him to embrace that blessed Surety and Mediator so that he calls out in wonderment, “He is mine, and I am His.”

It is this Spirit which assures God’s children of the favor of the Father, who testifies with their spirit that they are children of God and heirs of eternal life.

Oh, what a blessed work by a Triune God, for now the Father again receives His lost child, Christ receives His people as the wages for His Mediatorial work, the Holy Spirit receives His temple, and a hell-worthy people receive salvation.

Salvation is, therefore, out of God, by God, and unto God. It is of this salvation that Peter testifies when he says, “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He has shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” The apostle wishes to say that the wonder tokens of this day are a proof that Christ is truly alive. They tell us of His coronation. What you now see and hear all comes from Him.

The coming of the Holy Spirit preaches unto us that Christ is truly glorified, that He lives and is sitting at the right hand of the Father, clothed with all power and might in heaven and upon earth. Yea, upon the day of Pentecost, it is evident that the exaltation of Christ does not only extend to the glorification of God but also to the salvation of God’s Church.

Has it already become Pentecost for you? Many both heard and saw the tokens but remained who and what they were. How many Pentecost sermons have you already heard, and how has it affected you? Have you already come to need the Holy Spirit? He can break the hardest heart. What a blessing it would be if you would begin to call out with the three thousand, “Men and brethren, what must we do to be saved?”

Are there, perhaps, some who feel unsure about God’s leadings? Oh, that God’s Spirit would bring you to God’s feet as a lost one. Lost ones, He reveals the salvation which is in Christ. Oh, how “your mourning would be turned into dancing.” Yea, may that Spirit glorify Christ in your heart and fill your heart with His grace. May He cause it to be Pentecost for you, whereby you may testify with your spirit that you are children of God, for all those who are led by this Spirit are the children of God. p

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