THE PRESENCE AND SERVICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
J. M. Macfarlane
Matthew 26: 55, 56; Luke 24: 49, 50; Acts 2: 1–6, 11–13, 32, 33
During recent readings in the early chapters of Revelation, I have had some measure of fresh impression of the significance of the presence and service of the Holy Spirit, as continuing throughout the present dispensation. The passages we have read refer to the striking public force of Christianity at its beginning and describe times of a different kind from those considered in the addresses to the
seven assemblies in Revelation. In these addresses, the epochs through which the church would pass are delineated and, to each of them, the word from the Lord Himself is, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies”, Revelation 3: 23. Sustaining communication from heaven would come through the word of the Spirit of God and is promised right to the end.
I read the passages in Acts 2, because they describe the immense impact of the incoming of the Holy Spirit. Even godless people who read this history acknowledge that something of the greatest significance must have happened between the events described in Matthew 26 and those of Acts 2. A small group of men, who had been devotedly attached to Jesus during the period of His public service, became so overwhelmed by the dreadful circumstances of Matthew 26 that they “left him and fled”, but, within a few weeks, were transformed into the company in which Peter could stand up and speak with such power. The transformation was accomplished by the arrival and activity of the Holy Spirit.
It is useful to remember that these same men had been the witnesses of His resurrection and the effect of this had been profound. Those who had forsaken Him and fled could gather together and He came into the midst. They provided for Him when He asked if they had anything to eat and in what measure they were served by Him as He “opened their understanding to understand the scriptures”. Finally, they were the witnesses of His ascension as He blessed them and “they, having done him homage, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God”, Luke 24: 53.
Death is spoken of as the last enemy and Christ who has died and has taken His life again has triumphed over the last enemy. What challenge can remain to those who were “witnesses of these things”, who had been restored to a close link with One who has risen from among the dead and been blessed by Him as He ascended? How incomparably fortified they must have felt but something further remained—all that they had in consequence of Jesus’ resurrection did not constitute being “clothed with power from on high”. The Holy Spirit was to come in consequence of Jesus’ request to His Father, according to John and, according to Luke, He comes as “the promise of my Father upon you”. The testimony to the resurrection of Jesus would be at the heart of the disciples’ message as they publicly proclaimed the gospel but their empowerment would depend entirely on the Holy Spirit. They are not told precisely when the Holy Spirit would come; it would be unmistakable when it happened.
Acts 2 gives the account of the advent of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, they were all together in one place. They had been scattered when the Shepherd was smitten, according to the prophetic word, but He who was the Shepherd had risen from among the dead and had served them during forty days. They had remained in the city, according to His word, and we have here the account of the advent of the Holy Spirit, by the reception of whom they would be “clothed with power from on high”.
The incoming of the Holy Spirit was a historical event. It took place at a particular time as a direct divine action with immediate public consequences, which no one could deny. Peter, in his first epistle, tells us that we should “be always prepared to give an answer to every one that asks you to given an account of the hope that is in you, but with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3: 15), and, in such circumstances, it may be useful to remember that our faith relates to witnessed events in history. Where we finished reading, Peter speaks of “this which ye behold and hear”. There was undeniable public testimony to the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Those who said that they were full of new wine were not present in the house when the Spirit came, but they saw undeniably the consequences.
Someone who is full of new wine cannot speak with the coherence and moral force with which Peter spoke and he identified “this which ye behold and hear” with the Holy Spirit. It is useful to bear in mind that what we believe relates to God’s interventions in history. They are not what Peter refers to in his second epistle as “cleverly imagined fables” (2 Peter 1: 16), usually relating to the impressions of individuals, which fit with the spirit of the times in the arrangements of a humanity out of communion with God. The power of the arrival of the Spirit of God did not promote a particular current of resurgent nationalism, for example; people of virtually every known nationality heard in their “own tongues the great things of God”. Nor did the great event of the day of Pentecost bear relation to any other of the flood tides which have their day in the affairs of men. The book of the Acts is a historical account of apostolic activity, with events unfolding completely independently of the agendas of humanity. Another prominent example of this is the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. One of the reproaches of the godless is that Christianity is simply wishful thinking. Saul’s conversion was as far from wishful thinking as anyone could imagine. The very last thing that Saul wished to become was a Christian and it was while actively persecuting them that he was converted by direct divine intervention.
If the public force of these inaugural Pentecostal days has faded, let us be reminded of the promises in the addresses to the assemblies at the beginning of Revelation. The word of God to the overcomer “that has an ear” is promised by the speaking of the same Spirit to the assemblies, whether in the early days of the persecution of Smyrna, the period of decline and corruption which would follow, in the revival of Philadelphia and even into the deterioration of Laodicea. I trust that a fresh consideration of the magnificence of the power of the Spirit of God will help to promote a sense of firmer establishment with each of us.
Word in meeting for ministry, Dundee
13 January 2004