THE HOLY SPIRIT IS POURED OUT ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST.
Acts 2: 33
A Pentecost sermon by:
Rev. L. Roth
PUBLISHED BY THE
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.
(April 2008)
LITURGY:
Votum
Psalter 421: 1, 3, 5
Law of God
Psalter 390: 1, 3
Scripture Reading: Acts 2: 1 – 8, 29 – 36
Text: Acts 2: 33
“Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having
Received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He had shed
Forth this, which ye now see and hear.”
Congregational Prayer
Offerings
Psalter 240: 1, 2, 3
Sermon
Psalter 163
Thanksgiving Prayer
Psalter 263
Doxology: Psalter 357: 3
Acts 2:33 The Holy Spirit is Poured Out on the Day of Pentecost
Beloved Congregation.
Today we are privileged to celebrate Pentecost. This term was a very well known one to the average Israelite. The name speaks of the great blessings of the Lord. It means fiftieth, pointing to the great deeds of the Lord in behalf of His people. Yes, it was the fiftieth day after Israel had been delivered from the bondage of Egypt that the Lord gathered His people at Sinai and made a covenant with them, joining His name to their name as a nation. Pentecost was a feast of deliverance for the people of God. Israel became bride of God. Yes, congregation, in spite of the billowing smoke and lightening on Sinai’s top the soft whisper of God’s love could be heard in the preamble of the Ten Words of the Covenant, I am the Lord Thy God that hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage. Pentecost! Truly a meaningful day also for the Old Testament Church. For on the fiftieth day of the new growing season Israel was to bring the first fruits of the harvest unto the Lord. At this time the first loaves of the new harvest were brought before the Lord in the Temple. Pentecost was a celebration of the great deeds of the Lord.
Well now, let us seek to understand the significance of this special day for the Church today from the words of our text under the following theme, THE HOLY SPIRIT IS POURED OUT ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST. In the first place let us consider The Source of Pentecost. Secondly, let us regard The Promise of Pentecost. Thirdly let us examine The Power of Pentecost. And finally let us consider The Fruit of Pentecost.
In the first place we consider The Source of Pentecost. You will remember congregation, that when the Lord Jesus told His disciples that He was going to go away that He also promised them that He would send the other Comforter to them Who would lead and guide them into all truth, bringing all things to their remembrance and that He would abide with them forever. And so, when the exalted Lord Jesus had indeed ascended up into heaven from their midst they returned to Jerusalem to await the fulfillment of the Savior’s own promise. The other Comforter would come not many days hence.
And so they were gathered together in prayer, earnestly praying that the Lord would indeed be mindful of them.
Well now, as we all know from the first dozen verses or so of our text Chapter, the Holy Spirit came with power from above, as a mighty rushing wind, with cloven tongues like as of fire. And the multitude of Pentecost feast celebrants from various places were given to hear the wonderful works of God in their own tongue as the Holy Spirit gave the Apostles utterance. What an amazing development this indeed was! And when this extraordinary event was being slighted by enemies of the Gospel, the Apostle Peter, filled with the Spirit declared the matter as it really was. Just listen to what he says in our text, Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, Hehath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. Who is the ‘He’ referred to in our text? None other than the Lord Jesus! In the former verse he declared, This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. And so the ‘He’ of our text refers to none other than Jesus of Nazareth, a man Who was sent among you. The whole idea of being sent makes one think back to the manger, where the love of God was displayed. God sent forth His only begotten Son...He hath shed forth this.
Yes, beloved, according to the eternal counsel of God’s good pleasure, God the Father sent forth His only begotten Son to be born to die on the cross. He paid the redemption price for sinners in shedding His blood. Yes. He, Who suffered and died, but was raised again on the third day from the dead and highly exalted at His right hand, He has returned to His heavenly home with the bounty of His labors, the saving of many souls. And that is what Pentecost is all about. Surely no one here thinks of Pentecost separate from the work of Christ? For redemption not only had to be supplied and accomplished, but it also has to be applied. For the Spirit of Pentecost, congregation, gives real light upon the great deeds of God. The Spirit focuses upon the work of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit would not have come if Christ had not been highly exalted. Through His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus has earned the Spirit.
And therefore the fact of New Testament Pentecost is all due to Christ. He, with the Father is the source, the fountain head of the Spirit. All spiritual blessings flow forth from the Father and the Son through the Holy Ghost. Oh what a wonderful fount of blessing! The Spirit of Christ has come to bear witness to the beautiful work of Christ.
Well now, have you seen that already dear friends, that Christ Jesus, in His all sufficiency and His glory is the one and only source of every blessing, also for your soul? It is one thing to confess that the precious Savior and His righteousness is our one and only hope for the future, but, how does that cardinal truth function in your and my heart and life? That’s the question. The only real answer to that question, dear friends, is that the work of Christ be applied to our heart and life by the power of the Spirit, the other Comforter. For without His enlightening power and His efficacious power by which all things are made entirely new in our hearts and lives, beloved, you may be able to say that the Lord Jesus is the Savior, but His work does not really function in your life, beloved. Did the Lord not say through His servant the Prophet already in the Old Testament, Not by power nor by might, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. And the longer that you are on the road of salvation the more convinced you are of this vital truth, isn’t that right people of God? You know, near the end of his life the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians, That I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection. Oh yes, God’s servant knew where his only hope lay. But oh to experience the power of it again in his heart and life. That’s what he was longing for. For thereby the work of Christ would be confirmed in his heart and life by renewal.
Yes, beloved, Christ is the highly exalted One on the right hand of the Father. And so the Holy Spirit leads a people from Bethlehem’s manger, to Golgotha, to the open sepulcher of Joseph of Arimethea even unto an open heaven where Christ is the exalted Lord. For when He went to heaven the Lord Jesus was crowned by His Father with honor and glory. But the Spirit will glorify Christ as well. For He has been purchased by the Savior’s precious blood that speaketh of things far better than that of Abel.
And by that blessed Spirit of Christ, sinners as you and I are, can be made wise unto salvation dear friends. That’s our one and only hope. The Lord Jesus has not only laid down His life a sacrifice for sin thereby earning salvation and cleansing, but He has also purchased the earnest of the Spirit through which a people are given newness of life, by which their hearts are set upon the things above and no longer on the things which are from below. How great, how beautiful that work is when sinners who are in darkness are given divine light from above. This brings us secondly to The Promise of Pentecost.
The Apostle Peter has guided his hearers’ thoughts to consider the Lord Jesus Who had been wickedly slain by the Jews but Who also was raised from the dead and ascended unto heaven. The Lord Jesus became the highly exalted One at the right hand of God the Father. Every act of salvation has its origins in heaven. And that is no different when it comes to Pentecost. Just look at our text, And having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost. This is a remarkable expression, the promise of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit was promised by the Father. And here now we read that the Lord Jesus receives the Spirit from the Father. The Son receives the Spirit as payment for His work of redemption. In a sense, God the Father has already received the redemption price for sin ten days earlier when Christ ascended into heaven. And during those ten days the Lord Jesus has prayed for the coming of the Spirit. Just listen to what we read in John 14:16, And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. And that Comforter would come only after the Lord Jesus had left His disciples permanently.
Yes, beloved, here we see the unity of the Father and the Son. In silent adoration we can only stand amazed that the blessed Trinity worked in such harmony and unity for the eternal wellbeing of sinners as we are. The Spirit’s actual work is a most wonderful thing. But the fact that God the Father Who is all glorious in Himself and that God the Son would be so willing to have dealings with such sinners as we are through the blessed Spirit is so amazing.
And in this unity between the Father and the Son we see how that the agreement made in the Council of Peace has been fulfilled. And so we see that both in heaven and upon earth, earnest prayer for the Spirit was now being made for the His coming according to the promise of God. Yes, now the time has come. Pentecostal joy fills heaven as God the Son receives the Spirit from His Father. These are the deep things of God. These things cannot be received except by faith. My friends, do you pray for the Spirit through the Spirit of Christ, knowing that that blessed Spirit is a gift of God which we cannot just claim to ourselves? How necessary to receive this promise as God’s gift.
And to that end, Pentecost also reveals to us an interceding High Priest. The Lord Jesus had promised His followers that the other Comforter would come not many days hence. And so we see that there is an interceding High Priest in heaven and a praying congregation upon earth. And these are the prayers which God the Father also hears. Oh yes I know, our prayers are not able to effect anything; they are powerless in themselves. And yet they are an important aspect in the life of faith. For, it is through the prayers of the Lord Jesus for the Spirit that the vitality and power of prayer is felt by God’s people in their life. Just as there is none righteous, none who seek God of their own accord, without the power of the Holy Spirit,prayer remains nothing more but an empty shell. But by the Holy Spirit’s power and grace, beloved, sinners as we all are may receive life and a blessed interest in the work of the Lord Jesus. And so through the Spirit of Pentecost the bride of Christ experiences real union with her beloved Savior. And that is why the Church of the living God lives and longs for Pentecostal blessings again and again according to the Lord’s own beautiful promise.
Christ has received the promise of the Spirit from God the Father and the Son has been given the authority and power to send that other Comforter to the Church upon earth. And that is why, congregation, there is a people whose hearts, whose affections, are set upon the things from above.
By the grace of the Spirit, they know that all their hopes, all their expectations, all their desires can only be fulfilled in and through the prince of Peace, the suffering Servant of God, the Lord Jesus. Yes, the Spirit guarantees and assures us, that God lives, that He rules and reigns! And that can be our one and only comfort as we go through life and face challenges, trials,and disappointments. But more importantly, the God of all grace is our only hope and refuge when it comes to the need of our soul.
Have you already become convinced of that, dear friends? Is your heart lifted up unto the Lord Jesus, the Prophet, Priest and King of His Church from whence your help must come? Seek His grace daily, beloved, while it is the time of grace. Do not put your need aside for one day, for one hour. But call upon the name of the Lord, pleading His mercy, His forgiving grace and the fulfillment of His promise of the Spirit’s grace and power. And may that same power be your continual longing and need again and again by the Spirit’s grace people of God. For it is not by power nor by might but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. To that end may we thirdly also look for The Power of Pentecost as we make our way through this life.
Returning to the words of our text, Peter declares, He, referring to Christ hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. He hath shed this forth. Let this fact sink into your mind and heart, beloved. We saw that Christ has received the Spirit from the Father to send to His Bride, the Church. And yet, it was also Christ Who earned the Spirit through His substitutionary, atoning work as the Lamb of God. Someone once put it like this. On the day of Pentecost we see the flaming wine of the Holy Spirit flowing forth out of the crushed cluster of Christ’s suffering and death. You see, the Lord Jesus does not keep the gift of the Holy Spirit to Himself. He pours out the Spirit as our text also indicates. And this especially illustrates the reality of Pentecost.
You see, while the Holy Spirit was indeed working among the people of God during the Old Testament era, in comparison to HisPentecostal outpouring, this work was merely like a trickle. It was also indeed true then, As many as were led by the Spirit, were the children of God. No doubt about that. Then too, the Spirit worked among the faithful. Just read the Psalms. They are full of God’s dealings with His people. We hear the cry of needy sinners. We hear their confession of their sin but also their joy in the God of their salvation. Wherever the God the Holy Spirit was moving, a people were being taught the way of life eternal.
Well now, the Spirit of grace, of prayer, and of prophesy was also experienced by Old Testament believers; no question about that. Just turn to Hebrews 11 where we read the testimony of their faith worked by the same Spirit of God. However, they did not have the full administering of the Spirit in which He was poured out. That does not mean that we should slight the day of small things, not at all. But certainly, after Christ had suffered and died and raised again from the dead as Peter indicated in his sermon, the Holy Spirit would bear witness to this perfect work of reconciliation. And He will continue to perform His work unto the end of time, until the great Day of the Lord.
Oh how blessed when the Holy Spirit convinces you of the need of your soul, beloved. For that is a token of the fact that God lives. How blessed when the Spirit leads and guides you to find refuge in the Redeemer, the Lamb of God. Oh how precious are those moments when the Word comes with power from above so that you are led to seek refuge in the Man of Sorrows. While it causes us pain to be emptied of our unrighteousnesses how beautiful when the Balm of Gilead is poured out into such a stripped soul. Oh how blessed when the Spirit grants the gift of faith so that all your hope and expectation is upon the suffering Surety, the Lord Jesus. Oh, beloved, do we know something of these things in our hearts and lives? Are they the continual desire of your heart? Is your constant prayer, Lord help me, Lord have mercy upon me, Lord visit me with Thy grace and salvation.