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Rev. J. Overduin – Acts 2:4a
PENTECOST: THE FEAST OF THE OPENED HEARTS
Acts 2:1-21
Text: Acts 2:4
Psalter 391
Psalter 141:1.3
Psalter 415:2,6,7
Psalter 428:2,10
Psalter 287:1,3
Doxology: Praise God
Beloved Congregation:
On this day of Pentecost we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is celebrated fifty days after Easter. Ascension Day is on the fortieth day after Easter. So, first comes Easter, then Ascension Day and after that Pentecost. That is the order. First Jesus’ resurrection, then his Ascension, and finally the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. These three facts of salvation have something great in common; whatever differences there may be for the rest. But they have this in common, namely, that every time something was opened! Have you ever thought of that before?
At Easter the grave was opened, the grave of the Lord Jesus. On Ascension Day heaven was opened, into which Jesus was taken up, and on the day of Pentecost the hearts were opened; the hearts of all those who were filled with the Holy Ghost.
That is easy to remember, is it not? The three feast days mentioned speak to us of the opened grave, the opened heaven and opened hearts.
But then we are also at the same time reminded of three places that were shut. Three places which no one was able to open. The grave was shut - who could open it? Heaven was shut, who could open it? The hearts were shut, who could open them? The grave does not give back its dead. Heaven does not let in the sinner. The hearts of men, as they are by nature, give no place to God.
But all this has become totally different after Christ has risen from the dead in the garden of Arimathea; after the exalted Savior ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives; after the hearts were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Yes, Easter is the feast of the opened grave. Strictly speaking, the whole earth is a grave, a large grave. And into that grave men disappear - generation after generation, for centuries already. O, how many people have already been buried in that earth. That earth - what a cemetery it is. Millions, billions of people have been laid in it. Ashes to ashes, earth-to-earth, dust to dust. And not one of the dead comes out of the earth, except in a few special wonderful cases, mentioned in the Bible. But for the rest, death is universal. “For I know,” says Job “that Thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.” (Job 30:23). That house is the grave. “By one man,” says Paul “sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”. (Rom. 5:12)
But Christ could say- and He alone could say it - as we read in Revelation 8:18: “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore!” He will never return to earth anymore to be buried in the earth. We know that Lazarus, for instance, was raised up by Christ. But Lazarus died again. Christ however, who arose in His own strength, did not die again.
Who does not know about that opened grave in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea? The great wonder of Easter Sunday morning? The grave of Jesus, Who died, and Who also rose again? Who also will give life once again to the mortal bodies of all who have loved Him, at the last day? Because Christ has been raised from the dead as the first fruits of them that slept, because He was raised again for their justification, therefore we may say of all God’s children, that they are sleeping in an open grave. The grave of all God’s children has an exit to life! Martha also knew that. Martha, who was so sorrowful because her brother Lazarus had died. We read about that in John 11:23-26: “Jesus saith unto her, ‘thy brother shall rise again’. Martha saith unto Him, ‘I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day’. Jesus said unto her, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believeth thou this’?”
Ascension Day is the day of the opened heaven. The one thing is the result of the other. Because Easter is the feast of the opened grave, therefore Ascension Day is the feast of the opened heaven. Heaven is shut to sinners. That heaven, so we read in Revelation 21:27, “there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.” We are all as an unclean thing.” (Isa. 64:6) From the sole of the foot unto the head we are defiled with sin. How could we live in heaven, where it is so light, purer than the light of the sun, whiter than snow? The spotless light there would consume the unclean person. In heaven, the perfection of beauty (Ps. 50:2), there is only room for holy ones. That is why there was room there for Christ, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. But now, thanks to this Christ, there is also room in that heaven for all those who are sanctified in Christ. It says in Isaiah 33:24 “the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.”
Well then, Pentecost is the feast of the opened hearts. Our text tells us: “and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,” or “the Holy Spirit.” This is said not only of the apostles, but also of the other believers, who were gathered with them. In Acts 1:14 we read “the disciples continued (In an upper room in Jerusalem) with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.” The number of names together was about a hundred and twenty. That was on Ascension Day.
But the disciples have now apparently moved down from the upper room to an open place in the city, possibly within the temple area, where a crowd assembled. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Their bodies and their souls became on that day temples of the Holy Spirit. That is, those twelve apostles, and all the other believers who were assembled with them. For a long time they had already experienced the operations of the Holy Spirit. But now the “other Comforter” came to dwell in their hearts. They now received the indwelling, the abiding indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
That is what is lasting. For we may not forget, that on the day of Pentecost there was something, which was passing, and something, which was lasting. What was passing were those outward signs of wind and fire and speaking with other tongues. Those outward signs only served to show that the Spirit has really been poured out. Therefore we should not want those signs back. What is lasting is this: that from that time the Holy Spirit came to dwell in His Church and made His Church a new entity: the body of Christ. On the day of Pentecost a new period begins. The Church breaks away from the people of Israel and begins a new life. The Church also breaks away from the Old Testament dispensation, and lives through the Holy Spirit. From this time the Holy Spirit lives in the Church, guides her and performs in her midst wonders of regeneration, conversion and faith in Christ.
Now the important thing for each and everyone of us is: do I personally know that gracious work of the Holy Spirit in my heart and life, am I led by the Spirit? “For,” says Paul in Romans 8:14, “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Our text says: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”
We have to understand that this was something very special, namely, that they were “filled” with the Holy Spirit. To be “filled” with the Holy Spirit means that all our own desires are pressed out, as it were, from our hearts, and that only the Holy Spirit dwells there. That is something so great, and so glorious, that it only happens occasionally. Even the disciples received it only a few times. In every day life they were not always “filled,” as they were on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem. But yet the Spirit always dwelt in them; the Spirit was always leading them. However, we are “filled” with the Holy Spirit only at very special high moments, when God considers it to be necessary.
To be “filled” with the Holy Spirit is actually a little foretaste of heaven, where God will be “all in all.” (1 Cor. 15:28) Therefore, as I said before, the important thing for each and every one of us personally is this: does the Holy Spirit dwell in you? Are you led by the Spirit?
Since Pentecost is the feast of the opened hearts I can also ask it this way: Do you have an opened heart? A Lydia’s heart? A heart in which the Father has prepared a place for Himself through the Son, by the Holy Spirit? Do you believe that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit? Is the love of God in you, as a token that also the life of God is in you?
Pentecost is the feast of the opened hearts. And therefore Pentecost is really only a feast for those who possess the great gift of an opened heart. An opened heart is the opposite of a heart that is shut. That is a heart without any exit to God, to the living God: a heart that does not know the secret of the forty-second Psalm: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God!” But how different is that with an opened heart! An opened heart drinks in the things of the Spirit of God, as the opened flower drinks in the dew of heaven and the light of the sun. An opened heart is a heart, which has been opened by the Lord Himself. In Acts 16: 14 we read: “ the Lord opened Lydia’s heart, that she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul.” That opening of the heart is a great wonder. We cannot understand God’s wonders. But the Lord opened Lydia’s heart by means of the Word, which was spoken by Paul. In the living word of the Gospel the personal, living God met Lydia, and Lydia personally met God. In Paul’s voice she heard God’s voice, which said to her: “Lydia, you are lost! Lydia, Jesus died for sinners such like you. Lydia! I am your God, the only true Savior of sinners!” The Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of life, He opened Lydia’s heart. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” (Rev. 3:20) Jesus Himself opened the door, and came in to sup with her, and she with Him! Lydia also opened the door, so that the King of glory should come in. That was the work of the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul was led by the Spirit to Philippi. When Paul came there, the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, inclined Lydia’s heart unto God’s heart. After first the Word had been led to Lydia, He guided Lydia into the truth of the Word, convinced her of her sin, and glorified Christ before her. O, it is all of God and through God and to God.
An opened heart - dear congregation, young and old, may such an opened heart be something very desirable to you! Pray that you may have such a heart. In a simple lesson booklet of the late Reverend Ledeboer, for little children, the question is asked: “Must we pray for the Holy Spirit?” The answer to that question says: “Yes.” “Do we have good grounds for that?” The answer says: “Yes, in our baptism.”
O, what a solid ground that is to plead upon. It is the ground of God’s own Word and promise, signified and sealed to you in Holy Baptism: “The heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.” (Luke 11:13) Oh, do not rest before you know that it has become Pentecost in your heart. Do not rest, before you know that you may have such an opened heart. For an opened heart, an opened grave, and an opened heaven - these three cannot be separated one from another. Does someone ask: “But can I know that: that I have received the Holy Spirit, and that He has opened my heart?”
Yes, you can know that! When that Spirit of the Lord comes to dwell in you, and when He has opened your heart, that was shut, then great consequences will result from it. And then you also know that.
Through the Word, the Spirit works in you a growing and genuine consciousness of your sin. He works a wholesome unrest in your heart. He moves you to flee to Christ, to be cleansed from all unrighteousness by His blood. He leads you to long for the benefits obtained by Christ. He teaches you to rely on God’s grace in Christ. He teaches you to love Him in sincerity. He causes you to hate sin and flee from it, and to follow holiness, “without which no man shall see the Lord.” (Heb. 12:14) He also teaches you through the means of grace to be assured of it that you have been made a partaker of Christ and so to make your calling and election sure. At Pentecost, therefore, the question may not be kept back: “Did the Holy Spirit also open your heart? Has the Spirit also been given to you personally?” “For,” as the apostle Paul says in Romans 8:14: “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” And before that, in verse 9, he had said: “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His...”
Yes, the Lord must open our hearts - and then the Lord will also fill that opened heart. “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,” says our text. Filled with all the grace of Christ to the glory of the Father.
It may be possible that someone says: “I have a feeling, that with me it is just the other way round. I feel emptiness within me. I am afraid that I still lack everything, and that my work is not in truth.” But remember then: if you truly pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and if that Spirit opens your heart - yes, for the Lord hears and answers prayer - do you know what will happen then? Then you willbe emptied! Then what you are lacking will be uncovered to you. Then you will begin to feel that emptiness within you. Then you learn to see, that by nature your heart is shut, and that you are under the destructive leadership of the spirit of the bottomless pit, that is: the prince of darkness. As long as we are under his leadership, we will do the lusts of that father, the devil. Then we are full of everything that is from beneath: full of sinful desires, full of all that is ours and also full of our own righteousness and piety. Then there is, of course, no room for the Holy Spirit. Full of the world and of sin, full of ourselves, that is: without God!
Therefore we must be emptied. And that is a painful thing. To give up so much that is dear to us, to let go what we have held on to for such a long time. We do not do that so easily. But the Lord goes on, also with His work of emptying us. He knows how to make us poor and needy. So it comes, as it was with the lost son in the parable, to the cry of distress, which rises from a broken and a contrite heart: “I perish with hunger!”
But He Who empties will also fill. This is already experienced in first and small beginnings, those first consolations and enjoyments are already so great. Then you feel so full of the goodness of God that your heart and your mouth are filled with joy in the Lord. But if the gifts of the Holy Spirit, even the first beginnings, already fill your heart in such a way that you must sing of it, how much more then it will be so with you, when it comes home to you, that you may be a partaker of the communion of the Holy Spirit? Then there are indeed such times, which are a little foretaste of heaven! Then you are filled with the Holy Spirit and His blessed comforts: full of joy and filled with peace through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; full of the things, which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.
Those people are really happy and truly rich, who know this spiritual fullness. “For this cause,” so the apostle Paul wrote in his epistle to the Ephesians, in chapter 3:14-19: “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”