Pentecost—And Today

Message preached by Dr. J. Sidlow Baxter at The Moody Church on Sunday, July 5, 1953.

When the first preachers of the Gospel went through the Roman Empire, 2000 years ago, they could not sow the seed of Christian truth upon virgin soil. The ground was already full of other growths. Everywhere that those first heralds of the Cross made their way, they found men’s minds full of religious and philosophical ideas; and the famous so-called “Mystery” religions had penetrated into practically every part of the Roman dominion. Some of these old-time religions, in their doctrines of the taurobolium, or redemption through blood-shedding, bore strange likenesses to the new Christian message; and in not a few other particulars they shared striking likenesses to the Christian evangel.

But there was one feature about the new message of the Gospel which at once fundamentally differentiated between it and all other faiths. It was the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And what is the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit? It is nothing less than this, that the very life of God Himself which was historically incarnated in the historical Lord Jesus is now imparted by the Holy Spirit to all who became savingly united to Christ.

It was this which differentiated between Christianity and all merely man-made faiths long ago; and it is this which vitally divides between Christianity and all other faiths today. Christianity is not merely a creed, or a code, or a philosophy, or a system of ethics, or a scheme of theology; it is a life—a life which, if a man possess it not, he is dead while he lives; but which, if a man possess it, he lives even though the body may die. It is, we repeat, the very life of God first revealed in Jesus Christ, and now imparted to the soul of the Christian believer.

Pentecost, A Spiritual Culmination

Pentecost was a spiritual culmination. What was the first communication which our Lord made to the eleven disciples after His resurrection? We are told that He “breathed on them, and said unto them: Receive ye the Holy Spirit”—as though our dear Lord Himself was anxious to tell them without delay the wonderful fruits of His atoning death and resurrection. What was the last thing that our Lord said to the disciples before He ascended to heaven? It was this: “Ye shall be immersed in the Holy Spirit not many days hence.”

What was the first thing that our Lord did after His ascension to heaven? Peter shall tell us. He says, “He, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promised Holy Spirit, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.”

And what was the first promise which Christianity ever made to men when it came out onto the platform of publicity? It was this: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

And once again, what was the first test in apostolic days when it would be ascertained whether a person was truly a Christian believer or not? Paul’s question to the twelve Ephesian professed believers shows us at once. He asks them, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” All these things show us at once that this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit, and of the wonderful new life which He imparts is that to which all else leads in the Gospel of Christ. It was to bring us this superlatively precious and wonderful gift that our Lord suffered for us and rose again and returned to the Father.

Pentecost—A Dispensational Consummation

Pentecost is the outcome of ages-long dispensational preparation. In imagination, go back for a moment to the Garden of Eden. Over that brief but beautiful dispensation of innocence we may write: “God with man.”

Soon, alas, there followed the sorry tragedy of the Fall; but after the expulsion of our first parents from Eden, did God utterly forsake them? No; in gracious condescension He began to reveal Himself to the first fathers of the race; and over the patriarchal dispensation we may write: “God to men.”

Then follows the period of the Israelite theocracy; and God instructs Moses to make a tabernacle “that I may dwell among my people.” Over that theocratic period we may write: “God among men.”

Alas, there now ensues the unhappy history, apostasy, and eventual disintegration of the two Israel kingdoms; but amid the national downgrade God raises up that mighty succession of messengers known to us as the Hebrew prophets; and over the period of the prophets we may write: “God through men.”

Next, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His own Son; and over that matchless life, from Bethlehem to Olivet, we may write: “God as Man.”

Do you see how through the ages God has been seeking to come nearer and still nearer to the heart and love of man? Think back again over this dispensational development—God with man, God to men, God among men, God throughmen, God as Man.

Yet even that is not enough. God would come closer still. And so we find our Lord, toward the end of His earthly ministry, speaking such words as the following to His disciples: “At that day (i.e. Pentecost) ye shall know that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, and ye in Me and I in you.” And again He says, “If a man love me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him; and we will come unto him, and make our abode within him.” Oh, what a wonderful privilege is ours to be alive in this dispensation of the Holy Spirit!

Oh, gift of gifts, Oh, grace of grace,
That God should condescend
To make my heart his dwelling place,
And be my daily Friend.

Pentecost In Spiritual Realization

Now it is the privilege of every blood-bought Christian believer not only to be “born of the Spirit” but to be “filled by the Spirit.” And when we become thus monopolized by the Spirit, two things invariably follow. There are many other results besides these two; in fact, results vary in varying temperaments; but the two things which we here have in mind invariably happen with all who become thus filled with the Holy Spirit.

First, there comes a wonderful new consciousness of Christ. Our Lord said, “Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” So that our Lord’s presence is an abiding reality. But it is the Holy Spirit who makes His presence a realized reality. Our Lord said of the Holy Spirit, “He shall abide with you forever.” The literal Greek is, “He shall abide with you for the age.” See, then, the parallel,—“I am with you always, to the end of the age”—“He shall abide with you for the age.” When our hearts become filled with the Holy Spirit, it is not long before we find ourselves breaking out into such songs as—

Lord, thou hast made Thyself to be
A living bright reality,
More present to faith’s vision keen
Than any earthly object seen,
More dear, more intimately nigh,
Than e’en the closest human tie.

The second thing which always happens when we become filled with the Holy Spirit is that there comes a new conception of prayer. When the Spirit monopolizes us the prayer life is transformed. The New Testament ideal for the believer’s prayer life is that which is given us in Ephesians, chapter 3, verse 20, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us...”

That is the sevenfold ideal for prayer. Why, then, is there such a miserable contrast between that ideal and the actual experience of many of us? It is because we pay insufficient attention to that qualifying clause, “according to the power that worketh in us,”—which, of course, refers to the Holy Spirit.

If we would see this kind of pentecostal praying in operation, we only need to turn to the fourth chapter of the Acts. It says, “when they had prayed...”—and then follow seven results:—(1) “the place was shaken”—i.e. the manifested presence of God. (2) “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” (3) “they spake the word of God with boldness.” (4) “the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul”—i.e. true Christian unity. (5) “with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection.” (6) “great grace was upon them all” (7) “neither was there any among them that lacked.”

Think of it—the manifested presence of God, filled with the Spirit, speaking the Word of God with boldness, true Christian unity, witnessing with power to a risen Saviour, great grace upon them all, and not one among them lacking anything. Why, if there were prayer like that throughout the evangelical churches of America, it would not be long before the Lord’s army went forth again with various banners, prevailing upon the masses of the nation for the cause of Christ and truth.

And instead of bemoaning our numerical paucity and spiritual poverty, there would be the glorious springtime of pentecostal revival. Oh that you and I, through an unreserved self-dedication to our dear Master, may know increasingly in our own experience not only the new life imparted by the Holy Spirit but His transforming fulness.

When our God beholds us there,
Wrestling in the place of prayer,
Then the tide of battle turns,
Then the flame of conquest burns.
Then the faltering wail of fear
Turns to victorious ringing cheer;
then the flag of truth prevails,
Foe slink back and Satan quails.
Bring us, Lord, oh, bring us there,
Where we learn prevailing prayer.