Dear Friends, by the time you are reading this, we will have recently celebrated Pentecost Sunday in our churches across the land and around the world. Depending on varying theological emphases and worship styles, services on this day will have taken many different expressions, and the sermons will have had a vast range of themes and scriptural interpretations. Unlike Christmas and Easter, this festival of the church seems to present thorny issues for some.
As “a cradle Anglican”, growing up in a Bible-believing, evangelical Anglican church in west Toronto where my dad was the rector, we called this Whitsunday in the British tradition, and it seemed to be much more about the birthday of the Church than it did about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as a fulfillment of the prophecy in Joel, chapter 2. It was the beginning of something two thousand years ago, but with little or no relevance to the spiritual life of the average person in the pews. It certainly did not seem to celebrate the incredible gift of the third member of the Trinity, sent to dwell within every believer in Jesus to empower and embolden us for witness, and to enable us to live supernaturally in obedience to all that Jesus has commanded!
“Sometimes, I feel like we are still in the upper room, obediently awaiting the coming of the promised Comforter.”
Now it is neither my intention nor desire to be controversial in this article. I am neither qualified nor authorized to prescribe a theology of the Holy Spirit that solves all the controversies and curbs the excesses. But because of the controversies over such issues as “when exactly do we receive the Holy Spirit as believers?” or “is speaking in tongues really for today’s church?” it seems that we often relegate the Spirit to a safe place where he is tidily stored in our Trinitarian theology but is rarely heard from or experienced. Sometimes, I feel like we are still in the upper room, obediently awaiting the coming of the promised Comforter. We’ve met the Risen Lord; we are washed in the blood of the Lamb for the forgiveness of sins, but there is very little of the promised “power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” (Acts 1:8) to impact our God-less culture and to see our lives becoming gloriously more victorious over sin. Aren’t we missing something of great importance?
Let me say this again because the implications of this statement are absolutely staggering. Think of it: we have been given the gift of the actual third member of the Trinity – equal in power and majesty and glory to the Father and the Son – to come and live within us so that, as Paul says, we can “be filled with the Spirit”! (Eph. 5:18) It is the crowning achievement of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. God and his people can live together once more in intimacy and great blessing!
This Gift we have been given is none other than God himself in action in the earth and in our lives. He is the member of the Trinity that we experience in our time and space world. He is the One who opens our eyes to understand Scripture and brings it alive as we read. He is the One we sense at those times when the presence of God is palpably real. He is the One who guides our prayers and even intercedes through us. He is the down payment, the guarantee of our salvation and of a glorious eternity spent in the presence of Almighty God.
[bctt tweet=”This Gift we have been given is none other than God himself in action in the earth and in our lives.”]
At creation, the Spirit was present and active, “hovering” or “brooding” over the face of the waters. Throughout the entire Old Testament, we see the Spirit inspiring and directing God’s holy leaders. He was very much involved in God’s redemptive plan for the world in Jesus; Jesus was conceived by the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit at His baptism, led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and raised from the dead by the Spirit. This is the One who lives within us!
I am aware that as I have meditated and, indeed, wrestled with this amazing truth recently, I’m still only seeing the smallest part of what it means, but I’ve tasted enough to be spoiled for anything else. We cannot look at the post-Pentecost lives of the early apostles as compared to pre-Pentecost without seeing spectacular transformations. Even after personally witnessing the glorious Risen Christ, they were instructed to “wait for the promise of the Father”. The life they were to live and the testimony that they were to share could never be achieved by human zeal or passionate enthusiasm. Even at this point in their experience with Jesus, it was quite beyond them. They needed the gift of the third Member of the Trinity!
“We cannot look at the post-Pentecost lives of the early apostles as compared to pre-Pentecost without seeing spectacular transformations.”
Paul knew this to be true for all Christians, not just the apostles, and he summed it up in writing to the young Christians in Ephesus:
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:15-18 ESV
Aside from the Spirit, all we have to offer are our best but flawed human efforts. But we have God Himself, in the form of the Holy Spirit, living within us, empowering our ability to obey God’s Word, making us fruitful so that we’re more like Jesus, making impossible things possible! In other words, a Spirit-filled life!
So, what should our response be to this fresh revelation? What should a Pentecost prayer look like? Perhaps, something like this:
O Heavenly Father, if we are brutally honest, we are so dreadfully tired of trying harder. We desperately need you to open our eyes to the beauty and power of a Spirit-filled life. Forgive us for neglecting the blessed Holy Spirit in our lives. Forgive us for our mistrust of the Spirit in our worship services where we have been afraid that He might do something inappropriate. Forgive us for our presumption that we can build your Church while keeping your Spirit at arm’s length.
In this season of Pentecost, reawaken our awareness of who the Spirit is, both in our personal lives and the life of our Church. Cause the parishes of ANiC with one accord to recognize our desperate need for the Spirit’s supernatural power to live as “more than conquerors” over temptation and sin, and to radicalize our witness and testimony to a world that at best finds us boring and irrelevant. Pour out the Spirit’s fire upon us, the fire that ignited the apostles to turn the Roman Empire upside down. Bring the revival across our nations that we have been asking for in these recent months. And, above all else, may we never settle for anything less than all of the resources and benefits gained for us by our Saviour’s passion upon the Cross. In his Mighty Name, we ask these things. Amen!
