In the old dispensation the church had the magnificent temple of Solomon, her gorgeous priesthood, elaborate feasts, mighty armies, stunning victories, and many mighty and impressive miracles. However, they were all only types and shadows that the church of the new dispensation is not to envy. Pentecost has now fully come. The new and better age has descended from heaven to continue until the age of perfection dawns in the new heavens and the new earth.

It is better to have a solemn and reverent worship service where two or three are gathered in Christ’s name and he is in their midst than a temple full of gold. It is better to have sound doctrine concerning Christ and his cross taught by a faithful preacher than a hundred thousand animal sacrifices. It is better to have a little church than the whole land of Canaan and the city of Jerusalem. It is better to have the heritage of sound doctrine than a farm in Canaan. All those old types were promises of a new day.

The new day came at Pentecost.

Pentecost was the espousal of the church to Christ as his bride. The church has existed in God’s counsel from eternity. The church was found throughout the old dispensation. Adam and Eve, Abel, Noah, Shem, Abraham, and finally the nation of Israel in the Old Testament were the church. But all through the Old Testament she was a little girl. On Pentecost she grew up. She became the lady who would be married to Jesus Christ. The church is one. In the Old Testament she was a child. In the New Testament she is an adult. In the Old Testament God promised her what she would receive in the New Testament. At Pentecost he gave his promise, the promise of the Spirit.

Pentecost was the day of fulfillment. On that day Christ filled his church with his Spirit.

Pentecost was one of three great Old Testament feasts, along with the feast of Passover and the feast of tabernacles. In these feasts all the males had to appear before Jehovah in the temple. Pentecost was celebrated fifty days after Passover and thus was closely connected with it and was inconceivable without it. Pentecost was a harvest feast. On the Sunday after Passover, fifty days before Pentecost, the first ripe sheaf of barley grain was brought to the temple and waved before the Lord. Passover—the death of Christ. The feast of firstfruits—the resurrection of Christ, the first begotten from the dead. Then seven weeks were numbered, and the day following the seven weeks—fifty days from that first harvest—Pentecost was celebrated. It celebrated the commencement of the ingathering of the wheat that would end in the feast of tabernacles. With golden grain the valleys gleamed.

From that first harvest of Pentecost wheat, Israel made a special, new offering of two enormous loaves of bread. Unique from all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which used unleavened bread, these loaves were made with leaven and were puffed out with fullness. The priest consecrated the loaves and heaved them back and forth in the temple before the Lord. Pentecost was peculiar as well in that it was a new Sabbath, celebrated on a Sunday.

Israel was reminded in this feast of the gracious work of God to deliver the nation from the bondage of Egypt, to redeem the people from slavery, and to give them the promise of Canaan. The Israelites’ whole existence in Canaan, their blessedness there, and the ingathering of their harvests were all based upon the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. At Pentecost the Israelites rejoiced in that goodness of Jehovah to deliver them into Canaan and to bestow upon them all the riches of that land, so that they dwelled in houses; had farms, flocks, and herds; and partook of all the goodness of Canaan.

Pentecost was a covenantal feast—a feast of covenant fulfillment. The very name of the feast makes this clear: fifty (seven sevens plus one) signifies the covenant fulfilled. The activity at the heart of the feast emphasizes the same thing: two huge loaves heaved before Jehovah by Israel’s priestly representative. The covenant fulfilled.

God promised to Abraham to give him and his seed the land of Canaan. They would dwell there with Jehovah, and they would eat and drink of Jehovah’s goodness by partaking of the milk and honey that flowed in the land. That promise of God came to fulfillment in Pentecost. The Israelites ate and drank and rejoiced in the goodness and salvation of God, and they drew near to him in his holy place. The two large loaves represented all the goodness, blessings, and salvation of Jehovah, and Israel heaved them all to him in the loaves.

The covenant of grace was realized not objectively and coldly but in the life, heart, and experience of the believing Israelite. Believing the promise of God, the Israelite ate, drank, and rejoiced in the goodness and graciousness of God; he stood before his God and rejoiced before him for all his blessings. Pentecost was the covenant feast par excellence. If the Passover celebrated the accomplishment of Israel’s salvation, then Pentecost celebrated Israel’s enjoyment of it. The Israelites partook of the goodness and fatness of the land, and they heaved all of it to Jehovah God in thanksgiving for his graciousness to them, and they rejoiced in Jehovah for giving the goodness and fat of the land to them with grace.

At the cross, in the death of the Lamb of God, Jehovah in his goodness and graciousness delivered his people from the bondage of sin, from death, and from the terrible kingdom of darkness. At the cross he harvested salvation and reaped the benefits of righteousness, holiness, redemption, and eternal life. At Pentecost God gave his people to experience that. He delivered them into his covenant and made them his sons and daughters, made believers partakers of all the riches and blessings of salvation, so that they were brought near unto God, rejoiced in God as the God of their salvation, and heaved all to God in thanksgiving and gladness.

Jehovah makes the covenant of friendship and fellowship with the living God reality in their hearts and lives, he draws near to them, he forgives their sins in their own experiences and hearts, he sanctifies and cleanses them, he enriches them with every gift of salvation and every blessing of grace, and he consecrates them to himself in the covenant of grace, so that they know him as their God and themselves as his people.

He does that by the gift of the Spirit. The fulfillment of the feast of Pentecost was the act of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ filling with the Holy Ghost the 120 believers gathered in the upper room. He is the
covenant-creating, covenant-fulfilling, covenant-realizing Spirit! This is what he is in the Godhead. He is breathed forth. He is breathed forth from the Father to the Son, and he is breathed forth from the Son to the Father. He is eternally the Spirit who proceeds, flows out, as the Father’s breath to his beloved Son and the beloved Son’s breath to his dear Father. Proceeding, the Spirit is eternally active in the Godhead. He is the Spirit of life and fellowship.

That particular covenant-creating activity of the Spirit is revealed in the first part of his name, Holy. He is called Holy because, as the breathed Spirit, he is the consecration of Father to Son and of Son to Father. The Spirit is the love, affection, peace, kiss, and embrace between Father and Son. In the Godhead the three persons do not sit in their divine corners and pass eternity far from one another, but they are deeply, eternally, and intimately involved with one another and commune with one another in the Spirit. He is their personal bond, so that the Father squeezes his Son to himself, and the Son presses himself into the Father’s bosom in the Spirit.

At Pentecost the third person was poured out as the Spirit who was given to Christ. Just as we speak of the second person, the Son and the Word, and we speak of the man Christ Jesus, we also speak of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit of the man Christ Jesus, the Spirit of Christ. He was given to Christ as the reward for accomplishing the whole will and counsel of God for the redemption of his elect church. The Spirit is so wholly identified with Christ, so completely taken up with Christ, so given to Christ to be his that where the Spirit is, there is Christ. And as the covenant-creating, covenant-fulfilling Spirit, he is poured out into the church.

It is God’s will, it is his promise, it is his eternal good pleasure that the creature experiences him, knows him, and is embraced within God’s blessed covenant fellowship. Of that truth the whole old dispensation spoke. God gave a dim picture of it in his walking with his son Adam in the garden during the cool of the day. God spoke of this friendship with man in the garden immediately after the fall in the promise of the Seed of the woman. God revealed there that he would realize his covenant in his Son Jesus Christ and would reconcile his people to himself by paying the debt of their sins, by earning for them perfect righteousness, and by taking them to himself and drawing them near to him. God gave his covenant to his friends Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. God revealed to Abraham that, although salvation was of the Jews during the whole old dispensation, in Abraham all the nations of the world would be blessed with this blessing: to know God as the God of their salvation and to be embraced within his fellowship and friendship. All the sacrifices, ceremonies, and prophecies of the Old Testament had this at their heart: that his dear people be brought near unto him, that they experience his graciousness, be enriched by his grace, and be filled with all the fullness of his blessing.

Israel, elect Israel, had that in pictures, promises, and prophecies. Thus they had that by faith in those things. They believed God’s word and that he is faithful who promised. The whole old dispensation was an age of promise.

In Jesus Christ himself personally God realized his covenant. He gave Jesus Christ as a covenant for the people. He is God and man together. At the cross of Christ, God accomplished all that was necessary to realize this fellowship with his people by fulfilling all righteousness. And Christ ascended on high to fill all things. God gave to Christ the promise of the Spirit, the Spirit to be his Spirit, the Spirit to pour out on believers and work in them the fullness of his salvation.

By the Spirit God brings to his elect people the full harvest of their salvation that is in Jesus Christ. By that Spirit God makes them partakers of that harvest. He assures them of the fullness and completeness of the work of God in Christ. God assures them of the security of that harvest in Jesus Christ. God makes them partakers of it, so that they rejoice in the God of their salvation. They can eat and drink now and be filled now with all the fullness of salvation. It is not only that all of salvation is secured in Christ and stored up in him, but also that by his Spirit salvation comes to them and they are made partakers of it, experience it, eat and drink it, and rejoice in God for his unspeakable gift.

The Spirit only; nothing else is needed. When he is given he brings Christ and all the benefits of Christ. To have the Spirit is to have Christ and the triune God and every blessing of salvation. The Spirit works new life, faith, justification, assurance, sanctification, and glorification. All this is his work.

As Pentecost of the old dispensation was the commencement of the whole harvest of a particular year, culminating in the feast of tabernacles, the fulfillment of Pentecost in the coming of the Spirit commences the harvest of the nations. The Lord will make not only Jews but also Gentiles partakers of his covenant and of the blessings of salvation. Now he gathers in the nations to his covenant and makes them all sit down in a grand feast with Abraham his friend.

And the Spirit by his coming created wonderful signs! Signs of himself and his work. Signs for us to confirm us and to comfort us in his work and purpose.

A sound as of a mighty, rushing wind!

The sound came from heaven and filled the whole house where the 120 believers were gathered. The sound had voice-like qualities. Its sound was similar to a great speaking tornado or hurricane. The Spirit is not merely an impersonal force, a mere infusion of some unnamed and mysterious force or power, an effulgence of the Godhead. He is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, who is personally God, coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Son.

The Holy Spirit comes in power—divine, sovereign, irresistible, and saving power. He comes, and he blows on the church and fills the church with his power and his sovereign grace. He blows and creates life where there was death. He blows, and forgiveness comes. He blows, and God’s people are brought to repentance. He blows, and the assurance of salvation springs forth. He blows, and God’s people are made holy. Who is able to withstand him when he comes to save or to judge in sovereign might?

The Spirit creates in us, God’s people, a work that is as mysterious and powerful as the wind. The wind blows where it will. You hear the sound thereof but cannot tell from whence it came or whither it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. He makes us wind-like. Where did you come from? Where are you going? Men, like the wind, can make a big noise. Many criticize the Spirit in this work. The believer testifies the truth before the world and disrupts by that kingdoms and nations; he objects to false doctrine, and there are protests and appeals; he lays down his life for the truth’s sake. People say, “Where did that come from? Where is this going?” That is the Spirit’s working. He makes the people of God steadfast and immovable in confessing Christ. He makes them confess Christ over against all the ineffectual opposition of the gates of hell.

Cloven tongues as of fire too!

A tongue! The tongue is the instrument of speaking. All received a tongue. 

The first division of tongues took place shortly before the covenant promise of God was confined to Abraham and his seed. The division served that too. By that division of tongues, God scattered the nations and suffered all the people to walk in their own ways. Salvation was of the Jews. Now God divides the tongues again and this time heals the division of the nations, so that in Christ all nations shall be blest.

The power the Spirit will use to accomplish all his work is represented in the tongue. He will use speech. He will exert his divine power, his irresistible power, by speech. The speech that is the divine, ever-abiding Word. The Spirit does all things by the Word. The Spirit serves the Word, Jesus Christ, and the Spirit brings the Word, Jesus Christ, and works by means of the Word, Jesus Christ, preached.

Fiery tongues!

When Christ comes he baptizes his church and the individual elect child of God with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Fire is indicative of the work of the Spirit. Christ purifies God’s people with the Spirit. Christ sits as a refiner by his fire and thus by the Holy Ghost purifies the sons of Levi so that they may make an offering in righteousness.

The Holy Spirit is an agent for the destruction of the sinful flesh. The Holy Spirit is the agent for the consecration of the purified believer to God. As fire burns up the dross and at the same time purifies the gold, so also is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is a cleansing, purifying, sanctifying agent.

If the Spirit’s work is consecration, two things are true of his work of bringing Christ to God’s people.

Since he brings sinners to God, his work consists of forgiving those sinners their sins for Christ’s sake and imputing to them the perfect righteousness of Christ and assuring them of their righteous standing before God. He purifies them from sin’s guilt so that they may come into his presence and stand before him. Otherwise, no sinner may come to God.

The Spirit must also sanctify believers and make them holy. Through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, they mortify the old man of sin and put on the new man. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they put off the flesh with the works thereof and put on the spiritual man with the works thereof. The Spirit purifies sin’s pollution and dominion, so that believers make a living sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise to God—not merely two loaves of bread but themselves. Not merely in a temple of wood and stone, but the Spirit makes the whole church his temple, abides in his people and dwells with them, so that the Spirit consecrates them to himself in their lives in fiery zeal for him, for his word, for his truth, and for the kingdom of heaven.

Since both justification and sanctification are by faith—by faith alone God’s child receives the righteousness of Christ and comes to God through Christ, and faith makes him a new creature as well—so faith is the Spirit’s particular work. He gives and works faith: our union with Christ, our knowledge of God, and our assurance of our justification and peace with God.

The Spirit is the power that heats the church and the individual believer. The Spirit warms with the gospel of the forgiveness of sins and the perfect righteousness of Christ freely imputed to believers, so that they rejoice and are glad. He warms them with the love of God and Christ and works in them repentance and a life of thankfulness and prayer. The Spirit is their experience of salvation. It is not separate from the Spirit and does not happen apart from him. The believer tastes that Jehovah is good by the Spirit of the risen Lord. The Spirit inspires the church and the believer with a fiery zeal for the truth and the glory of God. The apathetic Christian is the unspiritual Christian: he is Spiritless.

And the church filled with the Spirit overflows with the Spirit.

By the word! Christ poured the Pentecost Spirit on the church, filled his church with the Spirit, and they spoke  in many different languages as the Spirit gave the people utterance. Inhabitants from other countries heard the speaking in their own languages.

The wonderful things of God! Magnalia Dei!

A glorious sermon: God-focused, Christ-centered, exegetical, doctrinal, gospel. The pure, convicting, saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

Outflowing of the Spirit!

He speaks not of himself. He speaks of Jesus Christ.

The great work of the Spirit is to give utterance to the church and to individual believers, so that they speak of Christ in all his sweetness, grace, power, and glory as the only way to the Father and the all-sufficient sacrifice for sinners—to give them utterance, so that their whole lives are testimonies of gratitude to God for his unspeakable gift.

Ye shall be my witnesses!

So you can still judge today where Pentecost is taking place. For we receive the gift of the Spirit not by the works of the law but by the hearing of faith! Which Spirit works wonders among us! Raising dead sinners to new life in Christ; turning hard sinners to a sorrowful confession and turning from sin; giving faith; justifying guilty sinners; assuring trembling sinners that all is forgiven for Christ’s sake; sanctifying sinners and making them saints in all their lives.

Where the truth is preached! Where the truth is, there is the Spirit. Where the truth is lacking, there likewise is the Spirit lacking. Where the truth thus also characterizes all the speaking of that people and all their dealings with one another, there is the Spirit. The speech of the Christian day school teaching the truth and the speech of parents who instruct their children in the doctrine of the Reformed faith are utterances by the Spirit. The speech of prayer and thanksgiving to God as the God of our salvation and the speech of a holy life in consecration to the living God are utterances by the Spirit.

The outflowing from the church of the inpoured Pentecost Spirit!