Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - June/81

Contributor - Case Koolhaas

Title - Pentecost 1981

Topic - Pentecost

Pentecost - many consider it to be the birthday of the church. No doubt this is a very significant and important day. It is unfortunate, however, if in so celebrating Pentecost we get the idea that there was only one Pentecost - only one time within the history of God's church that He poured out His Holy Spirit. Such a mindset is unfortunate on two counts. First, we get the wrong idea about what really happened. And second, we don't expect it to happen again in our own life and in the life of our church.

As we put together a history of the Holy Spirit from the pages of scripture, we come to discover that in the Old Testament we find many occasions in which God put His Holy Spirit upon His people in an unusual manner. We read how Bezalel was "filled with the Spirit of God, with ability, intelligence, with knowledge and craftsmanship" (Exodus 31:3). Again in Numbers 11:25 we see how God put His Spirit not just on Moses but also upon the seventy selected elders. There are many other occasions where it is recorded that the Spirit of God came upon His servant (Judges 3:10, 1 Samuel 10:6 - 10, I Samuel 19, etc.).

It is important to see that each time when a person received God's Spirit, it was for the purpose of enabling him or her to do God's work; whether that be building a tabernacle or prophesying or giving Godly leadership to God's people. On the first Pentecost we see how God's Spirit came upon the disciples and those who were with them in order to proclaim Jesus Christ as the resurrected Lord of mankind. And did they ever proclaim that message! Not even the threat of beating and prison could keep the disciples from going to the temple to proclaim that Jesus was the only name whereby mankind could be saved.

It becomes very obvious that God does not expect us to do His work without His Spirit. The disciples were instructed by Jesus to wait until they had received the Holy Spirit. We also ought to recognize and accept the fact that we cannot do God's work, God's way, without God's Spirit.

Within our Reformed order of worship we give recognition and we affirm that we also believe that Pentecost was not just a one time event, but that it takes place over and over in the lives of God's people. That should not surprise us. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Joel all preached that it was God's will that all God's people would be filled with God's Spirit (Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36 & 37, and Joel 2:28). When we admit baptized members to the Lord's Table we lay hands upon them. We again have a laying on of hands when we ordain our leaders - whether they be deacons, elders, pastors or missionaries. In so laying hands upon these people, we affirm our belief that God continues to fill His people with His Spirit to do His work.

I suppose that it is unfortunate that within our Reformed churches we find it difficult to talk about the place and purpose of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Many churches and people have been scared off by those who have given an excessive or warped understanding of what scripture teaches about the Holy Spirit. Whenever we don't talk or teach about a subject, we leave a vacuum. And vacuums are difficult to keep from being filled with something.

Yet on the other hand, I see many people in our churches who read about the boldness of the disciples as they witnessed in Jerusalem after receiving the Holy Spirit, and who then wonderwhat their life, witness and work in the church would be like if they had received the filling of the Holy Spirit as the first disciples did. It is at that point that we need to ask God to help us to appropriate the presence and power of God in our life. As we go about doing God's work, we need to ask God to fill the sails of our life and to move us to action, giving witness to the fact that Pentecost also takes place in 1981.

"Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3.-20 - 21 RSV

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