Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1619
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, September 18, 1881
“And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filed all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filed with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:2-4.
FROM the descent of the Holy Spirit at the beginning we may learn something concerning His operations at the present time. Remember at the outset that whatever the Holy Spirit was at the first, He is that now, for as God, He remains forever the same—whatever He did then He is able to do still, for His power is by no means diminished. As says the Prophet Micah, “O you that are named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?” We would greatly grieve the Holy Spirit if we supposed that His might was less, today, than in the beginning. Although we may not expect and need not desire the miracles which came with the gift of the Holy Spirit, so far as they were physical, yet we may both desire and expect that which was intended and symbolized by them—and we may reckon to see the same spiritual wonders performed among us at this day.
Pentecost, according to the belief of the Jews, was the time of the giving of the Law, and if when the Law was given there was a marvelous display of power on Sinai, it was to be expected that when the Gospel was given, whose ministration is far more glorious, there should be some special unveiling of the Divine Presence. If at the commencement of the Gospel we behold the Holy Spirit working great signs and wonders, may we not expect a continuance—no, if anything, an increased display of His power as the ages roll on? The Law vanished away, but the Gospel will never vanish. It shines more and more to the perfect millennial day and, therefore, I reckon that with the sole exception of physical miracles, whatever was worked by the Holy Spirit at the first, we may look to be worked continually while the dispensation lasts.
It ought not to be forgotten that Pentecost was the feast of first fruits—it was the time when the first ears of ripe corn were offered unto God. If, then, at the commencement of the Gospel harvest we see so plainly the power of the Holy Spirit, may we not most properly expect infinitely more as the harvest advances and, most of all, when the most numerous sheaves shall be gathered? May we not conclude that if the Pentecost was thus marvelous, the actual harvest will be still more wonderful? This morning my objective is not to talk of the descent of the Holy Spirit as a piece of history, but to view it as a fact bearing upon us at this hour, even upon us who are called in these latter days to bear our testimony for the Truth of God.
The Father has sent us the Comforter that He may dwell in us till the coming of the Lord. The Holy Spirit has never returned, for He came in accordance with the Savior’s prayer to abide with us forever. The gift of the Comforter was not temporary and the display of His power was not to be once seen and no more. The Holy Spirit is here and we ought to expect His Divine working among us. If He does not so work, we should search ourselves to see what it is that hinders Him and whether there may not be something in ourselves which vexes Him so that He restrains His sacred energy and does not work among us as He did before.
May God grant that the meditation of this morning will increase our faith in the Holy Spirit and inflame our desires towards Him so that we may look to see Him fulfilling His mission among men as at the beginning.
I. First, I shall call your attention to THE INSTRUCTIVE SYMBOLS of the Holy Spirit which were made prominent at Pentecost. They were two. There was a sound as of a rushing mighty wind and there were cloven tongues, as it were, of fire. Take the symbols separately. The first is wind—an emblem of Deity and, therefore, a proper symbol of the Holy Spirit. Often, under the Old Testament, God revealed Himself under the emblem of breath or wind. Indeed, as most
of you know, the Hebrew word for “wind” and “spirit” is the same, So, with the Greek word, when Christ talked to Nicodemus, it is not very easy for translators to tell us when He said, “spirit,” and when He said, “wind.” Indeed, some most correctly render the original all the way through by the word, “wind,” while others, with much reason, have also used the word, “spirit,” in their translation.
The original word signified either the one or the other, or both. Wind is, of all material things, one of the most spiritual in appearance. It is invisible, ethereal, mysterious and, therefore, men have fixed upon it as being nearest akin to spirit. In Ezekiel’s famous vision, when he saw the valley full of dry bones, we all know that the Spirit of God was intended by that vivifying wind which came when the Prophet prophesied and blew upon the withered relics till they were quickened into life. “The Lord has His way in the whirlwind,” thus He displays Himself when He works. “The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,” thus He reveals Himself when He teaches His servants.