The Coming of the Spirit: Christ and Pentecost
The Spirit in the life of Christ, the promise of the Helper, and the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out on all flesh
1. The Spirit and the Birth of Christ
When the promised day at last drew near, the Spirit who had hovered over creation came to do the greatest work of all. The angel told Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). And Joseph was assured that "that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 1:20). The eternal Son took our flesh by the working of the Spirit. From His very conception, then, the life of Jesus and the work of the Spirit are bound together, the two never to be separated through all His earthly days. Notice that the angel ties the Spirit’s work to the holiness of the child: because the conception was by the Spirit, the One born would be called “that Holy One.” The Old Testament had promised that the Spirit would rest upon the Coming One; now that One had come, and the Spirit was upon Him from the womb.
2. The Spirit at the Jordan
When Jesus came to be baptized, the heavens opened, and "He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him" (Matthew 3:16). This was His anointing for public ministry. Peter later summed it up in a single sentence: God "anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil" (Acts 10:38). The very name Christ means the Anointed One, and the anointing oil was the Holy Spirit. Standing in the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus opened the scroll of Isaiah and read, "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor" (Luke 4:18), and then declared that the ancient promise was fulfilled that very day in their hearing. Kings and priests of old were anointed with oil as a sign of being set apart for God; our Lord was anointed not with oil but with the Spirit Himself, and without measure. The Spirit foretold in the Old Testament now rested in fullness upon Christ.
3. Led by the Spirit, Working by the Spirit
The Gospels show us a Savior who lived His whole earthly life in the power of the Spirit. After His baptism Jesus, "being filled with the Holy Spirit," was "led by the Spirit into the wilderness" to be tempted (Luke 4:1), and He returned "in the power of the Spirit" into Galilee to begin His preaching (Luke 4:14). When He cast out demons He said, "if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matthew 12:28). We must understand this rightly. Jesus did not cease to be God; He is fully God and fully man. But as the true Man, the last Adam, He chose to live and minister in dependence upon the Spirit, that He might be our example and our representative. If the sinless Son of God carried out His work in the Spirit's power, how much more must we depend on that same Spirit. Even at the cross He acted in the Spirit, for the Scripture says He “through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God” (Hebrews 9:14). From the manger to the cross, the life of Christ was lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.
4. The Promise of Another Helper
On the night before the cross, knowing He would soon leave His disciples, Jesus comforted them with the promise of the Spirit. "I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth" (John 14:16-17). He promised that this Helper would "teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26), and that He would "testify of Me" (John 15:26). What the disciples had known in the bodily presence of Jesus, they would now know in a deeper and more inward way by the Spirit, for Jesus said the Spirit "dwells with you and will be in you" (John 14:17). Mark the change from with to in: the Spirit had been with them in the person of Jesus at their side, but soon He would be in them, taking up residence in their very hearts. The promise of the Old Testament was about to become the possession of the church. On the evening of His resurrection He gave them a foretaste, breathing on them and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22), a pledge of the fuller outpouring soon to come.
5. It Is to Your Advantage That I Go Away
The disciples were grieved that their Lord was leaving them, but Jesus told them something astonishing: "It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you" (John 16:7). How could it possibly be better for them to lose the bodily presence of the One they loved so dearly? Because the Christ who walked beside them could be in only one place at a time, but the Spirit He would send could dwell within every believer in every place at once. And the Spirit would carry on the work of Christ, for Jesus said He would "convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8), and would "guide you into all truth" and "glorify Me" (John 16:13-14). The departure of the Son was the doorway to the coming of the Spirit.
6. The Promise of the Father
After His resurrection, the Lord did not send His disciples out at once. He told them to wait. "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). He told them plainly, "you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now" (Acts 1:5), the very baptism John the Baptist had foretold, and gave them the great promise that would shape the whole age of the church: "you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me" (Acts 1:8). They were not to attempt the work of God in the strength of men, however willing or gifted they might be. They were to wait for the Spirit, for without Him they could do nothing, and with Him they would turn the world upside down.
7. The Day of Pentecost
When the day of Pentecost had fully come, the promise was kept. "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind," and there appeared "divided tongues, as of fire," and "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:2-4). Pentecost was a feast day, fifty days after the Passover, and Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims from every nation under heaven. Each one heard the believers declaring the wonderful works of God in his own language. "And they were all amazed," for "we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God" (Acts 2:11). The Spirit who had come upon individuals in the Old Testament was now poured out upon the whole company of God's people. The wind and the fire were fitting signs: the wind, that same breath of God that moved over the waters at creation, and the fire, the mark of God's purifying presence. At Babel God had once scattered the nations by confusing their speech; now, by the Spirit, men of every language heard one message of salvation, and they went out to proclaim Christ to the nations.
8. This Is What Was Spoken by Joel
Not everyone understood. Some mocked, saying the believers were "full of new wine" (Acts 2:13). But Peter stood up and said they were not drunk, and that this was the very thing God had promised long ago: "This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh'" (Acts 2:16-17). The promise of Joel, which we studied in the last unit, was fulfilled before their eyes. The promise, Peter explained, was that “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” and that God would pour out His Spirit even on His menservants and maidservants (Acts 2:17-18), upon great and small alike. Peter preached Christ crucified and risen, and about three thousand were saved that day. He told them, "the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:39). Those who were "afar off" include us, for the same gift of the Spirit is given to everyone the Lord calls to Himself in Christ, in every land and every age. The age of the Spirit had begun at last, the long-promised Spirit poured out on all flesh, no longer upon a chosen few only but given freely to everyone who turns to Christ in faith. What that gift does in the one who receives it is the subject of the unit that follows.