Dear friends,
Acts 2:1-13: The Coming of the Holy Spirit
2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
In the Protestant world that is not part of Pentecost or the charismatic movement, the feast of Pentecost is a long forgotten event. That may be fine for many but it is not true to Christian experience nor to the essential Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of our churches in fact did not celebrate this event that is 50 days after the Easter resurrection story. Jesus promised that He would send us the Holy Spirit….. that was true in that He promised the spirit to His disciples. He also, in the Gospel of John, promised it to all Christians in His church. Indeed the whole idea of the Holy Spirit reminds me of the preface to C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters when he describes the attitude of many towards the devil. Lewis would claim that the two errors in regard to the devil are to be either obsessed by the evil one or to ignore him. That could be said for many when it comes to the Holy Spirit. I have seen and experienced both excesses. It was indeed at the height of the charismatic movement in the 1970’s; a movement in fact that was encouraged not only by the popular Pentecostal revivals from the early 1900’s on, but encouraged in fact from the great scholarly work of Martyn Lloyd Jones in his later life. There are wide and varied intents and spectacular charismatic Pentecostal renewals around the world. Some of these particular moments function far outside our own personal or church experience but many are very mainstream especially in the case of the Alpha courses and the wonderful church that originates this marvellous evangelistic work, Holy Trinity Brompton in London, England.
All I have said so far in this newsletter is relevant and appropriate in a very general way about Pentecost. Regardless of your experiences of the Spirit, the Sprit is a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ. In many traditions Pentecost is literally the birthday of the church and a birthday party is held.
I want to ask four simple questions: they are just in bullets. They are a light touch with a sincere expectation that you will at some point in the near future take them in prayer before God.
- Are you experiencing the fruit of the Spirit as framed in Galatians 5:22-26?22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
- When you think back to your coming to faith experience and baptism, are you open to the Holy Spirit’s prompting and reminding you of that phrase in Revelations 2 – “your first love” – your love of Christ and His love of you. Or, in the absence of faith or the reminders of God’s active presence, have you found, like that verse in Revelations, that you have “forgotten your first love”?
- At the height of the charasmatic renewal and amidst some conflict, Clark Pinnock from Regent College / McMaster University challenged us at an Assembly, as he described the work of the Spirit at Pentecost, “If then, why not now…If them, why not us?” The same could be asked of the Spirit’s work in many places and lives around the world, including many of the people and churches reading this letter.
- What are the ways in which you find the opportunity to renew? Billy Graham said “we keep needing to be refilled by the Holy Spirit because we leak…” I always imagine trying to carry water in cupped hands – quite quickly the water escapes. If we keep on needing to be renewed, how is that happening for each of us?
We ask these things just after Pentecost because it’s usually just after an incredible event that we need the prompting so that a wonderful experience and memory of this part of the gospel is not lost.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy Bell