- A meditation upon what happened 50 days after Jesus’s death, burial, resurrection 3 days later, and His ascension to heaven. From His ascension to the Day of Pentecost is 10 days.
- What can we learn from the very first “Spirit-filled and Spirit-led” sermon preached on very final day of the Feast of Booths? I’m quoting from an article by The Gospel Coalition because it accurately situates the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost within the narrative of fulfilled prophecies of Jesus coming, and His “remaining”, through the Person, Presence and Power of His Spirit promised throughout chapters 14, 15, and 17, in John’s gospel.
- Here is the full quotation with the link provided: Jesus fulfills the Feast of Tabernacles, and this has great significance for us because we still need his presence and provision! Though we dwell in the tents of our corruptible earthly bodies, we have a permanent home ahead of us in heaven (2 Cor. 5:1). We’ve received the promise of the Holy Spirit, not sparingly or temporarily—he has been “poured out” as eternal, life-giving water (Joel 2:28–29; Acts 2:17–18). Just as Jesus declared on the “Great Day” of the Feast of Tabernacles, he still gives light to the nations (Rev. 21:21–26) and calls for all who thirst to come and “take the water of life without price” (Rev. 22:17). Through Christ, we can enter solemn rest (Heb. 4:9–10) as God begins his new creation in us (2 Cor. 5:17). (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/feast-of-tabernacles/)
- Peter in his first public gospel preaching in Jerusalem upon receiving the Holy Spirit, points back to Old Testament fulfilment of prophecy, specifically from Joel’s 2:28 – 32, to give context, meaning and understanding to his contemporaries of the day about the present occurrence of this phenomenal event taking place in that city.
- What happened in the city of Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost 50 days after the Great Day of the Jewish Yom Kipper (Day of Atonement) when the Eternal Son of God, the Saviour of the world, gave Himself, as the Perfect Sacrifice, through His Perfect Priesthood (Heb chap 8), on the cross and was resurrected by the same outpoured Spirit three days later is the culmination of God’s story of revealing Himself through His Son up to that point in time.
- Joel as inspirited by the Spirit – once in the OT before Christ, and now after Christ’s death and resurrection and ascension to the Father’s right hand is significant in terms of God’s absolute certainty in keeping His promises. Every matter is established and proven true and right before God whenever there are two or more witnesses, including the witness of Scripture.
- “It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;” and the outcome of the Spirit of God being “poured out on all flesh” is:
- your sons and daughters shall PROPHECY
- your young men shall see VISIONS
- your old men shall dream DREAMS
- For good measure, the Holy Spirit inspires a repetition of this phrase in Joel as quoted in Acts 2:18, “I will pour out My Spirit in those days”. In summary, this phrase, “I will pour out my Spirit”, is mentioned, spoken, declared, and prophesied three (3) times, twice by Joel, and then by Peter on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit seems determined to put across the message that He is still in the business of God’s kingdom today!
- This phrase, “afterward, last days, those days” is the “thunderbolt” (to borrow Martin Luther‘s term used in the Bondage of the Will) that burns to ashes the “cessationists” (those who believe the gifts of the Spirit as explicated by the Spirit in 1 Corinthians, chapters twelve to fourteen-including Martin Luther himself! – have ceased) doctrine.
- The pouring of the Spirit “in those days” is coupled tightly with Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension – “raised up” – in Acts 2:33, “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this (Day of Pentecost events – “rivers of living water flowing from our inner beings (John 7:38 & 39)), which you NOW see and hear.”
- Marti Luther tightly coupled his take on the doctrine of justification by faith (as he terms it in his Galatian commentary as the “article”) with what he termed “theosis”, or participation with God in union with Christ. Luther spoke of being “cemented” with Christ in salvation. And Luther referred to this as “donation”, no doubt his interpretation of the Greek word used to translate “dorea” into the English as “donation”, and “gift”. Read his Galatian commentary to see how he makes implicit reference to the Holy Spirit through these terms, and his explication of union with Christ.
- When the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is considered along with the gift of righteousness contained in Christ, we see how amazing indeed the riches of His glorious grace is given to us in Christ is.
- The application is awesome! In Christ, by faith, through the grace of the Holy Spirit poured out so abundantly, believers in Christ are truly “37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us”.
- Our identity with Christ is “cemented” (Luther). 1 Corinthians 6:17, But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Let me quote how Luther understands this glorious and gracious truth of our identity in union with Christ by letting him speak for himself (albeit through a translation) in his book, The Freedom of the Christian, (1520), translated by Timothy J Wengert, The Annotated Luther Study Edition, Fortress Press (2016)”
- The Third Benefit of Faith (justification by faith). Union with the Bridegroom.
- “The third incomparable benefit of faith is this: that it unites the sour with Christ, like a bride with a bridegroom. By this mystery (as Paul teaches in Eph 5:32), Christ and the soul of the believer are made one flesh (meditate upon 1 Cor 6:17 again). For if they are one flesh and if a true marriage – indeed by far the most perfect marriage of all – is consummated between them (since human marriages are but weak shadows of this one) then it follows that they come to hold all things, good and bad, in common (“in sickness and health, in wealth and poverty”). Accordingly, the faithful soul can both assume as its own whatever Christ has and glory in it, and whatever is the soul’s Christ claims for Himself as His own.”
- No wonder the riches of God’s glorious grace in Christ is sung a million times in myriad ways! And no wonder the scene in Revelation chapter 4 where the elders around the throne of God sing of His amazing holiness of grace continuously!
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