A Prayer for Pentecost

Pentecost is at the end of the Christian church year. Pentecost is at the same time the beginning and the end. For since Pentecost we have come in that time period known in God's Word as the latter days.

Peter in his Pentecostal sermon points to this when he quotes the Prophet Joel. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh." The angels spoke of this unto the disciples at the ascension of Christ. "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven."

Since that time almost twenty centuries have gone by, and the mockers are ever there who say, "Where is the promise of His coming?" We must not forget that the Lord Jesus figures time much differently than we do. With Him a thousand years are as one day. And because those twenty centuries have passed by, we may say we are no longer standing at the beginning, but at the end.

No, we do not prophesy when we say that the time is at hand that He will return, and that every eye will see Him coming upon the clouds. The last book of the Bible is full of this second coming. On the last page of our Bible the message is brought to us three times, "I come quickly." See verses 7, 12, and 20. And as an answer upon this, the Spirit and the bride say, "Come." It is only a short prayer. It contains only one word, but that word has a depth of meaning.

Here you see a burning desire, a fervent longing, and a prayerful looking upward. This lives with the Holy Spirit and with the bride. Does then the Holy Spirit also long for His coming? Is that Spirit then not true and eternal God with the Father and the Son? Some say this is not possible, and that here the bride speaks through the Spirit. However true that may be, thus it is not written in God's Word.

There we read, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come." Truly, that the Holy Spirit longs for the coming of Christ need not be a surprise to us. For He not only came upon this earth to bring lost sinners unto salvation, but above all to glorify the Lord Jesus. His work is always Christ-centered. What a wonderful harmony we may then see in this work, all to the glory of the triune God and the salvation of lost souls!

Perhaps you may say, "But how does the Holy Spirit glorify Christ?" He does that when room is made for Christ and His benefits in the heart of those lost sinners. This is when there is nothing else that can help them anymore. Then there is only one need in the life of such a one, and that is Jesus Christ, the crucified Mediator between God and the soul.

Let it be stressed once more, it is always the Holy Spirit who makes room in the heart for Christ, who gives a living desire for Christ, and who takes them by the hand and leads unto Christ. He has no rest until all those chosen by the Father and for whom Christ came may be gathered into one flock and placed before the Father, covered with that robe of righteousness which Christ obtained for them.

Then the reign of Satan will have come to an end, and the earth will be full of the glory of God. Then every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

When shall that be? It shall be when Christ comes again upon the clouds. That will be a day of joy for Christ when it will be heard from the mouth of all His children, "Through Thee, through Thee alone, because of Thine eternal good pleasure."

There is yet another reason why the Holy Spirit longs for that day. The place where He works now is not the heaven of glory, but this sin-cursed earth. Here upon this earth there is always so much opposition against His work. How often the work of the Spirit is quenched! How grievously we sin against His work, always denying and setting ourselves against that work!

Is it then any wonder that the Holy Spirit longs for the day when all will be ended, when there will be a new heaven and a new earth where the holiness and glory of God will be everything? Add to this that His work is to prepare Himself a place in the heart of a corrupt sinner. Even after grace, how much sin and world conformity live in this heart! How the heart reveals itself in uncleanness! Truly, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit longs for the second coming of Christ. Then the temple will be cleansed. Then sin, world, and self will be locked away forever. There a holy triune God will forever rejoice in His children. There the Holy Spirit will see the fruits of His labor when He may see the children of God satisfied with their Lord.

Yet here on earth, He is not the only one who longs for that day. Our text says, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come." By the bride we mean the Church of Christ. What a wonderful way in which the Word of God depicts the Church of Christ here! For what is a bride? It is one who is spoken for, one who is betrothed. The Bridegroom has asked her to become His forever, and she has answered, "Yes." She desires Him and to be with Him from henceforth.

So it is also in a spiritual sense. Christ calls for His bride. No, never of themselves would she call for Him. He says, "I have betrothed thee and I will take thee unto Myself." What an eternal wonder it becomes for the bride when she may learn this! Oh, that is a wonder that can never be explained that there were thoughts from heaven for such a one as she is, and that there came a time that the Lord stopped Her upon her way. She remembers how she cried out of the depths with the psalmist, "Oh Lord, that Thou would have mercy upon me." When at first the Lord from heaven opened a way, it was such a wonder. When the love of God shone within her heart, then she said, "Now I will never sin again. Now it will go from step to step, ever onward, ever upward." But it became so different. No, not that she wanted it different; she wanted to make it to heaven on her own.

But that blessed Spirit which had come to live in her heart never left her alone anymore, and slowly began to uncover and discover her to herself. More and more she came to stand before a mountain of guilt. More and more she began to experience how poor she was. Even clearer, she came to see that from her side there was nothing by which she could merit anything, and there would never be anything. Oh, there was a time when she stood there with empty hands, worthy of hell. She cried, "Lord, is it now forever lost? Righteous it would be if Thou would cast me away." But there is that Deliverer from heaven. For her He became poor. For her guilt He shed His blood. Never will she forget that moment when He revealed Himself, and she heard words which will never be forgotten. There that blessed Deliverer from heaven spoke, "I have bought thee with the price of My blood."

Oh, there came a moment that she came to know Him as "my" Deliverer. She will recognize that voice out of thousands of other voices. Of Him she says, "That is the voice of my beloved; unto Him is all my desire." That is the bride who says, "Come." That is, of course, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. He worked that knowledge in her that outside of that blessed Mediator she is lost. He worked that longing in her so that as a bride longs for the wedding day, so this spiritual bride longs for the day when she may know Him, and may say, "He is mine and I am His." She desires that His Name may be glorified in completeness.

That is why she prays, "Thy Name receive all the honor and all the glory." It is inward sorrow for her that within there is yet so much sin, and so little trust. She goes over the earth so lovelessly. How she longs to be delivered from that! She longs for the day when she may serve Him with her whole heart.

This short prayer, "Come"—can there be a purpose in it? Is not the hour of His coming set from all eternity? Would she be a bride if she did not long for that day? Would we not question the love of this bride if she did not desire the coming of that day?

But what a serious and solemn thought it is then that in our days that prayer is heard so seldom. In our days, the church is so at home here below. Is it not a dark veil over the church that there is so little need or desire for His coming?

No, I do not mean that there is not much using of the Name of the Bridegroom. But where is the sinner's need to know that He has set him free?

Dear reader, are you concerned with His coming? That will be the day when eternal joy will begin for God's children. What will that day be for you? It is a worthy question, for it pertains to an everlasting eternity. Today the message may still come to you, "Prepare thy house, for thou shalt die." May it bring you upon your knees with the publican's prayer, "Oh God, be merciful unto me a sinner!"

Rev. J. Den Hoed is pastor of the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Rock Valley, Iowa.

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