The Descent of the Holy Ghost

Rev. A.M. den Boer (1929-2004)

Dear Readers,

On Christmas we commemorated the coming of the second Person in the divine Being on the earth, that is, Christ assuming our human nature. Now on Pentecost our attention is asked for the third Person in the divine Being. The great importance of Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit took habitation on this earth in the midst of the church.

Under the Old Testament the labor of the Holy Ghost was felt, otherwise no one could then have been saved, but on the day of Pentecost it became different. First, the wall of partition in the temple was taken away. We may not forget that under the New Testament it is a richer, clearer administration; under the Old Testament everything was under the veil of the law and the ceremonies. Did Christ not say in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”?

The Apostle Paul writes to the Romans in Chapter 8:15, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” How regrettable it is that so many of God’s children have so much resemblance to the Old Testament church and are under guardians, possessed by a spirit of bondage.

We may not blame the Holy Spirit, but we should complain about ourselves being without need. How different it was on the day of Pentecost. Even more has happened there than that which was seen and heard. It is understandable that we give most of our attention to the things which we see and hear. It is, however, of the greatest importance to know how it was possible that these things could happen. We can find out about this in the sermon preached by Peter. The apostle stood in the power of the Lord, anointed with the new oil of the Holy Spirit. He sought the honor of the Lord and the welfare of the hearers. Under the administration of the Holy Spirit, he remembered what the Lord had said. The Lord Himself opened the lips of Peter. The Spirit that went out from the Father and the Son had entered into the heart of Peter, and knowledge of the fullness of salvation in Christ was given unto him so that he could speak to the honor of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

After he has made known to the people that the happening of that day is the fulfillment of the prophecy of the prophet Joel, He draws Christ in His humiliation and exaltation. In our text he says that the outpouring of the Spirit is according to the promise of the Father, “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost.” See also John 14:16&26 and Acts 1:4 where, before His ascension, Christ prayed to the Father and spoke to the disciples that the Father would send the Spirit. This could only happen after His ascension.

It was already from eternity, in the Council of Peace, that the divine Persons had counsel about the deliverance of the elect out of the fallen human race. The Father asked who would give Himself to be Surety. The Son has given Himself freely and voluntarily, whereupon the Father promised to give Him the ends of the earth for His possession, which would be worked out by the Holy Spirit. As we know, this promise is repeated time and again in the Bible. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit, therefore, should take place, also according to the Truth of God. In the Council of Peace, satisfaction was required from the Mediator, and now that this was performed, the Lord will also fulfill what He has promised, the coming of the Holy Ghost.

It is such a great blessing that we may commemorate this again, not only because we are in the land of the living but because the work of the Holy Spirit continues which means that we can still be converted. By nature we are full of so many other things which are visible and audible and which seem to be more important. Here, however, we make a big mistake because these things are temporal, but what the Lord bestows upon His people is everlasting and, therefore, of the greatest importance.

This was emphasized by Peter in his sermon. When you read this sermon, it is very well possible that you are a little bit disappointed that you hear so little about the Holy Spirit, but then we make a mistake. Everything that is said about the Father and the Son is related to the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit did not come to seek Himself but to glorify Christ. This is what we can read so clearly in this great sermon on the day of Pentecost, that Christ is glorified. “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted ...”

The multitude does not know of these things because they have heard and believed the lie of the keepers and because the Lord did not appear to the people in general anymore, only to His children. If we have never felt and seen our sins, then the Mediator has no value for us at all. When we are reproved of sin, we learn of the breach between God and our soul, and in the further leadings of the Lord we will also learn that we cannot give satisfaction ourselves, and in this way under the leading of the Holy Spirit, room is made for the Mediator. In Him is deliverance, as He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Have we learned something of this in our life? If we have, then we know it is not a way wherein we increase but wherein we have to decrease, to become nothing before the Lord. Then the richness of Christ is revealed in the beginning.

In His humiliation Christ merited salvation, and in His exaltation He applies it. Although He is at the right hand of the Father, He will not forget His Church. No, He prays for His children. He listens to those people who flee to Him by day and night with all their needs even when it seems that heaven is closed and when they go over this earth with an open debt, crying, “How can I ever be reconciled with God?” Then it is the same Spirit who discovers God’s people and shows them their sin, but He also reveals the work of Christ and applies it to the heart. Great is the fullness which is seen in the Mediator in His humiliation, but it is even greater in His exaltation. As it was for Christ to go through death to life, so also it is experienced by the Church. Here Peter may say, “And having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He has shed forth this.” The miracle of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Ghost, is related to the exaltation of Christ. According to John 7, the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

This meant that without Ascension there could be no Pentecost, but Christ was glorified, and now the Holy Spirit took up habitation in the body of Christ upon earth and filled them with His influence. So it should also be today, but alas, it is not! We should be ashamed when we see the sad reality that so little is seen of the work of the glorious Pentecostal Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, empty vessels were filled, broken hearts were healed. We see so little of the Spirit because there are so few empty vessels. When there are no broken hearts, so few who continue with one accord in prayer and supplication, then there is no work for the Spirit. A superficial spirit rules in our days, a spirit of believing and accepting, which is not the way of the Lord. Where the Lord begins, we find humbled and lost sinners who cannot help themselves anymore.

Such a work of the Lord will not be hidden forever as we see here in this history, “Which ye now see and hear.” When we repeat those things which were seen and heard, then we know first of all that the wind was heard in its great power. By the wind of the Spirit the enemies are cast down, but also the hearts of the elect are broken. The second sign was the fire which pointed to the enlightening of the Holy Spirit whereby the apostles also would be enabled to preach the gospel. The third sign was that these simple men out of Galilee spoke in other languages of the great works of the Lord. The greatest miracle of Pentecost was, however, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It was impossible that the apostles would be silent under such a blessed condition.

It does not happen in the same way in our days because those external signs are not heard and seen anymore. Still, the working of the Spirit is the same. He makes His people poor and dependent; He makes the heart dry and barren. Why does He do that? So that at God’s time He may make it fruitful and that we may therein seek the glory of God. He takes away all things upon which we are resting to show that in Christ we have everything. In this way a Triune God is glorified because the Father receives His child, the Son in His people His wage, and the Holy Ghost the renewed habitation.

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