The Pentecostal Experience

Fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death and the grave, and ten days after He ascended up into heaven, a great event took place, the equal of which the world has not witnessed since. This event is designated in the Bible as “the day of Pentecost” (Acts 2:1). It was the day on which the Holy Spirit made a unique visit to the earth.

Christendom, in its feverish and futile observances of days, celebrates “Whitsunday” in commemoration of the Holy Spirit’s coming. But the festival is too frequently marked by hypocrisy since some of Christendom’s leaders go as far as to deny the Holy Spirit’s Deity. The true believer in the Lord Jesus The Saviour will not observe the day in empty formalism, but he may use the day as an occasion and opportunity to ponder the great Believers of Jesus truths which surround Pentecost.

Basic in Christianity are the true facts about God. The conceptions of men about God are many and varied, but the God of the Bible is one God revealed in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth . . .” (John 14:16, 17). This text is a clear and specific expression of the doctrine of the Trinity, directing the mind to that day on which the Third Person of the blessed Holy Trinity came. 

The word “another” in John 14:16 is the translation of the Greek word allos, meaning another of the same kind. When the Holy Spirit came, the disciples would find in Him no qualitative difference from the Father and the Son. All three persons possess all of the essential and unique attributes of Deity.

The Pentecostal Preparation

Pentecost was a divinely planned event; it was no mere afterthought with God, The Father. The coming of the Holy Spirit was as much a part of the redemptive plan as was the incarnation, death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus.

In the Old Testament we see Pentecost in history, in type and in prophecy. Pentecost was a solemn festival of the Children of Israel. There was a series of seven of those annual feasts which, like the whole of Israel’s divinely appointed ritual, were “a shadow of good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1) . These feasts of The Father are set forth in order in Leviticus, chapter 23. Let us examine this chapter.

The first in order of the feasts was the Passover (verses 4, 5). This was the feast of redemption, reflecting upon Israel’s deliverance from her bondage in Egypt. The incident is recorded in Exodus 12. The slaying of the Passover Lamb and the sprinkling of its blood marked a new beginning for the children of Israel. On that very day The Father changed their calendar, saying, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Exodus l2:2) That month was originally the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar (Abib), but now a new start was begun with the past blotted out forever. Their day of redemption from Egyptian bondage had come.

This all finds application in the Believers  experience. Paul wrote, “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (I Corinthians 5:7). When the believing sinner appropriates the death of Christ, his sinful past is forever blotted out. He becomes at once a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17). Having been born again (John 3:5, 7), he receives new life, God’s own life (II Peter 1:4). The guilt and penalty of past sins are gone. The day of conversion is a new beginning.

The next in order of the Hebrew feasts was the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6-8). It was closely associated with the Passover and lasted seven days. Its chief characteristic was the rigid exclusion of leaven from the houses of the Israelites. Now what is leaven? Webster defines leaven as any substance used to produce fermentation, as in dough or liquids, especially a portion of fermented dough used for this purpose; yeast.

The Passover and Unleavened Bread, there is, in type, a beautiful sequence. The Passover speaks of salvation through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus. Inasmuch as leaven typifies evil, it follows that the person who trusts the shed blood of Jesus for salvation should continue in Christian experience, namely, a walk in separation from evil. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (I Corinthians 5:6-8).

The third in order of the annual festivals was the feast of First-fruits (Leviticus 23:9-14). There was no set date for this event since it came, of necessity, when the grain was ripe and ready for harvest. In the autumn, seventy days before the Passover, the fields were ploughed and the seed planted. Then when the time for harvest had arrived, a chosen committee from the temple would set to work with sickle and basket to gather a small amount of grain. This in turn was brought into the temple to be threshed and ground into flour and presented before the Lord. In presenting the first-fruits of the natural product of the ground, Israel was acknowledging the power and goodness of The Father.

But again the outward and visible thing was a symbol of something far deeper and greater in spiritual meaning and value. The Lord Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). Was He not here speaking of Himself? Indeed so! For it was on the third day after the Lamb was slain that He arose from death and the grave. Of this the Holy Spirit bears witness as seen in the following passage. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept” (I Corinthians 15:20).

“Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (I Corinthians 15:23). Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee that we too shall live.

The fourth of the solemn feasts is called the feast of Weeks, or Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15-21). Notice the time element. The joyous season of the grain harvest lasted seven weeks, and on the day of the seventh Sabbath, “fifty days” to be exact, the feast of Pentecost was celebrated. In rabbinic literature it is also called “The Feast of the Fiftieth Day.” Now we begin to see more clearly the deeper significance of Israel’s solemn feasts. The Greek word for “Pentecost” means fiftieth, and it was celebrated the fiftieth day from the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. It was “the day of Pentecost” (Acts 2:1) when, by the descent of the Holy Spirit, Hebrew and Gentile were made fellow heirs and of the same body (Ephesians 3:6).

The Grace of God in Jesus The Savior was to reach out beyond the limits of Israel, and Pentecost marked the beginning of the fulfillment of the divine plan, the Gospel into all the world to every creature. We bow in humble gratitude to The Father when we realize that the birthday of the Church was in preparation through every stage of human history.

The Pentecostal Presence

The coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was the coming of a Person. The term, “the Holy Spirit,” is the name or title of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, and is used to distinguish Him from both the First Person, who is the Father, and from the Second Person, who is the Son. There are many other names used in Scripture to describe and designate the nature and work of the Third Person, and in every instance they refer to one and the same Person, the Holy Spirit.

Referring to the Holy Spirit as the Third Person does not imply that He is less important than the Father and the Son, but it does suggest that He is the last-revealed personality of the three. Pentecost introduced the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, and from the Book of Acts to The Revelation, the Holy Spirit functions as the direct agent between God and man. The purpose of Pentecost was to introduce Him to man in a new way.

The Father’s purpose is to draw men to Himself and make them like His Son, Jesus. To this end Jesus gave Himself. But in so doing He did not complete the task. The process of producing God-likeness is still going on today, and it is the primary work of the Spirit to accomplish this.

We will receive Power "After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” At Pentecost, that is exactly what took place. The Holy Spirit came. Now, for more than nineteen hundred years, men have defied suffering, sorrow and death in order that Christ’s transforming Gospel might reach all men and fashion them into His likeness. Not all who have heard have believed, by any means. But some have and in every instance a work has been wrought, not by man themselves, but by the Holy Spirit who will experience the Pentecost Presence.

We need to recognize the Pentecostal Person in the ministry today. There is a prevailing impotence that none can deny. The works of the flesh can never produce the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the life-line of power in the Church. The coming of the Spirit was the commencement of the Church for, says Paul, “Ye also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). By the Spirit the body of Jesus was formed, and by Him it is held together.

Too little attention is being given Him, and because He is not recognized there is no power in service. There is no need to pray for the Spirit to come. He is with us today. “He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure” (John 3:34). He is a Person, and we have as much of Him as did the disciples at Pentecost. When we permit the Holy Spirit to take possession of the Church today, we can expect glorious results. Let us evermore yield to Him.

Important Note: Those who are to experience this moment, must have proper preparation. What this means is, each of us must be cleansed of the impurities of the world. We must be delivered from the selfish, prideful and stubborn spirits. We must surrender all in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He cannot dwell in an unclean temple. The Holy Spirit will not allow anyone to misuse the Power given to Him, that is offered to us. Today, we must humble ourselves under the Mighty hand of God, accepted and receive Jesus as The Son, with all Power In His Hands and Receive Holy Spirit by being Baptized By Him. Remember: "The man God uses is the man God makes." HalleluYah!!!