The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

Good evening. Tonight we are on lesson number five of our study of the Holy Spirit. In week one we looked at the person of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is not an "it," He is not a force, but He is a person and we can relate to Him and know Him. And week two we looked at the divinity of the Holy Spirit, that He's not just a person but He's a divine person. He's equal to the Father and equal to the Son, and everything that can be said about God can be said about the Holy Spirit. And week three we looked at the names of the Holy Spirit, how we know Him, the descriptors of Him in Scripture. And then last week in week four we looked at the symbols or the illustrations of the Holy Spirit. We looked at eight different pictures that help us understand who He is and what He does. Tonight we're looking at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and it's probably one of the most misunderstood doctrinal points in regards to the Holy Spirit. We see the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, but how is He new in the New Testament? How do we see Him in the New Testament before Pentecost? So what is Pentecost all about? And that's what we'll be looking at tonight.

Let's start with Bible point number one. The Holy Spirit as a divine person is eternal, that's the first blank, and omnipresent. Those are both attributes of God. We know that God is eternal, He has no beginning, He has no end, and there's nowhere that God is not. He's omnipresent, He's always present, fully present in every place. The Holy Spirit as a divine person is both those things. The eternal Spirit has no beginning, for He has always been. We see Him at the very beginning of creation, hovering over the chaos, basically being brought into order as He's incubating that, in Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. Likewise, the Spirit cannot go from one place to another. We talk about the Holy Spirit descending at Pentecost, but in essence He really can't go to some place where He's not already, because He's already there, right? There's no place where God is not.

Hebrews 9:14 talks about His eternality. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Notice it's saying that the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit — eternal simply means He has no beginning, He has no end. So the Holy Spirit did not come into being at Pentecost as some people falsely teach or assume. He's always been.

Psalm 139:7 speaks of the Holy Spirit's omnipresence. David says, "Where can I go from Your Spirit, or where can I flee from Your presence?" Such comforting words to know that God is always with us. There's no place that we can go and be apart from the Holy Spirit. Flip over on the back. I'm going to look a little bit further here in Psalm 139. David writes, "If I ascend into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in hell, the grave, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me." How comforting is that, to know that the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, is always holding our hand and always leading us, right? The application for number one is simply this: praise God for His Spirit being ever present, present with us. So comforting to know when you are in the hospital and your life feels like it's literally leaving your body. It's comforting to know that the Holy Spirit is dwelling within you, right? When you're grieving the loss of somebody, it's comforting to know that He is with you, your shepherd is with you, He lives with you, and He will never leave you, He will never forsake you.

But point number two, the Holy Spirit manifests His personal presence according to His divine will. Will is the first blank. The Spirit is omnipresent without indwelling every soul. Because the Spirit is always present everywhere at all times, that doesn't mean that He lives or indeed indwells all people. Does the Holy Spirit indwell the devil? No, not at all. He can make His presence manifest wherever He wishes. The Spirit is at work, that's the second blank, in all places, although we are at the heart of His work. The Holy Spirit is always working. That's why we're to pray that God's Spirit would be at work in people's hearts, right? We know that part of the Holy Spirit's work is to convict, right? So when we are praying for the soul of the person who's lost, we pray that the Holy Spirit would convict them, right, of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. And even though we may not see the Holy Spirit because He's invisible to us, we know that He's at work. So when you're witnessing to someone and you feel like everything that you're saying is bouncing off their forehead, pray for the Spirit to do His work in their heart, right? He's working whether you realize it or not.

In Scripture, the Spirit is said to be working among all nations, yet He manifests in a special way to His chosen people, that's the third blank. Though the Spirit is at work in all nations, governing the nations, ordering the affairs of men, He's in a very special way with His chosen people, right? He's in a very special way with His church, right, though He's in all the world.

Isaiah 40:13, "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him?" Can you tell the Holy Spirit what to do? Can you teach Him anything? No. Flip over on the back. Continue here in verse 14: "With whom did He take counsel? And who instructed Him? And who taught Him the path of justice? Who told Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are a drop in the bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales. Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. He raises nations and He brings them down. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for burnt offerings. All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him as less than nothing and worthless." In other words, the Holy Spirit is so mighty, He gives breath to every single creature, He raises kings, He blesses nations, He curses nations. He's at work in every place in this world.

The application for number two: where do we most see the work of the Spirit? The Spirit is invisible and we see His work, but where is His work apparent? Salvation, the people, the church, His people, those who bear the name of Christ — we see it here. Just as Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the Spirit is the image of the invisible Christ. Christ has ascended and He's up in heaven right now and we can't see Him. But we see the work of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus told Nicodemus: you see the wind blow, you know its effects are there, but you don't know where it comes from, right? When you see a soul that is converted, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. When you see the church using their gifts to edify one another, to serve one another, to encourage one another, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. We see the Holy Spirit's work most in His church because He's the one who not only created the church, but He animates the church, right, and gifts the church for His glory.

Bible point number three: in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is seen working in individuals both outwardly, that's the first blank, outwardly and inwardly. We see the Spirit outwardly gifting — gifting is the second blank — men to enable them to serve — serve is the third blank — His purposes. So in the Old Testament we see the Spirit working both inwardly and outwardly, and in the outward sense He gifts men and women to serve His purposes.

Here are some examples of that. The Spirit, in the first bullet point, gave gifts and talents to the service of the people. We read in Exodus 31 — and you'll see it again in Exodus 35 — where God chose certain craftsmen to build His tabernacle and He gave them artistic gifts, He conveyed them, so that they could build this tabernacle to the praise of His glory so the people's eyes would be lifted up and drawn in worship to God, right? If you've seen some of the descriptions from Scripture of the tabernacle, it was amazing, right? Think about the veil that separated the most holy place from the holy of holies. What did it have on there but stars and these celestial bodies, because it was a picture that you're leaving the terrestrial and you're entering into the celestial. You're turning your eyes towards heaven where the Lord is, right? And so all that craftsmanship, all that art, all that skill that it took to build the temple was gifted upon men, was given outwardly to men to serve the Lord.

We see the Spirit anointed and empowered the offices of prophet, priest, and king of Israel. You'll see Aaron — you can look at these references later — Aaron was anointed by the Spirit to do his work as priest. Moses had the Spirit as prophet, right? Did not God even take part of the Spirit that was upon him and give it to the 70 elders so that they could judge the nation of Israel so it wouldn't all be on Moses' shoulders? This was an example of God empowering men for service. And we see the same thing in Second Samuel, that David was anointed with the Holy Spirit, right? He did serve as king, had the wisdom as a king, and went to battle as a king with the power of the Holy Spirit. And we also see that the Spirit came upon them — we see that in Gideon, and we see that in Samson. You see that all throughout the book of Judges: the Spirit coming upon them to enable them for a particular task, to enable them to lead Israel to victory, to protect the nation of Israel, to deliver them as judges.

The application for this is: can the Holy Spirit — this is a question — can He move evil, evil men to do His purpose?

He sure can. Yeah, the Holy Spirit can work outwardly, even on evil men to do His purposes. Look back at bullet point number one. Isaiah 45:1 talks about the Holy Spirit coming upon Cyrus.

Pagan king, right? But what did God have him do but to restore Israel into the land, basically, to have them come back in a second exodus into the promised land? So we are to pray for kings. We're to pray for presidents. We're to pray for leaders, even if you think, well, they're a godless pagan, why should I pray for them? Because God can work upon them outwardly to accomplish His will, right?

Bible point number four. Inwardly — we talked about how the Holy Spirit can work on men in the Old Testament outwardly, but He also works on them inwardly. Inwardly, we see the Spirit quickening men's hearts to walk righteously and to be in fellowship with God. Think of Enoch, right? He walked with God.

How could you walk with God unless you have a righteous heart? And who can make his own heart righteous? It's only the Holy Spirit who can do that, right? The regenerating work of the Holy Spirit must include His indwelling presence. Presence is the first blank. In other words, if the Holy Spirit regenerates someone, by necessity, it means that he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Because when your heart is regenerated, when your heart is made new, when your heart is given the new birth by the Spirit, the Spirit of God comes to live within you. You are spiritually united with Christ, and the Spirit of Christ comes into your heart.

There is no salvation outside of union with Christ the Savior through faith by His Spirit. You can't be united to Christ outwardly. Doing some sacrifices of blood of goats and bulls cannot unite you to Christ, right? The book of Hebrews tells us that no one was ever saved by the blood of bulls and goats, right? Good works, these outward things, cannot unite you to the Savior, but He is received through faith. And when He is received through faith, His Spirit comes within you and changes your heart of stone and makes it into a heart of flesh. He imparts His gracious presence until He mediates the fellowship of the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit into your heart. The Spirit unites us to our Savior in regeneration.

Old Testament believers looked forward, that's the second blank, forward in faith to what Christ would do. The Old Testament believers did not have the understanding — the full understanding — that we have of what the Messiah would do, but they had God's promises, right? And they looked for a Messiah. They looked for the anointed one who would redeem them, right? So they looked forward in faith, and that faith justified them, right? While the New Testament believers look back — back is the third blank here — back in faith to Christ for what He has already done for us. We're on the other side of the cross, and our faith appropriates Christ just as the Old Testament saints' faith appropriated Christ. They looked forward in faith to what the Messiah would do. We look back in faith to what the Messiah has already accomplished, that He died on the cross for us. The perfect Lamb of God was our substitute. He was our sacrifice. He lived a perfect life, died in our place to pay the penalty of our sins. "So whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." If we call upon the Lord Jesus, He takes all of our sin, all of our unrighteousness, and He casts it as far as the East is from the West and into the Sea of Forgetfulness. He remembers it no more, right? He makes us totally clean, and He gives us His righteousness to be clothed in Him.

First bullet point, the Spirit indwelled men here in the Old Testament. You'll see that in Genesis 41:38 with Joseph. Remember how Pharaoh talks about Joseph? He says, "Who is indwelled by the Spirit of God like Joseph is?" He made Joseph his right-hand man. There's often the misconception that in the Old Testament, the Spirit may have been among people, but He didn't indwell them. That's a misconception. Scripture does not validate that. In fact, it actually speaks directly against that here in Genesis 41:38. Likewise, in Numbers 27:18, speaking of Joshua, the Spirit of God abided in Joshua.

The Spirit regenerated man's heart through faith. Now, in Hebrews 11:1-2 it talks about how by faith it's impossible to please God apart from faith, right? And what happens when you read through Hebrews 11 and Hebrews 12 and you get to what's called the Hall of Faith? "By faith Abraham believed and it was accounted to him for righteousness. By faith Moses forsook the pleasures of Egypt," because he esteemed Christ better than all the vanities that the world could have afforded him. Time and time again, we see all these Old Testament saints expressing faith in God. That's why we call that chapter the Hall of Faith, right? The only way you could have such faith — is not faith a gift from the Lord, right? — it's through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit coming into you and giving you a heart of faith to appropriate Christ, right?

We see in John 3:5 that you've got to be born again, to be born of water and be born of the Spirit. That means being regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And in Luke 13, there in the references, you'll see many of the Old Testament saints as being men who pleased God, right? They pleased God because they had faith. Flip up on the back. Reference number four on the back. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says this: "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him."

"Joined" means united — he who is in union with the Lord, in union with Christ, is one spirit with Him. How's that? It's because His Spirit comes to dwell within us. And that's true whether it's an Old Testament saint or a New Testament saint, right? We're saved the same way, through faith in Christ Jesus through the regeneration of His Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:8-9, "So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." It's impossible to have salvation apart from Christ, apart from being united to Him by His Spirit, being indwelt by the Spirit of God.

Now, the application for number four: "Does the Spirit of God indwell" — that's the blank — "indwell you?" 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of God, and that His Spirit dwells within you?" Do you have that confidence that the Spirit of God dwells within you? Do you have that certainty? All it takes is bowing your knee before the Lord Jesus, calling upon Him for salvation, trusting, putting your full faith in His perfect righteousness, not in your works, not in your heritage, but trusting that Christ alone is your Savior, calling out to Him. And when you do so, His Spirit comes to live within you.

Bible point number five: in the New Testament, believers were indwelled — indwelled is the first blank — by the Spirit before Pentecost. Just as the Old Testament saints, we have examples, as we mentioned, of Joseph and Joshua being indwelled by the Holy Spirit. In fact, every Old Testament believer was indwelled by the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament, we see the same thing. They were indwelled by the Spirit before Pentecost.

John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb in Luke 1:15. Elizabeth was filled with the Spirit. Remember when she met with Mary, the mother of Jesus? She was filled with the Spirit. Her heart leapt within her and she prophesied and said wonderful things about the coming Messiah. Zechariah, this was Elizabeth's husband, was filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember when the angel told him that he would have a son, John the Baptist, and he didn't really believe the angel and he was made mute, right? And then after the birth of John, they were arguing about what to name him, and his muteness was lifted and he was filled with the Spirit. He gave a great testimony of the faithfulness. Jesus was filled with the Spirit. We see that in John 4:1. He goes into the wilderness by the Spirit's power, coming out of the wilderness and starting His ministry. He's filled with the Spirit, right? We see the Spirit at Christ's baptism, right? So we see the indwelling of the Spirit in His saints before Pentecost, in the Old Testament and the New Testament, just as they did in the Old.

The disciples — these are the twelve, or the eleven — believed in Jesus. You can look at these references in Matthew 16 and John 6. They were united in Christ, John 15:3-5, and they were indwelled with the Spirit, John 14:17. Jesus says you know the Spirit, He's in you already, is what He says. However, Jesus still promised to send His Spirit in a fuller — this is the third blank — a fuller way than previously before. And you'll see that in John 14, you'll see that in John 15, John 16, John 20. He tells them, "I'm going to send you another Advocate. I'm going to send you another Comforter and He's going to lead and guide you into all things. He's going to take the things of Me and reveal them to you. He's going to reveal things that you didn't even know yet," right? And so we see that they already had the Spirit, but yet Jesus is promising a fuller pouring out, or fuller outpouring, of the Holy Spirit.

John 7:38-39, it says this: "He who believes in Me," this is Jesus speaking, "as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" — He's quoting from the Old Testament here — "but this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified." So when you read that, it sounds like, well, the Holy Spirit just says here He wasn't given, but yet we see Him indwelling a saint. So what's this discrepancy, so to speak? They had Him, but they didn't have Him in the fullness that we would see come Pentecost. And I'll explain how that fullness is shown at Pentecost. But let's look at the application for number five here.

How does Luke 1:15, speaking of John the Baptist being filled with the Spirit from his mother's birth, how does that show us the mysterious ways of God? Mysterious is the blank there.

Who can understand that? We realize that we receive the Spirit through faith.

A baby, an infant in his mother's womb can't express faith, but cannot the Holy Spirit regenerate an infant even, right, in the mother's womb? We don't always understand or comprehend the ways of God. Again, that's what Jesus tells Nicodemus: you see the wind blow, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going. So with this understanding of the Holy Spirit and His outpouring, we do have to embrace mystery. We're not told everything, right? But we do know that we have His deposit, His forepayment, His foretaste within our hearts, right? It's given to us, and even more is coming in heaven, so to speak. His Holy Spirit is just a down payment of the glory that we will experience there.

So let's look at how at Pentecost this outpouring was even fuller than what the saints in the New Testament before Pentecost and the saints of the Old Testament had experienced. We'll see that in Bible point number six here. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was in fullness of confession. Confession is the first blank.

Before Pentecost, they didn't have a full understanding even of the gospel, right? Think of the Old Testament saints. They knew that the Messiah would bring them salvation, but they didn't know how. There were hints of it indeed all throughout the Old Testament, right? You read Isaiah 53 talking about the suffering servant: "by His stripes we are healed and all we like sheep have gone astray, every one of us, but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." We see these pictures, we see these prophecies, but did they then all put it together? Right? Many were looking for the Messiah to be a military hero who would throw off Rome, right? They weren't expecting the Messiah to come lowly on a donkey, to be suffered, to be bruised, to be crucified, to be spat upon, to be mocked, to be scorned. But He did that to take our suffering, to take our punishment, to bear our price, to die in our place. So that knowledge wasn't full until we have Pentecost.

What is Pentecost, by the way? Pentecost stems from the Old Testament, and Pentecost was the 50th day after Passover. Remember, God had rescued the Israelites from Egypt, led them in the Exodus out of Egypt through the Red Sea, right? And then to Sinai. And there at Sinai, what did they receive? They received the law of God. And so on the 50th day after Passover, they celebrated what we would call Pentecost.

And that celebration had multiple meanings. Part of it was the receiving of the law, because there at Sinai they received the word of God, right? We see Moses receiving the Ten Commandments and the 600 rules and all the ordinances that they should walk in. We also see that it's a celebration of God's deliverance because they were glad to be out of bondage, out of Egypt, right? God had delivered them and He crushed Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea and brought them with a mighty outstretched hand out from bondage. So not only was it a celebration of the giving of the law, not only was it a celebration of their deliverance, but it was also a celebration of the harvest because connected with this was that they were to give the first fruits of their harvest every year when they celebrated Pentecost. So if you had a field, maybe you had a vineyard, or maybe you had fields of grain, whatever crop that you raised, you were to give the first fruits in gratitude to God for His deliverance and for giving His word to guide you and lead you, right?

And we also see that Pentecost was a celebration of God's rest for His people.

It was 50 days after the Passover when it was celebrated. The number 50 is very significant in Jewish law because every 50th year there was what? Jubilee, right? And in Jubilee, what did you do to the land? You let it rest. You didn't plant crops. You gave the land a chance to recover and to get new nutrients in it, right? Not only that, if you had ancestral lands that you had sold because you were in dire straits, those lands came back to you. If you had sold yourself or a family member into servitude, into slavery, guess what happened?

Your chains came off and you were set free, right? You were given rest. And so the Passover celebration in the Old Testament carried all that symbolism, okay? And think about Christ. Is not Christ our Passover? Just as the blood of the Lamb was applied to the lintel of the doorpost and the death angel passed over in the Passover, is not Christ our Passover Lamb, the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who makes death pass over us? We pass over from death and pass into life — yes. How about the law? Pentecost was a celebration of the giving of the law at Sinai? Is not Christ the Word of God made flesh? And did not the Word of God made flesh perfectly keep the Old Testament law for our benefit? Did not He fulfill the law for us, perfectly obeying it in every way so He could be our substitute, because we've broken the law every which way you can imagine, right? But Christ perfectly kept the law for us. Was not Christ just like the Jubilee?

In that He has set us free to rest in Him? We no longer have to labor to try to win God's approval, to try to earn our salvation under the law, which we could never do — it was never intended for that. It was intended to show us our sin, but we can rest in His finished work. Can we not? And also, just as in the Old Testament they offered their first fruits to God in gratitude —

is there any sacrifice that we offer? Not really, because Christ has offered all sacrifice. So what does Christ do? He gives us the Holy Spirit as the first fruits. We see that in Romans 8:23 — the Holy Spirit is called the first fruits of the kingdom of God. Christ gives us His Holy Spirit. As we talked last week, Caleb talked about the images of the Holy Spirit and how He is the down payment, He is the earnest, He is the guarantee of heaven, the foretaste of heaven. So Christ does all this for us, right? So we have a fullness of confession that the Old Testament saints only had in shadows and signs. It's now found its fulfillment in Christ Jesus.

Pentecost spoke of God's giving of the law, deliverance from bondage, offering of the first fruits in Jubilee. Christ fulfilled the law, that's the second blank, delivered us from all of our enemies, that's the third blank, and gave us the first fruits of heaven, that's the fourth blank, and gave us rest, that's the fifth blank. Let me reread that. Pentecost spoke of God's offering of the first fruits in Jubilee. Christ fulfilled the law, delivered us from all of our enemies, gave us the first fruits of heaven, and gave us rest.

Look at this confession, how it's spoken of in Acts 1:8, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be My witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." At Pentecost, the Spirit was given to empower us to tell and share this full confession of what Christ has done for us, who He is and what He's done. We should be His witnesses to the entire world, right? We have a confession, we have a gospel that they only dreamt of in the Old Testament, and now it finds its fullness at Pentecost. So that's one way in which the outpouring of the Spirit differed. They had the Spirit differently after Pentecost because they had a fullness of confession of who Christ is and what He's done, and they were empowered specifically to be His witnesses.

Look in Acts 2:1-4, "When the day of Pentecost had fully come" — again this would have been 50 days after the crucifixion of Christ — "when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place," speaking of the early believers here. This would have been Jewish believers, 120 believers, the disciples, and their followers.

"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them." These tongues were symbolic of the Word of God, the full confession of our faith that now has been imparted to them. We have the Word of God made flesh put inside us by the Holy Spirit, and on our lips, that we are to each be confessors of our Lord Jesus Christ before men and into the world. And this message was put on fire by the Holy Spirit, right? How was the world turned upside down by 120 people? It's by the power of the Holy Spirit, right? By their confession. It says, "And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." As you continue to read in that chapter, you know that the tongues of 16 different language groups heard the gospel message, the glory of our Lord and Savior, in their own tongue, because they were there to celebrate Pentecost at Jerusalem. It was one of the three pilgrimages that they all had to go to Jerusalem to do. So you had people from all over Israel and beyond that were there, and they all heard the gospel in their native tongue, right? Because now the Spirit had been sent, and that Spirit was giving them a full confession that they had never had before, right? The gospel was breaking forth into this world.

The application for number six: tell the world that Christ the Savior has come. Come is the blank. Tell the world that Christ the Savior has come. You have the Holy Spirit within you, and yes, the Holy Spirit is there to comfort you. Yes, the Holy Spirit is there to lead and guide you to all truth. Yes, the Holy Spirit is there to bear witness with you that you are indeed the child of God, but the Holy Spirit is primarily there to anoint your tongue to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to all men. Embrace that confession. That's the fullness of why His Spirit was sent and why it changed people — because their confession was now full that Christ Jesus the Savior had come and He had defeated death and brought deliverance to all men.

Bible point number seven, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was in fullness of celebration. Celebration is the blank.

Pentecost was a joyful time. It was a celebration of the first fruits — that was part of it. It was a celebration of their deliverance out of Egypt. It was a celebration of receiving the law. It was a celebration of jubilee, right? But the celebration is intensified because of what it's linked to. The gifting of Christ's Spirit would coincide with His ascension. Remember we just read up in John 7, it says that the Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet what? Glorified. Jesus told His disciples, "It's for your benefit that I go to the Father," right? "Because when I go to the Father, then I'll be able to pour out the Spirit on you." So this celebration has to do with the ascension, the glorification, the exaltation of the God-man, Jesus Christ.

When Christ ascended and He sat on the right hand of the throne of God, He brought humanity with Him, because something was different from the last time He was in heaven, so to speak. He had added humanity to His person, right? One person with two natures, both the divine nature and the human nature. And humanity was lifted up and glorified along with divinity in His exaltation, right? So He was crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. The gifting of the Spirit would coincide with His ascension. The day of Pentecost was a visible sign to all the nations of the coronation of the exalted Christ — exalted is the second blank. This outpouring of the Holy Spirit was a sign for all men to see and to hear that Christ is King, and He's King over the entire world.

The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is the evidence — evidence is the third or the fourth blank here — the evidence of Christ's enthronement, just as the resurrection of Christ is evidence of His perfect sacrifice. Remember we talked about the resurrection of Christ when we studied Christology, that the resurrection proved Christ's work to be satisfactory to the Father. He did not deserve death. He did not deserve the grave. So the grave cannot hold Him, right? So Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of God the Father, right? And His resurrection becomes ours. His justification becomes ours. In the same way, His ascension to the right hand is celebrated in the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. He rules the world, right? Don't we sing that at Christmas time, right? Christ reigns, and that's what Pentecost is about. It's a celebration. It's the evidence of His coronation.

Look in the Old Testament. This is a prophetic passage, Psalm 2, speaking of the Messiah who would be crowned. It says, "Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree, the Lord Yahweh has said to Me, You are My Son. Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance and the ends of the earth for Your possession." That is ascension. Christ mounted and sat upon the very throne of the universe. Glorified humanity has attained that. And in doing so, Pentecost reflects that by the tongues being rested upon men, the gospel message going out among all men, that Christ is Lord, that every knee must bow, every tongue must confess that He is Lord. Look over on the back.

Acts chapter 2. This is Peter's preaching at Pentecost. Notice how he takes Pentecost and he aligns it with and associates it with Christ's coronation. It says, "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne." God had promised David — I believe it's in 2 Samuel 7 — that he would always have a descendant on the throne. And here he's saying the fulfillment of that is Christ. He spoke prophetically of Christ. "He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we all are witnesses. 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 which you now see and hear." Peter's saying this outpouring is evidence of the enthronement, the coronation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Okay, flip that over on the front. The application is this: how is the gift of the Spirit related to Christ's glory? Doesn't the Bible tell us in the Psalms — and it's quoted in the New Testament — that Christ led captivity captive? We find this in Ephesians 4, and He gave gifts to men, right? In humanity being exalted to the throne of God, all of humanity was conferred all the gracious benefits, all the favor of God, all the divine favor of the love of the Son was on humanity in the God-man Christ Jesus, right? So what happens to us as humans who are united to Christ? What comes from that? But all the favor of God, all the love of God, all the glory of God is shared with those united to Him.

Bible point number eight, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was in fullness of corporation. Corporation — just like you would think of a corporation, you work for a corporation — and the Latin where corpus comes from, body, it means to combine into one. This is my body. I've got lots of parts, right? I've got fingers, I've got a nose, I've got feet, right? I've got knees, but all those many parts though are combined into one body, right?

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was in fullness of corporation. At Pentecost, a new body — the body of Christ — came into being. The Spirit formed the church. The body of Christ has a head. When Christ's Spirit was poured out in its fullness at Pentecost, everyone who was individually united to Christ all of a sudden was now united with their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We're family. May not be what you want as a brother, but I am a brother. We are family because we serve the same risen Lord. If I am united to Christ, and Caleb is united to Christ, we're buds now. We're brothers, right? We're sisters, sisters and brothers. We are family in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The body of whom Christ is head — the Spirit combined, just as we have many parts in our body that are brought into one — that's what again "body" means, combining into one. The Spirit combined both believing Jews and Gentiles into one body so that they might receive the promises — promises is the third blank — made to Abraham and glorify — glorify is the fourth blank — Christ.

In the Old Testament, God predominantly worked through Israel. The Jews were His chosen people, right? To them came the prophets, right? To them the priesthood was given, the oracles of God, right? They had the commandments. They had circumcision marking out Israel as a distinct nation from all the other nations, right? They had the prophets and the priests. God gave them kings, right? The Messiah would come from Abraham's line, right? The entire world would be blessed through Abraham. But from the very beginning, it wasn't meant to end at Abraham. That promise to Abraham was that the whole world might be blessed through Abraham. The promise was made to Abraham and to his seed, his seed being Christ, as defined in Galatians chapter 3.

Look over on the back. Let's look at Ephesians 2:11-19. You remember this — Pastor Case, you preached through this a few months back. "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh" — meaning strangers — "apart from the commonwealth of Israel, apart from the promises of God, apart from the blessings of Abraham, therefore remember that you, Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision" — because remember the Jewish nation was marked by circumcision, that's what kind of delineated them from other nations, we weren't — "by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands. He's saying, 'You were once called uncircumcision. You were once strangers. You were once aliens. And at that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.'" Nations came into being and left without knowing God in the Old Testament. God was revealed to the Jews, was revealed to Israel. "But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one." He's made both believing Jews and believing Gentiles one. He's combined us into one body, is what it says here.

"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation." We can no longer speak of Jews being separate from the Gentiles. We're all one in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 15, "Having abolished in His flesh the enmity" — because of His payment on the cross — "that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace." There was animosity of the Jews towards the Gentiles, there was animosity of the Gentiles towards the Jews, right? But now in Christ that animosity is taken away. The kingdom has expanded way greater than it ever was in the Old Testament in the new covenant at Pentecost.

Verse 16, "And that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off, and to those who were near." Christ came to save the Jews, those who were near, and to you those who were far off. Verse 18, "For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." We all have the same Spirit. There's one Lord, there's one faith, there's one baptism, right? Verse 19, "Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." He's given us all the privileges that Israel ever had. He's shared with the Gentiles because He's made them into one body from the two. Verse 20, "Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. In union with Christ we're all built upon Him. He's the chief cornerstone and we're all bricks making up His temple, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." God has come down. He's dwelt with us through His Spirit. And that promise of His indwelling is for all men. Doesn't matter what your heritage is, doesn't matter if you claim to be of royal descent or not, doesn't matter if you're rich, doesn't matter if you're poor, doesn't matter your nationality — all can come to Christ through faith and all can be partakers in the blessings of Abraham.

Look at Galatians 3: "Therefore he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?" How do we receive the Spirit? How do we get the Spirit's benefit? Is it through the works of the law or is it through the hearing of faith? It's through faith, right? "Whosoever believes in Him." Verse 6, "Just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, therefore know that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham." You can be Jewish and if you don't have faith in Christ, you are not a Jew. You are not true Israel. Only those who are sons of Abraham are those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is what Paul is telling us here.

"Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed.' So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus." Every blessing that God promised Abraham has been shared with us in Christ Jesus. "That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." God's promise that He would bless the whole world through Abraham finds its fulfillment in the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's a mystery that was hidden in the ages but now is revealed in Christ.

Verse 26, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. If you're united to Christ, you are His sons. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. For there is neither Jew nor Greek, nor is there slave nor free, neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." He's made us one body. "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed." You are Abraham's posterity. You are Abraham's children. You are Israel. "And heirs according to the promise."

Think about this. At the time of Christ, at His ascension, the cohesiveness of the nation of Israel was in shambles.

Did they have a king? No. They were a client state of Rome. Rome told them what to do and how to do it. Rome said jump and they had to jump. Their worship was even dictated by Rome. Have you seen diagrams of the temple that Herod built? His palace is overlooking it. He had his thumb on everything, right? They had to placate Rome in everything that they did. Not only that,

at the time of Christ's ascension, the worship in the temple was a charade.

Was not that veil rent in two? Long ago had the ark disappeared, but now the Spirit of God's dwelling presence was no longer in that temple, right? It was a charade to continue in those things. There were no more prophets, according to Hebrews chapter 1. "Christ, in these latter days, God spoke to us through His Son. Though in the past He spoke to us through prophets in various ways, but now He's spoken to us through His Son." There were no more priests, right? We read in the book of Hebrews that the Levitical priesthood was surpassed, it was supplanted by the order of Melchizedek, of whom Christ is the priest, our great High Priest, who once and for all made sacrifice for us, right? And He lives forevermore. He'll never be supplanted, right? And they had no king, because Christ was their king, and they rejected Him, right? So what would hold them together? They had no national identity at that point, right? Everything that was unique and special about them was in shambles at this point.

But Christ, in sending His Spirit, He created a new people of God, both believing Jews and believing Gentiles. They became His body, filled with His Holy Spirit, receiving all the blessings, having a king, having a prophet, having a priest in Christ Jesus, right? Having rest in Christ Jesus, having the blessings of Abraham in Christ Jesus. And you can't separate that from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, right? He's blessed us in one body, and as one body, no matter what your background is, no matter where you're from,

we have a unity that's unfathomable to this world. This past week, I know many of you have been praying for our church members. Been praying for Anne, have you not? You've been praying for Julie, have you not? Been praying for Melissa, have you not? Been praying for Doug and Tori. We're glad that you're back tonight, Tori. We've been praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ. What would make you pray for someone that isn't your natural family? It's because they're your spiritual family, right? Because Christ is in them. You love them with the love of Christ that's been shed abroad in your heart. And we use the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to glorify Christ by serving one another as a body.

Look here on the back again, Ephesians 4:9-16. "Now this, 'He ascended,' what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?" Speaking of Christ. "He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things."

"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children, tossed and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."

That's what the body of Christ does. You may not know it, but I believe it was Monday evening we had several of our church members spend more than three hours here. They went and they got the tables at Lake Yale. They came, they removed the old tables, they set up each one of these tables, cleaned them, set the chairs, got the spacing done. That takes time, right? When I came in, I saw tonight we had both Mr. Colson and Jimmy working on the computer up there with music. This doesn't just happen. When we have music up on our screens behind us, it takes time, it takes effort to do, right? We have volunteers that come into the office so graciously to help us with the work of the church. We have people who give sacrificially to help the church and its ministry. We all do our part, right? For the point that we can all build up the body of Christ into the fullness of the head, Jesus Christ.

In that Pentecost, the divine head poured out His Spirit on His body. Remember Jesus was said to be the one in whom the divine fullness dwelt bodily. He pours that out on us. Just as in the Old Testament, the anointing of Aaron — this is the oil from Aaron's head that ran down his beard to his body — the same with our head Christ, right? The Spirit sent by Christ to us to bless us and to fill us with Himself. Let's flip back over on the front.

Ephesians 1:22-23, "And He put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." At Pentecost, He sent His Spirit in a fuller way to give us His fullness, right? To give us all that He is, He has shared with us His church.

The application is this: praise God for the Spirit of adoption. Romans 8:15 calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of adoption. The Spirit has been sent in our hearts that we might cry out, "Abba, Father." We don't deserve those blessings, those privileges. But He has made us a part of His church and filled us with His Holy Spirit. God bless you.