1900th. Anniversary of Pentecost

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 981, 26 May 1930, Page 10

1900th. Anniversary of Pentecost

A WORLD-WIDE CELEBRATION The 1900th Anniversary of Pentecost is being celebrated this year and special services are being held all over the world. Alt Auckland Churches have been asked to make June 1 a day of preparation and June 7 will be a special day of prayer. (Written for THE BUN by the Rev. R. C. Roberts , 8.A., B.D.j

jpENTECOST in Christian Story has become the Festival of the Spirit. The Spirit in the Old Testament is always associated with God. The Old Testament, however, affirms'that God has a Spirit more than that God is a Spirit. From early times the Spirit was looked upon as a sort of force or influence which proceeded from God, and whenever it took possession of the individual or the group or the nation, it enabled them to perform stupendous deeds of sublime prowess and heroism. Man’s natural powers thus became so enhanced as to make him superhuman. The early prophets, when possessed by this Spirit, fell into a state of ecstasy, or excitement, which was looked upon as a mark of being inspired, and filled with the Spirit of God. Gradually this state of ecstasy was regarded as of less importance than the toning up of all the faculties. Men began to realise that through His Spirit, God was imparting His own thoughts, feelings, and His might to men. There were, however, in the seventh and eighth centuries, 8.C., socalled prophets who exploited the Spirit. ..This priceless gift of God became so abused and commercialised by self-appointed prophets that the true prophets hesitated to mention the very word Spirit. Jeremiah, for example, portrays the blessings of a new age, but ascribes these blessings not to the Spirit of God, hut to the New Covenant. During the captivity, the Spirit regains its former prestige and preeminence. It comes back to its own. The truth was now being driven home with urgent and clamant emphasis, hut God was eternally good and everlastingly righteous. Men now perceived, as they had never perceived before, that the work of the Spirit was to foster and establish righteousness upon earth. The Spirit, for example, takes possession of individuals such as kings, and enables them to reign with equity, to deal wisely and justly, and, in short, to establish the Golden Age. It rests also upon the servant of the Lord of whom we read in that wonderful fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, The Spirit rests upon the Lord’s servant in such a way as to make His suffering glorious and triumphant. Although despised and rejected of men, yet God knew what He Svas about, for by His stripes we are healed. It is evident that the Spirit has now become a cleansing. purifying. and healing influence within the soul. The Psalmist cries out, “Take not Thy holy Spirit from me.” It was for him the priceless gift that outweighed all the other gifts of God. Coming to New Testament times, we find that the Spirit is well to the fore. John the Baptist is enabled to proclaim the near approach of the Kingdom because the Spirit of God has possessed him. The Spirit descends upon Jesus at His baptism, and confirms His consciousness of Divine Sonship. In the power of the Spirit Jesus faced, endured, and overcame the temptation in the wilderness. The Spirit never left Jesus, and through the Spirit He uttered His gracious words and performed His wonderful deeds of mercy. When He outlines His programme and defines His mission, He refers to the Spirit as His source of power and inspiration:,“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted ... to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” The one sin that Jesus brands as unpardonable is that of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. He promised that His presence and work should be continued and brought to a triumphant climax by the working of the Holy Ghost, which He promised .to send His Disciples. On the momentous Day of Pentecost, the promised Spirit was poured upon the Apostles and the other Believers. This was the birth hour of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Jesus Who for three short years had journeyed with them, now steps right into their midst, and will remain with them for all time. The Spirit thus becomes identified with the Ever-living, Comfortingf* Wonderworking Christ. God Almighty is now in action to convict, to convert.

to save, and to strengthen men. Whatever we make of the strange happenings related about Pentecost, one thing is perfectly clear, and that is that men were being swept into the Kingdom. Those things that previously held them away from the kingdom are now swept aside.

Worldly possessions, prejudice, pride, and tradition could no longer hold them back from the full enjoyment of what God, in the gospel of His Sou, had prepared for them. All conceivable barriers between God and man, and between man and his fellowman, are swept away. The Spirit brings home to them the gracious meaning of the Cross, and they face the world in the assured possession of a glorious gospel to preach, and with the sense of being propelled by a power that nothing could resist. The Church has not always retained this vigour of its first youth, nor has it always relied upon that power that brought it into being, and enabled it to turn the world upside down. The Church has oft-times fallen into the rut of routine, and, like an indolent giant, has allowed itself to drift into an effete state of anaemia and impotency. It has been content to slumber in the lap .of luxury and to be jealous only of its privileges and worldly prestige. It has been more acutely concerned for itself than for the unfortunate; it has laboured more for the retention of its worldly profit than for the reclaiming of those whom ignorance, sin and oppression have maimed and broken. The Church may have slumpered on her Holy Watch, but God, her Keeper, neither slumbers nor sleeps. God’s unfailing method of arousing His people has always been by breathing upon them the breath of life. “Oh, Spirit, come from the four winds and breathe upon these dry bones.”

This Spirit tones up life from top to bottom; no part escapes. Sport becomes more vigorous, clean and chivalrous. Work is now more interesting, human and equitable. No longer is business a feverish hustle for selffish gain and a cruel advantage over one’s neighbour, but rather a service to one’s fellow-man and a free-will offering to one’s Maker. Religion becomes an affair of the whole human family; it ceases to be a matter of sectarian self-righteous-ress. where you are content in your small corner and I in mine. Religion is no longer a case of saving one’s own skin or even one’s own soul, but is a whole-hearted, triumphant and joyous surrender to God’s Holy Spirit, which carries us out of our secluded and smug complacency into a larger and grander world of pulsating life and throbbing interest. There is thus a tide in the affairs of God a a well as of men. Just now', masters of industry, business men as well as workmen all the world over, are aw'aiting the turn of the tide to bring in better trade and more prosperity. Does the Church yearn and pray, and is she preparing the w'ay for the high tide of the Spirit which God is eager to grant her? Is our gaze turned heavenward? “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from w'hence eometh my strength.” We read that on the day of Pentecost there came a mighty rushing wind, and filled the whole house, where the disciples were assembled. Science informs us that the wind is the universe, rushing or hastening to fill a vacuum; it is nature in a hurry to satisfy a need. In just the same way that mighty rushing wind of Pentecost was nothing other than God himself rushing to the aid of His people. If there be a sincere and heartfelt need for God—if there exist an honest, penitent and child-like yearning for His fellowship and pew'er, for His own sake, and not for cur own, then certain as the wind blows to fill up an empty space, so the winds - of God’s great Spirit shall blow upon the souls of men. Men, dead in iniquity, shall then arise, as it. were, from the valley of the shadow of death as an army of young warriors, w-ith the sunshine of a new day in their faces, and the vigour and enthusiasm of a new life pulsating through their veins. Neither scientist nor artist, neither poet nor prophet, can fully portray the glories of that new day when God shall be all in all.