Pentecost and the Spirit-Filled Life

Psychologist William James wrote a very popular study of religion titled Varieties of Religious Experience. The implication is clear; religious experience is a variegated phenomenon. This same diversity is present within the Christian faith with much of this variety claiming to be an authentic expression of the “Spirit-filled life.” Is it possible this kaleidoscope is authentic, or is there a normative understanding of how the Holy Spirit works in human life?

To address this question we need to be aware of several facts. First, religious experience is subjective in nature. Unlike the objective point of reference to which we may point in the Incarnation, the Spirit seems to be quite nebulous. Theologian Thomas Oden is right on target when he says:

Scripture must guide vulnerable, subjective experience at every step along this way, since each individual’s personal experience is prone to self-deception and interest-laden distortions. No subject of Christian teaching is more prone to fanaticism and novelty and subjectivism than the Holy Spirit.

The second fact important to note is all experience is informed by our understanding of the shape our experience will take. Early in my ministry, while pastor of a small church, we were in a revival service when a couple I did not recognize came to the service. I knew they were not from our church since they marched down to the front seat and positioned themselves directly in front of the pulpit. Since I was seated on the platform, they were hidden from my vision. When the evangelist had the congregation stand for the invitation song, and I could see where they had been sitting, they were gone. Peering around the pulpit I saw they were at the altar. In a few minutes, she began shouting then testified she had been sanctified. God had promised her when He sanctified her, she would shout. This couple eventually became my close friends and spent the last half of their lives in Christian ministry. I have often commented that she would have shouted no matter what, since her understanding of what would happen gave shape to her response.

With this background, we can turn to the Day of Pentecost when the 120 were baptized with the Spirit and ask the question, “What was the understanding that informed their experience?” Only a little thought will bring our attention to the fact these people had been under the tutelage of Jesus for some time. Those who were closest to Him had been present at some important events that were instructive of their understanding. Many of these took place as the climax of His ministry approached. A number of biblical scholars have noted Jesus’ teaching about the promised Paraclete in what we call the Upper Room Discourses informed their understanding about the Spirit. Hence, if we can identify Jesus’ teaching about the Holy Spirit, we can discover the authentic Christian nature of the Spirit-filled life.

Biblical scholar F. F. Bruce comments with regard to the physical phenomena that accompanied the first Pentecost, a phenomena that has attracted so much attention, that
the mere fact of glossolalia (gift of languages) or any other ecstatic utterance is no evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit. In apostolic times it was necessary to provide criteria for deciding whether such utterances were of God or not, just as it had been necessary in Old Testament times.

When Jesus announced to His followers He was to leave them, they were dismayed. His response was He would not leave them “orphans” but would send “another Helper” (John 14:18). The King James translation has made familiar the name for this coming One as “Comforter.” While this name carries one connotation to our 21st century ears, in 1611 it signified a more literal meaning: “A strong one called along side to help.” In contemporary language, probably the simple word, “Helper,” is closer to what Jesus intended.

In preparing them for His departure and their post-ascension life, Jesus did two things: he spoke extensively about the nature of their communal life and He described in a variety of ways the nature of the “Helper” who was to come to them.

Perhaps we have not fully grasped the significance of the fact the central word Jesus used in talking about their lives after He was gone was “love.” Their relationship to each other was to be marked by love (John 13:34-5) and the same quality was to characterize their ongoing relation to himself (14:15). Both of these were to be the means by which they were to continue His mission in the world.

The Master tells them they will be better off by His leaving them. They have no way of grasping the truth of this statement because of their near total dependence upon Him. But Jesus was not with them at all times. In His incarnate life, He was limited in geography. But now, through the Spirit, He would be their closest companion. Not only that, but the support that He had given them in their stumbling efforts to understand Him and follow Him would be continued by the Helper. Thus the work He had begun with them would be continued by the Spirit within them.

But there are even more significant aspects of Jesus’ teachings about the Paraclete that influence the disciples understanding about the nature of His indwelling. The Master tells them the world cannot receive Him because the world does not “know Him.” This means the world cannot recognize Him, but the disciples will recognize Him because “he dwells with you, and will be in you” (14:17, NKJV). How will they recognize Him? Because they have already become acquainted with Him by way of the Master, who had modeled the Spirit-filled life among them for 3 years. They will recognize the Spirit because they have known Jesus.

Furthermore, Jesus identifies the Spirit’s coming with His own personal, abiding presence. On the surface it appears that when the Master leaves, some other person will take His place. But a careful look at the pronouns Jesus uses in His teachings makes it clear this is not it at all. Note how there is an interplay between “I,” “Him,” and “We.” They seem to be used interchangeably. A. M. Hunter recognizes the implication of this by noting, “The Spirit comes not so much to supply Jesus’ absence as to accomplish presence.” We are not seeing here a contrast between and absence Lord and a present Spirit. Rather the Spirit comes to guarantee Jesus’ presence.

Finally, it is abundantly clear the work of the Paraclete is through and through Christ-centered. In 14:26, Jesus says the Helper is to be sent by the Father in His name, and His work will be to “bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (NASB). In 15:26, Jesus says that the Spirit “will bear witness to me” (ASV). And in 16:13-14 He says the Spirit’s teaching ministry is not of His own authority, but it will come from the person of Jesus, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (NAB)

One can scarcely miss the central emphasis of these teachings about the nature of the Spirit-filled life. As E. Stanley Jones said once, the Spirit does not come to make out of us “7-day wonders.” His coming is to produce a Christ-like life of those whom He indwells. Someone has said the Holy Spirit is the most self-effacing member of the Trinity. He is like a spotlight. Its purpose is not to call attention to itself, but to illuminate the person or thing that is to be the center of attention.

In one of his most illuminating statements of the nature of sanctification, apostle Paul highlights this point. He declares in 2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror [in the face of Jesus Christ] the glory [image] of God are being transformed into the same image from one degree of likeness to another, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (paraphrased, emphasis added).
Perhaps one of the greatest weaknesses of many emphases on the Spirit-filled life is we tend to make the presence of the Spirit an end in itself rather than a means to the end of producing Christlikeness in both our personal and corporate lives.

That this was the understanding that informed those early Christians who experienced the first Pentecost seems clear because that was the nature of the life it produced.