What Changed At Pentecost? (Part 2)

Last week we considered how the Holy Spirit’s work was similar both before and after Pentecost. We noted that the Spirit has always been the source of life for those who believe; has always engendered a love for the character of God, and thus for His Law; has always been constantly with those who believe; has always enabled obedience in those who believe; and has always enabled perseverance in those who believe.

But there are major difference in the Spirit’s work after Pentecost. We will list five, although we will consider the first two together.

1) There is a New Extent to the Spirit’s Work

2) There is a New Entrance into God’s Covenant People

Consider: Before Pentecost, what proportion of the Israelites had been made alive by the Holy Spirit? How many loved God’s law?

Praise God, some did. Those who did, did so by His grace. But the people as a whole were stubborn. Rebellious. Hardhearted. The people as a whole broke the Covenant – again and again. Only a remnant was faithful. Only a remnant had the Spirit.

Jesus then lives and fulfills God’s covenant perfectly – He is the only completely faithful Israelite. He is the remnant. He is faithful Israel.

Now, after Pentecost, others can become part of faithful Israel by identification with Him.

God cleanses them in Christ, as prophesied in Ezekiel 36:25. This cleansing is the new entrance into Israel, into God’s covenant people. You do not have to be born into the covenant to be in the covenant. United to Jesus by faith, you become part of the faithful remnant. Christ is the Israel of God, and since you are in Christ, you are in Israel.

Thus, after Pentecost the extent of God’s people cuts right across every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. As Joel prophesied and as Peter quotes in his Pentecost sermon, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:32). Young, old, rich, poor, master, slave, Jew, Gentile, black, white, educated, uneducated – all who say, “By nature I am an object of God’s wrath. In failing to glorify God, I have violated the purpose of my creation. I deserve His punishment. But I believe that Jesus lived the perfect life, fulfilled the Covenant, and died on behalf of all who will trust in Him. I do trust Him. He is my Savior, my Lord, my treasure – Father God, will you shower me with your mercy? Will you give me your Spirit?”

All who turn to Him in that way are saved. That’s the new entrance into His covenant people. That’s the new extent of the Spirit’s work.

3) There is a New Power for Witness

At Pentecost, 3000 people come to faith. Nothing similar had ever occurred. Two thousand years later, what started as a believing community of a few dozen covers the globe. That is evidence of a new power.

Now, in the first sermon on Acts 2, I distinguished between the pouring out of the Spirit on all believers – that is, the baptism of the Spirit or the sealing of the Spirit – and the filling of the Spirit. Filling is a special anointing for a particular task. At Pentecost, the disciples are both baptized and filled.

It is good and right for us to pray for a special filling, a special anointing for witness. But we can have confidence that the Spirit is in every believer, always empowering us for witness. Because of the change in entrance into God’s people and the change in the extent of the Spirit’s work, we invite others into God’s covenant people differently than the Israelites. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, we are now entrusted with a message of reconciliation. We are God’s ambassadors – God makes His appeal through us: Be reconciled to God! Surely that happens only by His Spirit.

So, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us to raise the spiritually dead.

Think of the Great Commission in these terms:

Matthew 28:18-20 [Jesus says:] “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me  (There’s the power). Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, (There’s the new extent and the new entrance) baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus says, “I, the one with all authority, am with you always – so you have the power to disciple all nations – even those held captive by false religions for centuries and centuries. My Holy Spirit will enable you. I will open doors, break down barriers, and bring nations to Myself.” This is the new power for witness post-Pentecost.

I believe this is how we should understand John 7:38-39. Jesus says,

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Rivers of living water will flow out of the hearts of believers in new ways after Pentecost. He’s not saying no one previously had had the Spirit working in his life. Rather, Jesus here speaks of this new power for witness that will flow through believers. His followers will speak and live out these truths by the Spirit’s power in such a way that thousands and then millions will come to faith.

So there is a new extent, a new entrance, and a new power for witness. Those are all dramatic changes. The last two changes represent a difference in degree compared to what was true prior to Pentecost; the Spirit’s earlier work increases many-fold. Furthermore, these last two changes will be true to a greater or lesser extent in different individuals. Some Old Testament saints reflect these truths in powerful ways. But after Pentecost, many more live out these truths.

4) A Deeper Intimacy with the Spirit

We said that before Pentecost, the Spirit was with believers. But as described in Romans 8, this intimacy deepens considerably after Pentecost.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (Romans 8:15-16)

These pictures of adoption, of being in God’s intimate family, are hinted at in the Old Testament, but become central to the teaching of the New. We can call the Holy God, the One in Whom is no darkness at all, our Daddy! For He loves His people with a tender love, an intimate love. He knows us and delights in us.

We can rejoice, post-Pentecost, in this deep intimacy.

5) Additional Power for Living

We noted that before Pentecost, the Spirit enabled obedience and perseverance in His remnant. But this is true to a much greater extent post-Pentecost.

Think of the disciples. They certainly believed in Jesus before Pentecost. But they give no evidence of power to live out His truths. Instead, they are fearful, hiding behind locked doors.

At Pentecost, all that changes. They are bold. Forceful. They no longer bicker over who is the greatest.

Jesus’ comments in John 14 and 16 help us to see that this difference is not accidental. The Spirit’s coming changes them from the inside. Jesus tells them:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:16-18, emphasis added)

Do you see the distinction Jesus makes? Now the Spirit dwells with them. He had to do that, for they could not believe apart from His work. But there is a change coming. An order of magnitude difference. The Spirit will be in them in a new sense post-Pentecost. And we see that change in the book of Acts.

Jesus says something even more striking a short while later:

I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:7)

That is: “The Spirit won’t come and be in you until after I go away and send Him. His presence in you is more important than My presence beside you.”

These verses help us to see that the Spirit’s granting us power to live is heightened after Pentecost. No one could ever live a life pleasing to God apart from His power. But that power is more pervasive and more prevalent in this age. The disciples themselves show that clearly.

What, then, is the bottom line?

Consider, then, all these changes – all the privileges and power we have today. If believers during Old Testament times loved God so much, lived such faithful lives, and accomplished so much by His power – how much more should we!

He gives us power to become what we were created to be: Healed, accomplished, useful, complete; living in His love, witnessing to His grace. He enables us by His Spirit to be loving, to be generous, to be patient, to be kind. He gives us the responsibility to bring others into His family – and He gives us the power to fulfill that responsibility.

Do you believe Him? Do you trust Him? Have faith in Jesus – and His Spirit will live in you.

[This is an edited, shortened excerpt from the sermon ”What Changed at Pentecost?” preached 10/19/08. The audio is available here. Part 1, last week’s blog post, is here. The two previous sermons on Acts 2, “The Promise of the Father” and “The Crucified is Both Lord and Christ” are also relevant. John Piper’s sermon “How Believers Experienced the Spirit Before Pentecost” is another helpful resource on this topic.]

The Greatness and Weakness of Old Testament Worship

We need food. We need shelter. We need love. We need respect.

But what is our greatest need?

Scripture is clear: Our greatest need is to see Jesus for Who He is, and to respond accordingly. Only in this way can we fulfill the purpose of our creation. Only in this way can we draw near the One in whose presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). If we are His people, and He is our God, we can lose everything else – and yet still gain (Mark 8:34-37, 10:29-30).

So the book of Hebrews exalts the Lord Jesus and commands to consider Him, to keep our eyes fixed on Him. In particular, the author shows that Jesus is superior to any Old Testament priest and that the New Covenant in Him is superior to the Old Covenant.

Seeing these contrasts, we today are tempted to denigrate Old Testament worship – either to ignore the long sections of Scripture that describe it, or to go further and think of such worship as false and misleading.

But the New Testament never treats Old Testament worship that way, neither in Hebrews nor anywhere else.

Remember: All Old Testament worship forms were commanded by God! They are all part of God’s torah, His instruction about Who He is, who we are, how we can be reconciled to Him, and how we can fulfill the purpose of our creation in a fallen world.

Thus, there is a greatness to Old Testament worship.

At the same time, as Hebrews make abundantly clear, there is a weakness in that worship.

So let’s ask: How was Old Testament worship great? And how was it weak?

Hebrews 8:5 tells us of its greatness: The Old Testament priests “serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.”

Think of the glory! These priests were serving a copy of heavenly things!

So their worship forms were not something that they thought up, that they decided would be appropriate ways to worship God.

Neither was their worship patterned after forms that peoples around them were using.

No! God showed Moses the true, heavenly reality! And then God helped Moses to see how to best reflect that heavenly reality on earth, through the tabernacle, through the sacrifices, through the annual feasts and other forms.

Thus, all these forms of worship pointed as effectively as possible to the heavenly reality on which they were patterned. And today, you and I have the privilege of being able to read God’s instructions to Moses, and thereby to learn about the heavenly realities – indeed, to learn about Jesus through them. As He Himself says, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me” (John 5:46; see also Luke 24:44).

So Old Testament worship is great because the Israelite priests serve a copy of heavenly things! It is precious! It was a wonderful gift of God to the people of Israel – and the description of it is a wonderful gift to us today.

But if that’s the case, how is it weak?

Old Testament worship is weak because those priests served a copy of heavenly things. Only a copy.

No one was ever redeemed by their sacrifices – that redemption had to take place in the true tent (Hebrews 8:2).

Furthermore, many Old Testament worshipers – even many of the priests – were simply going thru the motions. There was no inner delight in God, no broken and contrite heart before Him (Psalm 51:16-17).

So Jesus has obtained a much more excellent ministry (Hebrews 8:6). He ministers in the heavenly reality! Not in a shadowy copy. And He mediates a better covenant, with better promises – the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:8-12, Jeremiah 31:31-34). The very phrase “New Covenant” – written 600 years before Christ – implies that the first covenant one day will be obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). Now that Jesus has come, has died, and has risen to the right of hand of God, that time has come. Jeremiah’s prophecy is fulfilled. As great as Old Testament worship was, as wonderful as it was for the priests to picture heavenly realities, now that the perfect has come, the partial can pass away.

So the author of Hebrews emphasizes once again: Look to your great High Priest! Keep your eyes fixed on Him!

That is our greatest need today. It will remain our greatest need forever.

So exalt Jesus in your heart – and read about God-ordained, Old Testament worship forms so that you might exalt Jesus all the more.

Then praise God for the Old Covenant – and praise Him all the more for fulfilling that covenant in the New.

[This devotion is taken from part of the July 5, 2020 sermon. You can watch that service here; the sermon begins at 37:35; this section of the sermon begins at 1:03:35.]