BASIC BIBLE STUDIES

# 018

 

The Coming of the Holy Spirit

 

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth.  It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (Comforter, KJV & ASV) will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you" (John 16:7, New King James Version).

 

In our previous lesson we studied "The Ascension And Coronation Of Christ."  Throughout the course of His earthly ministry Jesus had endeavored to prepare His apostles for the fact that He eventually would leave them and return to the Father.  As He came closer to the time of His death, Christ tried to get them to understand what would soon take place.  However, they were extremely slow to grasp the import of what He was saying. 

 

Consider, for example, the following instance: "From that time on, Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.  But Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!' " (Matthew 16:21-22). 

 

Still again, consider the incident in the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas Iscariot led the Jewish religious leaders to Christ and Peter attempted to protect Him from the mob.  Jesus said to Peter: "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.  Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?  How then will the Scriptures (of the Old Testament, hf) be fulfilled, that it must be thus?"  (Matthew 26:52-54).  But they were so "slow of heart to believe" all that the prophets had spoken! (Luke 24:25).

 

In a very intimate conversation with His disciples shortly before His crucifixion, Christ sought to comfort the apostles by assuring them that even though He was going away He would not leave them alone.  This conversation with just the apostles (and recorded only by the apostle John in chapters 14, 15, and 16), sets forth Christ's wonderful promise to His disciples to send the Holy Spirit to them.  Listen in as Christ says to them: "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you" (John 14:16-17). 

 

A little later Christ said to the apostles: "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26).  (Note: It is extremely important to keep in mind the context of these statements and to realize that Jesus is addressing only the apostles.  To take words spoken to the apostles and apply them to a larger audience is fraught with numerous problems and results in many erroneous views regarding the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of God's people today).

 

Still later in this special visit with His apostles, Jesus said to them: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He (the Holy Spirit) will not speak on His own authority (just as Christ had not spoken on His own authority

--John 12:49, hf), but whatever He hears (from the Father, hf) He will speak; and He will tell you things to come" (John 16:12-13).  It was just prior to this statement  that Christ had said to the apostles: "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 depart, I will send Him to you" (John 16:7).  Then, as Christ ends this intimate conversation with His disciples, He says to them: "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

 

Against the background of the above promise of Christ to send the Holy Spirit to His apostles, let us now fast forward to after His death, burial, and resurrection.  The gospel writer Luke records the following words of Christ to His apostles: "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me...Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem...And behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:44-49).  What was this "Promise of My Father"  and the "power from on high" of which Jesus spoke?  Let Luke the inspired recorder of these words explain them as he begins the Acts of the Apostles and "dovetails" its opening words with the closing words of his Gospel:  "And being assembled together with them (the apostles), He  commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, 'which,' He said, 'you heard from Me; for John (the Baptist) truly baptized with water, but you (the apostles) will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now...But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth' " (Acts 1:4-8).  (Note: Luke wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.  Both books are addressed to a man by the name of Theophilus [Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-3], and are intended as a two-volume work on the earthly ministry of Christ and His continuing ministry through His spiritual body, the church.  This accounts for the marvelous connection between the ending of Luke and the beginning of Acts, and for the inspired explanation of what Jesus meant when He spoke of "the Promise of My Father" and "power from on high" (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8).

 

In the following chapter of Acts we read of the fulfillment of Christ's promise to His apostles to send the Holy Spirit to them.  On the historic Day of Pentecost following the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues (languages, verse 6), as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:1-4).  With the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost the apostles were "endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49) and the stage was set for the inauguration of the kingdom of Christ, the establishment of His church.  In our next Study we shall look at the details of that great event.

 

Important footnote: This Study has not dealt with the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christians--either in the early stages of Christianity or today.  It has dealt only with the special promise Christ made to the apostles before His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, and the fulfillment of that promise as recorded in Acts 2:1-4.  Another series of Studies would be needed to examine what the New Testament teaches regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a child of God.  Perhaps such a Study can be conducted in the future.      

 

If this essay has blessed your life, feel free to forward it to others who may benefit from it.

 

Hugh Fulford