1. A New Movement in Human History
Pentecost rewrites the old pattern of human society first seen at Babel.
At Babel, humans try to make a name for themselves by raising themselves up to heaven. God responds by confusing their languages and scattering them across the face of the earth. Babel (Babylon) is the symbol of human pride and defiance throughout the Bible. It also provides the template for much of human history in its oscillation between humanistic confidence and fractious rivalry.
But at Pentecost everything is reversed: people come together from all over the ancient world to Jerusalem, the city of God. Speech differences are overcome, and each hears the praises of God in his or her own language. Pentecost reveals the start of a new stage of history where God sends out the Gospel into “all creation under heaven” to create a united people from “every tribe and language and people and nation.”
2. The Exaltation of Christ
People sometimes describe the post-Pentecost age as the Age of the Spirit. But Peter puts the spotlight on Jesus: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2:33).
The Spirit’s arrival shows that something new has happened to Jesus. Before this, his earthly career issued from the Father by the Spirit. It was through the Spirit that he was conceived, anointed, empowered, directed; given words to say, made a sacrifice, and raised from the dead.[1]
But now, with his atoning work finished, Jesus is elevated and becomes a sender of the Spirit – just like the Father. The completed man Jesus has received “all authority in heaven and earth” and has been made “first in everything.” God’s name is now his name; God’s power is now his power;[2] God’s Spirit is now the Spirit of Christ.
When I try to explain this development to students I sometimes find it helpful to use the analogy of a projector.[3]
In his earthly life, we see Jesus in his life and (especially in his death – c.f. John13:31-32) as a revelation of the glory of God the Father through the Spirit.
With his resurrection and ascension that same Spirit now goes out into the world to enable people to see that glory and to share in it as the Spirit makes them like Jesus and incorporates them into his life (2Cor 3:18; 1Cor 12:12-13).
1. The Glorification of Humans in Jesus (and vice versa)
Jesus tells his disciples that the least of them will be greater than the greatest of the prophets (Luke 7:28). He also says that those who come after him will do even greater works than he did (John 14:12). The only way to make sense of this is to see that this greatness is proportional to our ability to testify to the Christ in the context of his death and resurrection.[4]
And it is also the Holy Spirit who enables it. Jesus makes his comment about “greater works” in the context of talking about his ascension and the sending of the Spirit (John 14:12,16). The overall aim is that “the Father may be glorified in the Son” (v 13).
In keeping with this, Jesus later tells his disciples that Pentecost will bring power and will enable them to “be my witnesses to Jerusalem, and … Judea and … to the ends of the earth,” (Acts 2:8). Peter sees it the same way: the pouring out of the Spirit “on all flesh” makes all God’s people – sons, daughters, young old – into prophets (Acts 2:17).
The coming of the Spirit incorporates ordinary humans into the cosmic theatre of God’s glory. As we speak and live in light of the cross, God sends forth his Spirit to glorify his Son and Christ sends forth that same Spirit to glorify his Father.
Living in Light of Pentecost
In these dark days, we need to remind ourselves and each other that all of these things are still true.
- God is still at work through his Spirit, calling people from every nation as the Gospel of his Son keeps spreading.
- Jesus is still King, he is still at work in his Spirit to bring the world under his control and to set it praising the Father.
- We can still share in the glory of this enterprise by bearing witness to Jesus and his work; by supporting the spread of the Gospel here and abroad; and by reminding each other that it is still Pentecost.
[1] Respectively: Luke 1:35; Acts 10:38; Mark 1:12; Luke 4:18; Heb 9:14; 1Pet 3:18
[2] None of which is to deny that these things were already true in his eternal existence, but that they are made true in a new way in his human life within creation.
[3] From In Light of the Son. Reproduced with permission from Matthias Media.
[4] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John: An Introduction and Commentary, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 496
Photo: Burak Kostak, pexels.com
