Continuing Pentecost---vs.3

[HKHaugan]

Vs.3  “They saw something that looked like tongues of fire. The flames separated and settled on each of them.”

 

Again the operative word is ‘like.’  The Spirit is the power of God and when God wants to make a point He engages His Creation in His Spirit to express it.  So ‘like tongues of fire’ makes sense.  Don’t we use that same idea when we try and paint what is invisible with the brush of visible objects?  What could look like tongues, fire and flames?  If we go back to Moses’ experience of the burning bush, Ezekiel’s chariots of fire, the rain of fire on the prophets of Baal through Elijah’s call and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah we ‘see’ the Holiness of God, the Prophecy of God and the Judgment of God.  Here the prophetic words of John the Baptist come alive, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Mt.3:11).” 

 

There are so many references to fire in the Old Testament.  So fire must be a significant intent on God’s part to bring our minds to consider its spiritual meaning.  The first mention of fire in Genesis is when God uses fire to seal His covenant with Abram (Gen.15:17), “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces [the pieces of animal sacrifices in vs.10-11].” Notices that the fire comes in after the sun had set and darkness came.  The fire signifies the Holy Spirit and this sign is magnified when God leads the Hebrews through the wilderness at night by a pillar of fire going before them (Ex.13:21). 

 

But something even more significant occurs when Abraham takes Isaac on the mountain to be sacrificed (Gen.22).   First, Abraham as the father is to offer his only son to be a sacrifice.  He takes fire with him and his son bears the wood.  Here is the first inkling we have of the Trinity and the work of Jesus on the Cross.  The Father offering the Son who bears the wood of the Cross in the power of the Spirit and says those last words to His Father, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”

 

On the Cross Jesus bore the sacrificial fire, the wrath of God against sin, thus canceling its power and enabling the Spirit to enter the hearts of sinners to begin the process of cleansing through repentance and at the same time rebirthing and growing the transformed heart into the likeness of Jesus. 

 

After Pentecost the point is the Holy Spirit is always going before us in the night of this world’s wilderness of sin and evil.  He convicts the mind of both sin and the presence of Jesus.  He moves the heart in visions and dreams. He gives each believer a new perception of the world. He enables the believer to step out in faith to witness, minister and share. He was there at the “Son-set” of the Cross empowering Jesus’ faith in death and there to raise Jesus into “Son-rise” in the power of the Resurrection, so He is here in our hearts and in the midst of us, raising us and unifying us as Jesus’ Body.  He nudges, He urges, He directs, He confronts, He empowers, He fills and fulfills.  He brings Jesus and His Word to our minds and plants the need to decide in the heart.  He embellishes His presence through His gifts and the fruit in which they flourish.

 

It follows then that Jesus personifies and grounds who God is, His attitude and the power that makes it all work.  The Holy Spirit is the ministry of Jesus.  Visible Creation is the idea of the Father, the idea made visible through Jesus and the idea empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

 

God uses the visible to make the invisible real.  Like Baptism and the Lord’s Supper where Baptism takes water to be a sign of real spiritual cleansing from sin so bread and wine are the signs of real spiritual feeding signified in the sacrifice of Jesus’ body and the shedding of His blood on the Cross.  “This do in remembrance of me,” He said.  These are more than just the honoring of a memory of someone in the past.  It is precisely because we do remember Jesus, remember that He is always present and present in our hearts, that we obey His command and we do them.  These are for real, spiritually real, Holy Spirit real because Jesus is real, risen real.  This means that spiritual gifts and spiritual fruit, all of Scripture, the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus, Creation and the fullness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are real, real, real and active.  Therefore the life we are called to live, the abundant life Jesus promised is not just an ideal, it is real, Holy Spirit empowered in the present and eternally real.  His life is taking place in us right now.

 

The tongues of fire appearing over the heads of the Apostles is the assurance that what they teach about Jesus, their mission and ministry, is the Lord’s direction for us and the fiery conviction and perception of the Holy Spirit is the pillar that leads us through this world’s darkness.  Here with tongues of fire the promise is done.  The promise?  From among many, let’s take three passages that harbor the promise.  The promise comes in three phases. 

 

First, the promise of the Spirit in the Messiah, Isaiah 61:1-6.

 

¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
       because the LORD has anointed me
       to preach good news to the poor.
       He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
       to proclaim freedom for the captives
       and release from darkness for the prisoners, ^[a]

 ² to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
       and the day of vengeance of our God,
       to comfort all who mourn,

 ³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
       to bestow on them a crown of beauty
       instead of ashes,
       the oil of gladness
       instead of mourning,
       and a garment of praise
       instead of a spirit of despair.
       They will be called oaks of righteousness,
       a planting of the LORD
       for the display of his splendor.

 ⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins
       and restore the places long devastated;
       they will renew the ruined cities
       that have been devastated for generations.

 ⁵ Aliens will shepherd your flocks;
       foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.

 ⁶ And you will be called priests of the LORD,
       you will be named ministers of our God.
       You will feed on the wealth of nations,
       and in their riches you will boast (NIV).

 

Second, the promise of the Spirit given to all believers, Joel 2:28-32.

   "I will pour out my Spirit
   on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
   also your daughters.
Your old men will dream,
   your young men will see visions.
I'll even pour out my Spirit on the servants,
   men and women both.
I'll set wonders in the sky above
   and signs on the earth below:
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
   the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Judgment Day of God,
   the Day tremendous and awesome.
Whoever calls, 'Help, God!'
   gets help.
On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
   there will be a great rescue—just as God said.
Included in the survivors
   are those that God calls (The Message)."

 

Third, the promise of the Spirit to live in each believer, John 14:15-21. 

 

¹⁵"If you love me, you will obey what I command. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him (NIV)."

 

Returning to vs.3 we conclude it with related related events.  First the flames are from outside them, from God.  Second, they are visible for all to see.  Third, they settled on each one.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is for each person, for all who believe, to restore the personal presence of God in each mind and heart.