Pentecost!

Day 50: Monday, June 1, 2020

Note: I am aware that my timing is off–it cannot be Day 50, and Pentecost was yesterday; still, the subject is, indeed, the day of Pentecost

Yesterday, May 31, was Pentecost Sunday and now the Easter season is officially over as we enter “ordinary time” until the time of Advent in the church calendar year. Having become a member of the Church of the Nazarene at age 12, I have long been steeped in the importance of Pentecost, when the church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the early church as they waited in Jerusalem for the promised gift.

If you are not familiar with the Church of the Nazarene’s statement of faith, then you might not know why the day of Pentecost is so important to us. We are a church of Wesleyan background with a strong dose of holiness evangelism added in. If you would ask one of the old-timers in the church what the central doctrine of the church is, you mostly likely would hear the words “entire sanctification,” which has been defined as a second work of grace subsequent to regeneration (or initial salvation] in which the Holy Spirit enters (and takes control of) the believer’s life. To tell the truth, the doctrine has come under attack many times because the explanations of the church leaders cannot be made simple to most people. At its worst, the doctrine has seemed to separate Christians into “first-“ and “second-class” citizens of the heavenly realm. Those who are entirely sanctified have more of the Holy Spirit than others? Is salvation not what Jesus came to provide? Some have objected to the part of the definition that speaks of an “instantaneous” work in the believer, leading some to surmise that the entirely sanctified believer is, thus, made perfect, free from sin for all time. Since experience has not borne this out, at least not in the best definitions of both “perfect” and “sin,” the doctrine has been much maligned.

And yet, it is not possible to dismiss an experience that many people attest to. Much better is the approach of listening to the believers’ testimonies of what entire sanctification is to them. Many people in the church concentrate on the idea that they are entirely consecrating their lives to God. My mother described her revelation of holiness to be “a closer walk with the Lord.” When I struggled mightily with the idea when I was a teenager, my pastor’s wife told me to just imagine that all of my future was an “unknown bundle” that I could lay on the altar, giving my life to God to direct. That was when the doctrine made sense to me. Even though Wesley’s experience of his heart being “strangely warmed” was his assurance of salvation, I could relate the same kind of experience in being assured that I had consecrated my life completely to God and that the Holy Spirit would always guide me.

I have heard that the Greek word “paraclete,” which is used by Jesus to describe the “one” that he is going to send to his followers after his ascension into heaven, cannot be defined by one word; it means “one who comes alongside of.” This Holy Spirit, then, this Spirit of Truth, this Spirit of God, will be one who abides with us, abides in us, to guide us into all truth. One word that was used in the old days, and perhaps still is, to some extent, is the word “comforter,” a person alongside us who comforts us, who brings peace and calm to us, perhaps. I’ve always liked this term for the Holy Spirt, although sometimes in my young mind, I thought the Holy Spirit was as much a nice warm blanket as anything else.

I’m sure part of the warmth of the word “comforter” also came from a gospel song that we sang often in the church when I was growing up. Written in 1890, by Frank Bottoms, “The Comforter Has Come” was a song that spoke directly to all of us who had invested so much in the idea of entire sanctification through the coming of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is a triumphal song of the captive’s liberation from the dark night of sin to the glorious morning of freedom and salvation through the coming of the Holy Spirit. The refrain contains these words: “The Comforter has come! . . .  The Holy Ghost from Heav’n, the Father’s promise giv’n; Oh, spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found—The Comforter has come!”

Actually the words of the song are not words about a doctrine, but about the “boundless love divine” that brings salvation and that stays with us in the form of a “comforter.” One verse contains the words, “How shall this tongue of mine to wond’ring mortals tell the matchless grace divine—That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine!” And that, indeed, is the message of salvation—we are transformed by an everlasting love that God has for us—or, at least, that is what should happen. Sometimes, we need to be reminded of what this transformation of life is all about.

That is exactly what I received when listening to my pastor Dr. Mark Quanstrom yesterday as he preached his sermon for Pentecost Sunday. He reminded us that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to us to enable us to live our lives in the same way that God sent him to the world to save us. Pastor Mark reminded us that the heart of the gospel are the words of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” But then Pastor Mark reminded us that we cannot read that verse without reading the following one: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

And that last part became the heart of Pastor Mark’s Pentecost message. Jesus did not come to condemn, but to save. If Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, so that we can be like him, so that we can be his messengers in this world, then we are not to condemn. Pastor Mark said that just as God sent Jesus into the world to save, not condemn, Jesus sends us into the world, not to condemn, but to “intervene” so that the world can be saved through him. We have an integral part to play as Christ’s messengers, we are to intervene, to make a difference, to love others so that they will have salvation through Christ.

Pentecost—the coming of the Holy Spirit—the call to love and to intervene in our world.

Work Cited

Bottoms, Frank. “The Comforter Has Come.” https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/The_Comforter_Has_Come/