We celebrated Pentecost on May 23

Painting: Emil Nolde, Pfingsten, 1909, Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie

Pentecost, in our day, is the celebration of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the church by the risen and reigning Jesus Christ. Acts 2 records this event. The disciples of Jesus, gathered in Jerusalem, heard the sound of a mighty wind fill the room they were gathered in, they saw what appeared to be flames of fire above their heads, and began to speak in languages they had never learned. Jews who had come to Jerusalem for the Jewish feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, were drawn to the sound of wind, and heard these disciples of Jesus speaking the languages of their home countries, ranging from Persia in the east to Rome in the west.

According to liberal theologians, this episode has been invented by the author (Luke), as a non-historical fantasy, based on various stories about the presence of the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ departure. However, Luke himself qualifies his own writing as based on interviews with eyewitnesses and his own extensive research (Luke 1:1-4). Luke’s express purpose, written in literary Greek, is to convince “Theofilus,” probably a Roman in high government circles, of the historical trustworthiness of the story of Jesus, as already written about by eyewitnesses. Either Luke is lying,which is unlikely, this meaning he is considerably naive about the credulity of an educated Roman, who was certainly able to look into the historical facts himself, or he is telling the truth.

If the Pentecost story is true, then God did a great miracle, which had a tremendous impact on many Jewish people who heard uneducated Galileans speaking their own native languages and dialects fluently. They heard them proclaiming “God’s mighty acts,” that is, what God had done through the coming of Jesus the Messiah. God was demonstrating his intention to “pour out His spirit on all flesh,” as the prophet Joel had prophesied in the Old Testament. It was the beginning of a great “baptism in the Spirit,” as John the Baptist and Jesus had foretold, the beginning of the fulfilling of prophecies in Jeremiah and Ezechiel about the New Covenant in the age of the Holy Spirit.

If the Pentecost story is true, then we know for sure that Jesus is reigning and pouring out the Holy Spirit on people in all nations, bringing salvation and the power of the Holy Spirit to all who trust in him.

What do you think about Pentecost?

Continue Reading Add comment mei 30th, 2010

We celebrated Ascension Day

Painting: Rembrandt, Ascension of Jesus, 1636, Alte Pinakothek, München

This past Thursday we celebrated Ascension Day here in The Hague. Most people in The Netherlands have no idea what Ascension Day (Hemelvaartsdag) means. it is a holiday here, but few associate Jesus’ heavenly kingship with this day. This is very sad. Nevertheless there are many Christians who come together on Ascension Day to celebrate Jesus’ ascending to heaven to be crowned King.

To many people, including many liberal theologians, this story sounds mythological and improbable. Yet Luke, at the beginning of his two-volume work, the Gospel according to Luke and the book of Acts, introduces his narrative with a consciously chosen statement, saying that he had himself done careful research into the historical truth of what was known about Jesus. At the end of the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus’ ascension is described summarily. In Acts 1, the events leading up to his ascension, and the ascension itself are described in more detail.

If God made all things, if Jesus was and is truly God in the flesh, if he really rose from the dead, if he realy was and is the promised Anointed One of Israel (Messiah), and thereby the inheritor of all the promises given David’s expected great successor on David’s throne, then the Ascension is not mythological, but historical. The disciples, it is true, expected Jesus to go to Jerusalem to rule, replacing the Herodian surrogate kingship over Israel, but he went up to heaven, heaven being in the Bible that place in or dimension of the creation where God reveals himself in splendor and peace, surrounded by angels and the spirits of just men and women made perfect.

If the Ascension is history, everything on earth is different.

Continue Reading Add comment mei 15th, 2010