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The Promise of the Father.
“Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon
you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye
be endued with power from on high.”—Luke
24:49.
We have here our Lord’s last command. Soon he
is to depart from the earth to take up his work
at the right hand of the Father. The great task of
making disciples of the nations had been committed
to his little band of followers, and through them
handed down to the church in all the ages. Jesus
here is commanding them concerning their equip
ment for this great work.
Let us get clearly in our minds the picture:
Jesus and his disciples are together for the last
time. It is a very tender and interesting occasion.
They have had something to eat, and Jesus has giv
en them the command to make disciples of all na
tions, a task which from a human standpoint is
impossible. Jesus, however, does not intend that
they shall view it from a human standpoint. He
has an equipment which will change the nature of
their task.
The fact that he is soon to go away does not alter
his interest in the work that is to be done. His
going is to make way for the coming of the Holy
Ghost. Said he, “It is expedient for you that I
go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will
not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him
unto you.”
The Promise of the Father.
In prefacing this last command Jesus r?G ~ '
“the promise of the Father.” This is unquestiona
bly a reference to the prophecy of Joel: “And it
shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out of
my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream
dreams, your young men shall see visions: And
also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in
those days will I pour out my spirit. . . . And
it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be delivered.”
The going of Jesus, therefore, meant the coming
of the Holy Spirit, which had been arranged in the
counsels of the Trinity and foretold by the proph
ets.
The Purpose of the Spirit.
The purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirt
was to carry on the works of Christ. We read in
the first account of the Acts of the Spirit, called the
Acts of the Apostles, that “After he was received
up, he gave commandment through the Holy Spirit
unto the apostles whom he had chosen.”
If any one should ask me to tell in a single sen
tence, the office work of the Spirit, I would say,
“To carry on the work that Jesus began.” There
was nothing that interested Jesus Christ that did
not afterward interest the Holy Spirit. The plan
and pattern that he left was adhered to by the
Spirit in everything that he did. The Spirit had
nothing new to give to the apostles other than that
which was planned by Jesus Christ. Pentecost
itself was his plan. The Spirit came to carry it
into effect.
It is just so at the present day. There is noth-
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ing that the Spirit has to bestow upon the* church
that was not planned by Jesus Christ. In the econ
omy of grace is made the center of attraction; He
is the beloved Son. The mission of the Spirit is. to
reveal Him; to reveal Him in all the beauty of His
character; to reveal Him in His marvelous plan of
redemption; and to reveal Him in His will concern
ing the church.
How important it is that we see this! I fear,
sometimes, we are in danger of leaving Christ out
in so much talk about the Spirit. Os course if we
understand that the Spirit in everything is revealing
Christ; and if our talk of the Spirit is with the
view of getting a fuller vision of Him, there is no
danger; indeed, it is proper. But let us see to it
that that is true. Christ is the great magnet. He
said Himself, “And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all unto me.” We want to keep
Christ ever before us; the Christ of the cross, the
Christ of life, the Christ of the church.
It is the mission of the Spirit to perpetuate this
picture; to keep it ever fresh before us, and to so
direct the affairs of the church as to reveal the full
ness of Christ.
This is why the Spirit was promised, and it is
for this purpose that the apostles were directed
to tarry in Jerusalem until His coming.
The Meaning of Enduement.
They were not simply to remain until the advent
of the Spirit; what Jesus meant was that they
should be endued with the power from on high. It
is one thing for the Spirit to be present, and the
enduement of the Spirit is another. To be endued
is to be clothed, possessed, enveloped, baptized.
The Holy Spirit might have come on the day of
Pentecost and remained as he was promised, but
unless these followers received his enduement there
would have been no Pentecostal manifestation.
I am sure here is where the church of today is
making its greatest mistake. Generally speaking,
its theology concerning the Spirit is correct. It be
lieves in the third person of the Trinity. It be
lieves that he has come, but experimentally it is
getting very little out of his presence. The church
lacks enduement; it is not clothed with the power
from on high.
What we want is to emphasize this fact. We
w’ant to put just as much force in the emphasis as
possible. We have, it seems to me, all the equip
ment that we need; certainly we have a great deal.
We have money and intelligence. We have people
who are saved, but there is a lack of power that im
presses every one who studies the situation. We
want enduement of power. We do not want sim
ply to realize the presence of the Holy Spirit in us
and with us, but we want his energy, his strength,
his power.
Natural versus Supernatural.
There is too much dependence upon the natural.
The church is not a natural force, nor is it to be
governed by natural law. It is supernatural in its
birth, supernatural in its life, and supernatural in
its destiny. What the church needs is to realize
its dependence upon supernatural power.
This is true of Pentecost which was an expression
of supernatural power.
The occasion itself was supernaturally arranged.
It was at a time when the people from all parts
of the world were gathered in Jerusalem. This was
not an accident; God had arranged it. He wanted
the news of Pentecost scattered throughout the
world.
God always works at both ends of the line. A
woman came to me once saying, “The Holy Ghost
has sent me to you for $10.00.” I said, “Sister,
I guess there must be some doubt about this.” She
The Golden Age for May 17, 1906.
Le n G. Broughton
said, “No, I am sure the Holy Ghost sent me.”
I said, “It cannot be true, because I have not the
SIO.OO, and the Holy Ghost knows it.”
When God went to inaugurate Pentecost, He ar
ranged for the Spirit to descend upon the disciples
at"the time when the people were gathered at Je
.rusalem from all parts of the world. What a great
God He is! How blessed is the man who finds it
easy to trust Him.
The selection of Peter to preach the sermon < n th«
day of Pentecost was supernatural. We would have
felt more like putting him out of the church than
letting him preach. He had denied the Lord; he
had lied in doing it. But the Holy Ghost saw some
thing in Peter that we would not have discovered.
The doctrine Peter preached was supernatural.
He preached the resurrection of the dead, the opera
tion of the Holy Ghost, the foreknowledge of God,
and the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ.
The effect of the sermon was also supernatural.
In the first place they were confounded; their wis
dom was set aside. They could not understand the
gift of tongues. In the second place three thousand
were converted. This certainly marked the whole
Pentecostal occurrence as having come from God.
Man’s wisdom works just the opposite of what we
see here. Oh, if the church could see this, the arm
of flesh would be less relied upon, and the Holy
Ghost would be kept on the throne.
Pentecost Repeated.
But some one asks, “can Pentecost be repeated?”
Most certainly the good things of Pentecost can be
repeated. The average church has many more mem
bers than assembled in that upper room. They have
more culture and more wealth. Surely the number
and quality of the believers at that time can be re
peated. The Holy Ghost can be repeated, for he
came once for all.
What the church wants today is to stop quib
bling about technicalities and receive the enduement
of power.
But how is this done? There are three sugges
tions that I have to make in answer to this ques
tion. First, unwavering faith in the willingness
and power of the Holy Ghost to work today as in
the days of the apostolic church. To limit Irm in
the slightest degree means to reject him entirely.
Second, renunciation of all self, with its plans
and purposes. There is no use seeking the Holy
Ghost for his enduement so long as there is not
complete surrender.
Third, a faith that receives him as definitely as
Jesus has been received. There is no doubt but that
the Holy Ghost is to be received by faith for ser
vice just as Christ is to be received for salvation.
This may be called by some, a second blessing.
If so, never mind. In the provision of God there
is everything in regeneration, but experience de
pends upon the appropriation of the provision.
The question for the church of today is the apos
tolic question: “Did ye receive the Holy Ghost
when ye believed?” I fear the large majority of
believers, like those to whom Paul addressed the
question, cannot answer yes.
Oh, Christian, do not allow anything to keep you
away from this blessing. Without it your life of
service will lack the power ’of the supernatural.
There is nothing that can take the place of it. When
the Holy Ghost came upon those disciples in the
upper room, he came to impart unto them power
which the natural man could not command. He will
do the same thing today. He is in the world for
that business, and the church or the individual that
fails to give him the right of way will be left to the
energy of the flesh.
This is how we account for the lack of enthusiasm
among many Christians and churches. They ate at-