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TEXT:—“This is that.” Acts 2:16.
VERYWHERE I have been of late I have
observed that there are new questions
concerning Pentecost There seems to
be a revival of interest with Christians
concerning Pentecost Generally, the
questions may be grouped around two
leading ones: first, can Pentecost be
repeated? and, second, what are the man
ifestations of Pentecost? There are two
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classes of people who venture an answer. First, there
are those who say that Pentecost cannot be repeated;
that it was never intended to be repeated, and there
fore is not being repeated. Then there are others who
say that Pentecost can be repeated, and that it there
fore should be repeated.
In a certain sense both of these are correct, and
in a sense both are in error. Certain characteristics
of Pentecost can and are being repeated today. But
when I say that I know that it is necessary to go
back and view for a time the circumstances under
which Pentecost came. We remember that Jesus,
prior to His ascension, called His disciples together
for a particular message and part of that message
was this: “Tarry in Jerusalem until ye are endued
with power from on high.” Upon their shoulders the
whole responsibility of making disciples rested; hence
this was a most important message to those men
who were so conscious of their lack of power. He
instructed them to wait until there came upon them
an equipment of power which would enable them
to do the work which they had been sent to do. And
so they retired to the upper room and there waited
for ten days.
THE DYNAMIC OF SERVICE.
How they knew when this power came upon them
we are not told. I fancy that it was somewhat like
this: As they sat there in that room, talking and
praying together, talking, doubtless, about the things
that had transpired in connection with Jesus Christ,
talking about His recent crucifixion and His resur
rection, talking about His appearing unto them;
talking about His recent instructions to them. While
they thus talked together, there came upon them,
on the tenth day, a tremendous sense of their respons
ibility for the salvation of the world. And with that
responsibility there was also a sense of longing for
the salvation of the lost. And I fancy it was Peter
who said to the rest, “You know the Master told us
to wait here for the enduement of power. I do not
know just what he meant by that; I do not know
how long he meant for us to wait, but I cannot sit
here any longer, for out yonder is a great world of
lost men and women; see, they are gathering in
Jerusalem now from all parts of the earth for the
annual feast and worship; oh, such a great oppor
tunity to preach to them the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I cannot stay here any longer. I must get out and
tell the story of Jesus and His love.” Then I hear
some of the rest say to Him, “You are telling my
experience; I feel that way, too; I have the same
burden of responsibility, the same love and longing
for the salvation of lost people; and I cannot stay
here any longer.” And so it was with every one of
them; that awful sense of responsibility, of obliga
tion, of love for lost men, so overwhelmed them that
they could not stay shut up indoors any longer; and
they interpreted that feeling as the coming upon
them of the Spirit of power which had been promised.
This sense of longing for souls and love for Christ
was the dynamic that sent them out to preach and
work.
OUR EXPECTED REVIVAL.
Most of us have talked a great deal of late about a
great revival in all parts of the Christian world; we
hear men talking and praying about it everywhere.
Our religious magazines and newspapers are full of
it; and there is a great unrest on the part of the
church everywhere because it has not come. Some
times I am afraid we have all but talked it away.
Now, I will venture to tell you when this country
will have such a revival. It will be when the church
of Jesus Christ, like those disciples in that upper
THE NEW PENTECOST
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb, Len G. brought on, D/D,
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
The Golden Age for December 15, 1910.
room are so filled with the Spirit of God that it cannot
remain idle while a lost world moves about it. So
long as the church can remain still with a lost world
in sight there will be no great world revival.
When the disciples came down from that upper
room, they found the whole city in a stir with visit
ors who had gathered in from various parts of the
world. And Peter preached a most remarkable ser
mon to them. I say most remarkable: it was a re
markable sermon. It was not remarkable in the
sense of the requirements of the sermon builders of
today, but it was remarkable in four essential re
spects. First, it was remarkable with respect to its
orthodoxy; second, with respect to the boldness in
delivery. Third, with respect to the liberty that the
people took with it; and, fourth, with respect to its
results.
PENTECOSTAL PREACHING.
I say it was remarkable with respect to its ortho
doxy. There are four great essential points touched
in that sermon, short as it was. First, prophecy;
second, Jesus Christ and the resurrection; third, sin;
fourth, repentance and salvation. And, mark you,
these four points are the very points that the new
theology people of today are criticising, declaring
that they are out of date and out of place in the
Christian system. But never mind what they say,
Pentecostal- preaching must sound these same notes.
But Peter’s boldness is equally as noteworthy.
Awhile ago he was such a coward as to deny that
he ever saw the Lord Jesus, and that, too, by reason
of the fact that a little Jewish maiden confronted
him with it. He did not have sufficient boldness to
confront a maiden with the truth, and lied about it,
but, mind you, it is this same man who since he
came from that upper room, where he was endued
with the Holy Spirit, that stands before thousands,
daring to proclaim his allegiance to that same Jesus
Christ; and not only that, but looks into the faces
of the very men who crucified Jesus and charges
them with His death.
It was remarkable also, I saj. with respect to the
liberty that the people took with it. They were so
free on that occasion as to interrupt the speaker
while he was in the midst of his discourse. If a
thing like that should occur In the average up-to
date city congregation, the deacons would put the
interrupter out of the building. A thing like that
occurred in this city some year ago. A man was
arrested in a church one Sunday morning and put in
jail for saying Amen during the service. I heard of
it and commented on it and extended my words of
comfort to the man who was thus so roughly treated.
He heard of it and said, “Thank God there is one
place I can shout Amen as much as I please.” And
sure enough, next Sunday he was out of prison and in
our church; and when I stood up and took my text,
he said, “Amen!” Everybody looked around and
laughed. Following this he continued to shout
“Amen” at every stopping point in my sermon. The
only way I could keep him from interrupting me
was not even to stop for a long breath; and before
I had gotten half way through I almost wished they
had kept him in jail.
But, seriously speaking, the church today, espe
cially in the larger cities, has become so formal in
its methods of worship, so cut and dried in its pro
gram that the Spirit of God is shut out. “Where
the Spirit of God is there is liberty.” If He is to
work in a congregation and among a people he must
and will have liberty. He must be free to break in
at any point; to manifest himself in any way. He
is as sovereign as God. He will not be dictated to;
He will not be circumscribed; He will not be put
down to suit your ideas or mine. He must have
liberty.
STRANGE TONGUES.
On the day of Pentecost there were two inter
ruptions. The first was a question concerning what
they had heard. They looked about them and heard
men speak in strange tongues; speaking, however,
a real language, an intelligent language, not just
uttering sounds as the modern tongue talkers are
doing, calling it “the gift of tongues.” They heard
men speak and understood them in a language that
they never understood before. This they could not
understand and hence they arose and asked the
question, “What does this mean?” Peter, using the
words of the text, said: “This is that; this that you
see is the fulfillment of that prophecy given nine
hundred years ago through the Prophet Joel; he
prophesied concerning the coming of the Holy Ghost
to take charge of affairs of the Kingdom. This
strange power is that Holy Ghost at work.”
Then they came with the second question: “What
shall we do that we too may have this power?” And
Peter answered, “Repent and be baptized every one
of you unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise
is unto you and your children, and to them that are
afar off, and to as many as the Lord our God shall
call.”
THE RESULT OF PENTECOST.
The result first was the conversion of three thou
sand souls; second, the organization of these three
thousand souls into the Christian church; third, the
dividing of all their possessions to the extent that
they were needed to meet their individual needs.
Now, somebody asks the same old question: “Can
Pentecost be repeated?” Before we attempt an an
swer let us see what Pentecost comprehends. There
are three great experiences that stand out like
mountain peaks in the Christian system. First,
there is the incarnation of the Son of God, or the
manger peak; second, the atonement of Jesus Christ,
or the Calvary peak; third, the coming of the Holy
Ghost, or the Pentecost peak. In the manger, God is
made manifest in human flesh. On Calvary, God in
human flesh is paying the penalty for the world’s
sin. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Ghost, the
third person of the Trinity, is manifest within the
church to carry forward the Kingdom of Christ.
Now, if you mean to a?k, Can the occasion of
Pentecost be repeated, I answer, No; the occasion
of Pentecost will no more be repeated than the occa
sion of the manger, or the occasion of the crucifixion.
But if you refer to the power of Pentecost, then I
answer, most assuredly, yes. And, further, Pente
cost is being repeated; it is being repeated this very
hour in this very city. “Oh,” somebody says, “but
what of the gift of tongues?” That is the only con
ception some people have of the power of Pente
cost. There are people who say that there is no
Pentecost without the gift of tongues. But the gift
of tongues was only one phase of Pentecost.
Somebody else says, “What about the conversion
of three thousand people? is not Pentecost and sal
vation, so far as results follow, one and the same?
It may be, or it may not be. Certainly, salvation
follows, but it is not for us to say how or when.
We have no right to limit the power of Pentecost
to the gift of tongues nor to our conception of a
revival, nor to any other one line of operation. The
Spirit of Pentecost, as I have already said, is a
Sovereign Spirit. We cannot dictate to Him as to
whether He shall give a revival or help train those
brought in during a revival. We are working with
a Sovereign Spirit; He will direct His power in any
channel that He sees fit.
Sometimes it may be of more concern to Him to
endow a Christian college than to raise a fund for
a revival campaign. Now, don’t shake your heads too
quickly; follow me and see what the sweep of the
Spirit is.
Many years ago there was a man who was re
quested to give a large sum of money to missions;
he was a wealthy man, but he would not go in for
their scheme. There was much criticism of him.
But he had at that time in his mind a scheme which
he afterwards put into operation, to endow a cer
tain college with one hundred thousand dollars of
his money, the interest of which was to go to educat
ing poor young men for the ministry. In less than
twenty years eleven foreign missionaries were edu
cated on that fund. Some of the greatest preachers
that we have and some of the greatest soul-winners
are among the number of men that were educated
( Continued on ?ag© 14.)
