INTRODUCTION
As we celebrate the Pentecostal gift of the Spirit to the church, which is how God created the church in its new covenant form, we should make a point to pay close attention to the way His arrival is described. And that means paying thinking carefully about the wind and to the fire. At that glorious day of Pentecost, the wind was heard and the fire was seen.
THE TEXT
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Matthew 3:11).
“John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” (Luke 3:16).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
In these two passages, John the Baptist says basically the same thing, but we should still take note of the differences. In response to inquiries about whether or not he was the Christ, John replied that his baptism with water was nothing compared to the one who was coming. The coming one would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. In Matthew, John says that his water is “unto repentance,” and that he was not worthy to carry the coming one’s shoes. In Luke, he says that he was not worthy to undo the latchet of the coming one’s shoes. Because we are told that everyone was abuzz with the question about whether John was the Christ (Luke 3:15), there is no reason to assume that these are different renderings of the same quotation. John was no doubt asked the same question more than one time, and the gist of his answers was always consistent.
THE FEAST OF WEEKS
In the Old Testament, this festival was called the Feast of Weeks (Lev. 23:15; Deut. 16:9). The Greek name for it was Pentecost, from a word meaning fifty. The festival was calculated as landing fifty days after the wave offering that was lifted up at Passover. The celebration was over the conclusion of the grain harvest—it was a harvest festival, which God marked by bringing in a harvest of three thousand souls.
This fulfillment was inaugurated on the day of Pentecost when the disciples were all gathered in “one place” (Acts 2:1). The chances are good that this was the same place in which the Last Supper was held, which means that we have a “type scene” in which the conclusion of the Lord’s earthly ministry and the beginning of His Spirit-inspired ministry are bookended. “THE former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach . . . ” (Acts 1:1).
A MIGHTY RUSHING WIND
When the Spirit was poured out, the first thing we are told about it is that it sounded like a “rushing mighty wind” (Acts 1:2). Remember that the Greek word for Spirit (as in, the Holy Spirit) is the same word as the word for breath or wind. The Holy Spirit could be called, without irreverence, the Holy Wind. The sound was “from heaven” and it says the sound filled the house where they were sitting. This is what the Spirit loves to do—He loves to fill. The room was filled, and then the people in it were filled (Acts 2:4). Notice that this was the sound of such a wind—it is not that the furniture was blowing about.
It was a mighty wind that brought the plague of locusts to Egypt (Ex. 10:13). The enemies of God were driven like dust before the wind (Ps. 18:42). The Lord’s wind will unite the ancient nations (Is. 11:15). But the image of wind refers to more than just power—it means life in the Old Testament (Job 12:10), and the Spirit of life in the New (John 3:8).
We are told not to be drunk with wine, but rather to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). But it was this filling that made people wonder whether or not they were drunk (Acts 2:13).
THE PRESENCE OF THE GOD OF FIRE
The sound of wind came, but the appearance of that of cloven tongues of fire, resting on the heads of the disciples. Think of each of them as an altar, and the fire of sacrifice burning on the top of the altar.
The Lord appeared to Moses in a flame (Ex. 3:2). The Lord was a pillar of fire for the Israelites (Ex. 13:21-22). The glory of the Lord was a “devouring fire” on Sinai in the sight of all Israel (Ex. 24:17). The fire of God comes in judgment. “And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: And it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day” (Isaiah 10:17). “For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29).
Fire also communicates holiness. “A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about” (Psalm 97:3). It is a holiness that cleanses. “But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap” (Mal. 3:2). We should want to receive the gold of God, the kind refined in fire (Rev. 3:18).
NOT MESSING AROUND
The prophet Amos declared “woe to them that are at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1). Having been given the gift of this wind and this fire—meaning that we have been given the gift of a Person who is like
this—we need to take care to keep in step with the Spirit. We are told to keep in step with the Spirit . . . “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25, ESV). But what does this mean? At a minimum, it means wind and fire.
“Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14).
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:19).