[This is the conclusion to a series of posts on the importance of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. To catch up, here is the Introduction, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, and Week 6.]
Over the last several weeks, we have explored the importance of Pentecost, and in doing so, we have looked in some depth at the role and purpose of the third person of the Trinity—the Holy Spirit. The question that has been implicit all along has been this: what does it mean to be a Pentecost people?[1]
In the first two weeks, the answer to that question centered on the church. To be a Pentecost people means to be a people brought together by the Holy Spirit (Week 1). No room for individualism here: the Spirit makes, forms, and establishes a community—the church. And the Spirit gifts this church such that, as individuals within it, we are dependent on one another. We need each other to grow up into Christ (Week 2).
In the second two weeks, the answer to the question got more personal. Through the Holy Spirit, we are ushered into the life of the triune God; the Spirit catches us up into the love of the Father for the Son, and the Son for the Father (Week 3). Drawn up into this life, the Spirit (slowly) forms our desires—turning us away from sin, and towards righteousness (Week 4).
Finally, in the last two weeks, the answer has compelled us to examine our relationship to the world—present and future. God is on mission to draw all things into his life, and we, his Spirit-empowered people, are therefore a people of mission (Week 5). The presence of the Spirit, then, in our lives and in our churches, is God’s guarantee that he will bring us to the final redemption for which we hope (Week 6). Like Israel and the pillar of cloud and fire, so long as we follow the Spirit, we will arrive in the place prepared for us. The purpose is not merely to arrive, however, but to live the life of God’s future now, here, in the present—and this too the Spirit does in us. He is the agent to and the deposit of our future life.
The Holy Spirit (and Pentecost!), then, has implications for the church (Weeks 1-2), for the individual (Weeks 3-4), and for our future hope (Weeks 5-6).
For anyone who knows the Apostle’s Creed, this should not be surprising, for it’s all there in the final article of our Creed. For much of my life, I thought this final article was just a random smattering of beliefs that the authors threw in at the end of a hard day’s work: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.” Poor guys just wanted to get finished (or so I thought).
It was only recently that I realized the profundity of this final article: all of the elements in the final article are subsidiary to (or part and parcel of) our belief in the Holy Spirit! So if you want to know what it means to be a Pentecost people, you need look no further than the final article of our most oft-recited creed (here formatted so you can see how it hangs together):
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
In other words, there is no such thing as the church; there is no such thing as life with God; and there is no such thing as future hope without the Holy Spirit, and therefore without Pentecost.
Pentecost (literally) changes everything.
We end where we started—with Darrell Johnson’s words: “I know that the church of Jesus Christ in the West will have finally come to understand the fullness of the gospel when Pentecost is as big a celebration as Christmas and Easter.”
Now you know why. After eight weeks, I hope you have caught a vision of what it means to be a Pentecost people—a people shaped by the church-forming, life-invigorating, hope-instilling Holy Spirit of the Living God. And next time we say the Apostle’s Creed together in church, let’s proclaim that last article with just a bit of extra Pentecostal fervor:
I believe in the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] There was a wonderful Pentecost poem written by Sylvia C. Keesmaat in the June 2014 edition of The Banner entitled "Pentecost and Fire" that gets at this question. You can find it here.