Dr. Rodney Plunket

The fourth book of the Old Testament is the book of Numbers.  In that book are many stories concerning Israel’s life in the desert after their deliverance from the land of Egypt.  Several of those stories report times when Israel complained.  In the eleventh chapter of Numbers we actually have two stories both of which report Israelite complaints.  I want to look briefly at only one of those stories, the story that begins in Numbers (Num) 11:4.  If you have your Bible, I would encourage you to open in to that passage.

The story told in Num 11:4ff concerns a time when Moses became frustrated when the Israelites complain.  He felt that he had to bear too much respon­sibility for the people.  In verses (vv) 14-15 we read that Moses felt so strongly about the pressure of his role that he said to God,

I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me.  If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”

God responds to Moses’ complaint by having seventy elders appointed upon whom God places a portion of the spirit that God has placed upon Moses.  All of the seventy elders are brought to the tabernacle to receive that anointing of the spirit.  The spirit is given to them, and they prophesy as a result.

But the story also tells of something else that happened.  Two men, Eldad and Medad, do not come to the tabernacle; but they receive the spirit anyway.  We do not know why.  When Eldad and Medad receive the Spirit, they prophesy just like those who received it at the tabernacle.  That causes a stir, and v 27 reports, “a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”  In response, Moses’ assistant, a man named Joshua, said to Moses, “My lord Moses, stop them!” (Num 11:28d).  Moses does not agree with his assistant.  In v 29 says, “Are you jealous for my sake?  Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”  One of the realities revealed here is the difficulty of being a person with the Spirit of God and leading a people who do not have the Spirit of God.  But I would also draw your attention to the fact that this verse is the first place in the Bible where the desirability of having God’s Spirit is indicated.  It certainly is not the last.

Several Old Testament (OT) passages look forward to a time of renewal for God’s people.  Those times of renewal are commonly accompanied by the pouring out of God’s Spirit on the people of God.  Isaiah (Isa) 32:15 refers to a time when,

. . . a spirit from on high is poured out on us,

     and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,

     and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

In Isa 44:3c-d God is describing a time in the future and God says,

I will pour my spirit upon your descendants,

     and my blessing on your offspring.

The best known of these OT passages that predict this outpouring of the Spirit is found in the Book of Joel.  Joel 2:28-32 was used as our Scripture reading this morning, but be reminded that in this passage God looks forward to a time when God says,

     I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;

your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

     your old men shall dream dreams,

     and your young men shall see visions.

Even on the male and female slaves,

     in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

Now feel the anticipation created by Joel 2:28ff and other passages like it.  These passages created within believing Jews an expectation of a time when the Spirit of God would come upon many people.  And the phrase “all flesh” along with the references to both “sons” & “daughters,” to both “old men” and “young men,” and to “male and female slaves” makes very clear that neither age, nor gender, nor sta­tion in life would have anything to do with whether a person received it or not.

Hundreds of years after these OT books were written, Jesus Christ was born.  In time he grew up and began to preach.  But his cousin, a man named John, began to preach first.  And John baptized, i.e., immersed in water, those who came to repent of their sins in response to his preaching.  He did that to pre­pare his hearers for the coming of the Lord, and the text of the Gospels makes clear that “the coming of the Lord” referred to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  Listen to what John said about the one who was to come after him, the one whom the Gospels go on to reveal is Jesus.  John the Baptist said, “I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).  (By the way, all four Gospels record John’s statement about Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit:  cf., Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:16; John 1:29-34).  I suspect that many who heard this statement from John the Baptist connected his words to those OT passages that anticipated a time when God would pour out his Spirit.

And these statements from John the Baptist are not the only ones that deal with the reception of the Spirit through Jesus Christ.  In John’s Gospel 7:37-39 we read,

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.  As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”  Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

This passage reveals that Jesus spoke somewhat obliquely about the reception of the Spirit by people who believe/who put their faith in Jesus.  This passage also reveals that there was a timetable with regard to the receiving of the Spirit, and that timetable placed the reception of the Holy Spirit after Christ’s glorification.  Christ’s glorification is a way of referring to Christ’s resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God.  So this passage, like the ones in the OT, causes the reader to anticipate the coming of the Holy Spirit.

It is interesting to note the last quotation of Jesus found in the Gospel of Luke.  In Luke 24:49 Jesus says, “And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”  Having noted what we have noted previously, we should at least suspect that the “power from on high” that Jesus refers to here is the power of the Holy Spirit.  That suspicion is confirmed by the Book of Acts, a book which is the volume two of a story for which the Gospel of Luke is the volume one.

Acts (Ax) 1 brings us back to Jesus’ final appearance to the apostles and adds some important elements to the account found at the end of the Gospel of Luke, but it is still very much in line with the account found at the end of that Gospel.  What stands out for me is the fact that Jesus in Ax 1 explicitly refers to the Holy Spirit.  Now please look with me at Ax 1:4-5.

While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father.  “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Here we learn that John the Baptist was not the only one who said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus himself said that, and He reminds His disciples of that statement here in Ax 1.

Now look with me at Ax 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.  Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?  Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”  All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”  But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.  Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.  No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days it will be, God declares,

     that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

          and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

     and your young men shall see visions,

          and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

          in those days I will pour out my Spirit;

            and they shall prophesy.

And I will show portents in the heaven above

          and signs on the earth below,

            blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

The sun shall be turned to darkness

          and the moon to blood,

            before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

The anticipated reality has arrived.  God has fulfilled the OT prophecy in Joel 2 as well as the other OT passages which predicted a time when God would pour out God’s Spirit.

But Acts does not stop with just that group of believers initially received the Spirit, that group who in many languages proclaimed God’s deeds of power.  Look at what Peter says just a bit later in this sermon.  In Acts 2:38 he says, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  Here the baptism of Jesus and the receiving of the Holy Spirit are joined together, and the predictions that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit are fulfilled.  And the apostle Paul, writing to a church that he planted more than twenty years after this sermon by the apostle Peter, makes clear that all Christians were still baptized in the Holy Spirit.  In 1 Corinthians 12:13 he writes, “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

What have we seen.  The OT promised a time when God would pour out the Holy Spirit upon God’s people.  The Gospels prepare us for a baptism of the Holy Spirit to come through the agency of Christ Jesus, and the natural conclusion is that this baptism of the Holy Spirit will be the fulfillment of what the OT promised.  The Holy Spirit is poured out upon a group of followers on the Jewish holy day of Pentecost; and Peter the apostle connects that event to Joel 2, which is one of the OT passages which predicts the coming of the Spirit.  At the conclusion of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, he also connects baptism in the Name of Jesus to the reception of the Holy Spirit.  And the apostle Paul confirms that connection some twenty years later.

Through Jesus God provided the Holy Spirit to all who trust in Jesus, and the Book of Acts and the NT as a whole make very clear that the Holy Spirit is fundamental to the Christian life.  In Romans 8:9 the apostle Paul writes,

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

All Christians have the Spirit.  Only non-Christians do not have the Spirit of Christ.  Moses in Numbers 11 wished that God would put God’s spirit on all of God’s people.  Through Christ, God fulfills that wish.

So what?  What is the value of that.  What does the Spirit do for a person?  The NT is full of answers to that question, but my favorite is an answer that we can hear in Galatians 5:16-26.  There we read:

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to pre­vent you from doing what you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.  Now the works of the flesh are obvious:  forni­cation, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.  I am warning you, as I warned you before:  those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against such things.  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Notice the contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.  A group of people whose life together is being empowered and transformed by the Holy Spirit will be characterized by attributes like love and kindness.  A group of people whose life together is being shaped and defined by the opposing power, the power of the flesh, will be characterized by attributes like strife and jealousy.  With which group would you rather go on a picnic?  That’s not a difficult question, is it?

Is your life characterized by the works of the flesh?  Change your power source.  Allow God to pour out God’s Spirit upon you.  You will not come up out of the waters of baptism and never be tempted again, but the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead will live and work inside of you.  You will experience the joy of having more and more “love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” in your life.

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