T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 6

Entering Into the Values of Pentecost

"Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his inner man shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:37-39).

(1) The Expectation of the Spirit

Reading: Psalm 24; Acts. 2:32-36; 10:36-44.

That statement, "The Spirit was not yet given..." surely carries with it some great implication in the light of all that has gone before connected with the Holy Spirit. There are eighty-eight references to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament; there are twenty-two out of the thirty-nine books which speak of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was given to the Lord Jesus, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit". In the Old Testament we read, "the Spirit came upon..." and then we are told, "...the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified". It evidently means that something much greater, much more definite than had ever been known in relation to the Holy Spirit was yet to be.

Think of Samson, king Saul, Gideon, the workers for the tabernacle, and see the result of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon them. We might covet their experience, but when all are put together into one great story, with Ezekiel and all the rest, you have still to read, "...the Spirit was not yet given...". God made a promise to Abraham, and in Galatians we are told that promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, "that we might receive the Spirit". So we are brought by this statement to a tremendous expectation. That which was to come when John wrote this history, when Jesus lifted up His voice on that last great day of the Feast, was to transcend all that had been known of the Spirit and make it almost as nothing.

Surely the Lord would have us face the tremendous possibilities in the light of His Word and place ourselves right into this expectation - not of another Pentecost, but of entering into the values of Pentecost, and in faith to believe that God means in this dispensation for His church something more than was ever known at most in the old dispensation.

(2) Jesus Glorified: the Ground in Which the Spirit is Given

"The Spirit was not yet... because Jesus was not yet glorified". It is all bound up with and related to Jesus being glorified. This is the key to everything; this explains the whole doctrine of the Holy Spirit and of the work of the Spirit.

It was on the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus spoke about the rivers flowing from within as expressive of the Holy Spirit's fulness. At the celebration of that Feast, for seven days water was drawn from the Pool of Siloam and poured out on the temple pavement. It was done in remembrance that over a perfect period God had maintained them in life throughout the wilderness journey. On the eighth day the water was not drawn, because that day represented the day of entering into the land in which there were the springs of living water, the fulness of life. In type Israel was now in the land, though historically they were far from that in spiritual experience.

The Lord Jesus steps right into the midst, gathers up the eighth day into His own person and takes the place of the land, the fulness, and says, "He that believeth on Me" shall, in effect, find springs, rivers within, flowing out, and "this spake He of the Spirit...".

The glorifying of the Lord Jesus is, all-inclusively, God filling Him with all fulness. When the Lord Jesus returned, those heavenly messengers, waiting at the portals, commenced to chant:

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; And the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle."