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 of paying close attention to the way His arrival is described. And that means thinking a bit more 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 when compared to what would be done by 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, and repentance is not specifically mentioned. Because we are told that everyone was abuzz with this 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 this same question multiple times, 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. This is because 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 therefore 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 pretty 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. Even if they were different rooms, we still have the same setting—one where Jesus concluded one ministry, and one where He inaugurated the next one. “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 (pneuma). The Holy Spirit could be called, without irreverence, the Holy Wind. The sound was “from heaven” and it says this 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 was 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 certain of the ancient nations (Is. 11:15). But the image of wind refers to more than just power—it also 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 was 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). This 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). In our prayers, 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 commanded 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 (KJV)
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” ().Revelation 3:19 (KJV)
What God did on this first Pentecost meant disruption. And tidy church folks don’t like disruption. Neither do the effeminate. We want to keep the Holy Wind in a box, only letting Him out on specified occasions, and only for a limited time. This is the mentality that wants to quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19). Keeping in step with the Spirit is when He quenches us—when He subdues the wrong kind of complacency, or the wrong kind of enthusiasm, and generates the right kind of zeal. Be zealous therefore, but always within the guardrails of the Word.