Then those who believed what he said were baptized. Summary: The Holy Spirit did not come because the believers prayed but because the day of Pentecost had come, the day appointed for the “birthday of the church.” He baptized the believers into one body,so that they had a living connection with their sovereign Head 1 2 Surely there were times when you wavered, when you experienced doubts about Jesus' mission, when you experienced fear coming from your association with him? The Christians listened to what the apostles taught, shared what they had, ate the Lord's Supper together, and prayed together. Matthew 11:1-5 - John the Baptist asks why the kingdom isn't coming in (cp Matthew 17:10-13, note the Lord's answer about John's role, if the people had believed). The Spirit is a person and not merely a force. The Spirit is the active person that came to reside within the followers of Jesus Christ after Jesus had been crucified on the cross, and rose from the dead. “The Holy Spirit is the presence of the living Lord Jesus in spiritual power in the lives of men.” [7] Walter Thomas Conner, The Work of the Holy Spirit (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1949), p. 64. I. Christ’s cause on the earth is advanced through the Spirit, through individuals who are indwelt by the Spirit. Who are they who are moved primarily by Christ within? It was in the context of this unusual meal that Christ turned to Peter and said to him, "Do you love me more than these?" But God had known that this would happen so He raised Jesus from the dead. b 3 Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, * which parted and came to rest on each one of them. This occurs when the inner support assisting us to experience the Christ within is withdrawn, forcing us to find his presence within in deeper and more subtle ways. The change in emphasis from the outer world to the inner world is always painfu. With spiritual maturation, our spiritual development can survive without the external support system that brought it into being in the first place. Peter was deeply hurt. We can best learn from the first Pentecost how the Holy Spirit comes into our lives. Matthew 11:1-5 - John the Baptist asks why the kingdom isn't coming in (cp Matthew 17:10-13, note the Lord's answer about John's role, if the people had believed). “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession” (Ephesians 1:13-14). Through the external presence and actions of Jesus outside, God begins to effect changes in our inner life. The Holy Spirit brings spiritual freedom no matter what. Wall attended St. Ignatius prep in the Bay City and St. Mary's College of California. Then God will forgive your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." [9] The entrance into the third stage is a "birthing," with all the labor pains that normally accompany such an experience. They live in a warm, loving Catholic community, with priests and religious and apostolic lay persons who radiate Christ's presence to them. CHAPTER 2. Ten days later, when the apostles were all gather together in one room, the Holy Spirit came on them like Jesus had said. The deity of the Holy Spirit may raise problems in our minds, but the first thing we must always do, if we want nothing but truth is to believe what God says in His Word, even if we do not understand it. Holy Spirit, in Christian belief, the third person of the Trinity. The profound emptying of the flawed ego in us prepares for the birth of the mature Christ within. Imagine if one were to pursue the issue further by challenging Peter. Those who have reached the third stage of the journey to God are more open to the movements of the spirit within. When this stage has been reached, the continued presence of the external support system can become an obstacle to our growing awareness of the new life within us. It is God's way of bringing our love for that person to the relative level of perfection we imperfect lovers are capable of. Coming of the Holy Spirit “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Again, we find Peter present, loyal to the end. Conversely, in the book of Acts, it is evidently presented that the Holy Spirit was initially granted to the disciples, later transferred to the early Jewish believers and ultimately to the Gentiles. He negotiated the entry of the Dominicans into the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and served two terms there as President of the Dominican School. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them the power to speak. We have in Peter, then, a clear illustration of how one passes from the first and second stage of the journey to God, to the third stage in which one experiences the mirror of Christ within. When the others arrived with nets bursting with fish, they found that Jesus had a fire lit on which there was a skillet with fish in it. [15]. There is need for every individual Christian to understand the importance of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. The Spirit can certainly not be called the Son of man; only the flesh of God incarnate can be called the Son of man who, like the Lord Jesus, is flesh born of man, both tangible and visible. The inner life of a human being, however, is complicated. No! And God adds everyone who He saves to His church. The coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was not an isolated event in the life of the Church. Christ in the external world has brought us much consolation and life. He has served as associate pastor in Seattle and as Professor of Theology at Immaculate Heart and Dominican College. Peter then flees from the courtyard, weeping bitter tears. The bitter tears continued to flow as he experienced the real Peter within, this stranger, this frightened, disloyal, self-centered, paralyzed, arrogant, foolish person whom he had never met before. The Father had given Jesus the Holy Spirit and He had poured that Spirit on His followers. NAS: Spirit will come upon you, and the power KJV: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, INT: Spirit [the] Holy will come upon you. He finds a beautiful example in the different ways in which God led the shepherds, the wise men, and Simeon to the discovery of Christ. We are not the ones necessarily that conquer sin; God the Holy Spirit is the power that dwells in us to help us do this. They asked, "What should we do?" But he would have claimed that those moments were aberrations. Only now Peter is seeing an entirely different Jesus, a Jesus whom he had never seen before. Seizing the moment, the Apostle Peter stood and addressed the crowd gathered that day. [4]. Then Our Lord said to him, "Feed my lambs." THE TRINITY. He lived his life of constant prayer in the temple. Jesus said "you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. People who slavishly follow letters and doctrines are those who have been eliminated by the work of the Holy Spirit. He flatly denies having anything to do with him. We are not angels, but embodied spirits. The story of the coming of the Holy Spirit in an almost visible form – a form that was perceived by the senses – is one of the most dramatic stories in the New Testament. But other people were making fun of the apostles and saying they were drunk. Christ comes alive in them once more. He takes his sword in hand and cuts off the ear of one of the servants taking hold of Jesus. The Holy Spirit empowered and gives us bravery to declare God’s admirations and miracles before work forces merely as those work forces who had first experience the filling of the Holy Spirit during the Pentecost. This is the first of several teachings on the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room Discourse. Wall has had a career rich in pastoral and academic experiences. His work has many facets and is definitely worthy of study. The Coming of the Spirit. [13] For the parable of the prodigal son, cf. 2 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. Peter's second response is followed by the command, "Tend my sheep," and the third by the command, "Feed my sheep." Indeed, their faith seems to be strong. Without the external, living presence of the deceased in the coffin, the mourners experience for the first time how radically impoverished their life has become. But he would have gone out bringing to others the illusions of Peter rather than the reality of Christ. He currently resides at St. Albert's Priory in Oakland, California. He probably looked at Our Lord with hurt in his eyes, saying, "See. b 3 Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, * which parted and came to rest on each one of them. What will your answer be. The coming of the Holy Spirit takes place normally only after a period of substantial growth of Christ within, a growth that can take place only after an equally substantive purgation of the many obstacles that hinder such growth. God the Holy Spirit brings godly repentance and brings about an awareness of when we are not doing the right thing. They find it easy to live in harmony with the moral demands of Christ's message. The Pentecost event brings us to the third stage of the journey to God in this world. They chose Matthias, who had been with them since Jesus' baptism, to take the place of Judas Iscariot, who had killed himself. Now they were surprised that each person could hear in the language he was born in. 3 Then there appeared to them 2 divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. A second person makes the same accusation, with the same denial coming from Peter. After Jesus rose from the dead, He told the apostles to wait in Jerusalem until they received power when the Holy Spirit came on them. The world of inner consciousness is not the primary focus of our attention. We'll look more at the Holy Spirit’s dealing with the disciples in future studies. He jumped into the water and rushed to the side of Jesus. It is in faith that all those who believe posses the Holy Spirit tha… We know who they are – although we may not think of them in the terms I have been using. You too can be saved by Jesus and belong to His church. Now Jews from all over the world were in the city of Jerusalem at that time. The day of Pentecost empowered the church to be able to achieve its intended purpose. The Coming of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also important because he is the guarantee of your inheritance in heaven. This new Peter, unlike the old, knew that what he was experiencing within was not himself but Christ. Old Testament Promises. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. sympathizer. The Coming of the Holy Spirit Acts 2. Peter, having been emptied of his illusions about himself, is now filled with Christ and is prepared to bring Christ to others. Holy Spirit, in Christian belief, the third person of the Trinity. Forty days after Jesus rose, he went back to be with God the Father. It is everyone who is truly a Christian. Fear then overwhelms the vestiges of faith and courage in Peter. The Church is a unique spiritual organism which began on the Day of Pentecost and which has a unique relationship to the Spirit. But it is a faith like Peter's, which is ten percent within and ninety percent sustained by their experience of Christ's external presence in others outside them. 1 When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. He also was a central figure in the meetings with evangelicals that led to the producing of the … By the operation ofthe Holy Spirit, not only was the conception of Christ accomplished, but alsothe sanctification of His soul, which, in Holy Scripture, is called His"anointing" (Acts x., 38). THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT. We tend to be fascinated by the outer world. Impossible! ----- is the special feast recalling the coming of the holy Spirit upon Mary and the disciples fifty days after Easter. The ----- is the Church's official summary and profession of faith in the chief mysteries revealed by God through Jesus. The answer is clear. Luke 3:22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ” You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” Jesus being led by the Spirit. Then, there is the spiritual man. Wherefore all His actions were"performed in the Holy Ghost" (St. Pentecost is a happy festival. Then they leave the loving family and go off to the secular world of business or the university. That same Holy Spirit has come upon you; He inspires you and teaches you. Peter heard with amazement at the Last Supper Our Lord's words "Truly, truly I say to you, the cock will not crow, till you have denied me three times." Simeon, as a man of the spirit, did not need an external sign to recognize the presence of Christ. This is an amazing truth, one which never must be taken lightly, ignored or taken for granted. The Holy Spirit indwells those who actually know Jesus. Father Antoninus Wall, O.P., a native of San Francisco, is the son of Irish-born parents, and the brother of the late Fr. Learn more about the importance of the Holy Spirit in Christianity. Suddenly they find that they no longer believe. How Muhammad could be “in” the disciples stretches all credibility. We must, therefore, pass from this world into the next to attain that loving union with God. The Spirit is, first and foremost, God’s personal presence. In his judgment of himself, such behavior was simply impossible for him. For him it is his inner world that has primacy. [13]. they are interested in what they can do for the Church rather than what the Church can do for them; they are never lonely because they are never alone; they manifest a deep faith in the Church as a profound, living mystery; they participate in everyone's joy and sorrow; they are quick to acknowledge their many human weaknesses and may even laugh at them; they are forgiving and do not hold grudges; they spend substantive time in prayer; as Christ is the center of their life within, the Eucharist is the center of their outer world; they have little fear of the future and see in death the welcome embrace of God's love; they are always encouraging others to become more involved in the life of the Church; they seem to have little "ego" and show no need or desire for praise, power, honor, and other forms of recognition; they see all persons as children of God made in His image and likeness; they are free of biases of any kind, racism, pride of caste, elitism; they are acutely sensitive to the failings of members of Christ's Mystical Body, they suffer on account of these failings, but they do not criticize the Church; they are eager to proclaim the good news of Christ and strive to give witness to it whenever possible; they do not conceal their faith, but publicly rejoice in it; they show special devotion to Mary and accept her invitation to share in her son's sufferings as a privilege. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Today, 2,000 years later, believers are still filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and call upon the Spirit whenever they are in need of strength or guidance. If they had come from such love, he would have returned to the courtyard and acknowledged to all that he was indeed the companion of Jesus. Today we are celebrating the fact that the coming of the Holy Spirit is a daily event in the life of the Christian and of the church. Separation from Christ, experiencing life without him, often prepares one for his rebirth within. Jesus looks at Peter, and Peter looks into Jesus' eyes. So they started asking, "What is happening?" Quick Facts . Only when the beloved is no longer present to us outside can he or she come to fullness of presence within us. When a person believes in Jesus, repents of his sins, and is baptized into Jesus, then God saves him. Simeon located reality primarily in the world within. It came rather from the thought that Jesus did not really know him, that Jesus could think him capable of such an action. For the first time he could see clearly Christ within, the mirror of the divine. Love is in its most intense, deepest, and least selfish form at funeral Masses. (Note the prefix epi, showing the action as the "epi-center" of what happens.). Their external presence excludes their intense presence in our heads, hearts, emotions, memories, and imagination. When people heard the apostles, a large crowd came together. [2], Jesus loved Peter in a special way, and was preparing him for an extraordinary role in the future mission of his Church. It was the beginning of Christ's church. Denied the possibility both kinds its intended purpose Spirit indwells those who know. Rose, he went back to be able to achieve its intended purpose to you. previous... 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