Transformative Power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

FERGUSON: Now, in our last study, we were thinking about the day of Pentecost. And one of the things we were thinking about, trying to learn together, was that Pentecost is a once-and-for-all event. It's like the incarnation of Jesus. It's like the crucifixion. It's like the resurrection. It's like the ascension. It's a non-repeatable event. [00:00:00]

And yet, at the same time, like the crucifixion of Jesus, like His resurrection, like His ascension, we share in it in some respects. We participate in Christ. So, the Scriptures speak about us being crucified with Christ. The Scriptures speak about us being raised with Christ. Indeed, Paul says, in Colossians, that we have, in a sense, been ascended with Christ and our lives are headed with Christ and God and when He comes again in majesty and power, He will come again and bring us together with Him. [00:00:29]

So, how do we share in the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost? One of the great books on the Holy Spirit was written by a remarkable Dutchmen a hundred and so years ago by the name of Abraham Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit. And he has a beautiful illustration there, in which he describes a town in which a new waterworks has been created, and the mayor comes along and in all the pageantry, he opens the waterworks and the water begins to flow once and for all. [00:00:58]

And this is the way the New Testament teaches us to think about our relationship to Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, Jesus fulfills John's promise, "I baptize only with water." He will baptize with the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, there takes place the great baptism with the Holy Spirit. But then you remember how Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 12:13, "All of us who belong to Jesus Christ have also been baptized with the Holy Spirit. We've come in Christ to share in that blessed gift of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus being given to us." [00:01:15]

Now, the question is, "How is the Holy Spirit involved in bringing us to faith in Jesus Christ?" And part of the answer to that question is the Spirit brings us to faith in Jesus Christ by his work of regeneration, by giving us the new birth. And, of course, the great passage in which this is discussed in the New Testament is the 3rd Chapter of John's gospel. Marvelous description of the conversation between the Lord Jesus and this distinguished Pharisee, Nicodemus, who's described in John 3:1 as a ruler of the Jews, and whom later Jesus describes as the great theologian in Israel. [00:03:26]

So here is a remarkable man. He is a Pharisee. He's deeply committed to the way of righteousness. There's a certain graciousness about him. He comes to Jesus and he shows Jesus a certain kind of honor that many Pharisees didn't show. And he is the great theologian in Israel. He is the name on everybody's lips. If you want theological council and advice, they immediately think Nicodemus is your man. And yet, Jesus says to him, "Are you the teacher of all Israel and you don't understand what it means to experience the new birth?" [00:04:28]

So this is an enormously significant thing, and it's also a very striking thing, that it's possible to do a great deal in religion, know a great deal about religion, and yet never to have experienced this regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in which he gives new birth. Bishop Rile, great Anglican bishop, comments on these verses and says, "A man may be ignorant of many things in religion and be saved, but to be ignorant of the matters that are handled in this chapter is to be on the high road that leads to destruction." [00:05:12]

So it's vital for us to understand what Jesus means when He says to Nicodemus, "Nicodemus, you need to be born again. You need to be born from above." In our Christian theology and doctrine, the word 'regeneration' features very largely. There's an interesting thing -- I wonder if you know this -- The New Testament uses the word 'regeneration' on only two occasions. One occasion in the gospels, when Jesus is thinking about the final regeneration of all things in Matthew, Chapter 19. [00:05:54]

So when Jesus says to Nicodemus, "Nicodemus, you must be born again." He means you must be born from above. The birth you've already had, Nicodemus, is a birth that comes from below. You're the product, doubtless under the providence of God, of the love of your father and your mother. You've had an earthly birth. But Nicodemus, if you're ever going to enter the kingdom of God, you're going to have a heavenly birth. And that heavenly birth comes through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. [00:09:31]

And this is actually the teaching of the rest of the New Testament, because we find this in 1 Peter 1:23, and it is echoed in James 1:18. "Of His own will, God begat us that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures." "Of His own will." That's humbling, isn't it? Do you know we still have, lingering in our Christian world, the notion that God does 70 percent of it, or 90 percent of it, or 98 percent of it, but there's always something that you need to contribute. [00:13:36]

You can contribute no more to your new birth than you contributed to your first birth. What did you contribute to your first birth? Did you decide to be born? Isn't that an astonishing thing? When you begin to think about it, and to think, "I might not have been were it not for the desire of others, if it were not for the activity of others. I am not self-generated." Actually, John had made this clear earlier on in the prologue to the gospel, when he had spoken in chapter 1 and verse 12 about those who come to believe in Jesus, who receive the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. [00:14:34]

So, this is a heavenly birth, given through the Spirit. It's a sovereign birth, given through the Spirit. And it's also, in the third place, a transforming birth. It has very decided effects in our lives. Remember, again, the little illustration. The wind blows. You don't know where it's come from. You don't know where it's going. But you hear its sound. You know it's present by its effects. How do we know that we've been born again? We can't look inside and say, "Oh, there goes the Holy Spirit, giving me new birth," anymore than we could have said, at our own conception, "Woops, I'm being conceived," or, at our own birth, "Oh! I'm being born!" No. We know we've been born because of the results, the effects of that birth. [00:15:45]