BEFORE PENTECOST
‘It I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.’
The men who had spent three and a half years with Christ would have been left utterly desolate and comfortless unless enriched by the advent of the New Comforter. But the promise was fulfilled. Their loss was turned to gain, their sorrow to lasting joy. Yes, it was good for these disciples that Jesus left them. They were far better Christians after Pentecost than when Jesus was in their midst.
Even the daily influence of the sinless Christ, known after the flesh, could not free them from the carnal mind.
I. It came out in their dread of the Cross.—They hated the thought of it, they would not listen to the Saviour when He wished to speak about it; so Moses and Elijah came down from heaven to give the sympathy which those carnal disciples could not give.’ ‘They spake of the decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.’
II. It came out in their strange ignorance of spiritual truths.—‘I have meat to eat that ye know not of.’ They wondered who had given Him bread. ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ They thought it was because they had brought no loaves with them. ‘Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.’ They understood not the reference to one Sacrifice for sins, the antitype of the Passover Lamb.
III. And it came out in their narrow, mean, revengeful spirit.—They grudged their suffering Master the ointment that Mary so freely poured upon Him, ‘Rebuke him, Master,’ they cried, ‘for he followeth not with us,’ though he was doing a good work in the Master’s Name. ‘Send her away, for she crieth after us,’ of the poor heathen suppliant that sought deliverance for her devil-possessed daughter. ‘Shall we call down fire upon them from heaven?’ of some villagers of Samaria, whilst after Pentecost the same two men laid fatherly hands upon the believers in that district, the prototype of all our services for Confirmation or laying on of hands, and they received the Holy Ghost.
And the same change is wrought in every Christian who receives the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
—Rev. F. S. Webster.
Illustration
‘The expression, “I will send,” seems again to point to the equal procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son and the Father. In another place it is, “The Father will send.” Here, “I will send.” After all, no text throws more light on this deep verse than Psalms 68:18: “Thou hast ascended up on high, and received gifts for men; that the Lord God might dwell among them.” These words surely point out that the Holy Ghost’s dwelling among men was a gift purchased by the Son.’