June 3, 2018 Robert T. Walker, "The Meaning of Pentecost, Christ, and the Spirit" https://tftorrance.org/firbush The audio recording for this presentation is available on the Firbush Retreat section of the website for the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship. The following AI transcript is too rough to rely upon, but perhaps useful for word searches and time-stamps. It is unretouched; if anyone wishes to listen to it and clean it up we will be happy to post an improved version (contact the webmasters). We invite speakers to send us slides for their talks, which we will post alongside the audios and transcripts. If any speaker wishes to have their talk removed from the website, just let us know and we'll take down both the audio and the transcript. ------------ 00:00-00:12 Sunday 3rd June 2018. The topic is the meaning of Pentecost, Christ and the Spirit. We have 00:12-00:26 read a few verses about the Spirit from John 6 and from John 7. Most of 1 Corinthians 2 00:26-00:39 and then Ephesians 4, 11-16. The meaning of Pentecost is Christ and the Spirit. It is 00:39-00:45 obviously an absolutely central topic and the sending of the Spirit is one of the great 00:45-00:53 events of Jesus' life. The Incarnation, the baptism, the death, the resurrection, the 00:53-00:59 sending of the Spirit, the coming again are all equally important. They are all part of 00:59-01:09 the whole package. First of all, it is important that anything that God does, He does as Father, 01:09-01:22 Son and Spirit and we can never separate the Trinity. God is one God and yet He is, we 01:22-01:29 don't know how obviously, but He is Father, Son and Spirit. These are human words but 01:29-01:41 they are words that have been given to us by God. It is very important that one of the 01:41-01:49 absolutely fundamental characteristics, if that is the right word, or features of God, 01:49-02:02 is that He is utterly faithful. We believe that He makes Himself known as He is. Obviously 02:02-02:11 we cannot know God as He is in Himself. We can only know God as He makes Himself known 02:11-02:20 to us on earth in history. We can only do that in terms of the way we think, human language 02:20-02:28 and human terms and using language that we have gained from physical creation. So how 02:28-02:41 do we know that the way He makes Himself known to us on earth is actually what He is in Himself? 02:41-02:47 We can only say that with assurity because we believe that we have come to know that 02:47-02:54 He is utterly faithful, He is true, true and true and He makes Himself known to us. So 02:54-03:05 He makes Himself known to us as Father, Son and Spirit or as Father, Word and Spirit. 03:05-03:12 That means that somehow He is these things in Himself. That means that the very structure 03:12-03:20 of God, again if we can use that language, is that all knowledge of God is through His 03:20-03:27 Word, through the Son. We cannot know the Father immediately and we cannot know the 03:27-03:36 Spirit immediately. It is the Word, the Son who is again struggling for words, is the 03:36-03:47 shape of God or the pattern of God but the only bit of God that we can possibly get hold 03:47-03:58 of with our minds. Again, not because we can but because God gives Himself to us. So Jesus 03:58-04:09 is the Son and by the Son I am sure that part of the reason why He calls the Son is that 04:09-04:16 children usually have some kind of image of their parents. But the way the Bible speaks 04:16-04:24 to us, God speaks to us through the Bible is that the Son is the image of the Father 04:24-04:30 in such a way that when we know the Son then we know the Father. That is the key to John's 04:30-04:43 Gospel. If you have known me you have known the Father. But again how can we as human 04:43-04:57 beings know God even if it becomes man as He did? The Word and Son became man and Word 04:57-05:07 functions in the same way. Christ's Word is the logic, the mind, the character of God, 05:07-05:15 the inner intelligibility of God, speaking God. When God speaks He speaks the Son. So 05:15-05:25 that to hear the Word is again to know the Father. But even if Christ comes to us and 05:25-05:46 becomes man, the significance of His becoming man is that He has become the man who knows 05:46-05:56 God. As God, as the eternal Son, He knows the Father and the Spirit in the union and 05:56-06:07 communion of God. When He becomes man then He is translating the knowledge He has as 06:07-06:18 God into human knowledge. So in His human mind He knows God. But obviously He has become 06:18-06:26 a baby like any of us and so He has to learn it little by little just as we are born as 06:26-06:34 tiny, tiny embryos and then grow in the womb and learn a lot in the womb and then are thrown 06:34-06:41 out into the world and the whole process of learning accelerates even more. But we grow 06:41-06:52 in wisdom and understanding. So He became man in order as man to know God and to know 06:52-07:03 God for us. But even so, there are lots of key things here. One is that it is only God 07:03-07:17 who can do this but He has to do it as man. So He doesn't use His power as God in order 07:17-07:28 to do what He is doing as man. He has to learn to do it as man. But how can He do it as man 07:28-07:35 if He has really just been man and not using His power as God? It is only through the Spirit 07:35-07:45 that He can do it. So everything that God does is Father, Son and Spirit. It is the 07:45-07:56 Father who sends the Son to make Father, Son and Spirit known. But the Son is born by the 07:56-08:07 power of the Spirit. It is the role of the Spirit. If Christ is coming to us from outside 08:07-08:19 us, meeting us face to face, then the Spirit is God in His ability to somehow get behind 08:19-08:34 us, inside us, but that can be misunderstood, but open us up in order that we know Christ 08:34-08:41 so that the Father, Son and Spirit are all involved in knowledge of God. 08:41-08:51 As men we are not meant to know this, but I am told that women have this magical ability 08:51-08:56 to get men to do things in such a way that the men think they have done it of their own 08:56-09:07 free will. We don't know this, but some women break ranks and they tell us. So we believe 09:07-09:13 that this is the case. So that the decisions that we think we have come to of our own free 09:13-09:24 will have actually been manipulated by the women. But the Spirit is different because 09:24-09:32 when the Spirit works in such a way that it genuinely is our decision, I mean men and 09:32-09:40 women's decision, it is not a manipulation. It is something that cannot be done except 09:40-09:47 through the Spirit, but the Spirit works in such a way that we come to see and we come 09:47-10:01 to know. So what Christ is doing, He is doing as man. It is utterly astonishing that God 10:01-10:09 has come to do it as man, to stand on His own feet and learn to trust God and love God 10:09-10:16 and to be real before God, but to do it through the power of the Spirit. Everything that Christ 10:16-10:23 has done, He has done through the Spirit. He has done it genuinely as man, but He has 10:23-10:32 done it through the Spirit. He was born through the Spirit. He learned the scriptures from 10:32-10:42 His parents' knees, came to understand it from them but through the Spirit. In Jordan 10:42-10:50 He was baptized with the Spirit for His work as Messiah. So everything that He did, He 10:50-11:06 did as man but through the power of the Spirit. So the Spirit is enabling what we were created 11:06-11:18 to be, is enabling that in the life of Jesus. So the whole life of Jesus is becoming human. 11:18-11:30 Because in one sense He becomes human when He is conceived. But you have to mature in 11:30-11:41 the womb, be born, grow up, eat food, learn everything and become an adult and die to 11:41-11:47 be full of human. You have to go through the whole human race. But the whole life of Christ 11:47-11:58 is one in which He is creating and developing and establishing in His human nature, which 11:58-12:06 is ours because He has taken our human nature, establishing in Himself in His own human nature. 12:06-12:14 So He is growing up as to know God. Obviously He knew God as God, as eternal God, but now 12:14-12:21 He has come to do it as man. The whole force of the temptations in the wilderness was to 12:21-12:30 ... Satan was trying to tempt Him to use His power as God to get out of being man. So when 12:30-12:35 He was hungry, if you are the Son of God, make these stones become bread. He is the 12:35-12:44 Son of God but He has come to be man. Part of being man was to suffer hunger when necessary. 12:44-12:52 It was not necessary to entrust that this would not mean death, that God could hold 12:52-13:04 them in being. Because ultimately it is God who holds us in being, it is not just food. 13:04-13:12 So He was tempted not to be man, but He has come to be man and to take on Himself all 13:12-13:21 our sins and even to take on Himself our God-forsakenness. "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" 13:21-13:31 But at the very same time, in and through all that, He is undoing the sin and establishing 13:31-13:42 in His human nature perfect love, righteousness, peace, joy, trust in God. So He is doing it 13:42-13:55 as man but through the Spirit. And on the cross He dies and that is the consequence 13:55-14:04 of human sin. It is cutting ourselves, it is trying to become God and no longer knowing 14:04-14:13 that we are creatures who live in entire dependence on God. We are real but our reality is that 14:13-14:24 we have been brought into reality out of nothing by God. So we have no inherent being in ourselves. 14:24-14:30 We depend on God for our being and when we think we can become God or establish our independence 14:30-14:38 then it is like pulling the plug out of a socket and we begin to wither and go down 14:38-14:49 into death. But Jesus becomes the man, the human being that we were meant to be. And 14:49-14:56 so that means going down into death. But at the same time He is undoing sin and death 14:56-15:07 even in hell and so He rises and in His resurrection He is the perfect, risen, joyful man. And 15:07-15:17 He sends it to heaven and then in Acts 2.33 you get those amazing words from Peter's great 15:17-15:30 sermon at Pentecost. Acts 2.33 "Being therefore exalted" well verse 32, it speaks about the 15:30-15:38 death of Christ that they had crucified and then verse 32 says "This Jesus God raised 15:38-15:46 up and of that we are all witnesses." And then verse 33 "Being therefore exalted at 15:46-15:53 the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit 15:53-16:00 He has poured out this which you see and hear." So Christ has been exalted in the ascension 16:00-16:05 at the right hand of God. At the right hand of God He has received the promise of this 16:05-16:15 Holy Spirit and therefore He has poured out the Spirit on us. Now He was born by the Spirit, 16:15-16:21 the Spirit came down and rested on Him. It is baptism, He did everything He did through 16:21-16:41 the power of the Spirit. John 3 says "He who God has sent utters the words of God for 16:41-16:48 it is not by measure that he gives the Spirit." So God has lavished the Spirit on the Son, 16:48-16:57 He has held nothing back. So Christ had the fullness of the Spirit for His work as Messiah 16:57-17:04 but now He has received the Spirit in heaven. That can only be because He has finished purifying 17:04-17:13 our humanity in Himself and in His risen humanity He now receives the Spirit for us. Therefore 17:13-17:21 He pours the Spirit out on us in order that everything that He has won through the Spirit 17:21-17:32 in Himself in His own individual humanity for us He can now pour out on us. So in Ephesians 17:32-17:41 Christ gives all these gifts and the purpose of all the gifts is to build us up in the 17:41-17:52 faith. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, etc. the work of ministry, building 17:52-17:57 up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge 17:57-18:03 of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of 18:03-18:15 Christ. All the gifts that Christ has given are ultimately so that we can come to the 18:15-18:24 same maturity of knowledge that He had and that He has and that He won for us in His 18:24-18:31 humanity. It is an utterly astonishing concept. This is written to ordinary members in the 18:31-18:43 Church and this is what we are all destined for. To share in Christ's actual risen knowledge 18:43-19:01 and the fruit of His risen life, His humanity. Romans 5, verse 5-10, "If while we were enemies 19:01-19:09 we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, how much more now that we are reconciled 19:09-19:19 shall we be saved by His life, i.e. by His risen life. It is His risen life in heaven 19:19-19:33 which is our risen new life." Again, John 6. It is Christ's love, the love, the righteousness, 19:33-19:41 the joy, the gentleness, peace, whatever, which He is and has won and built up in His 19:41-19:48 own humanity, which is now the life of our Christian life. It is the task of the Spirit 19:48-19:56 to share it with us so that the sending of the Spirit is the completion of the work of 19:56-20:05 Christ. He has completed everything in Himself, in His own humanity. No one else could ever 20:05-20:11 possibly have done that. Only God could have done it, but He had to do it as man and He 20:11-20:20 has done it in this one man. Now, through the Spirit, it is made available to all. It 20:20-20:34 is universalized and we cannot copy it. We can simply receive the life of Christ as a 20:34-20:42 gift and we find ourselves being able to live out the life of Christ. We can't copy it, 20:42-20:55 but through communion and living with Christ and hearing His word, we become like children 20:55-21:07 copy their parents. We pick up manners from our parents. That may not be the best image, 21:07-21:16 but it is some kind of pointer to how it works. Simply being in union with Christ and knowing 21:16-21:28 Him, we begin to reflect Him without trying to. Christ says, "Abide in my word." As we 21:28-21:40 abide in the vine, the life of the vine begins to be our life. The birth of the Church is 21:40-21:48 the birth of the Church, but it is a cosmic event. If the incarnation is God the Creator 21:48-21:56 becoming man, the creation is a cosmic event out of nothing. God should become man is an 21:56-22:15 even greater event. Pentecost is just as great in one way. The life that God is in Himself 22:15-22:26 is related to the joy of human life, what we were meant to be, and now being shared 22:26-22:34 with us. That is just scratching the surface, but let's pray. We pray, O God, that the 22:34-22:44 light and joy of the gospel, the meaning of Christ and the Spirit, may open us up into 22:44-22:52 more and more of the depths of what You have for us and what You have won for us in Christ. 22:52-22:53 In His name we pray, amen. 22:53-22:56 (moaning) 22:56-22:58 (clicking)