The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-01-04
The Promise Of Power FULFILLED
Acts III. l-21.

" SoA. 1oVG.-oy JOuu ". Wu1IA0y.-
Copyright, 1902.
The Promise Of Power Fulfilled
Acts II. l-21.
Golden Textile promise is unto you, and
to your children. Acts H., 49,.
IN The Gospels wethave an account Of the
eei n and and the work, of Jesus Christ, the :,
We, we have an an account of the birth, and the
work OF Christ's church. When he finished
ms NJ IS, work for the church. he returned to the
father, When the church began its work for
from the father. Thus while God, the Son,
pleads for man in heaven, God, the holy
shost, pleads with man on the earth.
Doubtless in individual cases, and for spe-
clal purposes, the holy ghost had been vouch--
safed to men many times before his descent
on this. day of Pentecost'' to which our at
nng 1t is recorded that God said to Noah
NY spirit shall not always strive with man. =
Gen, vi, 80 All of these Instances, how
porary cases.
In like manner. God, the Son, in individual
cases; ana Tor temporary purposes-as me
appeared to men before he came to dwell on
the earth as Jesus Of Nazarth. But it was
not until his incarnation, that he became
contact And SO, it was not until his DAY
OF Fentecost was fully come" that God the
Holy Ghost descended in the fulness and free
His descent thus inaugurated the third
grand epoch of history. In the first, God, the
father, as the creator, walked with sinless
man man In the second, God, the son. as the re re.
deemer, walked with sinful man. And in the
third, God, the Holy Ghost, as the comforter
and sanctiier, walks with redeemed man.
we may. therefore, very appropriately speak
of the first, and the second and the third,
person Of the Godhead as referring to the or
der In which each manifested himself to
men, but never as indicating any inferiority
n NIB hot
there are three that bear record in heaven,
the father, the word and the Holy Ghost, and
these three are one Il. John, ". ~ Yet
heaven as three persons, but he has re-
vealed himself to men on the earth as three.
according to the method and the purpose OF
When God, as the creator, walked upon the
earth, man rebelled against him. But man
was not cast off because of his rebellion. His
father sought him and called him and prom
ised him that when the fulness Of the time
was come" he would send forth his son,
made Of woman, made under the law, to
redeem them that were under the law. (Gal
w., 40 For he assured Adam that the seed
of the woman should bruise the serpent's
head. Gen. lii, 15D
again, man rejected him. But even then he
was not cast off. On the contrary, his re-
Sdeemer himself said: 81 will pray the father
and he shall give you another comforter that
he may abide with you forever (John xiv,
16) and "when he-the spirit of truths come,
he will guide you into all TRUTH he shall
gory me- for he shall refeye of mae and
Now, however, when God comes aga1n-to
guide into all truth-as man rebelled against
the FatherLand rejected the sonIso ne ne! can "a
er shall he go? And to whom shall he turn !?
For there is no promise Of any one to come
after him. ..I..
But in these three epochs what riches Of
grace have been revealed. When sinless man
became sinner, still God so loved the world
that he gave his only hegotten son, that who
but have everlasting life" John. iii; 16).
actually comes again among sinful men to
Of his redemption. even assuring them that
he is far more willing "to give the holy
spirit to them that ask him" than earthly
parents pare are Ito give good gftz to TIER e
dom devise or infinite love exhibit more
Astounding grace than this. No wonder that
our Lord. himself, solemnly and sadly said
son of man. it shall be forgiven him; but
unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy
Ghost it shall not be forgiven" Guke, xiii.
ended, the door, Of hope is closed.
AS We saw last week the descent of God,
the Holy Ghost, was dependent upon the
his crucifxion, Jesus had said to his wonder
ing disciples, 1T is expedient for you that
INgo away, for if I go not away. the com
part, ! will send him unto you" Cohn,
xvi, y. Still later, some time during the
forty days after his resurrection and prob
ably near their close. he had Commanded
them that they should not depart from Je-
rusalem, but wait for the promise of the
father, which, saith he, We have heard Of
ghost. not many days hence And then a
little later he added: "Ye shall receive power
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you !;
and We shall be witnesses unto me, both in
n al n Ga ario
and unto the uttermost parts of the earth -
d., $50
instead of returning to their homes with the
great multitude which had come to attend
the feast, they remained in Jerusalem. To
them that joyous feast of deliverance had
funeral of all their hopes, for they had seen
their Lord and Master-their dearest friend
and teacher-die upon the cross.
When he rose from the dead three days
later, and again appeared before them q
living man, they were still more astonished
but no more enlightened. They neither un:
any better than before his crucifxion. So the
! days passed on until the fifty days" required
by the law to usher in the JOY Of Pentecost
were :, completed OF During forty Of those
| them just as he had done before, but the only
idea his appearance awakened was he would
now stay with them, and all difficulties in
| the way of setting up the kingdom for which
| they looked being overcome, that he would
now surely ''restore again the kingdom tc
! Israel" d:6) But they saw nothing clearly
and remembered nothing distinctly. Then he
was taken from them, and they had nothing
to lean upon but the angels promise GILL
! and his own command Q:4).
| When he directed them to 'ttarry in in the
| city of Jerusalem until they should ''be
endued with power from on high" duke
xiv, 49, they evidently had no idea as tc
how long they were to wait. But every day
! they met for prayer, expecting each day thai
| the promise might then be fulfilled, and
| they be "endued with" the power con.
| nected with its fulhllnent. But it could not
| come upon them until 1.-The day of Pentecos
was fully come,'' for there was peculiar an6
important significance in its coming on thai
day.
| That feast was the second Of the great
| annual festivals on the Jewish calendar. 1t
was a feast Of Thanksgiving because Of the
ingathering Of the first or spring harvest OF
| the year, just as 'sThe Feast of the Taber-
! nacles was the joyous celebration of the
final and completed harvest in the fall 1t
: was called 1.-THE Feast of Pentecost," or
''The Feast Of Weeks" because it occurred
just about week Of weeks after "The Pass
! over the Greek word, "Penecoste," meaning
literally, ''the fftieth." (Cruden.) The
count, however, did not begin with ''The
Passover" but with the day after the fol-
lowing Sabbath. On that day the harvest be-
gan and the law said ''Then shall ye bring
sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto
the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before