PENTECOST AT CHRISTMAS

In Rome, Caesar Augustus casually scrawled his signature on a census document that would disrupt the lives of millions of his subjects across the empire. In Nazareth, a humble carpenter and his pregnant wife left home to register in the place of their ancestral roots—80 miles away. In the midnight blue of an eastern sky, a star of astonishing brilliance flashed a message that triggered the wise men’s expedition in search of a royal baby.

Over Bethlehem, a cascade of singing angels poured from heaven in a display of sound and light that propelled a group of frightened shepherds in a search for the Saviour of the world. In Jerusalem, a puppet king, half-Jew, half-Arab, listened with mounting alarm to ancient prophecies telling of a coming trueborn son of David, and brooded over a plan to exterminate him.

This complex pattern of Roman politics, Jewish history, intimate personal experience and divine purpose made Bethlehem the epicentre of an event which would shake the foundations of human history and transform the moral and spiritual landscape of the world.

However, beyond this fascinating interplay of human actions and divine purposes lay the hidden but dynamic work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, without him there would have been no Christmas story, no incarnation, no cross, no resurrection, no ascended, reigning Lord, no coming King, no Gospel, and no church to preach it! Guardedly and reverently, we may say that the whole plan of redemption depended on the Holy Spirit.

Behind the drama of the first Christmas, the Spirit worked mysteriously and creatively in the body of a village girl (Luke 1:35 compare Matthew 1:20–21), and in the life of her aged cousin, Elizabeth, giving her a son when all hope had gone forever. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah were “filled with the Spirit” and broke out into prophecy, and Mary sang an inspired worship song (Luke 1:41-55, 67-79).

Meanwhile, the Spirit was upon the aged Simeon, granting him special revelation about the Messiah’s birth, and leading him into the temple at the precise moment when Jesus was presented before God. He, too, was enabled to prophesy under the Spirit’s anointing (Luke 2:25-35), and the 84 year-old widow Anna, the prophetess, was enabled to “give thanks to God and speak of him (Jesus) to all who were waiting for redemption” (Luke 2:36–38).

God’s secret agent was at work beneath and within and beyond the world of political power-seeking, social upheaval and religious confusion He brought about supernatural happenings in individual human lives in terms of creation, inspiration, revelation, and direction. This was world-changing “Pentecost” at Christmas!

The journey of the Magi is a reminder to us that neither wealth nor wisdom need necessarily stop God from working in us. Zechariah and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary, Simeon and Anna remind us that “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him” in humble openness to the Spirit, faith, and sincerity of heart.

Within the complexity of the modern world, we need to understand that only the Holy Spirit can bring about the purposes of God, and that he does so in the lives of ordinary people who are willing to say with Mary, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants ” (Luke 1:38 NLT). Or, as we used to sing, “Here l am, wholly available!”

Excerpted from Reflections: Looking at Timeless Truths in a Changing World, with permission, copyright © John Lancaster 2010

As I and my family celebrate the birth of Christ this year, I will take a break from posting further blogs to this site until about mid-January. We will meet again then. In the meantime, we wish you a renewed joy of this Christmas season.