Pentecost – the start of a new era

God seeks com­mu­ni­on with peo­p­le with all the fibres of his being. In the Gar­den of Eden a line beg­ins that leads through the taber­na­cle, the temp­le, the incar­na­ti­on of Jesus, the body of an indi­vi­du­al belie­ver to the church. At Pen­te­cost, the fol­lo­wers of Jesus beco­me temp­les of the Holy Spi­rit. This is a huge pri­vi­le­ge and at the same time comes with the respon­si­bi­li­ty to extend the pre­sence of God to the who­le earth.

What bet­ter thing could hap­pen to us than to wit­ness live Jesus heal­ing peo­p­le, cas­ting out demons and trai­ning his fri­ends? It would be an abso­lu­te blast! It seems some­what dis­tur­bing when Jesus says to the very peo­p­le who had this pri­vi­le­ge: «[…] It is best for you that I lea­ve […].»(John 16:7 NLB). Why should this be the best? Becau­se a new era of com­mu­ni­on with God is being ushe­red in!

God wants community

God seeks com­mu­ni­on with peo­p­le with all the fibres of his being. We encoun­ter the fol­lo­wing sta­ti­ons in the cour­se of the story:

• In the Gar­den of Eden, God cul­ti­va­ted an inten­se rela­ti­onship with Adam and Eve. The holy God wal­ked (Hebr. mit­hal­lek) with the peo­p­le in the gar­den. Alt­hough peo­p­le could no lon­ger live in God’s pre­sence due to rebel­li­on against God, God in His grace lon­ged for fel­low­ship with man.
• Thus, on God’s ins­truc­tion to Moses, the «Tent of Mee­ting» later came into being. God’s glo­ry fil­led the Holy of Holies and the Crea­tor lived again with his spe­cial pre­sence among his peo­p­le. In Hebrew, the term for this pre­sence of God is mit­hal­lek.
• Later, Solo­mon built the temp­le in Jeru­sa­lem ins­tead of the mobi­le tent, in which God dwells with the people.
• Thereu­pon Jesus, as the per­so­ni­fied temp­le, beco­mes the place of encoun­ter with God (Matthew 12:6–7; Mark 14:58). HE is the pro­mi­sed temp­le that God Hims­elf built and will endu­re fore­ver (2 Samu­el 7).
• At Pen­te­cost, the temp­le now expands to include indi­vi­du­al belie­vers and the church. The goal is that God’s spe­cial pre­sence will be spread throug­hout crea­ti­on. This goal will be achie­ved when Jesus returns and estab­lishes the new crea­ti­on. Until then, part of the cal­ling of a fol­lower of Jesus Christ is to pro­mo­te the pre­sence of God.

It beco­mes clear: God wants to walk around in clo­se com­mu­ni­on with peo­p­le with all the fibres of his being.

Becoming the Temple of the Holy Spirit

«It is best for you that I go away, for if I do not go, the Coun­sell­or will not come. But if I go away, he will come, for I will send him to you.»(John 16:7 NLB). The coun­sell­or is the Spi­rit of God. The temp­le as a place whe­re God’s pre­sence is pre­sent is no lon­ger limi­t­ed to a buil­ding, but expands to the church. «For we are the temp­le of the living God, as God has said: I will be in their midst and live among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my peo­p­le. […] I will be your Father, and you shall be my sons and daugh­ters, says the Lord Almigh­ty.» (2 Corin­thi­ans 6:16–18 NLB).

In terms of the histo­ry of sal­va­ti­on, we are living today in an extre­me­ly exci­ting and final pha­se of God’s fel­low­ship with huma­ni­ty.. The Church is the escha­to­lo­gi­cal temp­le becau­se God dwells in it in the form of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus beca­me the cor­ner­stone and key­stone of this temp­le through his death on the cross (Ephe­si­ans 2:20; 1 Peter 2:5), through which the church can beco­me a temp­le. HE forms the secu­re foun­da­ti­on and clo­ses it at the same time. This means that a per­son can only beco­me part of the temp­le through faith in Jesus Christ and thus gain free access to the encoun­ter with the very Other.

Paul also says in a let­ter to the Corin­thi­ans that each fol­lower of Jesus is indi­vi­du­al­ly a temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit. «Or do you not know that your body is a temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to your­sel­ves, for God has paid a high pri­ce for you»(1 Corin­thi­ans 6:19 NLB). Thus, every per­son who puts his trust in Jesus Christ is both a temp­le and a living stone in the buil­ding of the temple.

Thus Pen­te­cost beco­mes an epo­chal and gre­at mile­stone in God’s histo­ry with huma­ni­ty. Sin­ce that day, peo­p­le who belie­ve in Jesus no lon­ger live «only» with Jesus, but Christ lives in them in the form of the Holy Spi­rit. This is inde­ed much bet­ter and abo­ve all pro­mi­sing for the future.

Become a blessing

The Pope tra­vels anony­mously to Venice and falls out of a gon­do­la the­re. The water is not deep, but the Pope keeps sin­king. Then a gon­do­lier comes by and asks: «Can I help you?» The Pope says: «No, the Holy Spi­rit will help me.«The Pope sinks fur­ther and fur­ther, he is alre­a­dy up to his neck in water, when the gon­do­lier comes by again and asks: «Can I help you?» The Pope ans­wers again: «No, the Holy Spi­rit will help me.» Now when the Pope is drow­ned and stands in hea­ven befo­re the Holy Spi­rit, he says to Him: «When you’­re nee­ded, you’­re never the­re!«To which the Holy Spi­rit repli­es: «Well, who do you think has been rowing back and forth in front of you all this time?»

When you tra­vel with Jesus, you are like the gon­do­lier. The Holy Spi­rit accom­pa­nies and empowers you. He gui­des you in situa­tions and is your resour­ce to help. As temp­les of the Holy Spi­rit, we are cal­led to increase the pre­sence of God in this world – tog­e­ther as a church, but also indi­vi­du­al­ly in your envi­ron­ment..

Eze­kiel saw in a visi­on a stream of water flowing from the Holy of Holies of the Temp­le through the land to the Dead Sea. «Ever­y­thing that stirs and moves whe­re the water comes will live. The­re will be a gre­at many fish, becau­se this water comes the­re and makes the salt water healt­hy. Whe­re this water will flow, the­re ever­y­thing will live»(Eze­kiel 47:9 NLB). Heal­ing, life-giving water! Sin­ce Pen­te­cost, when a per­son beco­mes a temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit, he also beco­mes a tank full of living water: «Whoe­ver belie­ves in me, from within him will flow rivers of living water […] By the «living water» he meant the Spi­rit, which was to be given to ever­yo­ne who belie­ved in him.»(John 7:38f NLB).

The task of the­se water tanks or temp­les is now to car­ry the living water to places whe­re the­re is other­wi­se no life. No one has to pro­du­ce this water them­sel­ves, but it accu­mu­la­tes in us in the rela­tio­nal event with God. May­be that’s the crux of the mat­ter: the rela­ti­onship with the other per­son is lan­gu­is­hing at a low level. The dis­trac­tions of ever­y­day life stif­le com­mu­ni­on with God. Pen­te­cost wants to fuel and irri­ga­te this relationship.

This fills the inner water tank so that the­re is enough water for all are­as of life:

• Owner­shipPer­haps your approach to time, food, sexua­li­ty or other things has lost much of its vita­li­ty. The only effec­ti­ve reme­dy is the water from the Bles­sed Sacra­ment. It is through tou­ch­ing the Holy One that we beco­me holy.
• The fami­lyDif­fe­rent peo­p­le live in dif­fe­rent fami­ly con­stel­la­ti­ons. The­re are sin­gles, divorced, mar­ried, wido­wed, fami­lies with and wit­hout child­ren. The­re are joys and sor­rows ever­y­whe­re. Irri­ga­te your situa­ti­on with living water and you will expe­ri­ence com­fort and renewal.
• The ChurchYou are also a buil­ding block of the temp­le built tog­e­ther as a church. Your life has an impact on the com­mu­ni­ty. How do you rela­te to your church? Are you a streng­thening ele­ment or mere­ly a con­su­mer? Through your buil­ding block, the com­mon temp­le is built and the pre­sence of God is strengthened.
• The workYour job gives you the chan­ce to irri­ga­te a place whe­re per­haps the living water only has access through you. But it has the power to prepa­re the Dead Sea as a habi­tat for many dif­fe­rent fish. Becau­se you are a temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit, you have much to give. Do not hold it back!
• Public lifeDo you know the peo­p­le in your neigh­bour­hood? Through you, or through the living water in you, life can ari­se whe­re at the moment the­re is a was­te­land. All it takes is for us to par­ti­ci­pa­te in the public life of our vil­la­ges and take an inte­rest in our neighbours.

What exact­ly is our task in the situa­tions descri­bed? Ans­wer: by going, expo­se peo­p­le to the work of God’s Spi­rit. The Holy Spi­rit com­forts, encou­ra­ges, admo­nis­hes, shakes up, coun­sels and accom­pa­nies. He wants to do exact­ly the­se edi­fy­ing acti­vi­ties through you and me.

In anci­ent Isra­el, all Israe­li­tes made a pil­grimage to Jeru­sa­lem to the Temp­le at the three gre­at fes­ti­vals. The peo­p­le had to make their way to the sanc­tua­ry. The temp­le was not mobi­le. This has chan­ged com­ple­te­ly through Pen­te­cost. Now the sanc­tua­ry of God on earth con­sists of many mobi­le temp­les with the task of going to the peo­p­le. Our water tanks do not include high-pres­su­re spray­ers to dis­pen­se water from a distance. Pen­te­cost fills you with living water and empowers you to crea­te life in une­co­no­mic are­as. If you live with Jesus Christ and fol­low Him, you are a temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit. What a privilege!

Possible questions for the small group 

Read the Bible text: Acts 1:8 and 2:1–13

1. God seeks com­mu­ni­on with peo­p­le with every fib­re. How does the red line run through world history?
2. Pen­te­cost makes the belie­ving per­son a temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit. What does this mean for the human being himself?
3. What pri­vi­le­ges and respon­si­bi­li­ties does this new iden­ti­ty entail?
4. Whe­re in your envi­ron­ment (per­so­nal respon­si­bi­li­ty, fami­ly, church, work, public life) do you see a was­te­land? Do you real­ly belie­ve that you could pour living water into the­se situa­tions? How does that work practically?