The Apostles before Pentecost

Let’s take our minds back to a night long ago in Jerusalem.  It was the night of the full moon, and in a little garden on the slope of the Mount of Olives called Gethsemane, though the moonlight streamed in, under the olive trees there were great patches of dark shadow.  There Jesus waited with his disciples.  Judas had been to the chief priests and was now on his way with an armed gang.

There were 11 disciples in the Garden.  They had shared their lives with Jesus for the last three years.  They had travelled around with him as he preached and healed sick people.  They had eaten together and laughed together.  And in that time, they had grown to love him.  Yet when the mob burst into the Garden to arrest him, they broke their promise to stand by him and instead, seized with fear and panic, they deserted him and bolted through the trees.

In other words the disciples all played the coward, and we mustn’t think that we should have done any better if we had been there.

The Apostles after Pentecost

Not long afterwards, however, they were very different men.  A few weeks after the Ascension of Jesus the chief priests told Peter and John that they must stop talking to the people about Jesus.  Did they stop?  Certainly not.  They went on all the more, so much so that the chief priests had them all up before the Jewish Council.  But the same Apostles, who had run for their lives in the Garden of Gethsemane from the servants of the chief priests, now told the chief priests themselves to their faces that they were not going to obey men who had murdered Jesus (Acts 5:28-30).

At this, they were all beaten.  “As they left the council they rejoiced…And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah” (NRSV, Acts 5:41,42).

Now, what is the explanation?  Well, we read that when Peter spoke to the Jewish rulers he was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (NRSV, Acts 4:8).  The Apostles had actually been different men ever since Pentecost when they were filled with heavenly power and received the Holy Spirit of God.  It was he who gave them their new courage to stand up for what they knew to be right.

St Paul before his Baptism

One day something worse happened.  A Christian called Stephen was stoned to death.  The man who held the outer clothes of those who threw the stones was called Saul and the same day he began hunting out all the Christians he could find, dragging them out of their homes, flinging them into prison and beating them.  He was full of anger and hate (Acts 8:3, 26:11; Galatians 1:13).

St Paul after his Baptism

A little later he changed his name and many churches are now called after him, including the great cathedral of London, St Paul’s.  We now call him Saint or holy Paul because he became one of the most saintly Christians who ever lived.  After travelling all over the Roman Empire teaching the Christian Faith, he was beheaded for doing so.

What made him change?  He saw a bright light and heard Jesus speaking to him on the road to the city of Damascus.  Three days later he was baptised, and so he too was filled with the Holy Spirit.  It was the Holy Spirit, whom he received at his Baptism, who made a different man of him (cf 1 Corinthians 15:9,10).

It was this sort of thing which made the Apostles realise that the Holy Spirit was God, because only God could make people holy as they had seen him do.

The Holy Spirit and ourselves

Now we too receive the Holy Spirit at our Baptism, and in all his fullness at our Confirmation; and, if we want him to, he can help us to become like the saints and to live one day with God in Heaven.  It’s important to understand that the saints did not start as saints but as ordinary or even bad people.  He can help us to overcome temptation.  He can help us to stand up for what we know to be right, even if it means being laughed at, instead of weakly agreeing with the others as we often do.

The Trinity

So the Apostles discovered that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; yet they knew that there is only one God.  Thus St Paul wrote, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (Jerusalem Bible, 2 Corinthians 13:13).  But he still said the Shema twice a day, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4).  And we often say, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost”, and also “I believe in one God”.

You will see that the Apostles’ Creed is divided up into three parts.  The Catechism in the Prayer Book tells us what we chiefly learn from these parts. 

“First, I learn to believe in God the Father, who hath made me, and all the world.

“Secondly, in God the Son, who hath redeemed (saved) me, and all mankind.

“Thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me (makes me holy), and all the elect (chosen) people of God” (1).

SUMMARY

1. The Apostles were cowards on Good Friday but very brave after the Holy Spirit came to them at Pentecost (Whitsunday).

2. Paul began by being a very bad person, but after he received the Holy Spirit at his Baptism he became a saint.

3. We too received the Holy Spirit at our Baptism and by his help we can become saintly.

4. So the Apostles learnt that the Holy Spirit, as well as the Father and the Son, is God, but they still knew that there is only ONE God.

Reference

1. Church of England (1662) The Book of Common Prayer.  A Catechism.  Available from: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/bcp/texts/catechism.html  (Accessed 17 November 2010) (Internet).