Alastair's Adversaria - Q&A: What Changes at Pentecost?

Episode Date: May 23, 2026

I am answering questions that my supporters have left for me on my Discord group. This one concerns the differences between the work of the Spirit in the old covenant and after Pentecost in the new. Follow my Substack, the Anchored Argosy at https://argosy.substack.com/. See my latest podcasts at https://adversariapodcast.com/. If you have enjoyed my videos and podcasts, please tell your friends. If you are interested in supporting my videos and podcasts and my research more generally, please consider supporting my work on Patreon (www.patreon.com/zugzwanged), using my PayPal account (https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=4WX77P4F8S7WL), or by buying books for my research on Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/3…3O?ref_=wl_share). You can also listen to the audio of these episodes on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/alastairs-adversaria/id1416351035.

I have recently restarted answering questions that have been asked by my supporters. This is one concerning Pentecost, which seems quite fitting for this particular season. The question reads, I don't know the best way to ask this, but how did the Holy Spirit work in the faithful before Pentecost, particularly individually? Was it merely occasional and exceptional, in contrast to more expected and permanent in the new? Others have asked similar questions along the same line about the work of the Holycast. Holy Spirit in the Old Covenant relative to the new. What does the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost change? In John's Gospel, for instance, Jesus talks to Nicodemus and tells him, you must be born again.

In the context, this new birth is clearly a new birth of the spirit. Later on in the gospel, Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman, but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship. him. Chapter 4, verse 23. And then later on in chapter 7, verses 37 to 39, on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this, he said about the spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. For as yet the spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glibly.

glorified. Such statements and others like them suggest that the gift of the spirit represents something genuinely new, a change in the way that God deals with humanity. And yet in the Old Testament, God is still clearly working in people's hearts. We hear about the work of the spirit, for instance, in events of salvation as the spirit comes upon people and anoints them for some mission. The spirit also animates the prophets so that they speak with divine authority and truth. The glory spirit of God is also present in the midst of his people. We might think about the glory in the tabernacle or the temple. So what changes?

Here are a few thoughts on the things that the New Testament connects with the gift of the spirit at Pentecost. First of all, the gift of the spirit is connected with the writing of the law of God upon the heart. The gift of the spirit happens at Pentecost, which is the feast connected with the gift of the law. And there's a parallel between the two, just as Moses ascended Mount Sinai and received the law from God and then delivered it to the people. So Christ ascends into heaven, receives the spirit and gives it to his people. The story of the gift of the spirit connects with the story of the ascension. Christ's ascension is the church's Pentecost. Just as Elijah's ascension is Elisha's receipt of the spirit of Elijah.

While there are examples in the Old Testament of people having the law of God written in their heart, Psalm 40 talks about this, for instance, the promise of the new covenant is a more general promise that God will write his law within the heart of his people. This promise should be primarily connected with Christ. Christ is the one whose true, full obedience lies at the heart of the people of God, and it's out of his full obedience by the gift of the spirit that other people are equipped to obey. The gift of the spirit is the gift of the spirit of Christ, a principle of new life and obedience that flows from Christ and animates those who are his people. The gift of the spirit of Christ and the principle of life that he gives contrasts with the old covenant, where disobedience and rebellion were the dominating realities. And in the new covenant, the dominant reality is Christ's faithfulness

at the heart of all and the gift of his spirit by which others are equipped to be faithful. The gift of the spirit is intimately connected to the gift of Christ. Christ is the man of the spirit. He's the one who has the spirit without measure in the book of John. Receiving the spirit is receiving Christ and his presence. Of course, this is not something that Old Covenant believers received in the same way. The spirit is described as bringing to remembrance the words of Christ, bearing witness to Christ, guiding his people in the same way. The Spirit is described as bringing to into truth and giving illumination and enlightenment. In all of these ways, the Spirit is connected to Christ. The Spirit also gives us Christ's anointing. The Spirit is Christ's anointing. As the people of God

are sent out on their mission, they receive the anointing of God for it. This empowers and authorizes them, giving them the authority to act in Christ's name, guidance for the mission, and effectiveness to the words that they speak. The one gift of the Spirit is also represented, in the manifold gifts of the Spirit. In each one of these gifts, we see something of the unity of the gift that belongs to the whole body. In the gifts of the Spirit, we recognize each other as brothers and sisters and members of the one body, and the body is also built up through these many different gifts and brought into a full of possession of the one gift that is its common gift. All of this gives unity to the body of Christ, unity in the one spirit and Lord,

but also unity with each other within that unity. We have the communion of the Holy Spirit that brings us together as we minister to and for each other. The gift of the Spirit is received not just directly from God, but in ways that are ministered by others within the body of Christ. The gift of the Spirit is also especially connected in Old and New Testament with the gift of prophecy. This is the promise that's connected with Pentecost.

Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. This prophecy represents an empowered speaking of God to specific situations and circumstances, and this is a feature of the Day of Pentecost, but also flowing out from that the life of the church more generally. We can think about the Day of Pentecost, according to the paradigm of Old Testament anointings of prophets. As they are initiated for their task, they are equipped to speak with divine authority. God touches the lips of the prophet in the case of Jeremiah, or touches. the lips of Isaiah with the coal taken from the altar, or giving the Word of God in the form of the scroll that Ezekiel has to eat so that the Word dwells within him. The Word of God has

been placed within His people in a new way by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Not all of us will prophesy in any remarkable way, but God's Word is dwelling within us in a new way, not just in the law as a new principle of life written upon our hearts, but in the law of God upon our lips, flaming tongues that can bear forth God's speech. We can think also about the way that the gift of the spirit is the inauguration of a new temple. God dwells in his people by his spirit. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, corporately as the body of Christ and also individually, each one of us, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We might connect this with the story of Exodus chapter 40 as God's glory descended upon the tabernacle, or the story of First King's

chapter 8 when in the dedication of the temple God's glory filled it. We are to be filled with the glory of Christ, set apart as special realms for his dwelling by his spirit. And this forms a new body, a new realm of worship. It gives us the divine presence as Christ dwells in us by his spirit. All of these things are things that Christ speaks about in the context of the upper room discourse in John. Jesus' departure from his disciples, his ascension, enables a new form of presence with them and in them, a form that's more glorious and more extensive than the sort of presence that he had during his earthly ministry. The gift of the Spirit is also assurance of sonship. It gives us a knowledge of our adoption by God, that we are united to Christ, and we enjoy the privileges of

sonship and access in Him. We are no longer, as the people of God were under the old under guardians and stewards awaiting the time of our majority, we have entered into the full status of sons and the full inheritance by the gift of the Spirit. This is of course also a guarantee of our future redemption, the first fruits of new creation. The Spirit gives holiness and sanctification, setting us apart as a people that is dedicated to the Lord and renewing our lives so that we live in accordance with that reality. The Spirit gives us joy, a joy that gives us strength amidst trials and suffering. The Spirit is also one that brings a change in our worship and prayer.

We worship in the Spirit. There's now a new form of worship that's animated by the Spirit of God, a new access to God in prayer that exceeds that which was enjoyed in the Old Covenant. The gift of the Spirit at Pentecost plays out against the backdrop of the story of Babel, the division of the nations as a result of God's judgment. Now we are brought together by this spirit. This gift is the means by which we are all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free,

and we're all united in sharing in and participating in the life of the spirit. At the very heart of the new covenant is the gift of Christ, and it's by the spirit that Christ's presence, authority, form of life, and sonship is communicated to us. Jesus is the man of the spirit, and the gift of the spirit is the gift of Christ and connection to him through which all these other gifts come. In the Old Covenant, people had God's presence in the temple or the tabernacle in their midst as a people. They had various forms of God's work within their hearts.

They had the gift of revelation in the law that was written down and also in the words of the prophets. They had leaders, anointed by the Spirit, for special missions. On occasions also God's spirit guided them for various purposes. And yet in the new covenant we receive all of these things in much greater measure. God's presence is enjoyed in a more intimate fashion. Christ's authority is given to us, his sonship is given to us, a blessing that far exceeds those which were enjoyed in the old covenant. The Word of God goes out with a new authority as a result of Pentecost.

That's what the Book of Acts describes, going into all the world, bringing people together and uniting them in a new body. As we read the Book of Acts, we can see that many of the people who were brought into the church were genuine God-fearers like Cornelius or people who were faithful Jews. These were not people who had no experience of God's work within their community and in their lives.

Yet something had changed, and the importance of this change is found primarily in the gift of Christ. Christ is that which is new at the very heart of the new covenant and out of Christ as the man of the spirit and the gift of his spirit to his people, everything else flows. This is the promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that John the Baptist speaks of. It's also the promise of being born again. There's going to be a resurrection experience for the whole nation.

This is not just individuals coming to new spiritual restoration. This is an event that happens to the whole people of God. You must be born again is you, plural. not just use singular. Individuals, of course, participate in this. They have a new level of access to God, no longer through the intermediation of priests and other figures, but an enjoyment of God's presence and of His word that's more intimately and directly experienced by each individual within the body of Christ. Individuals are also more directly made participants in the mission of God, as they both share in the anointing of the Spirit and are gifted for that mission.

of this is in continuity with what has gone beforehand. There are various anticipations of the gift of the spirit at Pentecost in the Old Covenant and ways in which it is foretold in prophecy and elsewhere. There are ways in which the gifts that are associated with the Spirit are enjoyed by people in the Old Covenant. You can think about the description of the law written upon the heart of various figures or the prophets who bear the Word of God with authority and spirit anointed lips. And yet, in the new covenant, this is more widely shared, it's fulfilled in its most glorious and complete form in Christ at the heart of the covenant, and there is a level at which it is enjoyed, which far exceeds that which even the greatest prophets of the Old Testament enjoyed.

Christ is greater than Moses. Christ is wiser than Solomon. Christ is the one who has authority without measure, the spirit without measure. And so as a result, the new country, the new is genuinely new. The Spirit of the Lord gives us freedom, power, authority and newness of life. And as a result, we can truly celebrate Pentecost. If you would like to support my work here and elsewhere, you can do so using the Patreon or PayPal links below. If you support my work in this way, you can also ask to be added to my Discord group, where you can discuss things with others and perhaps have questions answered in a video like this. bless and thank you for listening.