The New Beginnings
On that last day, that great day of the feast of tabernacles, Jesus stood in the temple teaching. It was the autumnal feast, the feast of thanksgiving, and the high priest stood before the altar of sacrifice and poured out of a golden vessel water and wine, emblems of the blood and water soon to be poured forth from Jesus' side.
This was the last great feast in which Jesus took part and the last that was rightfully celebrated. At the next Passover feast, shadow turned to substance, type to reality, for the long expected Lamb of God was then to be sacrificed. This was the last year of feasts; the next year was to be a real fulfilment of the feasts: Passover, Pentecost, and ingathering.
With this new year, there was to be a new beginning, a new dispensation. The temple of our body was to become the holy of holies, the circumcision of the heart was to take the place of circumcision of the flesh, the substance the place of the type, the spiritual Sabbath of holiness the place of the ceremonial Sabbath, which was a type of holiness.
The first Sabbath, which had been broken off by sin and which was established by God at the completion of the work of creation, was to be restored to us in a new day which would be established by the Lamb of God at the completion of the work of redemption.
Probably while the priest was pouring out the wine and water at the altar of sacrifice, Jesus, whose blood was next to be poured out of the golden vessel of His immaculate body, said as He stood in the temple, ''If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, for the pouring out of my life will further result in the pouring out of the Holy [Spirit] upon all who are my disciples, and rivers of living water shall flow forth from them." Jesus announced at this closing scene of the old order of things the climax to which the new will rise, the baptism of the Holy [Spirit] for all believers.
The announcement of this great event was not accidental but of supreme importance.
The baptism of the Holy [Spirit] is the preparation for service, the Spirit's presence sealing the eradication of all sin. It is the essential baptism, the great fact of this dispensation. It is the culminating event in the inspired revelation of our redemption, the climax of all events in the spiritual history of the human race, the advent of the Third Person of the Trinity, the divine provision for the preservation and increase of the spirituality and numerical strength of the Christian Church, for walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy [Spirit], they were multiplied.
The dark ages were brought on because the Church sought to increase its effectiveness by being unequally yoked with the powers of this world; and spiritual darkness always follows such alliances. The baptism with the Holy [Spirit] makes a refreshing, pure, exhaustless, life-giving, irresistible steady flood of healing water to flow spontaneously from the believer’s heart and keep it clean.
Ben Valjean, The Nazarene Messenger, August 15, 1907
Used with permission from Nazarene Archives for devotions with Holiness Today.
Please note: This article was originally published in 1907. All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at that time but may have since changed.
