The Holy Spirit – before and after Pentecost
J.I. Packer writes:-
‘Prior to Pentecost…the Spirit sustained creation and natural life, renewed hearts, gave spiritual understanding, and bestowed gifts for service both in leadership and in other ways, and all this he still does. The difference since Pentecost is that all his present ministry to Christian believers relates not to Christ who was to come, as was the case when he ministered to Old Testament sains (see, for hints of this, John 8:56-59; 1 Corinthians 10:4; Hebrews 11:26; 1 Peter 1:10); nor as it did when Simeon and Anna recognised him (Luke 2:25-38), and during his three years of public ministry; it relates now to Christ who has come and has died and risen and now reigns in glory. It is primarily in these terms that the newness of God’s new era, so far as the Spirit is concerned, ought to be defined, just as it is primarily in terms of fellowship with this Christ that the newness of life which Christians have enjoyed since Pentecost ought to be explained.’
Keep In Step With The Spirit, 90