The Coming of the Holy Spirit: Why Jesus sent his Spirit into the world

by Phillip D. Jensen

When we seek to understand the person and work of God’s Spirit, we are often so concerned with personal theories or current controversies that we fail to listen carefully to what God himself teaches in the Scriptures.

The Coming of the Holy Spirit begins with the very centre of what the Bible teaches about the Spirit: Jesus will fulfil the Old Testament prophecies and pour out the Holy Spirit on his people. The book explores the five promises of Jesus about the Spirit in John 14-17 and then traces the fulfilment of those promises through the rest of the New Testament—in the Pentecostal outpouring of Acts 2, the progress of the Holy Spirit’s world mission throughout Acts, and the ongoing work of the Spirit in initiating, continuing and completing the Christian life in all its dimensions (personal and corporate).

In this important and unique work, Phillip Jensen draws on a lifetime of biblical exegesis and preaching to unfold not only the depth and richness of the Bible’s teaching about the Spirit, but its centre and emphasis. Having done this important work, he then goes on to deal with many of the secondary issues that have often dominated our discussion of the Spirit.

This is a groundbreaking book of immense importance because it follows the Bible’s own emphasis in teaching about the Spirit, and in doing so teaches us to know the true and living God, who is the Spirit.

Genres: Christian, Theology

484 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2022

About the author

Phillip Jensen is an Australian cleric of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and the Dean of St Andrew's Cathedral. He is the brother of Peter Jensen, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney.

Reviews

[Nicholas]

A very clear and biblical book on the Holy Spirit, which allows God's word to drive the explanation on the 3rd person of the Trinity and all that was promised, and is now being accomplished, in him. A key takeaway was that an understanding of the work of Jesus and the Spirit is inseparable, and that the Spirit continues Jesus' work in the world after his death and resurrection. Appendices on a range (34!) of topics are helpfully located in the back to not distract from the main arguments, yet address key and prevalent issues in contemporary discussion on the Spirit and the meaning of 'spirituality'. An examination of 1 Corinthians 12-14, which occurs late in the text, is discerning and helpful in clarifying what the key issues are and how relevant the discussion is for us today. Would recommend this rigorous, yet readable, book for anyone who seeks clarity on the Holy Spirit

[Ben Cook]

The appendices were very helpful for answering questions that we as evangelicals struggle with; eg. Tongues, prophecy, cessationism, healings etc.

[Jeff Ke]

"We should look for the Spirit where we are told he will operate."

First of all, I am a fraud. I have not completed this book in its entirety - leaving the 164 page Appendices with 34 different topics for a rainy day. Second of all, I took a long time to read this book so there is a lot of detail that I have probably forgotten already.

But, third of all, what I have really grown to appreciate about this book over the last few months is that, even though Phillip does a deep dive into many different things the Holy Spirit does, his central message was quite clear. The role of the Holy Spirit is to point people to Jesus and to build up God's church for the sake of unity in Christ. Having this big picture has been really helpful when the book goes through so many different concepts otherwise. It's also been really helpful for me to be challenged about some of my own preconceived notions; I found myself finding the main role of the Spirit to be quite "unsexy"...but the more I reflect on what I've learnt, the more I realise that's a reflection of my own warped values, not the Bible!

Definitely a book I will reread in the future to go over the theology in more careful detail.

[Jo]

I really liked the approach of this nonfiction book about the Holy Spirit. Rather than hitting a hodgepodge of topics (although it does that a bit in the appendices), it traces the Holy Spirit through the storyline of Scripture. Jensen's emphasis is on understanding the Spirit's work in the context of the greater storyline, rather than camping out on some of the more sensational questions and disagreements about the Holy Spirit. In other words, he tries to emphasize what the Bible emphasizes. He also challenges some of the words and phrases that have crept into our Christian vocabulary but that don't really have a biblical basis.

I particularly liked the end of the book, where Jensen addressed some of the issues about what the Christian's present experience of the Holy Spirit should be. His emphasis is on how the Spirit produces fruit in the Christian's life (love, joy, peace, etc.) and how he enables us to live in unity with other believers. He sums up,

"What surprised people about this spiritual work is how it is, apparently, unspectacular. It lacks the excitement of signs and wonders. It lacks the mystery of mystical experientialism. It lacks the discipline of mediation exercises and the wonder of the irrational. It is nothing like the world's spirituality ... Worldly spirituality undermines some Christians' confidence in the Spirit's transforming work." (308)

The appendix has a fine, succinct argument about the Spirit's guidance that is in line with my own thinking about it.

Overall a worthwhile read, although it did drag at some points. I wish it were a bit shorter.

[Dougal Burrowes]

Really helpful, exceptionally easy to read, thoroughly biblical, and super helpful index at the end with two-page answers on common questions.

I do, however, think that Jensen, in trying to push back upon the charismatic movement drawing too fast a line from Jesus' promises to the apostles to us today, Jensen has ended up writing a book on the Holy Spirit that lacks contemporary application. Jensen is very quick to speak about, for example, the passages in John and how they first and foremost apply to the Apostles. He is slow to make any in-depth helpful contemporary applications for us today.

The danger I feel is that the Holy Spirit becomes a historical phenomenon not a present person. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and found it extremely helpful, especially its handling of key texts in the New Testament on the purpose and power of the Spirit, I feel that this book was written to help people who are confused about the Biblical passages rather than help people commune with God today.

[Jacob Pitzer]

Phillip Jenson does a great job addressing the many concerns that come with conversations around the Holy Spirit. He retells a story regarding a council of people meeting who meet to discuss their thoughts on how the Holy Spirit functions today which tees up questions he begins to answer for the rest of the book. He slowly takes the audience through the spirits work and prophesied future work in the OT, describes the Spirit’s personhood using John 14-16, its unique presence and out flowing in the book of Acts, and finally its applications for us today using the epistles! It’s a long read, but left me struck by Gods specific plans for the Spirit in the OT, and opened my eyes to how exactly the Spirit functions today.

[Rohan]

The biggest plus of this book? I don't feel like I need to read another book on the Holy Spirit, and if I do I have a great framework from the bible to set my agenda for questions.

It did get a bit tough going halfway through, with some chapters a bit longer than they needed to be, and I could definitely hear Phillip's "tone" coming through, especially in some of his not-so-subtle sledges. I wonder if that will stop this from being a timeless classic like the Cross of Christ (which I think it is trying to emulate, and does so pretty well).

I'm glad there are summaries at the end of each section though, and the appendices look good (I read about half of them, and realised I don't have to read all of them to count this as read, woohoo!)

[Justin]

I have been seeking a one-stop resource that treats the topic of the Holy Spirit in a balanced and thorough way that is accessible for average Christians. This is it!

Building an understanding of the Spirit's work beginning with the framework of the Bible's own story, especially focusing on Jesus's intensive teaching on the matter the night before he died (John 14-16) is a sensible and helpful approach. The 34 (!) Appendices are wondrously brief but clear and profitable.

[Douglas Fyfe]

I read this a year ago with my staff team. Quite readable; an interesting foray into writing a book for someone who has surely logged thousands of hours of preaching and has had many of those talk series turned into books by others.

I had some quibbles, and in particular wanted a better reckoning with the OT data, as well as reading backwards. A bit bloated (large print, lots of white space, not concise) but a not unhelpful primer and spurred us on to good conversations.

[Paul Hallam]

In 482 pages, Phillip Jensen traces the Bible’s teaching about the Holy Spirit. He begins with Jesus’ promises to send the Spirit in John 14-16, looks at the fulfilment in Acts, and then at how the Spirit works in churches and individual Christians in the New Testament letters. The appendices are very helpful in addressing reader questions and topics that would be cumbersome or distracting if they were included in the main body of the book.

[Chris Young]

2.5* perhaps.

Lots of helpful, clarifying things here, and overall theologically solid, though it suffers from the slightly blinkered Sydney Anglican tendency to reject aspects of their Reformed Anglican heritage. I found the tone somewhat unhelpfully combative at times. And, to be honest, I found a lot of it quite boring.

Not a really bad book, but not really a good book either. For a really good book on the Holy Spirit, read Ferguson or Letham.

[Steve]

A big read on Phillip Jensen's interpretation of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. At times, I disagree with the conclusions that Jensen takes from the passages used from the Bible, but he does at least try to be fair and reasonable (recognising that our traditions and theology shape our interpretation as much for me as it does for him).

[Em Swaine]

THE best book on the holy spirit! Covers everything, is written so clearly and is thoroughly bible based.

[Eli Horth]

This overwhelming work changed how I read the Bible simply by showing how to do good exegesis and how to examine where I get my own personal beliefs from. Highly recommend.