The Fulfilment of the Promise

We shall better understand what was the meaning of the Promise of the Father when we consider what took place at Pentecost. On the morning of that day, the disciples were with one accord praying and praising God, when all at once a sound from heaven was heard as of a rushing mighty wind, “tongues like as of fire’’ were seen to be resting on each, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. From out of the glory of God, out of the heart and hand of the Lord Jesus, they received that Spirit of the Son which the Father had promised them. They knew at once that this was what He meant when He said that they should be

ED 47 baptized with Holy Ghost. They experienced the fact that, in the power of this Spirit, He Himself in His heavenly glory was in their midst, was in every heart.

They began at once to speak in strange tongues — a token of how the mighty power of God’s Spirit could prepare them for the world-wide task of preaching the Gospel to every creature. And it served at the same time to draw the attention of. the multitudes who were there representing different nations, and who cried out in amazement because each one heard them speak in his own language. All hearts were stirred and ready to listen.

When Peter rose, it was with a power not of himself that he was able in presence of the enemies of Christ to proclaim the truth that this was nothing less than the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy: “I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.” In the power of the

Spirit what he had known of the Old Testament became all at once clear, and he could prove from the prophets how they had foretold that the crucified Christ should be raised from the dead. He preached at once the blessed truth that the crucified Jesus was now at the right hand of God on the throne as Lord and Christ.

The word came with inconceivable, with Divine power. Thousands were smitten to the heart at the thought that they had helped to crucify Him who now sat upon the throne of God, and cried out: ‘‘ What shall we do?” The Holy Spirit had, as Christ had promised, convicted men of their unbelief. Peter in the power of the Spirit was able to give them the assurance of pardon. If they would but believe in the name of Jesus, they too would receive the Holy Spirit. And three thousand were gathered to the Church of the Lord. Could there ever have been any more glorious fulfilment of the Father’s promise than what was that day to be seen in the disciples, in Peter, and in the multitude who believed? What a Divine confirmation of the words of Christ: ‘‘ Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and shall be My witnesses.”

And this was but a beginning. In the following days many more were added. All who believed were linked together as with the bonds of a Divine love by the power of the Holy Ghost. The love of Christ was the fire that melted them into one. They had all things in common, selling their possessions and goods, and imparting to all as every man had need. Daily with one accord they continued in the fellowship of prayer, praising God. It was in very deed heaven upon earth; Christ Jesus in His heavenly glory filling every heart.

When Peter and John a little later had miraculously healed the lame man they were summoned. before the rulers. The new life and power of the Spirit gave them a supernatural boldness so that no threats could make them afraid, and they boldly said: ‘‘ We must obey God rather than men.” And when they returned to their own company and poured out their hearts in prayer it was not that they might be delivered from suffering, but only that they might speak the Word with boldness. In answer to their prayer the house in which they were assembled was shaken and they were all filled again with the Holy Ghost. “‘And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul.”

This short summary of the events of Pentecost helps us to answer the question: ‘‘Did not God in a wonderful way, beyond the possibility of human conception, fulfil the promise of the Father?” Just think for a moment of the condition of the world even after Christ’s resurrection. How hopeless everything would have been if He had gone to heaven without leaving that promise. The disciples would have been utterly unfit for the work entrusted to ‘them. There would have been no possibility of the world’s sharing in the fruit of Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ’s death would then indeed have been in vain.

But with that promise what a complete, all-sufficient, Divine provision for every need of the disciples and of the Church, and of mankind. The Holy Spirit was the all-sufficient equipment, first for the personal life of the disciples and all who should believe through them, and second, for all the work that had to be done throughout the world. That Spirit made it possible for every believer to please God by a faith that overcomes the world, and glorifies God in all his life. And He made it possible for the whole Church and every member to overcome the prince of this world in the saving of souls and in the service of the Kingdom. Let us pause and think on all this until our hearts cry out in adoring worship: ‘‘ To Him who hath given us His Holy Spirit be glory for ever and ever.”

We have hitherto only dealt with the birth and the founding of the Church of Christ. Let us go a little further and think what Pentecost meant for the growth and the expansion of the Church.

We find (Acts v.) in the history of Ananias and Sapphira what the danger was with which the new-born Church was threatened in the temptations through the love of money and the influence that money might exercise. But the Spirit of God delivered from that danger.

We find (Acts vi.) the danger from the temptation to lack of love and contention in the matter of the distribution of the alms of the Church. The Holy Spirit overcame that danger by the election of men full of the Spirit as deacons, who also preached the Word of God. We find (Acts vi. and vii.) in ’ the story of Stephen, how in the midst: of the danger of persecution the Holy Spirit gave the boldness to charge the people with the great sin of grieving the Holy Ghost, and enabled him joyfully to give himself as a martyr to die for Christ.

We find (Acts viii.), how in Samaria, the temptation to seek influence in the Church by the offer of money, was overcome by the Apostles as they prayed for the believers that they might receive the Holy Ghost. Against all the power of the prince of this world, whether in persecution or in the spirit of selfishness and jealousy, or in the power of the spirit of the world and its faith in money, the Spirit was the heavenly power that gave the victory.

That same Spirit also revealed His power in the great work of the expansion of the Church. In Acts ix. we read how the Lord from heaven Himself interposed to change Saul the perse- -cutor into Paul, the penitent believer. Christ proved that He had not only given the Holy Spirit but that He Himself personally in heaven was watching over His Church, and would intervene with His Almighty hand on her behalf. In chap. x. we read of Peter’s prayer at Joppa, and how in answer to that the Spirit led him to go to Cesarea and be witness of the new outpouring of the Spirit upon the heathen.

In Acts xi. we read of those who were scattered abroad by the persecution after Stephen’s death, and preached the Gospel in Phoenice and Cyprus and Antioch, some even speaking to the Grecians with such power that a number believed and turned to the Lord. What the Apostles would not have been ready to do, the Lord by His Holy Spirit taught these men to do, and so to found the Church in the heathen world. And when the disciples heard of it at Jerusalem a man was found full of the Holy Ghost and of faith to be the special instrument for establishing and enlarging the work.

So we read in chap. xiii. of Barnabas and Saul, with three other leaders in this Church gathered from among the heathen, who separated themselves with fasting and prayer to wait upon the Lord to know what He would have them do further. The answer came in the voice of the Holy Spirit calling them to separate Barnabas and Saul for the work to which He had called them; and to send them forth to commence the great undertaking of reaching out to the heathen nations and to carry the Gospel where Christ’s name had never yet been heard. From this beginning the Mission work of the Church has continued to this day. This short sketch shows us what a perfect and all-sufficient fulfilment there was of the needs of the Church to enable her to obey the command to preach the Gospel to every creature even to the ends of the earth.

So complete was her equipment with the great power of God’s Spirit that the Church, beginning with her one hundred and twenty members, was able within the first fifty years after Pentecost to do more for the extension of the Kingdom than the Church has ever yet been able to do within such a period. The Spirit lived and wrought in the believers with such power, and such a heavenly fire of love and zeal, that the heathen stood amazed over this great wonder that men of different races, different degrees of civilization and of learning, so loved each other that they really felt and acted as one body. The fire of love to their Lord proved itself in the devotion with which travellers and merchants and slaves, soldiers and sailors, who had received the new religion in its Divine power, were ever ready to make Christ known, and so to speak of His love that multitudes were brought to accept the faith.

Dear Christians, let us reflect and pray until our hearts be full of the heavenly assurance — how gloriously the Father in heaven, beyond all we could ask or think, fulfils the Divine promise which Christ gave His disciples. And let us then add: How gloriously He waits even now to fulfil the promise to us too.