The Coming and Working of the Spirit
The fulfilment of the mysterious promise of the Father and the Son now makes the pages of Acts ii, this book ablaze with glory. The day
of Pentecost found the disciples “with one accord in one place.” Suddenly a sound from heaven as
* of a rushing mighty wind filled all the house, and
simultaneously they were all filled with the Spirit; and the first sign of this infilling was this: they “began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
So important is it that every successive stage in these progressive lessons on the Spirit’s activity be carefully noted, that it may be well to employ small capitals to make each lesson stand out conspicuous. And so we may mark this first record of his personal working in and through believers:
“THE SPIRIT GAVE THEM UTTERANCE.”
That mighty “wind” became to them the divine “breath” which made speech possible. The “cloven tongues” which “sat upon each of them” were symbols of many tongues speaking many languages before unknown; and they were - tongues “like as of fire,” for fire is, throughout the Word of God, the special symbol and signal of the presence and power of God. Mighty as are wind and water, fire surpasses both, for resistless, all-overcoming energy.
The Holy Spirit “sat upon each of them,” to indicate that henceforth he was to find in believers, and in the body of believers — the new church of Christ — his seat, his “see.” We cannot but recall the descent of the Spirit, as a dove, abiding on Christ, at his baptism. The dove is a bird that craves a est and a vest, unlike the raven, and such others as wander on restless wing. The holy Dove sought in the perfect Man an alightingplace, which he had not found since the creation. And now in the body of Christ, formed out of believing disciples, he takes his abode.
The word “sat” has a marked force in the
New Testament. It carries the idea of a completed preparation, and a certain permanence of position and condition. When Christ had “purged
Hebrews i.3. our sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,” as though, up to this time, like the priests, ministering at the altar, for whose sitting down the temple made no provision, his work was unaccomplished, but now he was prepared to rest in his finished atonement and fulfilled mission. The Holy Spirit, also, had now found his seat, his abode, to the end of the age, in the church of Christ, whose true nativity dates from the day of Pentecost. And it is no belittling of his holy offices to say that we are to think thenceforth of the church as a sort of divine cathedral, in which this heavenly Archbishop holds his “chair” and presides, and from which go forth his subordinate “‘bishops”’ or “overseers,” to exercise oversight in his name, and the witnesses whom he ordains to do service for him.
“This chapter contains also the first great exhibition and illustration of the power of the Holy Ghost.
It is, specifically, power zn connection with witnessing. We fall into loose ways of using Scripture terms. “Unction” or “anointing” seems to be used quite uniformly by the Apostle John in the sense of spiritual £now/edge, insight, or Johnii. 20, 27. the power of spiritual discernment; and here the enduement of power is plainly a spiritual qualification for bearing witness to Christ. And it may be questioned how far we are authorized to refer such terms to other matters, such as the general — increase of spiritual gifts and graces, and growth in holiness and attractiveness of character. There are three grand departments of Christian experience — salvation, sanctification, and service; and unction and pentecostal power appear to be specially connected with the last of the three, giving spiritual discernment of truth, and so, also, effectiveness in the utterance of the truth.
Peter stands forth as a conspicuous example of this power of the Spirit. He was, indeed, but one of the company, on all of whom rested the same enduement; but his discourse is recorded, and its results are traced in the conversion of some three thousand souls.
We are tempted to tarry long over these studies, but brevity is essential to the purpose now in view; and we need only note in passing what sort of a sermon the Holy Spirit used as his channel for such converting grace. Nothing could have been further from an intellectual or literary display. It was no essay or oration, elaborated with philosophy, decked with rhetorical ornament. It was a simple, straightforward address and appeal, in substance a citation from inspired prophecy, with its verification in the resurrection of Christ and the ascension gift of the Holy Spirit. In view of the wide, if not total, departure of modern preaching from this pentecostal model, we need not be amazed at the partial, if not total, disappearance of pentecostal power. What has become of the appeal to inspired prophecy, that so little use is made of it in the pulpit of to-day? Peter barely calls the attention of the hearers, saying, “Hearken to my words,” before he adds, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;” and then he points out the correspondence between the present outpouring and the inspired forecast of it, hundreds of years before. Then a second time he says, “Hear these words;” and, calling attention to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, cites another prediction of David, and again points out the exact correspondence with the facts which could not be denied as having taken place before their eyes. This was really all of this “sermon” as recorded — no introduction, no apparent conclusion; a discourse, if such it may be called, that followed no approved homiletic models, and was couched in no enticing words of man’s wisdom, neither constructing ornament nor ornamenting construction, but simply putting up two prophecies and placing the events that corresponded with them over against them. Yet such a discourse proved the two-edged sword of the Spirit, wherewith a vast throng “were pricked in their heart.”
Is it not time modern preachers resorted to this sword of the Spirit once more, saying like David of the sword of the giant, ‘‘ There is none like that; give it me”? It is a two-edged sword and cuts both ways. One keen edge is prophecy, with its more than three hundred particulars on record concerning Christ four centuries before his advent; the other keen edge is history, with its exact fulfilment of prediction in him at the time and place predicted. And these two edges converge and unite in a point of power which pricks men in their heart, and sometimes cuts them to the heart and lays them open, to their very vitals.
These are days of doubt, and of a skepticism that paralyzes men with indifference. Yet he who uses this sword, as Peter did, can boldly conclude, as he did, by saying: “Therefore let all of you know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom” men “have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” For, if predictions so remote in time and minute in detail are fulfilled in Christ, they must have been inspired of God, and thus they prove the Bible to be a divine book; and, if the career of Christ thus exactly corresponds to the portrait drawn many centuries before, he must have been sealed of God, and therefore a divine person. And so the Holy Spirit has given us, in one weapon, the sufficient answer to both forms of doubt and unbelief now so current — doubt as to the authority of the Scriptures and doubt as to the divinity of Christ.
This same pentecostal narrative likewise exhibits the mode of the Spirit’s activity. Christ had said, ‘‘ When he is come, he will convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me.” And here is the first example of his operations:
he begins his work by pricking men in the heart and leading to open zxguiry — What shall we do?” Then he leads to genuine repentance and the obedience of faith; so that there is a glad reception of the message and a putting on of Christ in baptism.
There is a somewhat unique statement in verse 41: “There were added about three thousand souls;” and this statement is reinforced by another, in verse 47: “And the Lord added daily such as were being saved.” In both of these passages the best manuscripts contain y,,ccreénoav, 4x. only the solitary and unqualified verb pe shhh “added.” God cares little for numerical increase in church-membership, but much for all real additions to himself and his mystical body in Christ; and to such body only the Holy Spirit can make any real addition.
Before we dismiss this chapter let us cast one = more glance at the work of the Spirit in this new-born church of Christ: addition, continuance — fourfold, in teaching and fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers — community of interest, harmony of testimony, singleness of heart, and gladness of spirit, while he wrought such wonders and signs through the apostles as produced a strange fear and awe among beholders. Thus, to the promise of the Holy Spirit in Chapter I. are added the coming, utterance, outpouring, and power of the Spirit in this chapter.
We behold, then, in the church and the kingdom of Christ, the administration of the Spirit begun. He forms the mystical body of Christ, and adds to it, not in one large accession only, but daily. Later
Acts vi.7 the word “added” is changed to “multiplied.” We have the actual residence and presidency of the Holy Spirit in the church begun, uniting its members in faith, hope, love, and labor, in prayers and all forms of fellowship and testimony. He becomes the source of all true entrance upon holy paths and steadfast continuance in apostolic teaching and fellowship, and of such mutual sacrifice and sympathy as that disciples had “all things common.” The rich sold what they had, and a redistribution was made to meet the needs of all. Every day became a holy day for its Sabbatic worship and its divine wonder-working.
Other “times of refreshing”’ are referred to by Peter, and the language he uses is peculiar. He is speaking to a Jewish audience, and he says, “Repent ye therefore, and be ye converted, so ¢hat there may come times of refreshing from Acts iii. 19. the presence of the Lord.” The whole passage has been long an enigma to commentators; and the only interpretation that seems to illumine it with true meaning is that which refers it to an-. other and even greater outpouring of the Spirit, which is somehow conditional on the restoration of God’s apostate people.
He must be an indifferent and careless reader of prophecy who does not recognize a remarkable future as yet before the Hebrew nation, upon which also hangs larger blessing for the whole race. Thus far the times of refreshing have come from the absence of the Lord, and in connection with the rejection of Christ by the Jews and the extension of gospel privileges to the Gentiles. Other times of refreshing are to “come from the presence of the Lord,” and in connection with his reception by the Jewish nation, and their activity in world-wide evangelism. At least so seems to us the consensus of prophetic testimony. If this be the true meaning of this passage in the Acts, much is made plain that is otherwise obscure:
that Pentecost was the early rain, and the latter rain is to follow, even more abundant; the former was on all delievers, the latter is to be “‘ upon all Jiesh.”’ And hence it was that Peter did not say of that pentecostal enduement, “Now zs fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,” but,
Acts ii.6. more guardedly, “7hzs 2s that which was spoken;” that is to say, Joel’s words furnish the explanation of this first Pentecost, though this does not finish their fulfilment. In connection with the repentance and conversion of his Jewish hearers, Peter foretells other times of refreshing, the Spirit’s latter rain upon all flesh; and the times of restitution, or fulfilment of all which all
Acts iii. a; “2e prophets have spoken from the be- “ee sinning of the age.
This conception of a future further and fuller outpouring of the Holy Spirit, when the longblinded Jewish mind turns to the Lord, and the Lord himself returns, seems a necessary factor in the solution of the enigmas of prophecy. Pentecost was the “first-fruits” only of a coming harvest. The Holy Spirit has yet to manifest his power in its fullness and greatness. The latter tain shall be in yet greater abundance.