WE have seen, in our last Lecture on Acts what were the antecedents of the coming of the Holy Ghost and the founding of the CHURCH; we have now to consider, in this chapter, the advent of the Comforter and the consequent founding of the Church itself.
We have considered the great event of the Ascension after Christ had given His Apostles His final commandments, instructions, and promises.
Then we had the return of the disciples to Jerusalem, their united waiting there in the expressed spirit of dependence and prayerful expectancy, and the completion of the apostolic number Twelve by the appointment of Matthias.
In this chapter (2) we have the narrative of the most remarkable event of New Testament history since the Ascension of Christ—THE COMING OF THE HOLY GHOST, and the consequent forming of the Church of God.
1. THE DAY OF PENTECOST.—"And when the day of Pentecost was now accomplishing, they were all together in one place" (verse 1). "The day of Pentecost was come, and running its course of fulfillment as a feast." Counting from the second day of the Passover, it is almost certain that the day of Pentecost was the first day of the week—the Lord's day: He rose from the dead as the Second Man—the last Adam, and breathed into His disciples "His risen life in the power of the Holy Ghost," on the first day of the week; and it was on the first day of the week He fulfilled His promise to baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with power to be His witnesses unto others, and to come, possess, and fill the habitation prepared for Him by Christ's work of redemption.
The three great feasts of the Jews were Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Lev. 23.) Pentecost, or the feast of (seven) weeks, was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the first day of the Passover; it was the harvest festival in Israel (Lev. 23:15-22); the feast of "ingathering;" and was appropriate as being the occasion when, from Christ, as the corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died, on that day began the presage of a plentiful harvest of quickened and converted souls.
The disciples "were all together in one place," but whether it were in the temple or a private house is not stated; but it is likely to have been the upper room where they met for prayer. One writer would fain infer it must have been in the temple because the multitude is mentioned (ver. 6), and also because we would then have "the solemn inauguration of the Church in the sanctuary of the Old Covenant:" but this is only man's idea of propriety. The principal thing to note is, that, as Christ enjoined them not to become parted (ch. 1:4),. they kept together in one place with one accord. And this was the place of weakness, prayerfulness, and dependency—the only place and the true condition for spiritual power to reach believing souls. "When I am weak, then am I strong.”
“Man's weakness waiting upon God,
Its end can never miss.”
The coming of the sound from heaven heralded the coming of "THE COMFORTER." It carne "suddenly." Not that they not expecting the promised baptism of the Spirit: it was precisely what they were waiting for so prayerfully; but He came suddenly and sovereignly at His own time, and in His own way and manner. "Suddenly I" So also shall Christ be revealed when coming to judgment (Matt. 24:39; 1 Thess. 5:3.) "From heaven." The Spirit carne from above, in His own power, to possess and fill the habitation prepared for Him by redemption. Redemption prepares us for being the habitation of God in the Spirit. A sound: the giving of the law was with the sound of the trumpet, exceeding loud: so this sound of the Spirit's coming was as of a rushing mighty wind. We have here only the fact of its power. "It filled all the house where they were sitting," viz, the sound symbolizing the Spirit filling the house of God as the glory filled the tabernacle and the temple of the Lord under the Old Covenant. Was it so that this very loud penetrating sound, which filled all the house in which the disciples were assembled, was heard in the city, as verse 6 would appear to indicate?
But besides sound there was light: the eye as well as the ear was appealed to. "And there appeared to them parted tongues as if of fire, and they sat upon each of them" (ver. 3). There were tongues, and they were of the appearance of fire, and parted; and they sat on each of them. But this was no more fire than the sound was wind. And the appearance was not electrical;—nor was it forked lightning;—nor were the disciples in a trance, and thought they saw tongues of fire. It was a supernatural and miraculous occurrence, and a real and divine thing (Luke 24:49).
The sound, being "like that of a mighty rushing wind," was indicative of the presence and irresistible energy of the Holy Ghost come to earth—baptizing with house-filling power the waiting disciples, who f were now "endued with power from on high," where the glorified Son of man has had giver Him "all power in heaven and on earth and the tongues being" like as of fire," was emblematical of the fact that the" power from on high," in the gift of the Holy Ghost, was intelligent power in connection with witness-bearing to Christ, who on the cross had passed through the fire of the divine judgment of sin that the testimony of God in grace might be founded on righteousness." This is the wonderful way in which God now speaks by the Holy Ghost: whatever the mercy, whatever the proved weakness, need, and guilt of man, there is not, nor can be, the least compromise of holiness. God can never sanction the evil of man. Hence the Spirit of God was thus pleased to mark the character of His presence even though given of the grace of God," but founded on the righteousness of God. The gospel from the throne of God is intolerant of evil!
When the Spirit descended on Christ at His baptism, it was in form "like to a dove," which was characteristic of His Messiahship, a testimony unto the grace of the Lord, who was not to make His voice heard in the street, nor to break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax. In Revelation we read of the "seven Spirits of God" sent forth into all the earth in connection with the throne of God and the judgment of the earth. But here the manner of the Spirit's presence is "tongues:"—not for government but for witness bearing—"parted tongues" also, showing that God was thinking of the Gentile as well as the Jew, and not yet making mankind of one language, but meeting man where he was, in the place of the judgment of his sin, by For His grace through all the tongues of the world, and thereby giving a practical illustration of "mercy rejoicing against judgment;" for God's Spirit had come down to give His testimony in grace to His Son through the very sign of that which reminded of the judgment of man's pride (Gen. 11.) "It (the parted tongue) sat upon each of them.”
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (verse 4).
The emblematic power filled all the house where they were sitting, and now they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. The house was all filled: the disciples were all filled: and this was to tell us that the Holy Ghost's presence fills the assembly of God, and that He Himself is present there, that they may all be filled with His presence and power. His filling all the house is not, we see, equivalent to His filling all the saints, though in grace they were all then filled, for we who have the Holy Ghost are not always filled but need the exhortation, "Be filled with the Spirit;" but He personally is dwelling abidingly in the sphere of the Church as a constant resident come in grace to dwell there; and, as being present, He is ever ready to fill all saints, as well as to enable them to know, feel, do, or bear.
"With the Holy Ghost:" not with what men call "the influence," or "the influences of the Holy Ghost," but "with the Holy Ghost" Himself personally. Hence it could be asked, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" "What! Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, and which ye have of God; and ye are not your own?”
When our Lord taught His disciples to pray, in Luke 11:1-13, He ends with these words: "How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" They had asked (Acts 1:14), and now they received the gift of the Holy Ghost (2:4), and immediately used that gift for the purpose for which it was given, for "they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." The Spirit had been promised as their power in testifying to Christ (1:5); and, now that they are by His coming divinely associated with Him glorified, they began to speak. It may be they celebrated God's praises, as the mighty wonder-worker, in such strains as Psalm 128: "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the comer: this is the LORD'S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes." And the listeners said, "We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”
“All filled:" not only the apostles, but all the waiting company, men and women. This expression, "filled with the Holy Ghost," is often employed by Luke (see Acts 4:8, 31; 6:3, 5; 7:55; 9:17; 11:24; 13:9, 52; Luke 1:15, 41, 67; 4:1). Men and women had been "filled with the Holy Ghost," for special purposes, such as Bezaleel (Exod. 35:30, 31); John the Baptist (Luke 1:15); Elizabeth (Luke 1:41); Zacharias (Luke 1:67); the Lord Jesus (Luke 12:1). But here they were all filled simultaneously by the Holy Ghost come down from Christ glorified (John 7:39), as His gift to them, and to make them His permanent dwelling-place. "The Holy Ghost was not yet" when Christ was here; but when "glorified" He was and is. He carne, and He has ever since remained: said Christ, "He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you; or ever" (John 14:16).
By the expressions, "baptism," "outpouring,” and" filling” of the Spirit, men seem to intend one and the same thing; but we are taught here and elsewhere that they mean three things. It is important, considering the general confusion regarding the Holy Ghost, to linger over the subject a little longer, and endeavor to make it precise and clear. There was an outpouring on the day of Pentecost; it the baptism, of the waiting disciples into one body with the glorified Man, their Head in Heaven, was accomplished, and into that once-baptized body ever believer is brought by the one Spirit; and drinks into that one now present Spirit in that body the Church, and according to his drinking, he is "FILLED with the Spirit:" the measure of fullness depends on his drinking in the Spirit by receiving His testimony to the glorified Jesus; by study of the Word, meditation, and prayer (see John 7:37-39; also John 4:10-14.
In John 3:5 we have the IMPLANTING, of the well of living water: in John 4:14, the SPRINGING UP of the well perennially; in John 7:38, THE OUTFLOW of "rivers of living water" from the divine well within—the Holy Ghost dwelling in connection with the life of the glorified Christ in the temples of our bodies.
In John 7:37, what Jesus means by coming unto Him and drinking is explained in verse 38, and both are referred on to the glorifying of Jesus and the giving of the Holy Ghost in verse 38. The disciples thirsted; they carne to Jesus and drank of Mm: they believed on Him as the risen One, who, when glorified, would send that other Comforter, the Holy Ghost, and they waited in prayer (Acts 1.) until the day of Pentecost was fully come (Acts 2.), and then the Holy Ghost was gifted to the glorified Son by the Father, who, "having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost," shed Him down (Acts 2:33). And the disciples being filled with the Holy Ghost, according as the Scripture says, out of them flowed "rivers of living water," in divine testimony to the exalted Jesus; and the results were conviction and conversion of thousands, and the baptizing by the Spirit of all believers into one body (Acts 2:41-47; 1 Cor. 12:12). The outflow was consequent on the outpouring, the baptism (Acts 1:5; 2:2), and the filling (Acts 2:4). We have
1. THE OUTPOURING. "Suddenly there carne from heaven a sound as of a rushing mighty wind" (Acts 2:1).
2. THE BAPTISM. “It filled all the house where they were sitting" (Acts 2:2; 1 Cor. 12:12, 13).
3. THE FILLING. "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:4; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Eph. 5: 18).
I have given these few jottings on the subject with some detail and precision, to show that the outpouring and baptism of the Holy Ghost having been accomplished according to the Lord's promise and the Old Testament (partially at least), and the Spirit being now with us, and dwelling in us, our privilege is so to drink into a come and present Holy Spirit that we may "be filled with, the Spirit," that in us may spring up wells of worship heavenward, and out of us flow rivers of living water (streams of believed Scripture and the Holy Ghost, like Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost) manward, in divine testimony to the glorified Lord Jesus, as earth-rejected and heaven-accepted.
The great discourse of our Lord about the coming Comforter is found in John 14.-16. In chap. 14:16, He says, "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever;" and having come, and being the ever-abiding Spirit, the great thing with us should be to acknowledge this all-important divine fact that we have the Holy Ghost, and let our whole thinking, feeling, and acting be not only in keeping with the presence of such a glorious Person, but the result of His active energy.
If we and all Christians were only realizing our deep, constant responsibility as being all already possessed of the Holy Ghost (instead of acting in unbelief by praying for the coming of the Spirit, as if Christ had never fulfilled His promise and sent Him, and as if He were not in each individual believer in Christ), we would so enjoy Christ by a present Spirit, that we should be so "filled with the Spirit" that out of us would "flow rivers of living water." We should not be ignoring the leading facts of this dispensation, the absence of Christ and the presence of the Spirit, and praying for "another baptism of the Holy Ghost" —a prayer that by no possibility can be answered, or "an outpouring of the Holy Ghost," which can only be given after this present age has run its course and the millennium has begun: for the next outpouring of the Holy Ghost that we are warranted by Holy Scripture in expecting will be at the second advent of Christ to reign as King of all the earth (Zech. 12:10; Joel 2:28-32).
It may be said to me, "When you admit that although Christian people may express themselves differently on Scripture topics, and especially about prayer in regard to the Holy Ghost, they generally mean the right thing: why be so finical about mere words?”
I would reply that the Holy Ghost Himself exhorts, "Hold fast the form of sound words" (see also Eccles. 5:2); and we desire to do this, and more especially in regard to such an important subject as the great fact of His presence on earth in the believer, and in and with the Church of God. It is not called honouring but rather tempting God on the part of Israel, when in conduct and words they uttered the unbelieving cry, "Is the LORD among us or not?" (Exod. 17). There was nothing but rock and desert all around; but though they had no water, this did not argue that Jehovah was not among them: their privilege was to believe His word that He had come down to deliver them from the land of slavery, and take them up out of that land into a land flowing with milk and honey; and that being with them He could bring water from the rock in Horeb for them (as He did) rather than His grace should not be displayed, and His word made good.
And although everything seems to tell us of rocks and desert land throughout the churches of Christendom, we are not to ignore the fact that the Comforter is still here or that He will abide with us forever; and we must not, by our words or deeds, give utterance to the wail of unbelief, "Is the LORD among us or not?" What are pleadings and wrestlings with God for the sending down of the Holy Ghost but ignoring the fact that He is here, that He carne as God's gift, like Christ, unasked, and that He remains, notwithstanding that the professing Church has become little better than a mass of corruption, and the world is refusing and resisting His testimony to the absent Christ?
What power we should have in our meetings for prayer if, instead of coming together to pray for the Holy Ghost to come (as if He had anew to be sent out from heaven), we were all going out to it, after sitting before the Lord and meditating on the blessed gifts God had given us—His Son to die for us—His Spirit to dwell in us; and, while we gave Him thanks, charged ourselves in the court of conscience, and before "God, the Judge, of all," with our sins in not being other persons than we are, and in not doing better than we have done, seeing that God has already done the very best He can do for us I Then might we expect to make a record of such meetings in the Scripture phraseology, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak," etc.
In the present state of general unbelief among Christians in the great FACT of the Holy Spirit's presence, I would still add a sentence or two: Would he not be regarded as a very strange specimen of a Christian who should speak and pray as if the Christ of God had never been sent and never lived and died on this earth? And ought he not to be regarded as equally strange who, after what we read in the Acts and the Epistles, should speak and pray as if the Holy Ghost had not been sent from the Father and the Son, and as if He were not now dwelling upon the earth in the bodies of all believers and in the Church of the living God?
If Christians only realized the fact stated in the words, "What! know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" it would do a thousand times more for them than praying for the "outpouring" or "baptism of the Holy Ghost," as if He had left the earth, and His absence or presence were dependent on their prayers! We cannot pray too much for the working of the Spirit, though we may not pray for His coming. We are entirely dependent on the Holy Ghost for the conversion of souls, and for the building up of saints; and we should agonize in prayers for the Holy Ghost to accomplish both. Alas! He may be resisted, grieved, or quenched: let us ever pray that we may be so fully in His mind that He may work unhindered in and through all believers in Christ.
It is the general ignoring of the presence of the Holy Ghost, and His special working among saints and sinners in our day, that we deplore; and we would suggest that much of the general deadness among believers may be due to this, that they cannot recite with sincerity (and as those who are in His fellowship in their thoughts, words, and ways) that part of the creed they profess to own—
"I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST.”
"Began to speak with other tongues" can mean only that they spoke languages different from their own, which they had not previously learned. All began involuntarily, as it were, to pour out in a flow of words the sweet-swelling joy of the power of the Divine life. It was not in the ears of the listeners, but in the mouths of the speakers, that the miracle took origin; and this was in fulfillment of the Lord's promise (Mark 16:17): "They shall speak with new tongues." It does not appear (as is generally thought) that the tongues were given for facilitating the preaching of the Gospel—at least we lave no historical account of it. It was a prominent sign-gift to the world; and, no doubt, it was intended to symbolize the forth-speaking of God by His Spirit regarding the glory of His Son to all nations—a sign that the witness-bearing of the Spirit now beginning was to be addressed "to every creature" (Mark 16:17). A Church was to be gathered out of all nations, and the enthroned Christ is yet to sway the scepter in the age to come over all nations and kindreds and tongues. We read of tongues divided in judgment at Babel, tongues united in grace at Pentecost, and tongues ascribing salvation to God and the Lamb in view of the millennial glory (Rev. 5:9, 10).
“As the Spirit gave them utterance” means "as the Spirit gave them to speak forth." They were only the mouthpieces of the Holy Ghost, and what they uttered was not their own, but gift and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Their speaking was free, varied, and with boldness, and in that particular tongue which the Spirit, for the time being, enabled them to use (chap. 2:14-36).
"Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, pious men, from every nation of those under heaven" (verse 5; ch. 4:12; Col. 1:23). As the gift of tongues was meant for the world, the Lord had provided witnesses in those pious Jews who were then dwelling at Jerusalem from all the nations under heaven. They are said to be "devout men," to show that the miracle was attested not by light and curious listeners, but by men of piety and moral weight who were competent and trustworthy witnesses. They were men like those persons mentioned in Luke 2:25-28, believers in the Old Testament prophecies, and waiting for the consolation of Israel, but much concerned and exercised in mind at all that had happened in Jerusalem so recently "concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people" (Luke 24:19).
“Out of every nation under heaven" can hardly be regarded as the language of hyperbole, when men compare it with the statements of Philo and Josephus—that there were Jews then settled in every country upon earth. They were likely such as had come up for the feast then being held, and were, as the narrative shows, foreign-speaking Jews from the countries mentioned. All. were Jews whether residents or sojourners; not any Gentiles: and that they should be made witnesses of the miracle, and partakers of Christ through the gospel, was indicative of the order and method of God in sending salvation to the nations: for the Jews, according to God's ancient oracles, are to be the source of blessing to the whole earth: "God be merciful to us (Jews) and bless us (Jews), that so Thy way may be known upon the earth, Thy saving health among all nations" (Psa. 67.)
"How when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language." Many sound critics would read according to the margin, "When this voice was made" or happened —referring voice to the sound in verse 2. It certainly does have the meaning of voice, as in John 3:8, "Thou hearest the sound (voice) thereof;" also Matt. 24: 31; Rev. 5:11, 6:1, 9:9, 14:2, 18:22. It is never used in classical Greek for a rumour or report. We read in John 12:28, "Then carne there a voice from heaven," and it said to Jesus, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." But to the people it only "thundered." So, possibly, the sound as of a rushing mighty wind might be heard over the city, and following it up to where it "struck in," the multitude of foreign Jews and others (even the scoffers, 5:13) would be drawn to the house where the disciples were assembled, and on coming amongst them they heard them speaking in the dialects of the countries from whence they carne, and they were confounded at the strange and miraculous phenomenon. The cause of their perplexity is forcibly given in the original, and reads thus: "Because they heard each one in 1 his own dialect, them speaking." Probably now in the open air.
"And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Are not all these who speak Galileans?" (ver. 7). They were in an ecstasy, beside themselves with wonder, and, marveling, expressed their astonishment in questionings, the one of the other, such as we have here. They were not literally all Galileans; but most of the apostles were, who were no doubt the principal speakers on the occasion.
"And how [then] hear we [them] every man in our own tongue [dialect] wherein we were born?" (ver. 8). This is a further expression of their surprise: If these speakers are all Galileans, how then can they speak in our languages, and they seem among them to have all the tongues and dialects of every one of the nations here represented; not only our languages, but they speak, as it were, our very mother tongue, with as great facility and accuracy, and with the same accent as we do ourselves! "It was the Saviour of them all who had taught these Galileans the languages of the world in order to proclaim His salvation" (Stier). The expression “our own dialect wherein we were born," proves to demonstration that the miracle was a real one—that those Galileans were speaking a diversity of languages, such as those of the nations hereafter named. "If the terms used in this narrative do not express diversity of language in the obvious and proper sense, it is impossible for that idea to be clothed in words at all.”
“Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in [inhabitants of] Mesopotamia, and in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and in the parts [regions] of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome [the Romans sojourning here], Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works [great deeds] of God?" (verses 9-12).
The nations and tongues are here enumerated, the names following each other in a certain geographical order, beginning from the north-east and then proceeding to the west and south, with Jerusalem as a center. This list embraces as many as fifteen countries, from which "devout men," "Jews or proselytes," were present, and they all heard the divinely-gifted disciples speaking in their own languages and dialects. That Galileans, accustomed to speak the Aramaic or Syro-Chaldean language, should, one or other of them, be speaking in all the languages of those countries whence the devout Jews carne, amazed and confounded them.
2. THE WONDERFUL WORKS OF GOD.—"The Wonderful Works of God." What are they? Neither text nor context tell us, in so many words; but surely we may gather from the specimen of this Pentecostal speaking, which Peter's sermon furnishes in the subsequent part of this chapter, as well as his later discourses when "filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 3, 4, 5.), as well as the purport of Stephen's address (also "full of the Holy Ghost," ch. 7.), that "the magnificent things of God" spoken were His interventions in grace, and more especially His "wonderful works" in Christ Jesus: for, said He, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me." A man who is filled with the Holy Ghost "cannot but speak the things which he has seen and heard" about Jesus Christ: "He shall testify of me.”
Beautiful is the discriminating contrast drawn by one, of the Lord's speaking in His Old Testament and New Testament temples. The tabernacle is set up in Exodus 40. the Old Testament house of God. Jehovah enters it and adopts it.
The cloud rests on it, and the glory enters into it. So is it, though in another form, in the New Testament house of Acts 2. The Holy Ghost as a rushing mighty wind enters into it, and cloven tongues like as of fire sit upon it. This is the Lord adopting this latter house as He had adopted the former The house is now a living house, and the Lord personally enters it, bringing with Him His gas, symbolized by the cloven fiery tongues. The house of old had been material, and thus but a shadowy house, and Jehovah had entered it as the glory, the expression or effulgence of the Divine presence.
We have however, in connection with these things that are kindred in the two houses, to mark a strong contrast.
As soon as Jehovah had seated Himself in the Old Testament house, He speaks, as we find in the opening chapter of Leviticus, which immediately follows Exodus 40. But He speaks as one who was seated there to be worshipped, or reconciled. If His people apprehend Him in any measure of His divine worthiness, they might accordingly bring Him a burnt or a meat-offering. If they valued communion with Him, they might bring Him a peace-offering. If they found their conscience defiled by reason of any transgression or shortcoming, He was there to receive a sin or a trespass offering that the breach might be repaired, and atonement or reconciliation perfected. He therefore announces the offerings and the sacrifices, and delivers the laws of them elaborately and distinctly as soon as ever He has taken His seat in His sanctuary. This is so.
From the New Testament house the Spirit speaks, in like manner, as soon as He has entered it. Through the vessels which He had now filled, He speaks as the Lord of old had spoken from the tabernacle of the congregation (Lev. 1:1); but here is the contrast. He speaks of "the wonderful works of God." It is not again of what man was required to do, either as a worshipper or a confessor, as when the Lord had spoken from the former house; but of what God had already done on behalf of man. Peter's words are a sample of this, and they rehearse God's wonderful works in Christ; how He had approved Him in the days of His flesh; how, by His counsel, He had been delivered up to death; how He had then raised Him from the dead, exalted Him to His own right hand in heaven, and made Him both Lord and Christ.
These are among "the wonderful works of God," which the Spirit, through His vessel, was rehearsing; the works of God in grace to sinners, such as the ministry, death, resurrection, and glory of the Saviour of men. This is what the Lord of the temple was now doing. He was not speaking of what either thankful worshippers or convicted saints had to do; but of what He, the God of salvation, had already done. Very fitting surely it that the Blessed One should be worshipped and satisfied—served by our sacrifices and praise, and sought unto by our confession and humiliation. Through the eternal ages of glory it will be the grateful as well as the fitting business of His ransomed creation to worship Him. But still, if there be the good thing, there is the more excellent thing even with God. In redemption He shines as with fuller glory than in creation, and as He has said Himself, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." So is it a higher, a New Testament thing, in contrast with that which was Old Testament, to find Him preaching or publishing His deeds of grace for us rather than announcing His rights to us and His demands from us.
God had given His law in one language to one nation, but He gave His gospel in all languages to all nations.
3. WHAT MEANETH THIS?—" And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying [and said] one to another, What meaneth this [what can this be]? Others, mocking, said, These men [they] are full of new [sweet] wine" (verses 12, 13).
The effect was twofold amazement, while utterly at a loss what it could be that should produce such an unusual phenomenon; and while the mockery of light-minded scoffers attributed it to the effect of wine, the more devout in this state of continued uncertainty, hearing the wonderful works of God spoken, went on questioning as to the strange occurrence of the different tongues. What is this supposed to signify?— What will this turn out to be? The scoffers, probably native Jews who did not know the foreign languages, heard only men in an ecstatic state pouring forth sounds which were not understood by them, and rashly spoke of the whole thing as a drunken effusion. "The world likes to tarnish shining objects, and to drag those that are exalted down to the dust" (Schiller).
This was prophetic of the way men would receive the Spirit's testimony to Christ—with amazement and inquiry which might conduct to salvation; and with the perversity of a "natural" mind that, comprehending not the things of the Spirit of God, counts them "foolishness and a theme for scoffing.”
"The world begins here with ridicule, then afterward it proceeds to questioning, ch. 4:7; to threats, 5: 17; to imprisoning, ch. 5:18; to inflicting stripes, 5:40; to murder, ch. 7:58." Such is the natural course of scoffing at the work of the Holy Spirit.
To this day, when anything extraordinary occurs by the action of the Holy Ghost, natural men will not hear of its being divine, but will have it that the supernatural effects are brought about by natural causes. "The Spirit's agents are too mean for the natural man, Galileans, 5:7; the Spirit's witness is too mighty for him, 5:8-11; the Spirit's purpose is too lofty for him, 5:12; and the Spirit's source is too profound for him, 5:13.”
But God in His government is "over all," and although curiosity had assembled the multitude, thousands (scoffers no doubt amongst them) were ultimately subdued by the word and Spirit of God. It is a bad sign when the preaching of Christ produces no movement, no wonder, no opposition.
When the law was given, the people fled in terror (Heb. 12:18-24); when the gospel was preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, they are drawn together in earnest inquiry; but it is God's way to make men see the incompetency of reason in reference to the comprehension of revelation, and to confess themselves at a stand-still before He conducts them to salvation. It is only when "What meaneth, this?" is changed into "What must we do?" v. 37, that the way of, salvation is opened, v. 38. The gospel has been all along to some "the savor of life unto life," and to others "the savor of death unto death" (2 Cor. 2:16). The men who mocked beneath the cross at Golgotha were, it is likely, the men who mocked before the presence of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost! "But Peter, standing up with, the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men, of Judea [Jewish men], and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken, to my words. For these are not drunken„ as ye suppose, seeing [for] it is but the third hour of the day" (vers. 14, 15). The apostles, having been appointed and empowered by the coming of the Holy Spirit to act as Christ’s witnesses, now feel impelled to address the multitude in defense of the work of God by the outpouring of His Spirit. "Ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem," said the Lord ere He ascended, and the amazement and inquiry of the devout men, and the scoffing of the others, give them an occasion to deliver their testimony in the city of "His betrayers and murderers." "The apostles always found an 11 opportunity, and never lost one." "In season, out of season," in the house, or as now in the open air, they used the freest and therefore so much the more effective mode of setting forth the truth. They now presented themselves in a body to the multitude, and Peter stands forth as their leader and spokesman, and lifting up his voice, speaks forth, with singular boldness, compared with his conduct on the night when Jesus was taken.
“And said unto them" should be spake forth: inasmuch as this speech is most solemn and 1 ardent, and yet at the same time sober. It is the same word used by Paul in Acts 26:25, "speak forth the words of truth and soberness.”
“Ye men." Peter's address consists of three parts, each beginning with this expression (vers. 14, 22, 29). The men of Judea and dwellers at Jerusalem, whether sojourners or residents, are now addressed by Peter with a tact, boldness, wisdom, and gentleness, which were evidently the fruit of the Spirit of God. His great aim, as well as that of his fellow-apostles, was to witness to his Saviour and accomplish the repentance and salvation of his hearers; but in order to make a clear beginning he must remove the aspersion cast upon them. The mockers had said, "These men are filled with new wine," and Peter mildly refutes the slanderous charge in a calm and convincing manner—1st, Peter stands up, and the eleven stand around him, and his forth speaking would sufficiently vindicate him and those standing with him. But 2nd , He asserts that they are not drunken as they supposed. The thing was absurd on the face of it; for it was not yet vine o'clock in the morning, and "they that be drunken are drunken in the Right" (1 Thess. 5:7), and as this was the first hour of prayer, according to pious usage, the Jews were not expected to eat or drink until it was over, and on feast-days such as Pentecost, not until mid-day. The hour was both too early and too sacred for so great a number of people to be filled with new wine; therefore "these are not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but filled with the Spirit." "Drunkenness (whether it be the gross vice of the inebriate, or the internal vice of the fanatic) darkens the mind; but in these men the mind is clear, and their glance penetrates the mysteries of the divine word and ways (ver. 16). Drunkenness enchains the passions; but these men continue to be gentle and self-possessed" (ver. 14). "As ye think," or assume, is the Spirit's method of bearing testimony against mistaken mockery! "In this assumed explanation of these phenomena you are mistaken." It is due to God and His work calmly to explain where our conduct may appear doubtful and be likely to do injury to the cause of Christ, but it would be wrong to vindicate ourselves. If we are true to the honor of our Lord, we may confidently leave the keeping of our character in His holy hands.
"Be this known unto you" looks onwards to the course and consummation of the apostle's address (14-39). This form of expression occurs four times in the Acts of the Apostles (2:14; 4:10; 13:38; 28:28).
1st, "Be it known unto you that God hath made that Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ" (2:36).
2nd, "Be it known unto you that all power in heaven and on earth—power to heal and power to save—is in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead"—"the Stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is now become the head of the corner" (4:10-12).
3rd, "Be it known unto you that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Hira all who believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" (13:38, 39).
4th, "Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it" (28:28).
SALVATION TO JEW AND GENTILE through a dead and risen and exalted Christ is the burden of the Acts of the Apostles: and "Be this known unto you" is the witness of the Spirit sent down from a glorified Christ.
4. THAT WHICH WAS SPOKEN BY THE PROPHET JOEL.—"But this is that which, was spoken through the prophet Joel (ver. 16). Then follows the positive explanation that this was not intoxication but inspiration, according to God's promise in a prophecy 800 years old: it is" being filled with the Spirit, and speaking as He gave them utterance.”
Luke gives us here the first sample of the preaching of the gospel by the apostles, with which the foundation of Christian preaching as well as of the Church itself appears to be closely connected. We, discover already in this first sermon all the peculiarities of apostolic preaching; it contains no reflections or deductions concerning the doctrine of Christ no proposition of new and unknown doctrines it simply and entirely consists of the proclamation of historic facts. The apostles appear here as the witnesses of that which they had seen, the resurrection of Jesus forming the central point of their testimony. It is true that in the after development of the Church it was impossible to confine preaching to this historical announcement only; it gradually became invested with the additional office of building up believers in knowledge. But nevertheless the simple testimony to the great works of God, as Peter here delivers it, should never be wanting in preaching to those whose hearts are not yet penetrated by the word of truth (Olshausen).
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in, those days of my Spirit: and they shall prophesy: And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth, beneath,; blood, and fine, and vapor of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on, the name of the Lord shall be saved" (vers. 17-21).
In addressing them as "men of Judea and inhabitants of Jerusalem" he keeps, in the first place, within narrower limits than he afterward goes to when he has the nation and its hopes before him, as in ver. 22, when he addresses them as "men of Israel;" for he is about to quote a portion of Joel's prophecy, and he takes exactly this ground of Peter's, for the Jews, properly so called, and Jews alone, stand in the foreground in Joel's prophecy: so admirably perfect is the word of God in every detail.
The point he presses upon them is this, that the outpouring of the Spirit with its attendant wonders was that for which one of their own prophets should have prepared them. "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;" it was not the complete fulfillment of the prediction, for the portentous things (not to be allegorized, as is done by Stier and others) accompanying the outpouring of the Spirit did net happen on the day of Pentecost; but Peter said not that it was the fulfillment of Joel, but "This is, that which, was spoken,;" it was of that nature. The outpouring of the Spirit was the portion of the prophecy referred to as answering the inquiry, "What meaneth this? or is this the effect of sweet wine?" No; this is of the character of that which was spoken by Joel. This is only the first-fruits of the Spirit “of my Spirit," (ἀπὸ), to make us" a kind of first-fruits of His creatures" (James 1:18); and the mighty literal fulfillment by the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh, and the blessing of Israel 1 and the whole world after the judgment of the nations, are yet in the future.
All that Peter gives us of Joel is the fact that the Spirit had been poured out. Neither the wonders nor sights attendant on the day of the Lord, nor the day itself, had yet come. Joel says "afterward;" but for that word Peter by the Spirit says "in the last days," and so takes in a distinct testimony. The restoration and blessing of the people will be before the outpouring, There was a remnant in the land at Pentecost, and on them the Spirit was poured out, with the warning of signs and wonders before the terrible day of the Lord comes; but, Israel rejecting this, Paul is called, and testifies to Christ the Son in heaven, which was the ground for the final resisting of the testimony of God by the Spirit in Stephen. The remnant of Jews became the nucleus of the Church of God for the heavens; and so the great and notable day of the Lord is in abeyance as long as the Church is here. A good writer on Joel says—
The gift of the Spirit in the days of Acts according to this prophecy, was not followed by those judgments on which the darkened sun and moon and the falling stars are thus solemnly to wait and to give witness. Such was not the history in Acts after the gift of the Spirit there. Why? Israel was not obedient. These judgments will be in favor of Israel. They will light upon the head of the oppressor, and close the day of Israel's tribulation. But they did not follow the gift of the Spirit in Acts 2. as they are spoken of in Joel 2.; and again I say because Israel was not then repentant and obedient. If ye will not believe, neither will ye be established,' is a standing oracle, in the case of the nations (Isa. 7:9). And being then unbelieving, refusing (even to the slaying of Stephen) the testimony of the then given Spirit, the nation was not delivered nor established.
The Spirit therefore given at that Pentecost led on in a very different direction. He became the baptizer of an elect people, Jewish or Gentile, into a body destined to heaven, and to be the bride of the Lamb in the day of the glory, when again the Spirit will be given. The remnant in Israel under that gift will be so led in faith, repentance, and obedience, as to let the full amount of this prophecy of Joel spend itself in the behalf of the nations.
But must say a little more on Joel 2. and Acts 2.
In what a profound and interesting manner the Spirit in an apostle fills out the word of the Spirit in a prophet! Many an instance of this could be given, as we generally know. But I am now looking only at Peter's commentary on Joel—that is, at Peter's word in. Acts 2. on Joel's word in chapter 2. Joel tells us of the Spirit, the river of God, as we will call it. He traces it in its course or current through the sons and daughters, the old men and the young men, the servants and handmaids of Israel; he speaks of it in its rich abundant flowing, and the fruitfulness it imparts.
Peter admits all this. In the day of Pentecost, as he was preaching at Jerusalem, he looks at that same river of God, charmed as it were at the wealth and fruitfulness of it, as it was at that moment under his eye, taking its course through God's assembly. But then he does more than this, and more than Joel had done. He traces this river backward and forward—backward to its sauce and forward to its mouth.
He traces it to its source, and does so very carefully. This occupies him in his discourse on this great occasion. He tells us of Jesus—ministering, crucified, risen, and ascended; how He had served in grace and power here on earth; how men with wicked hands had crucified Him; how God had raised Him from the dead; and how He was now exalted at the right hand of God in the heavens.
These things he proves diligently and carefully from Scripture, and then having thus followed the Lord Jesus through life and death, and the resurrection up to heaven, there in Him—the ascended I and glorified Man—he discovers the source of this mighty river.
He traces it likewise onward to the end or issue of its course. He tells us that it is to reach to the children of that generation, and also to all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord shall call.
What a commentary by an apostle on a prophet is this! What an enlargement of heart and understanding in the way of God is given to us in it! In what an affecting and yet" in what a wondrous and glorious way is Jesus brought in as having connection with the river of God! He becomes the source of it as soon as He who had once been the serving, crucified, rejected One, became the ascended One. Just as we learn from John 7. This same river is there tracked in its course through the bellies of the saints. But it is declared that it could not then begin to flow, for Jesus was not then glorified. Here, in Acts 2., it has begun to take its course, because Jesus has now been glorified.
"And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved" (verse 21)—that is, before that great and notable day of the Lord come; for when it has come, "all Israel shall be saved;" "for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call" (Joel 2:32). "Whosoever shall call" refers to such calling as this chapter records. The great facts of the outpouring of the Spirit, and the calling and salvation of the remnant, are here fixed on by the apostle. We have an example of this elective application or inchoate fulfilling of ancient predictions in Heb. 10:15-18. The portion of the prophecy that does not apply is quoted as well as that which does. "The Holy Ghost also is a witness to us" (here, to this one point)... "their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Here we have a precious application of Joel in the outpouring, prophesying, calling, salvation: "And it shall be that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved;" he shall escape the judgments coming on the nations by being made safe, and knowing JESUS as a risen Saviour he shall be saved from his sins (Matt. 1:21.) The whole of Joel 2. has yet to be fulfilled in detail in connection with the deliverance and blessing of God's ancient people; but we who believe have now a present Spirit and a free salvation!