But the great subject of which we have spoken, now comes before our view: the immense fact of the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell with the disciples of Jesus, in each, and in the midst of all together. Thus in 1 Cor. 3:1616Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16), the Church, as a universal assembly, is the temple of God; and then in 1 Cor. 6:1919What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19), the body of the believer is the temple of God. All those who, attached to Jesus, were in the habit of being gathered together, were, on the day of Pentecost, so gathered. We have already seen (ch. 1:14) that they continued in supplication while they were waiting for the promised Comforter according to Jesus’ word.
Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, as the cloud filled the tabernacle, so that the priests could not enter into it (comp. Ex. 40:3535And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. (Exodus 40:35), 1 Kings 8:1111So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. (1 Kings 8:11)). But now men themselves form the tabernacle, where God does not disdain to dwell. The blood of Jesus has purified them, and made them fit to be the habitation of God by the Spirit (εν πνευματι). Eph. 2:2222In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22). Marvelous truth, fruit of accomplished redemption, and the blessed knowledge of this, that a man—much more than a man—is seated at the right hand of God (John 7:3939(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:39)). But how beautiful is this truth, this divine fact. Such is the effect of the death and of the blood of Christ, and of our reconciliation and purification through Him—that, instead of driving away the priests by His presence, God makes of us His habitation in grace. What a contrast between the law and the gospel!
But we further find in this fact a marvelous testimony of the grace of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit was dependent on this that the man. Jesus was seated at the right hand of God, proof and fruit of the accomplishment of the work of redemption. Now this could not be limited to the Jewish people. This presence of the Spirit was in itself a testimony of fulfillment of this, and the earnest of our inheritance, Christ having died for all and ascended into the glory, the gospel of His glory must be proclaimed to all. For the moment the patience of God fulfilled the work of grace amongst the Jews—the people of the promises; but the gospel which was preached was for the whole world.
When the judgment of God fell on men at the tower of Babel, it scattered them, confounding their language; then He called out Abraham, separating him from his country and from his family, in order to have a race, and then a people for Himself. For many years God bore with the iniquity and unbelief of the people, sending prophets, “till there was no remedy” (2 Chron. 36:1616But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:16)). Last of all He sent His son, and Him as we know they refused and crucified. Then the nation is set aside until by the sovereign grace of God, His Church, the fullness of the Gentiles, is gathered; then He commences anew with the people on the ground of the new covenant and of the presence of the Messiah on earth.
Meanwhile He is gathering the co-heirs of Christ, the heavenly assembly. Thus, though for a moment the Spirit had wrought in the midst of the Jews, spared as a nation by the intercession of Christ on the cross, until they would have rejected a glorified Christ in the same way they had put to death Christ come in humiliation; and likewise to gather out all those from amongst them who had ears to hear—is shown by the Spirit, that the God of grace was to go beyond the limits of the chosen people, and to overreach the judgment of Babel, speaking to all peoples, each in their tongue. Most beautiful testimony of grace towards the world!
The barriers remain, but God surmounts them; He passes over all to announce the grace of the Saviour, and the salvation of the whole world. We see too this special gift each time God interferes anew, as in Samaria, and in the house of Cornelius. In fact, it was not possible that a glorified Saviour could be only the Jewish Saviour. The history of this people, when they had rejected the Saviour, had ended, except for grace; and God’s eternal redemption could not be for the Jews alone.
The character which the Holy Spirit visibly takes corresponds to this work. When He descended upon Christ, the Spirit was like a dove; symbol of the sweetness and gentle rest that are found in Him, of whom it is written: “He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory” (Matt. 12:19-2019He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. 20A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. (Matthew 12:19‑20)). But to the disciples, it is said: “What I tell you in darkness, that speak you in light: and what you hear in the ear, that preach you upon the housetops!” (Matt. 10:2727What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. (Matthew 10:27).)
The Spirit then comes as a rushing mighty wind, filling all the house, and like cloven tongues of fire. The division of the tongues symbolized the various languages; the fire, the piercing power of the Word of God, discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It seems to us that not only the apostles, but all the 120 were invested with this power; they were all together, and the explanation of the prophecy of Joel given by Peter confirms the fact (see ch. 1:14, 15; 2:1, 17). They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and commenced to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were at Jerusalem men from all countries, and the rumor of what had happened brought them together. This vast crowd was astonished at hearing each speak in his own tongue, saying one to another, “Are not all these which speak Galileans and how hear we every man in our own tongue, &c.?” They were in doubt, saying “What does this mean?” Others, mocking, said, “These men are full of new wine.” These were specially the Jews, ever prone to unbelief.
Peter replies, speaking plainly to them in their mother tongue, and makes them understand that this was what Joel had spoken, announcing what was to take place in the last days. One gathers from Joel, I doubt not, that the Holy Spirit will be poured out afresh when Israel will be re-established in their own country. The latter rain will then be. It must be remarked that ver. 30 of ch. 2 of Joel comes before what precedes. These things happen before the dreadful day of the Lord comes, but the blessings are after that day. Peter speaks in a general way of “the last days,” and speaks of the judgment as yet to come, as was in fact the case.
But what is important in his discourse, is the presentation to the consciences of the Jews of their actual position. Because, whatever grace there be, God is always clear and distinct in the declaration and exposing of sins, where grace works. In fine, such was their position; they had rejected and crucified Him whom God had seated at His right hand, His own Son. They had put Him to death and God had raised Him again on high, that He might be proved such according to the power manifested in His works. Horrible position! and we say it, not only of the Jews, but of men. Their Messiah, foundation of all their hopes, rejected; the Son of God put to death—a breach between them and God that seemed irreparable, and on man’s side in fact was irreparable.
All was lost, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and men had refused Him. Sin was there, transgression of the law had been there already; God had come in grace, and man would not have Him. Now He was gone into heaven; but blessed be His name forever, His counsels were not frustrated. Very far from that, they were accomplished. Grace had conquered; and there, where man had manifested his enmity against God, God had manifested His love towards men, and accomplished the work whereby He saves those who believe in Christ. “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and ‘by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” God has made use of the wickedness and hatred of men to accomplish the work of redemption. Man’s hatred and God’s love met together in the same act on the cross, with the glorious manifestation of the fact that His love outreaches and super-abounds over man’s hatred. Woe be to the man who neglects or rejects this immense grace—this work alone efficacious for salvation!
Finally Peter declares that God has raised Christ from the dead (v. 24), full proof that His righteousness was satisfied; on account of the work the Saviour had accomplished, He had raised Him to His own right hand, glorifying the One who had glorified Him (John 13:31, 32; 17:4, 531Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. (John 13:31‑32)
4I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 5And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. (John 17:4‑5)); a testimony to the value of His work, of what He deserved through it, and of the glory (save His seat at the right hand of the Father, which belongs to Him as the only-begotten Son) which He has acquired for us; and having received of the Father the promised Spirit He sent Him, the effect of which they saw and heard. And He must sit there in heaven until His enemies are made His footstool.
Remark here, what we have already observed, that Christ exalted as man to the right hand of God, has received the Holy Spirit afresh to give Him to believers (vv. 33, 34). God dwells with men only in consequence of redemption. He did not dwell with Adam innocent, nor with Abraham: but as soon as Israel was delivered from the bondage of Egypt by means of redemption, though in an external manner, God came to dwell in the cloud in the midst of the people, and His glory filled the tabernacle (Ex. 29:4646And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord their God. (Exodus 29:46)). So in a manner less visible, but much more precious, eternal redemption being accomplished. He now dwells in the person of the Holy Spirit in the midst of His people. And Christ being glorified as a man, testimony of the accomplishment and of the full effect of this glorious redemption, He receives the Spirit promised by the Father, and sheds Him forth upon His own.
The Spirit unites them to Him, each individually, and gives them the consciousness of being sons of the Father; and He is the Power that works in believers to glorify Christ down here, and to work in the accomplishment of the counsels of God in His assembly, until it will be caught up to be with Jesus, and like Him in the glory. The believer, and the assembly universal (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:1516Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16)
15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. (1 Corinthians 6:15); Eph. 2:2222In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22)), are both a temple where the Holy Spirit dwells. Grace has conquered; God dwells there where the work and blood of Christ have made it possible for Him to do so in a world that has rejected Him.
The house of Israel (and later on the world of the Gentiles) must know assuredly by this proof that God had made the man Jesus, whom Israel had rejected, both Lord and Christ. Pricked to the heart, those who heard this, and perceiving their horrible position in having rejected the Christ, asked, “What shall we do?” But as soon as this effect of the operation of the Spirit took place in their hearts, it was easy to give the answer. The work of salvation was accomplished; Christ had been given for their sins; purgation for them was already made; they had only to repent, and to own the Saviour in order to have the remission of their sins; and, baptized in His name (whereby He would be owned in His death) for salvation, they would receive the Holy Spirit. Because the promise was to them and to their children, and to as many as the Lord God would call.
All those, then, who willingly received the word, were baptized, and three thousand persons were added. It is necessary here to distinguish between the work of grace and the Holy Spirit in the heart, in order to make Christ be received, and the gift of the Spirit when we have received Him as the Saviour, and as the means for the remission of our sins. The Spirit works in us, makes us feel our sins, the need of a Saviour and of the blood of Christ; and after we have believed in His work on the cross, we are sealed by God through the gift of the Holy Spirit, which comes to dwell in us. We have the same thing in the prodigal son in Luke 15. The work of God is wrought in the far country, and he sets out to go to his father uncertain of how he will be received. The work of God was in him; he had repented, confessed his sins, and spoke of being a hired servant in his father’s house. He was not yet clothed in the best robe, nor had he the ring on his hand, nor the shoes on his feet. He meets his father in his rags, only he dares not speak of being a hired servant, from the moment that his father had fallen on his neck, kissing him; nor was it any longer opportune to do so, though he might confess his sins. He was not still fit to enter into the house; his rags did not suit the house of God: but he was clad in the best robe, Christ Himself, (a robe which never was part of what his father had given him, which did not belong to Adam in innocence), and he is fit to enter the house with all the honor the father could put upon him. He has the consciousness of being owned as son, and of having the father’s favor.
It is the same thing with the soul. The Holy Spirit works in us, produces wants, we are born of God; and then convinced of sin we find Christ the Saviour, and by Him the remission of our sins forever; and then we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. “Because ye are sons,” says the apostle, “God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:66And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6)). Then is true liberty, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Our bodies have become temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:1919What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)).
It is very important then to distinguish between the operation of the Holy Spirit which produces faith, giving power to the word in the heart and conscience, and the dwelling of the Spirit in us, the consequence and seal of the faith which we have. It is one thing to build a house, and another thing to dwell there when it is built. But what sort of people ought we to be in holiness of consecration, seeing that we are born of God, and that the Holy Spirit dwells in our bodies as a temple? The fruits of His presence manifest themselves in the most beautiful manner. Here it is not the power that brings the word of God to the consciences of those who are in the world, telling of Christ, of grace, of salvation; it is a power above self, destroying self-love; actual in love, thinking of others, rather than thinking of self.
Most beautiful is the picture that the Spirit gives of the moral effects of this indwelling of the Spirit in the heart. These effects were of two kinds—piety, the religious effect, and then practical love between the disciples. In the first place, steadfastness in the truth and in the communion of the apostles—they remained attached to those who were the channels of the testimony of God to their hearts, who were true ambassadors of God; there was true unity wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit, of which the apostles were the vessels;—and besides, in the continual remembrance of the death of Christ, in that which was also the expression of a more extended unity, that of the whole body of Christ. They broke bread together, and likewise continued steadfast in prayers. Beautiful realization and expression of the unity of the Spirit; putting an end in this respect to all differences, because, by the power of the Spirit, all hearts were lifted up above all circumstances, and above the things of this base world. Their hearts were not down here, but with Christ at the right hand of God in heaven.
Those who believed through the word of the apostles were one in the Father and in the Son, according to John 17:2121That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21). The effect of this power that overruled all human feelings made itself felt in the world around them—a holy fear filled all hearts. The world recognized that there was displayed a power which was not of this world, but which raised hearts above the motives which governed it. The presence of God among the disciples was felt by all; and besides that, miracles and mighty signs wrought by the hands of the apostles were manifested; God was there in the person of the Holy Spirit according to the promise of Jesus.
In the second place, practical love was fully realized. They were all together as brethren, the family of God; all the members of the family participated in the Father’s goods, one as well as the other; none said, “This is mine.” If one had more than another, he possessed the privilege of love, of giving to him who had need. But this was not forced, it was not the right of the one who was in need, otherwise it would not have been the fruit of love. “While it remained was it not thine own,” says Peter, “and after it was sold was it not in thine own power?” No, it was the fullness of love, which perceived the debt according to divine love, of not leaving in want a brother-as himself a child of God. It was the free activity of love produced by the powerful operation of the Spirit of God. As soon as this becomes obligatory it has lost all its virtue, all its nature. To seize from the property of others is not to give. The one is self-love, the other divine love to others. The thought of making it obligatory shows that divine love is not there.
But to return to our subject. What a magnificent picture of the state of the primitive assembly of Christians of the assembly of God, as He founded it at the beginning; to think of others and not of self-divine love filling human hearts. It is quite possible that this cannot be literally realized now; Christians are entirely scattered; there are no apostles at whose feet they can lay down their gifts and possessions; but the true Christian can work perfectly well according to the principles which filled the hearts of these blessed members of Christ. The Word of God supposes the existence of rich and poor (1 Tim. 6:17-1917Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; 18That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; 19Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. (1 Timothy 6:17‑19)). But this does not hinder me from using all I possess, as a steward of God, in love for the good of Christ’s members. The responsibility of a man to maintain his family remains always valid; but what can be done in love the faithful Christian is bound to do; and what he possesses of the good things of the earth, as entrusted to him by God, he ought to give for the good of all, and especially for the family of God.
But brotherly love was not all. Hearts were bound together in the worship of God. At this time Gentiles were not yet introduced into the assembly; and the disciples, as Jews, always followed their old customs. The patience of God still maintained the Jewish system, while gathering out from amongst the people those who were to be saved. God was about to remove Judaism from the earth, and to transfer the remnant of the Gentiles, whom grace added to the faith, to the Christian assembly. They united, as yet, Jewish and Christian worship: they went to the temple to worship Jehovah with one consent daily: then they broke bread in their own houses: they took the Supper every day in full confidence of the love of God. They eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, always praising God, and finding favor with all the people.
The fruits of the Holy Spirit, and the manifestation of His power frequently attract the hearts of the people; and then God opens a door for the word, and the hearts of some are truly converted. Still, the acceptance of the testimony is not the same thing as the conversion of the soul. The crowd who followed Jesus afterward cried, “Crucify him.” But this favor generally stops opposition for the moment, and those who have ears to hear increase in the knowledge of the truth. The truth is only truly received through grace; but the fruits of the Spirit work powerfully on the natural heart. Everyone can understand love and self-abnegation, and God makes use of them to spread the gospel.