Acts 2

Chapter 2. Pentecostal PowerThese men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:“In the last days, God says,I will pour out my Spirit on all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy,your young men will see visions,your old men will dream dreams.” (Acts 2:15-17)We have glanced at the great points that were to mark the beginning and close of the Christian age, the departing and the returning Lord, and touched upon the great event that stands between these two—the coming of the Holy Spirit to administer the dispensation until the Lord Jesus shall come again. The Holy Spirit was to fulfill the work that Christ left undone and to prepare the way for the greater work which Christ Himself is coming back some day to complete. The great theme of the Acts of the Apostles is the Holy Spirit’s coming and the power which He was to bring. The Importance of His Coming

1. Let us look first at the event itself, its magnitude, its stupendous importance and far-reaching power. What was it? It was something like the difference between the reign of David and the reign of Solomon. David came to lay the foundation for the work which Solomon followed to fulfill. When David had made his preparations he passed out of view and Solomon came to complete the work and rear that splendid temple. And so Jesus Christ in His earthly ministry had prepared the way for the building of His Church, the spiritual temple. Now He withdraws for a season from the scene, and the Holy Spirit comes to erect the edifice of the Church of God out of living stones. When this is done Jesus will come again to enter His temple and reign over it, even as David is coming back again in the millennial age to sit once more upon his throne. The event which this book of Acts records is nothing less than the actual descent of the Deity to this globe, the coming of the third Person of the Godhead, on a visitation of 2,000 years to one of the smallest orbs of space. It is a stupendous event. Jesus came to visit it as the Son of God for 33 years. Here we have a Divine Person just as great as Jesus—the Holy Spirit—leaving heaven, for He is no longer a resident there, and making His home on earth for 2,000 years. As a missionary might go to some leper hospital, to some outcast race, to some scene of barbarism and degradation, and, with his refinement and culture and higher tastes, settle down among these people and spend his lifetime—so this gentle, glorious Being, the Spirit of God, the Mind that made every mind in the universe, that garnished the heavens, made the beautiful stars, the glories of earth and all things that are lovely—the Holy Spirit—the Intelligence, the Executive of the Godhead, actually left heaven and moved down to this little planet and has been living upon it, making it His headquarters ever since that Pentecostal day. What Was the Difference of Pentecost? What was the difference between the Holy Spirit’s coming and His Old Testament manifestations? In the Old Testament He only came to certain persons, prominent leaders, to men called to be prophets or priests or kings and perform some distinguished service. He came to such and gave them special qualifications for their work. He did not come to the great mass of people. There is no single example of a slave or a person of lower stage in the Old Testament being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now we are told He will come to all flesh, even the handmaidens and slaves without distinction of sex, rank or education. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon them. On this day of Pentecost He came in them. He was with them, but now He enters and becomes part of the inner life of the one in whom He dwells. It is a presence not with us, but in us. Then again the Holy Spirit comes to us now for witnessing and service. The Jewish dispensation knew nothing of this. Their business was to keep the light among themselves and be exclusive and separate from the Gentiles. It is all different now. The Holy Spirit comes to spread the light, to make every man a reflector, a messenger and witness of Jesus Christ, and to expand and distribute this glorious gospel until it shall reach the uttermost parts of the earth. Then again the Holy Spirit often came upon a bad man like Saul, yet did not change Saul’s heart. He did not make Balaam a holy man. He gave power to these men for a purpose and an occasion. The Holy Spirit now comes to good men and to make men good. He comes for moral cleansing and quickening. He will not dwell in a heart that is willfully unholy. Once again, the Holy Spirit differs in this age from the past because He comes now as the Spirit of Jesus. In the Old Testament He came as the Deity, the Spirit of the Father, distant and mighty. Now He comes as the Spirit of the Son, as the gentle heart of Jesus, the One that wept in His tears, loved in His tenderness, suffered in His pains, sympathized in His compassion. Now the Holy Spirit is the very embodiment and expression of the love and sweetness of the Christ of Galilee. The Time of His Coming
2. The day of Pentecost was the time He chose for His descent. It was a special day. He did not vaguely drift into time, but there was a line of demarcation, a point of contact, an instant when He entered this planet and settled in this world as His abiding home. There are reasons why He should not have come before. There were reasons why He should come then. The day of Pentecost was a Jewish feast of little interest to the Gentiles, but intensely interesting to Israel. Their ecclesiastical year was divided into 12 months, seven calendar months and five left blank because God did not give them a full plan of all the ages. The rest is to be filled up when He comes again. The ecclesiastical year began with the Passover, which stands for Calvary, where all our eras begin. Then came Pentecost in the next month. That is the second chapter of Church history. The Holy Spirit comes after Calvary also in the individual experience. Later came the Feast of Trumpets implying testimony for Christ, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month representing the coming of the Lord. The Feast of Pentecost was specially the one which celebrated the beginning of their harvest. The Feast of Tabernacles represented the full harvest. Then Pentecost was also the anniversary of the law. It was on that very day that Moses gathered Israel around Mount Sinai, God came out in majesty and gave His law with His thunders and lightnings and they stood trembling and entered into the covenant of works with Him. Now the Holy Spirit comes on that anniversary because the Holy Spirit is the new law of the Christian. The old law was written on stone. The new law is written on the tablets of the heart. The old law was outside, while the new law is put within you as an instinct and intuition of your being, something that is part of your very nature. “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel…. This is the covenant… I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31, Jeremiah 31:33). Therefore the Holy Spirit came on the anniversary of the law that He might be to us, instead of the words of Sinai, the mere sense of duty which will never make anybody good. Pentecost was the feast of the first harvest—so the Holy Spirit comes to bring the first harvest of the earth. That is the key to the whole missionary question. God is not saving the world, but He is saving the first sheaves out of the world. We are sent, not to convert everybody, but to gather out of the nations a people for His name. We must not wonder if nine out of every 10 refuse the gospel. We must not be disappointed if results seem limited. It is a selective age, only every man makes the selection for himself. God gives everybody the call, and “all who were appointed for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). God sends us to gather samples of the nations, and do not think that God is disappointed or the Holy Spirit is baffled if the great mass of our countrymen are going on the broad road to ruin. They have been going and will keep on going all through the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is the gospel of first fruits. There is another beautiful thing about this. In Leviticus 23, God is describing the way they are to keep the Passover, and also the Feast of Pentecost. He tells them that in the Passover they are to eat unleavened bread because it represents the spotless Lamb of God, leaven standing for human imperfection. After the Passover they had a wave offering of a sheaf, marking the first sheaf of harvest. Then they counted 50 days to Pentecost, and when that came it was celebrated by two loaves waved and also given to God for His food. But those loaves were baked with leaven, the only instance where leaven was allowed in the Levitical ceremony. Why? Surely it teaches that the Holy Spirit would not stay away from us even if we were still poor, imperfect disciples; that the Holy Spirit would come to Peter with his imperfection, and to Thomas with his doubting heart. In other words, you don’t need to wait until you are faultless and sinless to receive the Holy Spirit. There is a kind of teaching about sanctification, telling people they must get sanctified and all right themselves, and then the Holy Spirit will come. If you can get ready for the Holy Spirit without Him, you can get along without Him afterwards. You have to have Him to make you ready and to make you right. You must have Him come down to where you are, “outside the camp” (Hebrews 13:11-13), and take you in. It is He that sanctifies, and sanctification is not a man all cleaned up himself and saying “Blessed Holy Spirit, I am all right and I will be glad to have your company.” It is your coming as a poor leper and handing yourself over to Him. The Holy Spirit will take a poor sinner just as graciously as the Savior. And He will never leave you until He has you white and spotless, “without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). That is the meaning of the old Levitical Feast of Pentecost where the loaves had the leaven in them; but God took them and undertook to take the leaven out of them. Don’t wait until you have yourself adjusted; come as you are. Take Him to be the First and the Last, for “he is able also to save them,” from the uttermost, “to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Hebrews 7:25). Their Preparation for His Coming
3. There was preparation for this great event. “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1). Rotherham translates it thus: “While the day of Pentecost was being filled up they were all in one place with one object.” They were not there at the moment only. They came all the week and were ready because they had been there. It wasn’t keeping appointments with God and just sparing one hour out of seven days for His service. It was a time of daily waiting. They were there 10 days and were ready, and that was why He came. They were “all in one place with one object.” They took pains to get everything fixed up. They had a sort of housecleaning. Some think Peter was all right in proposing to elect an apostle in place of Judas. It seems, however, as if God ignored Peter’s apostle. You never hear of him again. He paid no attention to this new apostle, but He chose Paul a little later when he was ready. John speaks of only 12 apostles of the Lamb in Revelation. Peter tried to get everything adjusted. God help us to do the same. Supernatural Signs of His Coming
4. There were some signs and accompaniments of His coming. We are told there was some kind of a sound, “a sound like the blowing of a violent wind” (Acts 2:2). There was no wind, but the sound of a wind. A little later we are told, “when this was noised abroad” (Acts 2:6), literally, “when the people heard the sound they came running together.” There was some strange supernatural voice, some supernatural demonstrations which they and all Jerusalem heard. It was like wind. Wind is one of the tokens and symbols of the Spirit. Wind, with its tremendous force, so destructive and often so helpful, stands for the Holy Spirit, the mightiest of powers. Again the symbol of fire is implied in the tongues which sat upon them. They seem to have appeared like intoxicated men. They were lifted by a divine stimulus to a higher plane. So the apostle says, “Do not get drunk on wine,… Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Further the tongues suggest that it was their voices He was to change and use. Effects of His Coming
5. There were the effects of His coming. It was in general supernatural power. He came to give them a force stronger than sin, disease, Satan or the spirit of popular opinion and the willfulness of the human will, power to make things move; to lift this world and place it in its true orbit around the throne of God. Let us look at these signs of power. a. The Gift of Tongues This was the first of the Pentecostal signs, and the first to disappear. b. Power of Testimony It was not merely the voice, but the message that they spoke had strange power in it. They told about Jesus, His resurrection and coming, and many were stirred, convicted and saved. If you have received the Holy Spirit you are able to speak for God, perhaps not magnificent words, but loving, living words. c. Power of Conviction Again it was the power of supernatural conviction, a power that rested on the audience quite apart from the power in the message or the speaker. This is the greatest mark of the Holy Spirit’s presence. Oh, for the power that brings people face to face with God, and holds them by a spell that we may not see, but God sees. Ask God for the power of conviction, so that every time the voice of the gospel is uttered there shall be stricken hearts, even as we are told of them that many were cut to the heart and said, “Brothers, what shall we do” (Acts 2:37)? Will you look for that kind of power; and when you hear no shouts or tears, take the mighty God to move upon the people as a great electric current that will thrill them to their consciences and bring them to their knees? It is power from on high. Not power from the man, but power that comes from God every time. d. Power of Supernatural Boldness The men were awed when they saw the boldness of these timid, uneducated fishermen, and they marveled and said “these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). They had courage and authority to speak, knowing God is behind. e. Power of Healing We find right away the power of the Spirit began to touch men’s bodies, and the next morning the lame man at the gate Beautiful sprang to his feet leaping and praising God because the Holy Spirit had come. Then each new stage was marked by some manifestation of healing. When they went to Samaria the people were healed and the attention of the multitude was attracted. Peter went to Joppa and Lydda and the people there were healed. Then Paul started out on his missionary journey and the people were healed all along the way. Each new stage seemed to be marked with a new manifestation of the healing power of God. f. Power of Holiness Best of all was the power of holiness, for the Holy Spirit does not come to make men great, but He comes to make you real and true first, and then let your life reflect its reality and power on others. Therefore we are told “much grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). Their lives were beautiful. There was power over selfishness and sin and there was the power of love. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. (Acts 2:46-47) No one could say a word against them. “No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own” (Acts 4:32). God taught the Jew all through the Old Testament that property was a sign of God’s blessing, prosperity in temporal things was the sign of God’s approval, and there was no instinct so strong in the Jews as that of possession. But now they reckoned themselves as trustees, holding it for God. That was power, and it is real still when it works that way. If your consecration and blessing have not opened your purse strings and made it a joy to give to God you have not much of the Holy Spirit. Communism was established at Pentecost. It was simply the overflow of hearts in a beautiful spectacle of unselfishness. Later all the social boundaries were recognized and Peter clearly intimated that every man had a right to do with his money as he wished. Communism is not, therefore, Christianity. Back of it is the bigger thing—love that gives up your rights when anybody else is wronged by your rights. Love is the law of the New Testament, and while love does not lead to communism, it will lead to sacrifice and live out John Wesley’s famous sermon on practical love, which was:
6. Get all you can.
7. Save all you can.
8. Give all you can. g. Power of Guidance Again, it was the power of guidance, the power that led men in the right way. You can trace this through the Acts of the Apostles. See Him leading Philip to the desert to meet the eunuch. So He will lead you to the mission field. See Him leading Paul on that marvelous journey to Rome when everything conspired to stop him. A man with his hand in the hand of God, a woman grasping infinite power and wisdom as her protection, is safe. The Holy Spirit is strong enough to lead you safely and will not leave you until He has done all that He has spoken of. h. Power of Providence There is nothing that impresses one more in this book of Acts than the power of providence; that is, the power of the Holy Spirit in men’s hearts to change circumstances. If God is on the throne inside your heart, as you go forth the winds and waves obey Him and the passions of men subside, the perils of earth and hell fall back and you live a charmed life because the Holy Spirit is upon the throne. You will find this all in the Acts of the Apostles. We see Peter in prison and the curtain falls on the darkest drama. Tomorrow is Passover and the appetite of the brutal mob is whetted for a feast, for Herod has told them they shall have Peter’s blood. But God had not been consulted. Oh, how mighty that little “but” in the beginning of the chapter. “Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (Acts 12:5). At midnight the prison door swung open and a shining guide is by the side of Peter, and he goes forth into liberty. Before yonder sun goes down Herod is seized with an awful pain and dies convulsed in terrible agony. Many a time since has God worked the same. There was a day when the sultan of Turkey said that on that very day Christianity should be banished from his dominion, and every Christian found without having recanted must be put to death. But on that very day, less than a century ago, there was a strange panic yonder in Constantinople, for the Sultan was dying, and ere the sun went down on that fated day the Sultan was dead. The heart that is filled with the Holy Spirit can walk safely amid arrows and whirlwinds and death, for “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). i. Power to Suffer Finally there is power to suffer, power to be sweet amid wrong and persecution, to stand like Stephen when they gnashed upon him with their teeth, and made them gnash the more when they saw his face like an angel and they dared not look upon him, power like him to say, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). That was the mightiest power of the Holy Spirit, a power to be gently victorious even in suffering, and to stand with the Master in the garden and judgment hall. j. Power of Salvation But we must close the picture. Perhaps the most glorious power of all was the power of salvation, for Peter, quoting that prophecy of Joel, says, “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21). When the Holy Spirit comes it is so easy to be saved. If you are not saved, come while the door is open and the Lord is nigh. You have only to call. The work is done. Salvation is ready. The Spirit is here. We have spoken about the earlier experiences of the Holy Spirit. There is not time to dwell on the fact that there were several later outpourings of the Spirit even in Pentecostal times. So He is not exhausted when He first comes. But, dear child of God, He has many times of refreshing for you. Have you got your baptism for today? Have you got the filling of the Spirit? He will come to the leavened loaf, but, oh, He comes to take the leaven out and sanctify you wholly and fill you so full that there will be no room for self, the world or sin. God help you to take it in His way. Once again, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was not meant for higher Christians only. Peter says, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). It is for the youngest Christian, and indeed, no soul should leave the altar of salvation until it has been sealed with the Spirit and taught to say: Let the water and the blood, From Thy riven side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure, Cleanse me from its guilt and power.