Acts 2.1 The promise of the Father

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. There appeared unto them cloven tongs like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongs as the Spirit gave them utterance. There were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. Amen.

I'd be grateful if you'll have your Bibles open at the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. And you will remember, that is those of you who regularly meet with us on a Sunday morning, that we're engaged in a series of studies from this fifth book of the New Testament. And today I want to address you on the promise of the Father.

We shall be coming back on two or three occasions to look at this second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, particularly fastening our attention on the first 13 verses. But it will be sufficient for today for us just to evaluate generally all that we find in this opening passage of the second chapter. And sometimes when one is dealing with a large extractive of Scripture, the best way to approach it is to find what I would call a praese verse, and to focus your attention particularly on that.

And from the praese verse to work out the implications that are gathered up in the words that you find in that text, I would suggest to you that such a verse is the 33rd of Acts chapter 2. So let me read it to you. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. That verse actually comes towards the end of the first sermon that the Apostle Peter preached.

He was making his debut as a preacher in Jerusalem. How did he come to preach? Well, you see, the disciples and their friends had been gathered together in an upper room, a prayer meeting that had spanned 10 days. And remarkable things happened on the 10th day, the culmination of the prayer meeting.

The Holy Spirit descended in great power. Now, it so happened that the end of that prayer meeting coincided with a Jewish feast, the Feast of Pentecost. And there were many pilgrims in Jerusalem at that time, Jews who were not resident in Palestine, Jews that we call members of the dispersion, being dispersed throughout the Roman Empire.

They had decided that they must be at Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost. And so many of these pilgrims were thronging the streets, the bazaars, and in the temple area on this particular occasion. The day of Pentecost.

And it so happened that when the disciples and their friends were filled with the Holy Spirit, that these people were around and were aware that something phenomenal had happened. And so they came to the place where the early Christians were, and they were confronted with rather a surprising scene. The early Christians were praising God.

In languages that they had not learned. They were speaking of the wonderful works of God in the native languages of the Jews from the dispersion in the countries where they lived. And yet it was evident to the spectators that the languages that these Christians were speaking were ones that they did not naturally know.

Great phenomena had accompanied the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. There'd been the rushing mighty wind and the cloven tongues of fire. And as I say, this ability, this God-granted ability to praise the Lord in unknown languages.

That is, languages unknown on the part of the ones who spoke. So this was the reason why Peter had such a large congregation on the first attempts that he makes to preach. Their interest had been excited.

Something remarkable had happened in Jerusalem. Of this they were aware. So they came together, and they wanted to inquire into this phenomenon.

Indeed, by the time that they all congregated, some of them had rationalized upon the event. They'd got their own solution to what had caused this particular noise. You read in the 12th and 13th verses what they were saying.

Some came to the conclusion that these people were drunk. These men are full of new wine. But Peter determined that he is going to offset their allegation that he and his friends are drunk.

And so he starts to preach his first sermon, in which he explains just what has happened. He tells the people who've congregated together, these Jews of the dispersion, that the noise, the ability to speaking tongues, the rushing mighty wind, the cloven tongues of fire that have fallen, all this has come about because in an unprecedented fashion, God has made himself known at Jerusalem. And I say that Peter's sermon is largely summed up.

His explanation of the phenomenon is preceded in this 33rd verse. Peter, addressing these Jewish pilgrims, has this to say, that Jesus, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. So Peter, I say, explains what has happened to the hundreds of people who gather together to inquire into this phenomenon.

So let's examine our verse in some detail and see what it has to teach us about the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And the first thing that I want to arrest your attention with is this. The expression contained in my text, which refers to the Holy Spirit in terms of the promise of the Holy Ghost.

The promise of the Holy Ghost. This, says Peter, is what has happened. We 120 Christian people, we followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, have received the promise of the Holy Ghost.

And you might well recall an expression which is quite similar, which the Lord Jesus Christ used on the occasion when he was taking his leave from the disciples. There were the little group of men with the Lord at the summit of the Mount of Olives, and the Lord Jesus Christ was telling them that they had to wait in Jerusalem for, and I'm quoting Acts chapter one and verse four at the moment, they were to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, which saith the Lord Jesus, ye have heard of me. The promise of the Father.

This is how the Lord Jesus referred to the gift of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, you could say that the two terms are synonymous in scripture, the gift of the Holy Ghost and the promise of the Father. Now, I think these terms are very interesting, and it's most important that we understand what is meant by them.

Peter says that on the day of Pentecost, we Christian people have received the promise of the Father. We have received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Do you know when you first read of that term in the Bible? Well, it's in the Old Testament.

There are several references in the prophetic scriptures, and particularly important is one that you find in the prophecy of Joel, the second chapter and the 28th verse. Joel is speaking for the Lord, and the Lord promises in anticipation what will happen at Jerusalem on one occasion in the future. It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

Your old men shall see dreams, and your young men shall see visions. The promise of the Father, I say, is embedded in the Old Testament scriptures. There are other passages that are interesting for referring to.

Take, for example, Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10. Again, the prophet, as Joel, speaking in the name of the Lord and anticipating the events on the day of Pentecost, I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications. Here, then, you see two examples in the Old Testament of God promising that one day the Holy Spirit shall come into this world in an unprecedented fashion.

Ordinary people shall know of the indwelling, of the infilling, of the third person of the ever-blessed Trinity. Now, this teaching, well embedded in the Old Testament, is developed by our Lord Jesus Christ, for he will have his disciples understand something of the doctrine of the Spirit, not only academically but also experimentally. And you may recall on one occasion how the Savior encourages the disciples to engage in intercessory prayer, to bring their needs before their Heavenly Father.

And particularly is the Lord Jesus at pains to encourage the disciples to ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit. He says that on the ordinary level, as he encourages them, if a child asked his father for a good gift, then the father would indeed give to his child that which he was asking. So argues the Lord Jesus, if ye, then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? You see the point.

The Lord Jesus is latching this teaching of his unto the Old Testament teaching. And he is forecasting, anticipating the occasion when the disciples together, along with their colleagues, shall wait upon the Lord, beseeching him to fulfill his promise, beseeching him that they might know this indwelling, this divine insurgence of power into their lives. So we see in the Old Testament and in the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ this expectation that one day men and women shall know of this blessed baptism in God's Holy Spirit.

You find the term, the promise of the Father, again referred to in the last chapter of Luke's Gospel. And what the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost, as he makes his debut as a preacher, is doing is really this. He's underlining the fact that God keeps his word, that God keeps his word.

He made a promise. The Lord Jesus Christ underlined the promise and now says the Apostle Peter, I can testify, indeed all of us here can testify, that the promise that God made in Old Testament days, the promise that the Lord Jesus Christ has made, it has been realized and we have benefited by the realization of that promise which God the Father and God the Son have given. My friend, it's very important, I think, for us today to understand this, that God has not abrogated his promise.

He never goes back upon his word. The gifts and callings of God, they are without repentance. And when a man claims the promises of God, be they for conversion, be they for an endowment of power, then he can be assured, in the 20th century, God will still honor his promises.

The Bible says, ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. The promises of God are as valid for us today as they were to the disciples in the early days of the Christian church. So, we see from this Tracy text of the first sermon of Peter, the significance of this phrase, the promise of the Holy Ghost.

Peter recognizes and testifies before these Jewish pilgrims that God has kept his word. And this is really what has happened. This is the reason why they have been drawn together to ask questions about the phenomena that has been experienced at Jerusalem.

It is God keeping his word and granting the promise that he made a long time ago. But also in my text, references made, if you please, to the manifestation of the Holy Ghost. Says the apostle, we have received the father, the promise of the Holy Ghost.

He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. Focus your attention for a moment upon the verb, he hath shed forth. For this is the manner in which Peter describes the giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

God has shed this forth. He has shed it abroad. That's the word that the apostle Paul uses when he's speaking of the love of God.

Shed abroad, in our hearts. You get exactly the same verb used in the letter that Paul writes to Titus in the third chapter and the fourth and fifth verses. The apostle is specifically referring to the gift of the Holy Spirit, verses five and six.

He says this, that you have known the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he, God, hath shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our savior. Shedding abroad, shedding forth. The idea of this is pouring out.

It means a free flow, if you like, an inundation. God has given the Holy Spirit, says the apostle Peter, and he should know what he's talking about because he received this gift. God has given the Holy Spirit on a liberal basis.

It's just like a fountain of water that has been gushing up within his heart. This is precisely what the Lord Jesus taught the disciples concerning the Spirit when he was given. It shall be as living waters that gush up from your innermost being and flow out.

It reminds one on reflection of the testimony of Charles Finney when he was describing an experience which he rated as the baptism of the Spirit. He spoke of waves of liquid love, which poured over and over his soul in such a degree, to such a quality, that Finney had to ask the Lord to stay his hand. Well, it appears to me that Finney was not wrong in so describing his experience.

This seems to coincide with what the apostle Peter is saying when he speaks of what he had experienced himself on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost being poured forth by the Lord Jesus Christ, the indwelling of the Spirit coming into the experience of the disciples. You remember the chorus that our Sunday school boys and girls sometimes sing, my cup's full and running over. Well, this is what Peter and the rest of the apostolic band have known, their cup full and running over with the power, with the infilling of the Holy Ghost.

And when a man realizes the promise of the Father, he's exuberant. He will do certain things that perhaps on the natural level he's not disposed to do. He's provoked to praise God.

And this is precisely what you find with these early disciples. They speak the wonderful works of the Lord. They praise God for all his goodness is towards them.

Listen to what the spectators at this event have to say in the 11th verse. We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. Spirit fullness is always expressive.

This is the reason why at times of revival, men have always felt disposed to put their thoughts into songs, to sing spiritual hymns unto the Lord as is indicated, as is taught in the scriptures in Ephesians chapter 3. I say it's rather significant that in the 16th and 18th centuries, there was tremendous contributions made to the hymnology of the church as men expressed all that God had done for them in song. You get Isaac Watts, whose heart has been set aflame by the power of the Holy Spirit. And what does he do? Well, with his tremendous understanding of doctrine, he is able to wed his knowledge of God academically to his desire to praise God experimentally.

And the net result are some of the hymns that we sing even to this day composed by Isaac Watts, a man moved by, empowered by the Spirit of God, a man whose cup was full and running over. So this spirit intoxication, it transformed the early disciples. It made them into a praising and a worshiping community.

Listen to dear old Samuel Chadwick as he passes comment on the disciples at Pentecost, comparing their state to what it used to be like around the Easter weekend. Says Chadwick, the resurrection found the disciples shivering behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. But at Pentecost, they were openly preaching Jesus and charging the rulers with his death.

Pentecost transformed them. It was the fullness which made the difference between timidity and joyous daring, shivering weakness and exultant power. They were jubilantly fearless and hilariously happy.

That is the difference Pentecost makes. Jubilantly fearless, hilariously happy. And I reckon that Samuel Chadwick is quite right in making that observation.

The disciples, all 120 of them, have been transformed as the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in their lives, as he has filled them to capacity, filled them more than to capacity. And they've overflowed in praise to the Lord as they worship and glorify him in languages that they never learned, for they were unlearned men. Yet languages which God himself had given them on this occasion to register the fact that in an unprecedented fashion, the Holy Spirit had moved in on Jerusalem, or more accurately, had moved in upon the early disciples, making them into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So at Pentecost, new wine was poured into new skins. And God, who always gives liberally, retains the same principle as did the Lord Jesus Christ at Cana of Galilee. For there, you remember, the Lord gave the gift of wine, and more wine than was actually needed to the guests who were present at that wedding.

Well, here on the day of Pentecost, God fills with his Spirit his disciples, fills them to overflowing, and they burst forth in worship to the Lord for all that he has done on their behalf. They praise and they adore their God. So this is something, I say, of which Peter is testifying here to the pilgrims who've gathered because they've heard of all the noise.

He says the promise of the Holy Ghost God has kept, and he shed it forth in our hearts. It's inundated us, and now it's bubbling over, even onto the streets of Jerusalem, so to speak, to the extent that you've come to inquire just what has happened. And that leads me on to make what should be my final observation from this text, and gives me the opportunity just to develop it for a few minutes.

And it is this, that when the promise of the Father comes into the life of people, it is observable to outsiders. It is observable to outsiders. After all, this is what Peter is saying here to the crowd that's gathered.

We've received the promise of the Holy Ghost. He has shed this forth, which ye now see and hear. They knew, these pilgrims, these people who were uninitiated concerning the things of Jesus Christ, by no means disciples of his, they were aware that something extraordinary had happened at Jerusalem.

They were aware that something phenomenal had taken place in the lives of these men that they had rushed to hear from. And when the Spirit comes in fullness, in baptizing power, then his activity, I say, is recognizable, because the Spirit transforms the personality. It's recognizable because men are transformed in their prayer life, in their ability to pray, in their ability to praise, to preach, to practice.

These men were not the same. This is the point of Samuel Chadwick. It's the point that Campbell Morgan makes in his great commentary on the Acts of the Apostles.

They are transformed. A few months ago, these men had been asking how to pray, but now they pray. Some months ago, they had been asking the Lord Jesus what they were to say, but now they were speaking, and they did not need to ask what was to be the content of their message.

They knew the Lord Jesus Christ had had to instruct them how to live, and yet now they were living in such a fashion that men took knowledge that they had been with Jesus. These were once unlearned men, but they have been taught by the Lord Jesus, and all their potential has been realized by the fullness of the Spirit. This is recognized by these pilgrims in the first instance, recognized by the authorities who can't really understand why such unlearned men can speak with such eloquence.

The phenomenon of the fullness of the Spirit, or the phenomenon of the fullness of the Spirit, is, I say, something that is observable to other people, to the extent that one magician comes along and wants to buy the ability to dispense this gift to whosoever he chooses, and indicates that he hasn't understood the first thing about the doctrine of God and the salvation message of faith through placing trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit, when he comes in his fullness, I say he does so in such a fashion that the one who has received the promise of the Father does not have to tell other people about it. It is observable to the outsider.

I don't know how you approach the doctrine of the Spirit at this point, the practical infilling of the Spirit in the life of an ordinary person, and at this stage I'm not concerned in engaging in theological quibbles, but of one thing I am absolutely adamant, and it is this, that when the promise of the Father is realized in all its scriptural fullness, then that changes the individual. It doesn't have to say that he's changed. It's recognizable.

I was talking to someone only a couple of days ago, and they said to me, you know, something's happened to me in the last two months that is quite fantastic, and they were going on to tell me all about it, and somehow it didn't quite ring true, and I had to say to them, and I trust in the kindly and in their loving fashion, brother, if something has really happened to you, then you'll not have to tell me. I'll see it. It'll be observable.

You'll demonstrate it in the way that you live your life, in the way that you engage in prayer, in the way that you practice your Christianity. When the fullness of the Spirit comes in this power, you don't have to tell other people. They know, and this was the case in the Acts of the Apostles.

The authorities knew. The pagans knew. These pilgrims who were in Jerusalem at the time, they knew that something phenomenal had happened, and that these men had realized the power that was not naturally theirs, the power of the Holy Spirit.

No, I must argue against this proposition that we take everything by faith and assent to certain teachings and sign on the dotted line, and that constitutes our realization of the fullness of the Spirit, of entering into the promise of the Father. Obviously, we need to accept certain basic fundamental truths of the Gospel before we can become a Christian, but becoming a Christian is more than just an intellectual assent. There is that inner witness of the Spirit of God as he fills us with his divine power and enabling.

The fullness of the Spirit, I say, changed. It transformed Peter and the disciples. The fullness of the Spirit has been changing and transforming men and women down the centuries.

Remember a man who used to worship with us and possibly still does in the home church where I I lived in Sheffield. He came along into our services, and his life years ago had been that of a reprobate. He was a man who had sunk to the lowest level, couldn't read at all.

When he became a Christian, he taught himself to read by applying his mind to the Word of God, and so concerned was he to read what the Lord had to say in his own inspired word. So the man taught himself to read, and then he started to pray. I can recall to this day the wonderful prayers that he used to offer in our assembly back home.

He's a man who wasn't normally gifted with much vocabulary. As I say, his background was such that he hadn't had many of the benefits that some of us here have had. But when he started to pray, he was granted a vocabulary that was not naturally his.

I'm speaking about the English vernacular. He could pray to God in the power of the Holy Spirit and set the whole church alight by his prayers. He was in contact with a God who had touched his own heart and life and mind and transformed him.

A most wonderful thing. And I say that the promise of the Father, as it has been realized by men and women down the centuries, has done precisely the same thing. It has transformed, it has revolutionized, and this promise is the legacy of those who place their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

A little while ago, I remember a buff-colored envelope coming through the letterbox at the manse. It was one Monday morning, and I went and picked up the letter, and it was addressed to myself. At least it said the Reverend J. Sargent, so I took it as being my letter.

And when I opened it, I found that there was no letter inside, just a check. Check made out in my name for 1,000 pounds. And I thought to myself, well, this is strange.

I can't really understand why anyone should be sending me 1,000 pounds, though I wasn't prone to discourage it. And when I read the check, I noticed at the bottom right-hand corner the name of the bank, and it was a Brighton bank. And I happened to have been preaching in Brighton a few days before, and I thought, well, that must have been a cracking good sermon if somebody's sending me 1,000 pounds.

So not convinced it was mine, I went down to the bank where I had an account, and I placed the check into the hands of the clerk, and I said, what shall I do about this? He knew I was Pastor here at the Tabernacle, so he said, well, it's obviously yours, Mr. Sargent. Somebody's made a donation toward your ministry. So he said, I'll pay it through your account.

And I said to him, well, no, I don't really want you to pay it through my account, because I'm not convinced that this is mine. So I asked the bank if they would trace the signer of the check, but they said they couldn't do this. So I took the check back home, and I wrote a letter to the person who had written this check out, as I managed to decipher the signature, and I sent it to the branch of the bank from which the check had been drawn.

And about two or three days later, there was a telephone call, and it was from the man who'd sent the check to me. And he told me of all the strange things that there happens to be another Sargent on the South Coast who also is a minister, and the check was really designated for him and not for me. I wouldn't have minded if he'd have put the phone down at that point, but he added a twist to the knife already in my back, as he said to me, though I dare say that you really deserve it more than he does.

With that, I put the telephone down, and I sent him the check. You see, it was made out in my name, but it really wasn't mine, and I was aware of this. I got no witness in my heart that this was my money.

But as far as the promise of the Father is concerned, it's addressed to me. It's addressed to you. It's addressed to those who have been provoked by the Holy Spirit to put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And how that promise of the Father is realized in your life and realized in mine, well, there may be some dissimilarities, but one thing I reckon can be deduced from the work of the Holy Spirit as described in the Acts of the Apostles, and it is this. When you know the fullness of God, when you've experienced the fullness of God in your heart, when you have known something of the promise of the Father in the depths of the experience that the Apostles knew it, then it's something for which you can praise God. It's something which is observable to outsiders, something which sets a heart and the life aglow, which transforms the personality.

This is what the disciples knew, and may we increasingly, as we appropriate all that is ours through Jesus Christ, know exactly the same realization of the promise of the Father. Well, later on, as I say, we'll come back to this passage and examine it more in detail, having generally studied it this morning. Let's conclude.

Our son must take their leave from us at this point. We ask that thy blessing shall abide with them. And those of us who remain, too, we solicit thy blessing, that of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and always.

Amen.