Call to Commitment

 

 

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit

1.      When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 

2.     And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 

3.     Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 

4.      And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

5.     And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 

6.     And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 

7.     Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 

8.     And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? 

9.     Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 

10.  Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 

11.  Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” 

12.  So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” 

13.  Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”  

The expression, “When the day of Pentecost was fully come,” described the counting of 50 days from the Feast of Firstfruits, marking the fact that the required 50^th day had arrived since Firstfruits. I will attempt to show the entire law, concerning this Old Testament feast day, as a background to our present study of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost (Gr. Fiftieth) was the Greek term, for which the Hebrews called the Feast of Weeks. The purpose of the feast was a joyful celebration for the first fruits of the wheat harvest.

 You may study the sequence of events leading up to Pentecost in Leviticus 23:5-16. Passover took place on the 14^th of the first Jewish month, The day after Passover, the 15, was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and on the following day, the 16^th of the month began the counting of seven weeks, or 49 days, and the following day after the seventh week, the 50^th day, was the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.

 Several times, the Old Testament mentions that every Jewish male must be present in Jerusalem three times a year… “All your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles” (Dt. 16:16). According to our calendar, these feasts occurred in March, May and September. 

 During these feasts, Jerusalem´s population expanded far beyond normal. In the year that Christ died, the attendance was particularly large, “because they thought that the kingdom of God would appear immediately” (Lk. 19:11). Matthew Henry comments: “They took lodgings there, because there was at this time a general expectation of the appearing of the Messiah; for Daniel’s weeks (The Hebrew word for week, in this portion of Daniel, was seven, and it did not mark days, but years. The angel told him of seventy sevens total, or 490 years. Daniel 9:26 states: “After the sixty-two weeks or sevens, that is, 62 times seven or 434 years Messiah shall be cut off.) had just now expired… and it was then generally thought that the kingdom of God would immediately appear… This brought those who were most zealous and devout to Jerusalem, to sojourn there, that they might have an early share in the kingdom of the Messiah and the blessings of that kingdom.”

 The 120 disciples are gathered with one purpose, obeying the Lord´s command: “I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” After they, in general, forsook Jesus at His trial, they certainly must have understood the need for power, which would come through the promise of the Father (v.1).

 It is typical of the ways of God that an extended wait, in this case 10 days, is followed by a sudden fulfillment of His promise. For example, the walls of Jericho suddenly fell, after Israel waited seven days and a sudden downpour occurred after Elijah interceded in seven prayer sessions. See what took place suddenly in the Upper Room! The disciples heard a heavenly sound, the sound of a rushing, mighty wind. The believer in Christ must look heavenward for the blessing that will enable him to serve in the kingdom and not depend on any human talent or earthly preparation. In both Greek and Hebrew, the word for wind and spirit are the same, therefore it is totally consistent that the Holy Spirit should arrive with the sound of wind, and it is also consistent that a manifestation of the omnipotent Holy Spirit, should be a rushing, mighty wind.

 The Holy Spirit filled the house, where the disciples were sitting. Therefore, they were submersed or baptized into His presence through the agency of Christ (v.2). It will be good at this point to do a short study on the person of the Holy Spirit, so that we can better see the significance of the experience these 120 disciples are having. 

 The declaration of faith for the biblical church, “RETO of Hope”, states the following: “We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person and not simply an influence, force or breath, because He possesses all the attributes of a personality.” We could give myriads of Scripture to substantiate that statement of fact, but I have forementioned that this study will be short. The Christian reader accepts this doctrine as truth. He is adored and glorified with the Father and the Son. We will add that the Spirit is co-equal in the trinity. He walked and talked with the disciples and through Him there was fellowship with the Father and the Son. There is potential for intimate relationship with Him, as this book demonstrates, and as Acts 15:26 perfectly illustrates: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us.” 

  “He is the Author of the Bible, Who speaks to us through the apostles and the prophets.” So 2 Peter 1:21 declares: “Prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” “He is present now in the world, the church, and in every born-again believer.” In John.14:16-17, Jesus says: “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” Then, in John 16:8, 13-14, Jesus adds: “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment… He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” 

“Upon believing, every believer is baptized into the body of Christ, which is the Church, by the Holy Spirit. We believe that Christ baptizes a believer in the Spirit, giving him power for Christ with his life, his deeds, and his words. We do not believe that gifts, miracles and fruits of the Holy Spirit have ceased.”

 We want to see two Scriptures, which give biblical authority to this final doctrine. First, let us consider 1 Corinthians 12:13: “By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” In this verse, Paul sees the agency of the Holy Spirit, baptizing a new convert into the body of Christ, the Church. We will follow with John the Baptist’s declaration in the Gospels. Matthew 3:11: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

 Please contemplate carefully these two verses, in order to see the difference between them. John the Baptist speaks of the agency of Christ, baptizing believers into the Holy Spirit and fire. There are those, who will tell you that they are one and the same, but we see that there are two different agents and two different elements, into which we are baptized. The baptism of Acts 2 is that expressed by John the Baptist. It is the baptism of power promised by the Lord in Acts 1:8, absolutely necessary for the ministry that they are called to fulfill. They are to reach the nations, operating under Holy Spirit-power.

 This is what Jesus commanded them to wait for in Jerusalem, before they could or should reach the nations with the gospel. The task is supernatural and they must have supernatural power in order to fulfill it. We will read throughout the book of Acts, how they went under the anointing of the Spirit. The Galileans, especially, understood their need, as the most despised and unqualified people in all of Israel. For that reason, they were chosen.

 It is a baptism of fire, also promised by John the Baptist: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk.3:16). Vance Havner said, “We are not going to move this world by criticism of it nor conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit of God.” John Wesley comments: “It might intimate God’s touching their tongues as it were (together with their hearts) with divine fire: His giving them such words as were active and penetrating, even as flaming fire.” The Greek dictionary defines these tongues: “The tongue; by implication, a language (specifically one naturally unacquired): - tongue.” A divided tongue sat upon each one of them, giving them individually a language, which they than began to express (v.3).

 They were filled to overflowing, as Jesus promised in John 7:38 and 39: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart (innermost being… Amp. V.) will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Please observe, who speaks in tongues… it is they, the disciples. The Holy Spirit gives the utterance, that is, the words that they should speak. Waiting for the Holy Spirit to speak, then, is not correct. He, simply, gives the utterance, and this is a principle that is carried out throughout gospel ministry (v.4).

 We have already learned the background of the Feast of Pentecost and the reason Jews, who were part of the dispersion, gathered in Jerusalem from all over the world for the feast. We also have learned that there was a higher number than ever in the city for this particular feast, due to Daniel’s prophecy concerning the death of the Messiah. It was to have occurred precisely 483 years after the order from the emperor of Persia to restore Jerusalem. God has pre-arranged the conditions, in particular, so that there would be a huge multitude of Jews present to attest the fulfillment of that, which this feast typified (v.5).

 These were religiously pious people, willing to obey the law, which was a great inconvenience for them, and anxious to see the completion of Daniel’s prophecy. The sound of the rushing, mighty wind was not confined to the upper room, but was heard throughout Jerusalem. No man had to advertise this phenomenon, but it drew the crowd, as a mass of people followed the sound to its source, which was where the 120 disciples were assembled. Discovering them, confusion reigned now, because they heard the 120 speaking in the languages that they had learned since childhood (v.6).

 Focused now on the disciples, there was not only confusion, but amazement, and throughout the crowd, people marveled as they discussed what was taking place before their eyes. The general conclusion was that these were all Galileans and it was amazing, because citizens of this territory had a reputation for being ignorant and uneducated. They, especially, were not students of foreign languages (v.7).  

The commentator Albert Barnes says:  “They were ignorant, rude, and uncivilized, hence, the term Galilean was used as an expression of the deepest reproach and contempt, Their dialect was proverbially barbarous and corrupt. They were regarded as an outlandish people, unacquainted with other nations and languages, and hence, the amazement that they could address them in the refined language of other people. Their native ignorance was the occasion of making the miracle more striking.”

Many of these Jews had been born in foreign lands (v.8) and the text gives us the languages, which the disciples were supernaturally speaking,  I list the various nations or provinces of their origen: They were from Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia Minor, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, Rome, Crete and Arabia. Among those of the Jewish race, were Gentiles, non-Jews, who believed that the God of the Jews, was the true God. They had gone through the rituals necessary, to be inducted into the Jewish religion. They were proselytes. The multitude said, “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” They were not preaching or even addressing the crowd, but were praising God for His wonderful works (vs.8-11). 

The multitude knew that they were witnessing something miraculous and extraordinary and again Luke describes their amazement and perplexity. They were trying to discern exactly what God was doing on this special feast day and what it had to do with the prophecy given to Daniel about the death of the Messiah (v.12). There are always people, who give carnal answers to spiritual circumstances, so there are those who conclude, “These Galileans are drunk.” (v.13).