THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
[p. 277] THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
CAC The coming of the Holy Spirit is the most wonderful event in man’s day. You might say the coming of Christ and the cross was the most wonderful thing; it was for God, on God’s part, but the coming of the Holy Spirit is the most wonderful thing in man’s day. What an amazing thing that God should come down and dwell in man! One cannot realise it.
We get the Holy Spirit here coming down as tongues of fire; it is very different from when He came down on the Lord Jesus; then it was as a dove. There never was a man like Him; He was the only Man who was ever meek and lowly in heart — that was His character, and the dove was the emblem of that. When the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost it was as tongues of fire in testimony. Fire consumes the flesh; there it was fire consuming all that man is and the Holy Spirit bringing in all that God is.
There was only one language originally. Did you ever think that Adam never had to learn to speak? Everyone else had to, but Adam never had to learn such things; he was a wonderful man. When the animals were brought to him he said, That is a lion and that is a bear. It was not like taking a child to the zoo and teaching him the animals’ names! Adam named them by their characteristics, he knew how to name them. Until Babel they all spoke the one language that Adam spoke. Then they began to build a tower and said, ‘We will get up to heaven’; and God said, ‘I must go and see what they are doing’. So God came down and confounded their language. Languages are a sign of God’s judgment. I have a book with a page of the Bible in different languages, and there are about two hundred. That is the judgment of God. We see a proof of that judgment in two people meeting,
[p. 278] one speaking French and another English. Now here comes in God’s grace. The tongues of fire are for testimony to it, so that God’s grace might be known to every poor sinner in every country in their own language.
When the law was given, three thousand men were killed (see Exodus 32: 28)! But on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, three thousand dead men were made to live. That is the triumph of the gospel of God’s grace going out to make dead sinners live.
There are sixteen different names of people here, and all heard the apostles preaching the gospel in their own tongues. God said, ‘They shall hear about My Son in their own language’. He has come down and is speaking to men, and by His grace they all hear. All the representatives of these sixteen nations heard these Galileans speak in each of their different tongues; these foreigners understood their own languages and marvelled. But of course some Jews could not understand and it seemed utter nonsense to them. This was a foreshadowing of what was to be; the gospel would go out to the whole world but the Jews would not believe.
Then you see that directly the Spirit is in power the Scriptures are made plain. Peter refers to Joel, “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh”. The Jews wanted to keep everything to themselves; it was quite new to them that the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh, but directly the Spirit was given there was at once an unfolding of Scripture. That is always a mark of the Spirit’s presence. If there is confusion it is not of the Spirit, but when the Scriptures are brought out clearly it is the Spirit opening them up. We see it constantly when we let our minds work. If we speak with the natural mind we only make fools of ourselves; but if we let the Spirit teach us all is clear and plain. If a man is obscure in his teaching on Scripture it is obvious he is not led of the Spirit of God.
“I will give wonders in the heaven above” (verse 19). What more amazing wonder than that a Man is in heaven; that is what we are shown. Then “signs on the earth below” — God come down and indwelling man. What greater signs could there be! Is not that enough to make us wonder? Peter goes beyond himself at last and says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”. He was under the control of the Spirit and was carried beyond himself. He did not know this for himself or he would not have needed the instruction of chapter 10. He did not know what ‘whosoever’ meant, and had to learn to spell it on the housetop! He was very slow in coming to it, though he preached to ‘whosoever’ here. It is often so with us; we speak of things we know nothing about in our souls. I have heard brothers speak of things they did not know in their souls, and perhaps later on one finds out they do not know the meaning of what they are talking about. If it is that a brother is carried beyond himself by the power of the Spirit, that is a very blessed thing, and one would like to hear more of it.
Ques What does verse 20 mean?
CAC It is the upheaval of everything; by and by all this will find its application in the kingdom. The sun is going to be seven times as bright as it is now, and the moon is going to be as bright as the sun.
We get in verses 22 and 23 God’s estimate of Christ and man’s estimate of Him. God’s estimate was, “Jesus the Nazaraean, a man borne witness to by God to you by works of power and wonders and signs”. That was a public approval, manifested to all; God showed forth His estimate by wonders and signs. Man’s estimate was that by wicked hands He was crucified and slain. We get the result later on, “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”. He is Lord to everyone, not only to believers. And as Christ He is Head to every man, woman and child.
Ques Is that because of His death?
CAC Yes, Satan was lord before. If Jesus had not come into the world Satan would be lord now, but God hath [p. 280] made this same Jesus Lord and Head. We do not think enough of that.
“Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades, nor wilt thou give thy gracious one to see corruption” (verse 27). It was not possible that He could be holden of death because corruption is the victory of death. He is risen and He gained the victory. If the Lord had not risen great power would be in the hands of Satan.
We know what will be the issue when He takes up the conflict; all His enemies will be His footstool. And what about His friends? They will sit with Him on His throne. When the thrones of this world have crumbled to pieces, God’s throne will still be standing and we shall be with Christ. It is so simple; if you bow to Him and confess Him now you will not have a pleasant time; you will be laughed at and persecuted, but it will only be for a very little while. By and by you will sit on His throne. But if you do not bow to Him and confess Him now, by and by you will have your place at the footstool of His feet. If we do not bow now we shall have to bow then. “I have sworn”, says God, “Every knee shall bow” (Isaiah 45: 23). We can overcome the deceitfulness of Satan now and confess Him, or if not there is only the footstool of His feet by and by, for the victory is assured for God. There is no uncertainty about the issue, all power is in His hands even now.
We get the whole gospel in verse 38. The remission of sins which is so much preached is only half the gospel. The positive side, that men should receive the Holy Spirit, is usually left out. It is striking when one considers how little the Holy Spirit is preached about: one seldom hears the gift of the Holy Spirit mentioned in a gospel preaching. There is something wrong in that when you consider the wonderful reality it is to receive the Holy Spirit, and yet it is rarely mentioned and only man’s relief spoken of. I remember in one place where I preached about the Holy Spirit I was told afterwards that it was the first time that anyone had thought of the reception of the Holy Spirit.
[p. 281] Peter gets beyond himself again in verse 39 and says that the promise is to all “who are afar off”; that is, the Gentiles. He said it but he did not believe it.
Another thing we get in verse 40 that we do not hear preached is, “Be saved from this perverse generation”. It is quite true we are to save ourselves; that is, by severing our connection with the world that crucified Jesus. We cannot have this world and the kingdom of God. It is not preached enough that we must renounce this world: we must save ourselves in that way. It was said also to Saul, “Arise and get baptised, and have thy sins washed away” (Acts 22: 16).
Ques What does that mean?
CAC It means much the same. The world has crucified the Lord, and you sever your connection with it and with your past life of sin by being baptised. By baptism you say all your past history is closed; you publicly renounce your former life to put on Christ — it is a public thing. If baptism is not preached the truth of it is not realised; but there must be the acceptance of it. There must be a public confession that you have done with the former life and put on Christ. By baptism you publicly renounce your life of sin and connection with this world; in that way you wash away your sins. It is difficult often for those who have been baptised as children; yet there comes a time with them when they have to make a clean break with the world and become true to their baptism.
The Jews recognise this. If a son is converted they do not take much notice, but if he is baptised he is dead to them; they will not speak to him or allow him to eat and drink with them. There are Jews in America now who believe in the Messiah and refuse baptism: they are apostate Jews, really unitarians. It is apostate judaism and christianity united.