The day of Pentecost, and its immediate gifts.
"And when the day of Pentecost … And the same day there were added about three thousand souls." The day of Pentecost is emphatically the complement of the great days of the New Testament. The visible glories of this day are the fitting sequel, the almost natural sequel, of the more veiled glories of certain days that had preceded it. The heavenly luster and music of the day of incarnation, unique as they were, reached the eye and ear of but few. The world was asleep. The dread, tremendous glory of the day of crucifixion, charged though it was with fullest significance, was not seen to be such at the time. The glories of the day of resurrection undeniably opened eyes and hearts to the keenest and most thankful appreciation of them, but their appeal was to a very limited number. When the calm, sweet, strange glory of Ascension Day revealed a vision of literally endless light, the scene undoubtedly began to widen, if only that it so heightened. And now but a short interval has passed, and there is a certain manifestation given to this day of Pentecost which reflects floods of glory upon the Giver, and pours light and hope, new and amazing, upon a world well-nigh prostrate. It is the simply told history of this day that is written for us in this chapter. And it tells us of—
I. THE MAGNIFICENT INTERVENTION OF A SUPERNATURAL PRESENCE. (Acts 2:2-4).
Observe:
1. The signs of the presence. It is distinguished by
The elements are not in confusion, and the wind is not furious. But it sweeps along, nevertheless, with a certain irresistible majesty; rather, it distinctly thus sweeps down from heaven. It is wind that bears itself down, and is full of might."
2. The first and direct results off, presence.
3. Certain incidents in the presence. It is fitted
II. A GRAND MANIFESTATION-DAY OF PROPHECY. (Verses 16-21.) This was a very gala-day of prophecy. Often distrusted, often mocked, and often saluted with the taunting question, "Where is the promise of his coming?"—now the scene which stirred all Jerusalem was one "in demonstration of that Spirit and power" which dwelt in it. The day witnessed in matter prophetic the majestic force of the avalanche, overwhelming doubt and disbelief in deep destruction indeed, but carrying no other destructiveness with it. The piled predictions of ages past no longer tower aloft so proudly and forbiddingly, but they fall at the feet of an amazed, an astounded, but a revived and gladdened nation. Or, if the figure be permitted, the leases of property of immeasurable value fall in this day. And that this was a day of justest pride in the career of prophecy, may be testified by the thought:
1. Of the largeness of the contents of it. The volume is an ample one indeed. What treasures it unrolled, and all the while seemed to say spontaneously, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your hearing!" It was an abounding harvest that was now gathered in ripe,—a rich and gladdening vintage. It is not prophecy fulfilled for an individual king or mighty man, nor for a caste of priests, nor for a band of prophets, but it includes "all flesh, …sons and daughters,…young men and old men my servants and my handmaidens." It proved itself over a wide variety of human character and condition.
2. Of the intrinsic nature of it. "They shall prophesy." It is a fulfillment in spiritual sort. The Spirit is the great Worker, and spiritual results are still what underlie great outer wonders. Living powers of human nature, immensely intensified and diversified,—these are the phenomena at all events. They are marked as "the beginning," not of "sorrows," not of "tribulation," not of "miracles," but of "signs" that contain an amount and a kind of signifying power far in excess of all which had ever been. Now began—whatever its duration should prove to be—this world's last aeon. And strongly marked are its characteristics from the first. "All flesh" begin to answer responsive to the might of the invisible Spirit, and in a certain sense the very presumption of Saul, and of those who were stricken because they touched the sacred ark, begins to be the law. Directness of individual contact with whatever should be most holy, for each and all, becomes the established, the enthroned religion of the world.
III. A GLORIOUS DISCLOSURE AND EMPHATIC PROCLAMATION COUCHED IN THE VERY WORDS OF ANCIENT REVERED PROPHECY. (Verse 21.) That very prophecy that had seemed to cover, now served to proclaim loudly and distinctly the universal mercy of the one universal "Lord." The "gracious word" now proceeds from its lip, to begin its unresting journey. What a word was this, "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved"! It is the disclosure in broadest daylight of the purpose of ages past; yes, of a purpose that had been purposed before the world began. Most assuredly prophecy had held it, and had made it visible, but to very few who beheld, though it was before their eyes. The eyes even of those to whom it was given to see "were holden that they knew" it not. And the vast multitude outside were long time dying without the knowledge or so much as one glimpse of it. Of the past three years Jesus had given significant hints of it in some of his works, and had whispered it sometimes in the ears of his disciples, and had distinctly uttered it in his parting commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." But to the day of Pentecost "is this grace given," that it should preach aloud, with a hundred tongues, and a hundred better than silver trumpets, the riches of the gospel of Christ. Three things mark what was then in particular, and what must ever essentially be the surprising riches of the proclamation.
1. It is hope to all and every one.
2. It is the call of a human voice alone, no doubt drawn deep from the heart, that is the method, the one simple method of access to that hope.
3. The hope is that of no mere respite, subterfuge, soothing relief, but of salvation. Exclusiveness "is finished;" ritual, ceremony, sacrifice, the earthly priest,—each "is finished; tantalizing expectancy, "is finished;" and everlasting salvation is to be had free, by any one and by every one, for the one anguished or trustful call of the heart "on the Name of the Lord." It is a fact worthy to be noticed, that, as the gospel of Jesus' own public ministry began from the quotation of Isaiah's prophecy (Luke 4:17-21; Isaiah 61:1), so the gospel of the day of Pentecost begins its illustrious career with the motto of a quotation from prophecy (Joel 2:28-32). These two links—were they the only ones—how strongly they bind together the Scriptures of the old and new covenants, and the covenants themselves!
IV. THE FIRST OF THE LONG SUCCESSION OF CHRISTIAN PREACHERS. (Verses 14, 29, 38). This honor was reserved for Peter, to be the first of that "great company which publish" the glad tidings of salvation through Jesus Christ. He had been preparing for this place now these three years. He had passed through good fame and through ill, through not a little most merited rebuke; he had passed through, not the discipline of warning and correction alone, but also through that of the genial influences and constant stimulus of priceless privileges. The memories of the fishing, and the storm, and the walking on the water, and the death-chamber, and the brilliant heights of the Transfiguration, and the darkest contrasts of the shades of Gethsemane's garden, and the judgment hall, and the look vouchsafed from the very cross after the terrible thrice denial, and of all the rest, were now all upon him. And he has made, at all events,
this impression on us—the impression as of a man of:
1. Native impetuosity of temperament.
2. Imperious moral judgments.
3. Liability to fearful lapse.
4. Unbounded enthusiasm and devotion to a great and good Master
5. And now lastly, of a man with the eye of an eagle for the object dear to his heart.
V. A MODEL TESTIMONY TO "THE TRUTH AS IT IS IN JESUS." (Verses 14-36). The character of a model Christian sermon may be justly claimed throughout for this address of Peter to the multitude. The leading features of it are strongly marked.
1. It is one testimony to Christ; the subject is variously approached, but it is one. Whatever the then reason, the subject is not lost sight of nor allowed to linger. Each approach to it, each conclusion from it, becomes more telling, till the pronounced assertion confronts the people, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."
2. It is a summary of indisputable historic facts. The incarnation and birth of Jesus are, therefore, not adverted to, as perhaps too remote. They did not come directly within the range of facts patent to the hearers of Peter. "As ye yourselves know" was an argument Peter loved to use. He didn't beg reliance on his judgment, opinion, or assertion, but he challenged the knowledge of those to whom he spoke.
The "Man of Nazareth,… the approved of God by miracles and signs and wonders … the delivered" (though here Peter does insert the transcendent statement of Divine "foreknowledge" and "counsel"), "the taken crucified and slain … the raised up" from death's kingdom and dominion, "the exalted by the right hand of God," and the corroboration of these statements of the Resurrection and Ascension from the prophecies of their own prized oracles,—these are the vital facts summarized now by Peter. The chain breaks nowhere. Peter is strong in his facts.
3. There was an unflinching style in the address. The indiscriminate people of Judaea and Jerusalem are before Peter, and barely seven weeks are passed since the Crucifixion, and Peter brings the guilt home in uncompromising language to the heart and the hand of those whom he addresses; and also declares that the wonders of this day of Pentecost, of which the fickle multitude were no doubt the willing witnesses, are all the work of that "Man of Nazareth" whom they had disbelieved, ill treated, crucified. Many men will bear to be told of their guilt, who won't stand the demonstration of their exceeding folly. But the hearers of Peter get both in his faithfulness and unflinchingness to his subject. "This Jesus … hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear."
4. There was intense earnestness in the address of Peter. This, no doubt, went naturally a long way to disarm what might otherwise have seemed the offensive character of the matter of his indictment. The instance is an interesting and a remarkable one of the very severest rebuke consisting with a kindliness only thinly veiled. And without a word of kindness expressed, the impression and effect are probably gained by the manifest intense earnestness and strongest conviction of the speaker. These things, so that they are not abused, are legitimately within the province of the Christian preacher. With this proviso it is given to him to dogmatize, only not in his own name; to rebuke in the most uncompromising manner, only not for any offence personal to himself merely; and to wield the denunciations of the future and the unseen, only not otherwise than as drawn, both for matter and for justifiable occasion, and justly drawn, from the warrant of revelation.
VI. A MODEL CONFESSIONAL OF THE CHURCH. (Verses 37-40.) As was to be expected, in no respect is the transition from Judaism to Christianity more worthy of interested study than as it offers to view the healthy young growth of Christian institutions, taking root amid the ruins of the old and corrupt traditions of the "Jews' religion." Many a site that witnessed long time crumbling decay, stones no two of which lay together, and the very squalidity of disorder, now witnessed the surprising signs of vigorous, determined, and beautiful life. It were well if it had been possible to secure that these should not in their turn succumb, in lapse of time, to the affronts of human imperfection, and show again the pitiful sight of diviner growths within cumbered, choked, and finally killed, by fungus, excrescence, and merciless blight. Here, however, we have a fine example of the vitality of roused religious life, its own cries, and the methods of treatment with which it was blessed to meet. Observe:
1. The central fact—conviction. The conscience itself is touched, wakens responsive to the touch, and takes upon itself to speak for its owner sounds that have the sounds of life. Men hear, and are "pricked in the heart."
2. The first immediate course resorted to under the circumstances. Those whose hearts are thus "pricked," whose conscience is thus touched, begin to make inquiry, and inquiry of what they "shall do." They play not the role of excuse for the past, of moralizing reminiscence, or of any other of the pretexts for procrastination. It is the moment for undoubted action, for decided action, and, if honest ignorance exist as to the shape of that action, for prompt inquiry as to the way: "What shall we do?" No doubt, when the men and the time and the circumstances and those to whom they now addressed themselves,—when these all are put together, it must be granted that there was here the reality and the best part of genuine confession.
3. Religious interrogatories made, not under the probing of the confessional-expert; not under the conditions of morbidness, and it goaded; not in secrecy and solitariness. These, as between man and his fellow-creature, may be often more than doubtful. But it is in open day that this confessional-scene is placed. And safety invests it, and spiritual health and even symptoms of robustness are indicated.
4. Preachers not priest, doctrine not ritual, practice not penance, lively repentance not remorseful reflection, are the order of that well-omened hour. Yet, to speak of nothing else, if ever remorseful reflection—something short of remorse itself—might have put in a reasonably opportune claim, it was surely now, while Peter's stinging words still rang in their ears: "This Jesus whom ye crucified" (Revised Version). But no; the answer to the questions put at this honorable, open confessional is "Repent," altering at once the thing you have been, though alter you cannot the crucifying thing that you have done; "Repent," and show it before men, by being "baptized, every one of you," actually in that very Name, "the Name of Jesus Christ," whom you rejected and crucified, acknowledging thereby that you are bounden to him for "the remission of sins;" "Repent," and be baptized, and enter at once on the inheritance of long promise, "the gift of the Holy Ghost." That "gift of the Holy Ghost," after repentance and offer baptism and after the remission of sins, as distinguished from the preeminent quickening effected by his sacred breath, would be the conclusive, surest token of the absolution of sin. For them and for ourselves this may sufficiently distinguish the ever-necessary working of the Holy Spirit in quickening the human heart from death, necessary equally with Abel and Enoch as with Paul or any man of modern days, from that special endowment of the Spirit for other uses, vouchsafed to the "new covenant" from the day of Pentecost downward to this day. This is the special grace and crown of the Christian Church, though probably still little understood, and its conquering force accordingly still little tested. From the language of verse 40 we may understand that we have but a sketch of all that Peter said from the moment that he stood up to vindicate the prophesying army from the charge of drunkenness, to the moment that the actual administration of the rite of baptism began. Unstintingly he "testified," unweariedly he "exhorted," and this the burden of his enthusiastic and impassioned appeal, that those who heard should show themselves willing, anxious, eager to be rescued from the following and from the belongings of an inherently "crooked generation."
VII. A GLORIOUS AND MOST HEART-GLADDENING HARVEST. (Verse 41-47). Three thousand were that day added to the hundred and twenty or thereabout, who began the day as believers in Christ. The multiplication was twenty-five for every one. They are those who "received his word." It will not be going beyond chapter and verse if we regard this as equivalent to "receiving the Word." Still, this is not the exact meaning of the historian, and as it is very possible that some of these very thousands at some subsequent time were guilty of defection, we may prefer to hold that those who came to be thus guilty did not receive" with meekness the engrafted Word, which was able to save their souls." They only caught a transient enthusiasm as they listened to Peter. Any way, some then also did not "receive" the word of Peter. "Some" then also "believed and some believed not." Some tares then also were mingled with the "good seed." Glorious, therefore, as that harvest was of the "latter day," it falls very short of the glory that shall be of" the last day." Then no Peter shall baptize, and no Church shall charitably judge, and no adulteration shall be possible. Then "the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just" (Matthew 13:49); "The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity" (Matthew 13:41); "The Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him And he shall separate," etc. Meanwhile the spiritual harvest and ingathering into the Church visible and militant of that day of Pentecost was glorious and heart-reviving. The thought of it is so still. It is still unique for one time, one place, and one preaching. Yet these are but the clothing of circumstance; and perhaps many a day since, the eye that surveys all, and sees every- where at one and the same time, may have witnessed equal proofs of the converting power of Word and Spirit, the one spoken by the lip of man, the other teaching that lip to speak.—B.
The first practice of baptism as a Christian rite.
"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized … the Holy Ghost." "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized … three thousand souls." The sun of the day of Pentecost did not set without marking the moment of the inauguration of the rite of Christian baptism—a rite which has never ceased to prove the occasion of stir and difference of opinion down the history of the Church. Baptism, and the baptism of water, was of course a familiar thing to the minds of the disciples of Jesus. It was in no sense a novelty, for they had known it from the preaching and the practice of John the Baptist. And with the original of even this there can be no doubt the Jewish nation as such had long been acquainted. The rite, however, unavoidably invests itself with fresh dignity and fresh significance from the time that Jesus, in the interval between the Resurrection and Ascension, and especially in his very parting words before the latter event, enjoined his disciples to observe it, in the sense, not of submitting to it themselves at the hands of one another, but of calling others to it and administering it to them. They are expressly advised by Jesus that in their own case it would be utterly superseded by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which the day of Pentecost was to bring, and which it now had brought. "This beginning," therefore, of baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ may well attract most interested notice. It practically owned to certain objects or requirements, whether more explicit or implicit in their character. And it is our duty to study it in the appearances it then offered to view.
I. IT IMPLIED THAT, GIVEN CERTAIN FAVORING CIRCUMSTANCES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF KNOWLEDGE IN THEIR RELIGIOUS LIFE, MEN ARE CALLED TO ENTER INTO A DEFINITE AND FIXED RELATIONSHIP TO CHRIST. Once the novel appeal to men was, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Now the more permanent appeal has taken its place: "Repent, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ."
II. IT SUPPOSES THAT THE ENTRANCE UPON SUCH RELATIONSHIP TO CHRIST BE OF THE NATURE OF A PROFESSION, AND MORE OR LESS PUBLIC PROFESSION. Not in the retirement of sacred shrine, or of more sacred closet, or of most sacred heart alone, must the relationship be established. There were reasons why a certain kind of notoriety should attend it. That notoriety might be expected to have in it:
1. Some share of useful influence on the individual character of the person making profession.
2. Some helpful influence in the founding and holding together of the Christian society.
3. Some tribute of grateful and willing acknowledgment to him who once was put to "open shame."
III. IT CONTAINED IN IT A TACIT CONFESSION, IN THE VERY NATURE OF THE RITE SUBMITTED TO, OF THE TAINT INHERENT IN NATURE, AND OF NATURE'S NEED OF PURIFICATION. The indistinctness of prophecy that went before by centuries, and the unequivocal distinctness of apostolic language in both history and Epistle, give the description of washing, cleansing, purifying, as the symbolic significance of the rite of baptism.
IV. IT DID NOT, TO ALL APPEARANCE, ASK FOR ANY INQUISITORIAL ELEMENT OR SEARCHING INVESTIGATION ON THE PART OF THE ADMINISTRATORS OF IT. It would seem impossible, in the nature of the circumstances described in the history before us, that even apostles, under the highest amount of inspiration, could have done more than accept simply the profession of those who offered themselves for baptism. The guarantee they took of the very repentance which they urged and preached as the deepest matter in question, was only that which belonged to the fact of the people's willingness and desire to be baptized. That was indeed a great and open change of mind, or repentance, which brought the people to this point. It seems impossible to imagine that baptism was now accepted as anything but the very first step toward holiness of heart and life. Those who were baptized did thus much—they "set their faces Zionward." These are the appearances that invest the first occasion of the observance or use of baptism as a Christian rite. These appearances by themselves scarcely amount to the assertion of a permanent institution; and they can scarcely be accounted as speaking with authority the subjects, or the convictions, or the methods of its administration for all time and all circumstances, even upon the supposition of its permanent obligation. They are not, therefore, the less interesting; nay, they may kindle keener and more observant inquiry. But they need such inquiry, and they must be interpreted under the light of Christ's ascending commission to his disciples, of obedience to which this is the first possible occasion, and in the light of the succeeding history of Christ's followers during the apostolic period. At present baptism may be said to hold the place of an initiatory rite. Through that first Christian baptism three thousand persons were introduced into the ranks of those who believed in Christ as the Messiah, and who were prepared to become learners in his school, and to put in practice (as was immediately seen) his principles. They no longer are of those who believe in sacrifices and ceremonial observances innumerable for "the remission of sins," but "in the Name of Jesus Christ." And they are introduced within the covenant of promise—that covenant the abiding promise to which was "the gift of the Holy Ghost."—B.