An Exposition of Acts, Chap.II.
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were filled with Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And 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 to one 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 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.–Chap. ii verse 1-13.
Pentecost means fiftieth, or the fiftieth day. The law of Moses appointed three great annual feasts, to attend which, all the males of Israel had to appear at the place where the Tabernacle should be located, viz.,Jerusalem, see Ex. xxiii. 14-17, xxxiv.18-23. Lev. xxiii Deut. xvi.16) These festivals were 1, the Passover and unleavened bread, 2 the feast of weeks and wheat harvest. 3 The feast of Tabernacles or tents. The Passover was instituted in memory of events recorded in Ex. xii.(which see) and the institution of it is narrated in the same chapter. This feast was in the barley harvest, the first fruits of which were waved before the Lord, on the morrow after the Sabbath, or the first day of the week. Leviticus xxiii, counts seven weeks or forty-nine days from this said morrow after the Sabbath, until the succeeding morrow after the Sabbath or fiftieth day, when commences the feast of weeks, so called for this reason, during which the first fruits of the wheat harvest were to be offered. When the Greek language became universal, this was called the feast of Pentecost. The basis of the institution appears to be the giving of the Mosaic law at Mount Sinai, which occurred just fifty days after the Passover night, and the departure out of Egypt. The feast of Tabernacles was in the seventh month at the in-gathering of the late harvests and fruits. During this festival the Israelites lived in tents and under trees eight days, to commemorate the journeyings of their ancestors during the forty years in the wilderness.
Now, Providence so ordered it, that Jesus should be apprehended the evening of the Passover, and on the first day of unleavened bread, the day on which Israel started from Egypt, He should, as “our Passover,” be “slain for us,” and leave this region of mortality for the rest of Hades; and that on the “morrow after the Sabbath,” the first day of the week, on which the first fruits of the first harvest were waved before the Lord, he should rise, “the first fruits of them that slept!” From that day are counted the seven weeks or fifty days to Pentecost. These seven weeks the Tribes traveled to Sinai, these fifty days the Disciples followed their risen Lord about through Judea and Galilee, and these same days were tedious periods of expectation of the Jews in the year 33, until the Pentecost should come, which should anew commemorate the giving of the law, and record its praises. It comes–it is “fully come;” at the third hour, the morning Sacrifice and nine lambs, a bullock, two rams, and a goat are offered in memory of the law amid the rejoicings of the people. At this moment is the interposition of Heaven–the moment of expectation and ecstasy. The one hundred and twenty Disciples had retired to a house away from the throng of the Jewish services, from which the recent instruction of their Master concerning the new Kingdom had released them; they prayed–a sound resembling a tornado, indicating a mighty wind, was heard; but as it was observable from the roofless courts of the Temple, it was found to proceed from an unusual quarter–from Heaven–and to terminate in the place where the followers of the Nazarene were sitting. This singular phenomenon must have variously affected the crowd of Jewish worshipers who were expectant of the Messiah in His glory. At this crisis, expectation must have been on tiptoe. The time fixed by the chronological Prophets, and interpreted by the magi, called the “wise men from the East,” and also by the scribes and doctors of the law was fully arrived. Heathen poets had sung that the “East should prevail,” and Heathen sages had assigned the then present age for its fulfillment; the Jews of all countries were at the moment in the Temple, mingling the voice of praise and the blood of Sacrifices in honor of the giving of the law, given 1500 years before, and now the fiery glories of the heavens appear descending and the voice of God is heard! Who can picture the breathless expectation, the ecstatic hope, the awful dread, or the well-defined horror of different portions of such an assemblage on such an occasion! What must the priest have thought when gazing upon the singular spectacle, when dropping his knife reeking with the blood of the sacrificial victim, he saw the Temple passed by the heavenly visitant, and this halo of glory settling upon some humble mansion on the neighboring mount! This must have been “passing strange.” The Temple had never before been thus neglected by Him who had deigned to fill it with His presence; but Jesus, fifty-three days before, had said to the Jews, as he passed its threshold the last time, “behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”
And they were all filled, etc. The words “filled with the Holy Spirit” seem always to mean, richly endowed with Spiritual gifts. (See their use in Acts iv.31, vi. Eph. i.23, ii.9.1) In the last quotation, the King’s translation reads “quickened,” but it should be “filled.” In verse 6 of our chapter, the effect of this sudden and manifest habitation of the Spirit in the followers of Christ, (indisputably the only type of the impletion of the Temple, with the cloud of God’s presence, after the prayer of Solomon, on the day of its dedication) upon its being “noised abroad,” was to break up the assembly at the altar of sacrifices. Doubtless the offices of the priests, Levites and Nethinims, went on as usual, but the people, led on by an irresistible curiosity, in such a peculiar manner excited, could not be detained by the solemnities of the Temple, and hastening to the residence of the Disciples soon made their audience a “multitude” Thus this singular interposition of Heaven, so unobtrusively recited by Luke, the historian, speaks volumes to us concerning some of the most important subjects in the Scriptures. It declares Judaism abolished. By it, most indisputably, the law on the day which celebrated its enactment, was lifted out of its place, and superseded by the Gospel; the people were Heaven-directed from Moses to Christ, from the Priest to the Apostles, from the Temple to the Christian Church, from the altar to the Cross; in a word from the old covenant to the new. Such is the significance of these facts, so often overlooked!! Singular coincidence! Wonderful era!
These circumstances, with others soon to be mentioned, entitled this era. the Pentecost, of 33, to the appellation, “the beginning.” (Acts. xi. 15). “And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.” it, was the beginning of those social operations, called the Kingdom of God. It is of inconceivable importance to have a just understanding of this chapter, for I hesitate not to say, that, to an accurate knowledge of the Gospel and Laws of Christ, it is the most directly accessory of any other in the Sacred Scriptures. He who has not begun here, in attaining this knowledge, has begun wrong; and he who begins at the wrong place, may pursue his course in the wrong direction; and he who is wrong in his interpretation of this, the beginning, may be wrong in his ending. Begin at the beginning, and begin right:
Other Tongues, Foreign languages. The confusion of tongues shortly after the deluge was a curse to prevent the spread of idolatry and impiety; the gift of tongues was a blessing to aid the diffusion of the truth. The confusion of language was instantaneous; and was marked by every circumstance of publicity; so, also was this heavenly donation to the Apostles—the control of all languages. In a moment they all spoke the vernacular tongue of each of their diversified auditory, but not until the fiery appearance had organized itself into the similitude of divided tongues: and had in this form, as the same heaven-descended symbol did in the bush in Horeb, where the law afterwards was given, exhibited itself a pure, but innoxious flame upon the person of each of the future heralds of salvation. The judgment and the mercy were each divine, and both manifestly so. The occasions were both remarkable, and alike worthy of their several striking events. The confusion of human speech, was a blight upon a projected invasion of God upon His throne, and at the moment of the attempt, and the gift of tongues was first bestowed, at the very instant, when the circumnavigation of human misery was begun by the Apostles.
Fire was the symbol of revelation. The flaming sword perhaps, better rendered “revolving fire,” was “to keep the way to the tree of life:” to keep it open, not to keep it shut, as some imagine. It was the Shekina which “dwelleth between the Cherubim” and the source of the reflections which succeeded the Fall. Such, also, was the significancy of the same fire seen in the bush of Horeb, in the Tabernacle and in the Temple, between the Golden Cherubim. In all these cases, it is the oracle of Jehovah. But, now, that the dispensation of persuasion is about to be opened, the Holy Fire of revelation more fully betrays its peculiar function by separating itself into burning tongues. Mute eloquence! It speaks to the eye, declaring the office of those, who, should speak to the ear, and to the heart.
Were confounded. The greater part of our Saviour’s miracles had been performed in Galilee, and at Jerusalem he was a stranger; consequently the existence of miraculous powers then on the earth, was comparatively unknown to the mass of resident citizens, but now the myriads of resident strangers saw what was never seen on earth before, and their surprise was most natural. Not only the gift of foreign languages, but also the wisdom of the Apostles, who declared the wonderful works of God, amazed them.
If this chapter contains the record of the “beginning,” in its details, we may expect to find matter-of-fact definitions of terms, and matter-of-fact accomplishments of promises and prophecies relating to the opening of the reign of Heaven. Such is precisely the case, and we shall prefer-to avail ourselves of them, instead of the metaphysical abstractions of a more recent age. Unfortunately for us, in these latter days, our attention is so much absorbed in efforts to maintain the consistency of our own theological deductions, from common and admitted truths, and in exposing the inconsistency of our neighbors’, that the framework of our primitive Christian facts, commands, and promises are forgotten. The strife, the waste of time, is about, not what is in the Bible, but what we, and others have thought and said about it. The Bible is seldom in ‘ the quarrel, except when Christians and sceptics are the parties.
But Peter, standing- up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my word: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, (saith God,) I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; And on my servants, and on my hand-maidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit; and they shall prophecy: And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapors of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord-come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.—Acts ii: 14-21.
It was gross ignorance which referred the phenomena of Pentecost to a revel. Incapable of understanding or accounting for the various dialects spoken by the Apostles, “Some, and those only who were of imperfect knowledge, declared that the servants of the Lord were deceived into. inebriation by drinking new or unfermented wine. This accusation Peter repels. Peter standing up with the eleven, lift up his voice. And why Peter? John, whom Jesus loved was there, James who afterwards gave his “sentence” in the college of the Apostles was there. Nathaniel the man of no guile was there. But neither the “Sons of thunder,” nor any one else would or could stand forth at this juncture as the mouthpiece of the infant cause, but the one man Peter. Peter stood supported by the eleven, But Peter was the speaker, and his speech only is recorded. He was the man with the keys of the Kingdom. When an explanation of the phenomena of that eventful morning was called for, common consent put forward Peter, all others listened, unless they repeated his words to the thousands as the word of command is passed from rank to rank of an army. He had the keys of knowledge which unlocked the gates of Zion. ‘Twas he who opened for the Lord, and no man can shut. The secret once told, sinners may be converted and loosed from their sins, and a church collected any where on earth, the Pope and-his myrmidons to the contrary notwithstanding, now and forever. These true keys have never been used since Peter threw open the gates on the Gentile side of the Kingdom. The Lord then opened, “and no man can shut.” No other person would do on Pentecost, and no other person would do at Caesarea. “Send to Joppa for Peter.” The keys stand in the open door,—they were the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which must first come from Peter’s mouth. Acts xv: 7. Matt, xvi: 17 19.
After repelling the accusation of drunkenness, he called the attention of the concourse to the prediction of Joel, of which he affirmed this was a fulfillment.
Joel lived and flourished eight and a third centuries before this. The Jews knew that this prophesy had not before been fulfilled. Now it was. Here was the Spirit of the Lord, and all the phenomena characteristic of his presence. The time of vision had come again. This of itself was a cheering announcement. The slumbers of four hundred years had been broken, and the world was once more visited from on high. This prophecy divides itself into two chronological periods. First, what was to take place before “the great and notable day of the Lord should come,” and this comprises all the signs and wonders connected with the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, on the one hand, and the destruction of Jerusalem on the other. This was fully accomplished on the siege and sack of the Holy City. A comparison of this prophecy with Malachi iv. will fully sustain this view; for according to the latter prophet, the second Elijah or John the Baptist, was to come as sent of God, before that great and dreadful day of the Lord, and it is remarkable that John himself uses the language of the prophet concerning that approaching day. The “impending wrath” and burning of the chaff, are obviously expressions borrowed from the closing paragraph of the Old Testament. The second chronological period, commenced with the outpouring of the Spirit, and is to end with the end of time. During the whole of this period, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
This solution was simple and promptly received. The crowd was quieted and composed to a religious frame, well suited to hear the inspired man. A new era was about to dawn. The Lord would again dwell among his people; the sacred fire was present; the vision and the prophesy were restored, and the great and terrible day approached. These were facts of momentous import and gave Peter such an audience as rarely assembles, and gave a weight to his words which is rarely felt, with the “devout men out of every nation” who were attendance upon this feast.
D.S. Burnet Proclamation and Reformer June 1850