God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT

WHEN THE SPIRIT CAME – 3

The apostles recorded their God-inspired explanation of the coming of the Spirit:

Peter, in Acts 2:16-21 taught that it was the out pouring of the Spirit predicted by Joel 2:28-32. In 2:33 Peter explained that the resurrected and exalted Jesus ‘received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out’ what the Jews were seeing and hearing.

Having finished his message and stirred his hearers to conviction concerning the true identity of Jesus Christ, Peter promised them that if they repented they would, along with forgiveness, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit because God’s promise is to them and their children, and all who were afar off, that is, for all whom the Lord will call [verse 38, 39].

In Acts 5:32 Peter explained [1] that the Holy Spirit is witness to the death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, and [2] that the Holy Spirit is given by God ‘to those who obey him’, which, in context, means to all who obey God’s command to repent and believe in his Son.

In reporting the conversion of Cornelius and his household Peter said: ‘the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit”. So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to oppose God?’ [Acts 11:15-17] This report led the Jews to conclude: ‘ “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”’ [11:18]. Later, at the Council of Jerusalem, Peter again referred to this incident: ‘ “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.”’ [Acts 15:7-9].

Paul, in Galatians 3:14, refers to ‘the promise of the Spirit’ which comes to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, by faith.

From these reports we discover that the early church understood the coming of the Spirit as:

The baptism in/with/by the Spirit mentioned by John the Baptist and by Jesus.
A gift of God given to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Affirmation of God’s equal acceptance of the Gentiles on the basis of faith.
Fulfilment of God’s promise.

We need to ask how does the Bible explain the audible and visible phenomena that accompanied the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and which were secondary to the main event?

These phenomena were:

A sound like a violent wind, which filled the house where the disciples were gathered [2:2], which is not reported as occurring again.

Something that looked like tongues of fire resting on each one of them [2:3], which also is not reported again.

The apostles spoke in languages which they had not learned, but which were recognized and understood by Jews from various countries as their own languages, [2:4-12]. This phenomenon occurred again in Acts 10:46 and 19:6. The only other scripture reference to speaking in languages is in 1Corinthians 12 – 14, where its abuse attracted Paul’s strong rebuke.

It is important here to note:

That neither in the prophecies which promised the outpouring of the Spirit nor in Christ’s promises to send the Spirit, are any of these phenomena mentioned: no tongues of fire, no rushing wind, no speaking in languages.

That in the verses anticipating Christ baptizing with the Spirit (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33), there is also no mention of the sound like wind or of languages, but three of them mention Christ baptizing with ‘fire’. (‘Fire’ is commonly a biblical symbol for judgment.)

There appears to be only one prophecy about people speaking in other languages – Isaiah 28:11-12. This prophecy is about God’s exposure of and judgment on the unbelief of Israel. Paul quotes it in 1Corinthians 14:21 in reference to the gift languages. This connects with Christ’s teaching that the Holy Spirit would convict people of guilt (John 16:8 – 11).

The Bible’s limited teaching about the phenomena that occurred on that Day of Pentecost cautions us to be equally limited in the emphasis we put on them, and to focus on the main thing that the Spirit enabled – the knowledge and the proclamation that Jesus Christ is indeed the Lord of glory, who has by his death obtained forgiveness of sin for all who believe in him.

© Rosemary Bardsley 2024