They Believed in the Holy Spirit
Acts 2:1-4
John 14:15-26; John 16:5-14; Acts 1:4-8
Acts 2:1-4; And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance NASB
The disciples believed in the Holy Spirit because Jesus had taught and promised them the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is one of the most abused and ignored doctrines in all the Bible. It’s been abused by our Pentecostal brethren when it comes to tongues, healings, and miracles while at the same time in many of our mainline denominations it is ignored, I think, primarily because we don’t want to be labeled Pentecostal. Honestly, it wouldn’t hurt some of our Pentecostal brethren to practice the truth of Scripture and it wouldn’t hurt some of us Baptist to practice a little Pentecostal Spirit.
The disciples and the first church believed in the Holy Spirit. They may not have understood completely at this point the great importance of the Holy Spirit and just why they needed to wait for Him as the Father had promised but they knew Jesus had promised and commanded them to wait for Him and if their Lord said wait for what the Father had promised {Holy Spirit} it must have been of great importance.
And when the day of Pentecost had come,
Here they are: serving, praying, fellowshipping, searching the Scriptures; and patiently and faithfully waiting and then on the day of Pentecost, the waiting was over and the promise became reality. Why Pentecost?
Pentecost means "fiftieth" because this feast was held fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits (Lev. 23:15-22). The calendar of Jewish feasts in Leviticus 23 is an outline of the work of Jesus Christ. Passover pictures His death as the Lamb of God (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7), and the Feast of Firstfruits pictures His resurrection from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20-23). Fifty days after Firstfruits is the Feast of Pentecost, which pictures the formation of the church. At Pentecost, the Jews celebrated the giving of the Law, but Christians celebrate it because of the giving of the Holy Spirit to the church.
The Feast of Firstfruits took place on the day after the Sabbath following Passover, which means it was always on the first day of the week. (The Sabbath is the seventh day.) Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week and "became the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20). Now, if Pentecost. was fifty days later—seven weeks plus one day—then Pentecost also took place on the first day of the week. Christians assemble and worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, because on that day our Lord arose from the dead, but it was also the day on which the Holy Spirit was given to the church.
—Bible Exposition Commentary (BE Series) - New Testament
, they were all together in one place.
Now, it may simply mean that the believers were all gathered together in the same place, such as the upper room, but I think there may be a deeper spiritual truth to be had here that every church should hear and heed. The KJV says “one accord”
We are about to see the promise of the Holy Spirit upon the first church and see what happened as they were indwelt and infilled with power from on high.
They were all together in one place or of one accord. If the church, any church today, is going to see the Holy Spirit of God move in great power and presence they must be all together and one in spirit and truth. We live in a day when liberal theology and practice seems to be the norm in the church but there are still a great number of Bible-believing, Jesus preaching churches out there, yet many are not seeing the power and presence of the Holy Spirit at work in them and among them.
Why do you suppose that is so? I personally think that many of those Bible-believing, Jesus preaching churches are not all together in spirit and truth. Understand, if the church is not of one mind, one spirit, and one body {unity} then the preaching of one Lord, one God, one hope, and one salvation {truth} isn’t going to make a lot of difference in the lives of others. Truth trumps unity {oneness} but without unity, truth will always suffer.
1. The Holy Spirit Baptized the Church with Power.
Acts 1:4-5; 4 And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. NASB
In vs. 2-3 we see that what the Father had promised has now taken place. It is very important for us to understand that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a one time experience. On the day of Pentecost the church was indwelt with the Holy Spirit once and for all. There will never be another Pentecost.
As each one of us were saved we were indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God eternally indentifying us with our Lord. According to Ephesians the Holy Spirit has sealed us unto the day of redemption.
It is also important that we understand the word baptism in 1:5. Baptism in the literal sense means to be submerged. That is why as Baptist we baptize by submersion. It is the Lord’s command that everyone who has trusted him as savior be baptized or submerged by water symbolizing our belief in his death, burial, and resurrection.
Baptism figuratively means “to identify with”. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is that act by which God identifies every believer with Christ. It happens only once. Scripturally there is no second baptism of the Holy Spirit. The disciples, the church, was once and for all baptized, indwelt, or identified with Christ through the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and each one of us was baptized in the Holy Spirit the day we believed. This is the chief reason we cannot lose our salvation, we are indwelt with God’s Holy Spirit.
Someone said, “God the Father is God without skin, God the Son is God in skin, and God the Holy Spirit is God come in our skin.”
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
You and I may not completely understand the use of the word wind. But, in Old and New testament, in Hebrew and Greek, the word used for wind and spirit were interchangable. The Scripture doesn’t say they felt the wind, it says a noise like wind. In Genesis 1 we have the Holy Spirit hovering over the water and in the Genesis 2 we have God breathing life into man. The word for Spirit and breath are the same. On the day of Pentecost the wind that was heard, not felt, was the very breath of God blowing on and into the church as God imparted eternal and spiritual life in the church.
3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
Symbolically, fire represents two things, light and warmth. It may be hard for us to realize a world engulfed in darkness. In biblical days there was no light for the night except for fire. Without the fire there was total darkness and without fire there was no warmth to be had in this world.
Wherever the church, being indwelt with the Holy Spirit has gone, it has brought light to a dark and dying world, warmth to a world that was cold and indifferent to things of God.
So, here we have the very reason for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is that the church might bring light and warmth, help and hope to a world that is lost and dying.
To be sure, the Holy Spirit is our comfort, our help, our counselor, our strength, our courage, our wisdom. The Holy Spirit in us imparts each of us with spiritual gifts. But the primary reason for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is so that God, in us and through us, might bring the glorious hope of the gospel to the world.
2. The Holy Spirit Filled the Church with Power.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
I think it is very important for us to understand that on the day of Pentecost the church was both baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. The difference, and Scripture bears it out, is that the church was baptized only once but this was just the first infilling of the Holy Spirit. There would be many other fillings of the Spirit but no more baptisms.
Why was the church then and now filled with the Holy Spirit? So that they might witness and serve with, by, and through the very power of God {Acts 1:8}.
Of the fourteen times that the New Testament speaks of being filled with the Holy Spirit, three are found before Pentecost, one is found in Eph. 5:8, and ten are found in the book of Acts. In every case that the phrase “filled with the Holy Spirit” is found in Acts it is followed by a powerful witness and testimony of the glory and greatness of Christ. In other words, wherever the infilling of the Holy Spirit took place the gospel was proclaimed with power and boldness and most of the time people were saved.
You may or you may not find gifts of tongues or any other gifts, but you will always find a powerful witness of all that Christ ever began to do and teach when a believer or the church is filled with the Holy Spirit.
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance
Now, here is where some get confused and abuse the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit. The thought is that this Scripture verse is the proof that to be baptized or filled with the Spirit is to speak in an unknown tongue. But if we follow the Scripture that is not what happens here.
I believe Peter and the others were speaking in their own language and those who witnessed their powerful testimony were hearing it in their native languages. {my pastor and the Japanese girl}
3. The Holy Spirit Spoke Through the Church with Power.
5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered, because they were each one hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and marveled, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9 "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs — we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God. " 12 And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"
Vs. 11 says they were speaking the mighty deeds of God, KJV says “wonderful works of God” and the NIV says, “wonders of God”. They weren’t preaching, Peter will do that very shortly, they were praising God for all that he had done in them and for them and the people of different places were hearing them in their own language.
Understand, the word for language is dialektus in the Greek and it means known language or dialect of some country or region. Unless otherwise noted in Acts or 1 Corinthians it is this kind of tongues that was taking place.
The disciples believed in the promise of the Holy Spirit and they waited until the promise became a reality. Once the promise of the Holy Spirit came they went out and praised God and proclaimed his wonderful and mighty deeds and God moved greatly in their midst.
The disciples could have went out and praised God and gave testimony and witness of everything that Jesus ever began to do and teach without waiting on the promise. They could have done what they were commanded to do and they would have failed. It is not you and I who move people to be repent and be saved. It is the Holy Spirit at work in us and through us.
Often times, in the church, we want to work something up, we want to stir things up, we want to make things happen. If we are not careful we will seek to do it in our strength and will accomplish nothing but confusion and frustration. But, if we will wait upon the Lord, if we wait for the filling of the Holy Spirit, then we can do more than we ever dreamed we could.
It’s not enough to just have knowledge of the Word, or the wisdom of all that Jesus ever began to do and teach. As important as those things are if we are going to take our city for Jesus, if we are going to evangelize the nations, if we are going to make an eternal difference in the lives of others we must wait and seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit and honestly we should not try to do anything that the Spirit has not filled us to do.
13 But others were mocking and saying, "They are full of sweet wine."
The last thing to note is this, when we live, walk, and talk in the fullness of the Spirit; there will always be those who mock and criticize, who accuse and abuse our faith. As a Spirit filled believer there will always be those, often the religious, who do not understand us nor agree with us. What do we do when we encounter such people? We keep on keeping on, we keep praising the wonderful deeds of God, we keep preaching the glory of a risen Christ. Until they themselves are filled to the uttermost with the Holy Ghost they will never understand us and until then we just need to keep loving them anyway.
I end with a few questions. Do we, as believers, need to baptized with the Holy Spirit? No, we do not, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was a one time experience and each of us were indwelt with the Holy Spirit the moment we trusted, believed, and received Christ as our Lord and Savior. We should praise and thank God that his Spirit lives in us.
Do we, as believers, need to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Yes, we do, we need to pray and seek his face and ask him daily to fill us with power from on high, the Holy Spirit. We cannot begin to do all that our Lord has commanded us to do without being filled with the Spirit. And when we are filled with the Holy Spirit we cannot help but praise God for all he has ever done in us, for us, and to us; and when we are filled with the Holy Spirit we cannot help but proclaim with boldness the greatness and glory of a risen Christ.
The first church was birthed into a world filled with sin and strife. It was a world full of darkness and despair, it was a world that was cold and indifferent to God, it was a world without hope or help. And it is for those reasons that God’s church was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. They could not possibly do what God had for them to do without his power and presence in and on their lives.
The world we live in is no different and the need of the church today is no different. If God’s church, any church, this church is going to see and realize all that God has for it to accomplish then we must seek his face, search his Scripture, and be filled the Holy Spirit.
If there is one prayer that the church should make today, it is not that God would give us souls, not that God would make us better disciples, not that God would even make us one. All those are important and we should pray those things but if we were to pray honestly, fervently, and effectually; that we be filled with Holy Spirit then all the rest would take care of itself because then and only then would we be walking and living in the presence and power of God.
