The Growth of the New People of God (2:1-9:31).
The foundation of the new people of God having been re-established in chapter 1 we now enter a period of growth and expansion among the Jews and Samaritans, as, beginning with Pentecost, God begins to call to Himself the remnant who will respond to Him. The whole of this section (Acts 2:1 to Acts 9:31) follows an identifiable general pattern. There is first in each case the description of an incident, and this is then followed by a declaration or example of God's triumphal move forward, sometimes with additional information added
Thus the book proceeds as follows:
1). THE INCIDENTS.
· The descent of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:2-13).
· The healing of the lame man (see Acts 3:1-10).
· The first arrest of the Apostles (Acts 4:1-7).
· The required primary warning given to the Apostles before witnesses (Acts 4:13-22).
· The sin of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 4:36 to Acts 5:11) - lying to God - the first major failure.
· The second and third arrests of the Apostles (Acts 5:17-28).
· Gamaliel's warning to the Sanhedrin (Acts 5:33-40).
· The Appointment of Servers (Acts 6:1-6).
· The arrest of and charge against Stephen (Acts 6:8 to Acts 7:1).
· The first persecution of the church (Acts 8:1-3).
· The activity of Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:9-11).
· Philip meets the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-28).
· Saul, the leading persecutor, travels to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9).
· The attempt to kill the converted Saul (Paul) in Damascus followed by doubts concerning him at Jerusalem (Acts 9:23-27).
2) A DECLARATION OR EXAMPLE OF GOD'S TRIUMPHAL FORWARD MOVEMENT.
These in each case follow the above.
· The first preaching of Peter (Acts 2:14-47) - Jesus has been enthroned in Heaven as both Lord and Messsiah - the beginning of the establishment of the Kingly Rule of God.
· The second preaching of Peter (Acts 3:11-26) - As well as being Messiah Jesus is the Servant of the Lord and the Great Prophet like Moses.
· Peter preaches to the elders (Acts 4:8-12) - Jesus is the Basis of Salvation and the Capstone of Israel and His followers cannot therefore cease the proclamation of His Name.
· Confident prayer and a renewing of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:23-35) - the Kingly Rule of God is being established on earth in the infant church as is evidenced by their sharing all things in common.
· Great wonders and signs and many conversions (Acts 5:12-16) - the Kingly Rule of God is being established on earth as is evidenced by signs and wonders.
· Peter's second reply to the elders (Acts 5:29-32) - Jesus is proclaimed as both Prince and Saviour. (The release from prison by the angel of the Lord has been another evidence that the Kingly Rule of God is being established).
· The preaching goes on (Acts 5:41-42) - they rejoice in suffering for the sake of His Name.
· The word of God increases and the church multiplies (Acts 6:7) - many priests become obedient to the faith.
· The preaching of Stephen (Acts 7:2-60) - they have rejected the Deliverer, the Temple and the land have had their day, and God purposes to bless a remnant.
· The ministry of Philip (Acts 8:4-8) - the word goes out to the Samaritans.
· The ministry among the Samaritans (Acts 8:12-25) - the repentance of a Wonder-worker.
· The conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:29-40) - the word goes to Ethiopia.
· The conversion of Saul (Paul) (Acts 9:10-22) - God appoints and empowers a new man for the ministry. His ministry in Damascus.
· The ministry of Paul in Jerusalem (Acts 9:28-31) - Paul preaches in Jerusalem and returns to Tarsus ready for his future.
We must now consider these in more detail.
Chapter 2 The Exciting Events Of The Day Of Pentecost.
The Feast of ‘Sevens' (‘Weeks' - because seven times seven days after the second day of Unleavened Bread), or Harvest, or Pentecost, was one of the three great feasts at which all Jews who lived within twenty miles of Jerusalem had to be present. But it was not exclusive to them and Jews would come from far and wide in order to be present at it. It was celebrated on the fiftieth day (hence pentecost - ‘fiftieth') after the day following the first day of Unleavened Bread, and was a feast of the firstfruits of harvest. It thus emphasised fruitfulness. But people who attended the feast would in fact continue their celebrations for a few more days. Furthermore it had become associated in the minds of the Jews with the giving and sealing of the covenant at Sinai. Here then was to be another sealing of the covenant as a result of God's gracious activity towards His people. No more suitable day could have been chosen for the giving of the One Who was to make the church fruitful, and Who was to be the seal in men's hearts of their ‘anointing' (1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27).
This is not to be seen as the first coming of the Holy Spirit, as though the Holy Spirit had not been active before. The Holy Spirit had been active in the ministries of John the Baptiser (Luke 1:15) and Jesus Himself (Luke 4:1). Furthermore the Apostles in the Upper Room had received a special enduing with the Spirit (John 20:22-23).
With regard to this latter John, who had promised the equivalent of Pentecost when he spoke of the Spirit which all who believed on Jesus would ‘receive' (Acts 7:39), saw this is fulfilled when Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 20:22). He clearly saw this as all that needed to be said about the fulfilling of his earlier description of the promises of the Spirit as far as His disciples were concerned. To suggest therefore that this was merely symbolic of what was to come would mean that John only described the shadow when he could have described the sun, which is so unlikely as to be frankly incredible. It would leave his Gospel without a satisfactory ending, with the Apostles still unempowered.
What we must therefore undoubtedly see is that John saw in the enduing of John 20 a genuine enduing of His Apostles with His promised and unique wisdom and discernment as guaranteed earlier in John 14-16, including the ability to discern all truth and the ability to discern true repentance from false (John 20:23), a gift exercised by Peter in Acts 5:3. This is confirmed in Luke 24:45 where before Pentecost ‘He opened their minds that they might understand the Scriptures'. It appears to have been a special and distinctive enduing for the apostles in the light of their unique responsibilities. This was the personal establishment of the coming age of the Spirit in the persons who would be its vanguard, carried out in the privacy of the Upper Room. Pentecost would be the public revelation and would include all who would follow them. Here in John He privately endued the leaders, there in Acts He endued and established the army. In some ways it can be compared with the private coronation of a king, followed by his public acclamation. It was also the seal on the distinctiveness of the Apostles. But at Pentecost what the Apostles needed was the outward expression of God's seal on them, the renewal of their ‘filling', and the command to go forward. It was the group of disciples as a whole who began to share in what the Apostles had received as something new to them.
Matthew saw the situation represented by Pentecost as established in an apparently different way when Jesus openly declared that all authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him as the Risen Lord (Matthew 28:18), and added the promise that therefore He would be with them always until their task was done (Matthew 28:20). He recognised that the declared enthronement of the Lord Jesus, followed by the promise of His divine power among them, provided their all-sufficiency. But it was not really different. It was actually Pentecost expressed in another way. Mark's ending assumes a similar empowering, and rather describes some of the powers the disciples will enjoy (Mark 16:17-18), even though this writer also does not put it in terms of the Holy Spirit. What need had they of anything more when they had their Risen Lord working with them revealing His wonders? (Mark 16:19-20). Was that not what Pentecost was all about? And he also confirms Jesus' enthronement at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19).
But Luke with his deep historical insight saw how what happened on the Day of Pentecost was the perfect introduction to what his second book was to be all about. Just as John being filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15) and Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1) were the perfect introduction to the first, so Pentecost was the perfect introduction to the second. It was the evidence that the King had been enthroned. It revealed the coming of God into the world in a new and emphatic way. From Pentecost onwards would come about the triumph of God and the Holy Spirit in establishing His Kingly Rule, first in Jerusalem and finally in Rome.
There will never be another Pentecost. It was a unique event and a mixture of climactic events that changed world history. We can enjoy the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, but as Christians can never enjoy another Pentecost, and we show our lack of understanding of Pentecost if we suggest otherwise. For Pentecost was the inaugural outward declaration to His disciples and to the world that God's sovereign power had begun a work which would not cease until the whole world had been made aware of the Kingly Rule of God. It was the gift of the newly enthroned King to His people. It was God coming to dwell in His people, never to leave them or forsake them. On top of this it was a mixture of a supercharging of His people, both individually and as one whole; of a declaring of the new covenant through fire and word; of the reversal of Babel and a new beginning for the world; and of a proclaiming that the Risen Christ had now in supernatural power taken His throne, and had begun His final assault on the earth, in order to bring His elect out of the world to His feet. It was the same thing as both Matthew and Mark revealed when they put it in terms of the Risen Christ enthroned and ever with them, and active in bringing His people under the Kingly Rule of God.
Yet that is not to say that Pentecost is completely in the past. Whenever somewhere in the world some sinful man becomes aware of what He is and looks up to the Saviour so that he might find initial forgiveness and acceptability to God, he experiences Pentecost. For the Holy Spirit, the fiery tongue from God, indwells that person and they become one with the body of Christ. In that sense there are Pentecosts every day.
Before continuing, however, there is one myth that we must completely dispense with. We should note that while they waiting for what was to come the disciples were by no means a frightened, dispirited group. They may have met behind locked doors for a time (it is not spiritual to be foolhardy), but once they had become convinced that Jesus really had risen from the dead, they were filled with great joy and confidence, and were continually in the Temple openly praising and blessing God (Luke 24:52-53). They “continued with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14) and even went so far as to make the number of Apostles up to twelve again ready for what was to come (Acts 1:15-26), and this was after they had been endued with special wisdom in the Upper Room (John 20:22). Their ‘inactivity' was thus a sign of obedient expectation and not of fear. It is misleading to suggest otherwise.