And they were all amazed.
Whit Sunday, or what our Churches need
Notice--
I. Three things immediately preceding the outpouring of the Spirit--things which if not the direct cause of a revival, always herald it--the shadows cast by the coming blessing.
1. A complete congregation. “They were all in one place.” No absentees. This betokened earnestness, for it was in fact an early Sunday morning prayer-meeting with every one present. Always before a great blessing there will be a revived interest in sanctuary services. The half truth, “I can worship God as well at home” (which is a lie when the man is able to come to the sanctuary and does not) will not be heard. Indifference to public worship is a fatal sign. Things that would never be permitted to interfere with business or pleasure are reckoned sufficient to warrant “staying at home to-day.” You found eleven o’clock this morning too early to come to worship, but I will guarantee you catch the eight o’clock excursion train to-morrow morning.
2. A congregation one in desire and motive; “With one accord.” No two motives had drawn them. They came to receive the promised blessing. Is not the want of this spirit of accord the weakness of the Churches of the present day? Unbelief is not the only thing that keeps Christ from doing many mighty works. It might with equal truth be said of many a Church: “He did not many mighty works there because of their squabbling, petty, selfish spirit.” There are men who will be nothing unless they are everything, and will without compunction sacrifice a whole Church’s prosperity upon the wretched little altar of their own unsanctified ambition. Instead of all being baptized into one spirit, it looks more as if every one had been baptized into a different spirit and every spirit an evil one. But when all differences become drowned in one overwhelming passion of saving souls, then let the Church lift up her head, for the day of her revival draweth nigh.
3. A congregation steeped in the spirit of prayer. They had a ten days’ prayer-meeting. Do you wonder they had a Whit Sunday? I should have wondered if they had not. The general prayerlessness of the Church is simply deplorable. Here and there the hundreds come to prayer. But take the general run of prayer-meetings. It is not an uncommon thing for Churches to have to give them up because so few come. Whilst all this is so it is of no use talking about having a revival.
II. The blessing itself.
1. It came at an appointed time. “When the day of Pentecost was fully come.” God has a time for everything. The disciples doubtless expected the blessing sooner. They had to learn that there is a sovereignty in revivals. Man has no power to command one. He can but cry and wait. Over one Church a cloud of blessing hangs, continually letting fall showers of refreshment. Beneath its influence all is verdant, fresh and lovely. But yonder is another Church the very contrast to this. The heavens above it seem as brass. The piety of its members seems to lack freshness and their leaf withers. Converts are almost unknown. Let not those Churches that have the blessing despise those that lack it. The only difference is that the time to favour them “has come and the time to favour the others shall come.”
2. It came suddenly and in a moment. Revivals’ very often do. With man’s work the process as well as the result is visible. Is a temple to be built, the plans are exhibited, the foundations dug out, the scaffolding reared, and for months the chipping of the chisel and the clicking of the trowel are heard. God can build His temple in a night, and like Solomon’s, no sound of tool be heard. At any moment, without any previous warning, the revival may come.
3. It spread far and wide. From the upper room it soon flew along the streets of Jerusalem like an electric current. There is no telling where the influence of a revival in a Church may spread. It creeps into homes shut against the tract distributor. It glides into darkest places of vice. A revived Church will be certain to draw the multitude together. This is the secret of getting at the masses.
III. The question of our text. “What meaneth this?” Why, it means--
1. That Christ is ascended, and has received gifts for men. An ascended, glorified Christ warrants the Church in expecting any measure of blessing, any number of conversions. “What meaneth this”?
2. That all instrumentality is nothing without the Holy Ghost, but that the meanest instrumentality with the Spirit is mighty enough to accomplish anything. Alas, what an amount of powerless machinery we have in the so-called “religious world,” because it has no unction, because it is the work of man, not the working of God through the man, because it is dry and official. Instrumentality is almost worshipped, whilst the Holy Ghost is well-nigh ignored.
3. That God is pleased to work on the world through the Church. Far be it from us to call in question the good that has been accomplished by many of our “societies,” but we believe that half of them could be spared with ease did a greater unction but rest upon the Church.
4. That these are the seasons God’s Church is to seek at His hands. I will close with an illustration. Once upon the sea-shore, watching the “getting off” of a fishing smack, I saw in it a union of work and dependence that charmed me. The fishermen brought the craft clown the beach as far as they could and then left her awhile until the tide, which was flowing, neared her. Meantime two anchors had been cast out to sea, from which were ropes to a windlass in the centre of the vessel. Soon the surf (for the sea was fresh) began to run round her as she lay a dead weight upon the shore. Then the waves began to curl over and break upon her side. The men at the windlass took a turn and made the rope fast. And now every moment the tide had more power over her. She was never still. Twenty times did I say “now she is off”; and twenty times did she settle down again upon the shore, and twenty times did the men at the windlass put on the strain. At last one wave swept higher than any before; she shook--rose--glided down towards the deep--the men turning the handle of the windlass quickly as possible. A wave she met threatened to sweep her back upon the shore, but the anchors held her, and right through the surf the men wound her, and half an hour after she was flying away before the breeze, a very contrast to the dead weight she looked upon the beach. That vessel is the Church. The Holy Ghost is the tide. The ropes and the windlass are human agencies only to be used in dependence on the tide. The tide is coming in. The Church feels its power. She moves--she rises. Oh God send the billow that shall float her now, and send her careering on her course, with the breeze of the Spirit. (A. G. Brown.)
The multitude in amazement
I. A multitude gathered from all parts of the world.
II. A multitude gathered for religious purposes. They had come to the feast of Pentecost.
III. A multitude astonished by a miracle. The subject was one, the languages many. So--
1. In the gospel we have proof that by the foolishness of preaching God confounds the wisdom of the world.
2. Note the wonderful adaptation of the gospel to the entire world. It appeals to all natures and dispositions, and equally meets the wants of all.
IV. A multitude variously affected. All were amazed. Some inquired, some mocked. Some said (probably the devout men mentioned in Acts 2:5), “What meaneth this?” This language betokened a desire to learn. Others (Acts 2:13) said, “They are full of new wine”; regarding the religion of Jesus Christ as fanaticism. How does the gospel affect us? (F. Wagstaff.)
A miracle the object of derision
Of all the expressions of our distaste, a scoff is the worst. Admonition may be physic, a reproof balm, a blow ointment; but derision is as poison and a sword. It was the height of Job’s complaint that persons made jests on him; and it was the depth of Samson’s calamity (Judges 16:25). That which raises our anger presents some magnitude to our eyes; but that which we scorn is less than nothing. But now everything is not always as it appears, especially to the eye of the scoffer; for here we see things of excellency may be submitted to jests. Note
I. the object of their derision. A. miracle. In every miracle there is “the thing done,” which must transcend the course of nature, and “the end,” which is also supernatural. In respect of the power of God there is no miracle; but in His goodness He was pleased to work wonders, not for show, but for our instruction. And as He had borne witness to His Son by miracles, so doth He here to the Holy Ghost. This was the end of this miraculous operation.
II. The persons.
1. What entertainment finds the miracle? What welcome hath the Holy Ghost? No other than what befals all extraordinary events. Every man lays hold of it and shapes it in such a form as he may please. To some it is a matter of wonder; to others, of mirth.
2. We should account it a strange stupidity in any one not to be more affected at the sight of the sun than of a taper, and to esteem the great palace of heaven but as a furnace. But when God stretcheth forth His hands to produce effects which follow not the force of secondary causes, then, not to put-on wonder, not to conclude that it is for some great end, is not folly, but infidelity, the daughter of malice and envy and affected ignorance.
3. Miracles are signs; and if they signify nothing it is evident that a stubborn heart and froward mind will not understand the meaning of them. And then what are miracles but trifles, matter of scoff and derision? “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God by miracles” (verse 22), a juggler; a voice from heaven, but “thunder”; to make the blind to see, etc., witchcraft; to be full of the Spirit, “to be full of drink.” When Julian had read a Defence of Christianity, he remarked, “I have read, understood, and condemned it.” To which St. Basil replied, “Had you understood it, you would never have condemned it.” The same befalls men prepossessed and too far engaged in the world, and the father’s reply will reach home to them.
4. To this day our behaviour is little better than mocking. Our lust, which waits for the twilight, mocks at God’s Omniscience (Psalms 73:11); our distrust argues against His power (Psalms 78:20; 2 Kings 8:2); our impatience questions His truth; and those who acknowledge Him to be the Giver of life, have confined His goodness to a few. His mercy “triumpheth over” His justice; yet Novatian made every fall as low as hell: and what is despair but a mocking of God’s mercy?
5. The ground of all is infidelity, the proper issue of obstinate and wilful ignorance. Plato well observeth, that none can taste and judge of that sweetness which truth affords but the philosopher, because they want that instrument of judgment which he useth; and that cannot be applied by covetousness, ambition, and lust; “the philosopher’s instrument is reason.” So in Divine mysteries and miracles, we cannot reach the meaning of them without a humble, pure, and free spirit, the best instrument of a Christian.
6. Indeed, reason might have taught these men that this was a miracle. For rude and illiterate men to speak on a sudden all languages, was more than all the linguists in the world could teach. And from no other principle arose the question of verse 12. But, to “read the riddle, we must plough with another heifer” than reason (Judges 14:18). To dive into the sense of the miracle can proceed from no other Spirit than that whose miracle it was, even Him wire enlightens them that sit in darkness, and who makes the humble and docile soul both His school and His scholar. Reason is a light, but obnoxious to fogs and mists, till this great light dispel and scatter them. Julian was a man as well furnished as any; yet he wounded religion more with his scoffs than with his sword. When he had received his death’s wound, he confessed it came from the power of Christ, in a phrase of scorn, “The day is Thine, O Galilean!” Indeed the greatest scoffers have been for the most part eminent in natural abilities, whose reason, notwithstanding, could not show them their own fluctuations, the storms and tempest of their souls, she being eclipsed with her own beams.
III. The scoff itself.
1. It was not only a scoff, but an accusation, and there be divers reasons which make men accusers, ambition, hatred, hope of reward. Ecumenius tells us it was here that perverseness which indifferently passeth censure upon any cause, or “no cause at all.” And this is bred by opinion, and not by truth. If they understood not what the apostles spake, how could they say they were drunk? and if they did understand, why did they scoff? They were men settled in the very dregs of error and malice; and, having taken up an opinion, they would not let it go, no not at the sight of a miracle.
2. But yet though there were no reason nor probability to justify their scoff, some show there was to countenance it. The apostles, after this gift of tongues, talked much: they were full indeed with the wine of the New Testament; and, as drunken men, they were merry and cheerful; they publish secrets, they fear no face, regard no power, regard not themselves.
3. This hath always been, and to this day is, the great error of the world--to make shadows substances, similitudes indentities, the faintest representations truth (1 Samuel 1:13-14; 2 Samuel 6:20; Mark 3:21). Upon this ground faith is called “presumption” because it is like it; Christianity is called “madness”; for when we mortify the flesh, and estrange ourselves from the world, most that behold us think us not well in our wits. At this day true devotion goes for fancy, reverence for superstition, bowing for idolatry. Our Saviour’s counsel is, “Judge not according to the appearance” (John 7:24). For how easy is it to paint and present things as we please! Many times an evil eye makes an evil face, puts horror upon religion itself, and, where devotion shines out in the full beauty of holiness, draws a Pope or a devil. As “‘charity covers a multitude of sins” (James 5:20), so doth malice cover a multitude of virtues with the black mantle of vice. (A. Farindon, D. D.)
What meaneth this? (text and verse 37).--
Two great questions
These questions are the outcome of two widely different but intimately associated states of experience--the one intellectual, the other moral. The first is an inquiry of the mind in the face of a problem which unassisted it cannot solve; the second is an inquisition of the soul in the presence of a danger from which unaided it cannot flee. An extraordinary event had taken place at which the perplexed beholders exclaimed “What meaneth this?” When the reply came it was found to involve such tremendous issues that they cried in despair “What shall we do?”
I. What meaneth this? The inquiry was--
1. Natural. The mind instinctively rebels against the unexplained. It was made for and is fed by knowledge. Just as the animal instincts are urged by thirst and hunger to search for food and drink, so the intellect is stimulated by a sense of void to inquire for the knowledge that will fill and satisfy it. These men were confronted by a mysterious fact, and were “troubled in mind” until it was accounted for.
2. Right. The liberty to inquire is one of the inalienable, inborn, and crown rights of humanity. That it may exercise this function, God has endowed it with the requisite faculties. The hunger of the mind for knowledge is a stamp of its Divine original, and a prophecy of its immortality. Inquiry makes all the difference between savagedom and civilisation, between weakness and strength. The feeble and superstitious shun it, and perish in darkness; the strong and wise welcome it and are rewarded by the light. We must carefully distinguish, however--
(1) between aimless inquiry, i.e., curiosity, and the search for true wisdom, and
(2) between legitimate and illegitimate inquiry. “The secret things belong unto God.” The present inquiry was in many respects legitimate and commendable.
3. Was addressed to the wrong persons with unsatisfactory results. Twice, we are told, they questioned one to another. They were prevented by a too hasty generalisation and by prejudice from asking those on whom these wonders were wrought what they meant.
(1) It was enough for “strangers” to know that they were “Galileans,” a name which embodied all that was ignorant and vile.
(2) The “dwellers at Jerusalem” would recognise them as the fanatical followers of one who was set down as “a man gluttonous and winebibber.” These manifestations, therefore, were treated as the ravings of men excited with enthusiasm or with drink. But Galileans as they were, drunk or mad as they considered, there was the phenomenon. They could not account for it, but they felt it must be accounted for. And instead of asking those from whom only a reply could be obtained, they engaged in a fruitless inquiry among themselves. How like modern scepticism!
4. Suggests an important line of argument in favour of Christianity. There are certain facts equally inexplicable to the human mind to-day. We do not see cloven tongues, etc., but we are witnesses of events even more wonderful.
(1) The conversion of infidels. Lord Lyttleton, Gilbert West, and some within personal knowledge.
(2) The conversion of men immoral and profane. Bunyan and John Newton, etc.
(3) The conversion of men of merely moral habits. John Wesley and William Wilberforce. Each case forces the question upon us. They are not isolated but common occurrences. How are they to be accounted for? On the score of weakness, wrought upon by terror or excitement, or on the score of ignorance? The known character of these men forbid these explanations. These wonders should set us inquiring, and the inquiry is as natural and proper in the one case as in the other, and furthermore by inquiring matters will be disclosed that seriously concern us all.
II. What shall we do? Although not invited Peter undertook to reply to the first question. The general explanation was verses 14-21; the particular application verses 22-36. So with the modern facts adduced. Does this explanation satisfy? Is this explanation taken home? Then both will now as of old lead to the second question. This inquiry--
1. Expressed a sense of utter helplessness. “What shall we do?” These men were convinced of the crime and mistake of a whole life, and of the human impossibility of rectification.
2. Was to the point, “What shall we do?” Not like the other question theoretical, but practical. They felt that they were in an unsatisfactory state, and that something must be done. What?
3. Was, like the first inquiry, answered.
(1) Repent. Change your mind, forsake your sins.
(2) Be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus; implying faith, union with the Church and public profession. Conclusion: Both inquiries were at length crowned with blessed results. Three thousand received forgiveness for the past, comfort for the present, hope for the future (verses 38-47). (J. W. Burn.)