And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation.
The first congregation appealed to by the apostles
I. It consisted of men of many lands. The fifteen countries remind us of the dispersion of the Jews. They had been scattered on account of their sins; but the mercy of God was shown in making this punishment a way for the gospel. Jews and proselytes would return and tell their kindred of the wonders of this day. Some without design would convey to the heathen saving truth; just as fugitive traitors may build a bridge over which the saviours of their country afterwards pass; others doubtless saw here the fulfilment of their prayers that they might benefit the perishing Gentiles among whom they dwelt.
II. It represented the whole world. When the glorious news which God designed for all had to be declared for the first time, it was fitting that all should thus be represented. But on the ground of the unity of the race every congregation represents the whole world, and he who leads one soul to the Saviour makes a contribution to the aggregate of human good. What value does this put on the work of Christian agents of every class.
III. It exemplified various moral characteristics.
1. The God-fearing and worthy. They looked on the wonders with careful and devout inquiry. In seeking the salvation of sinners it is necessary to elicit the question, “What may this be?”
2. The frivolous. They preferred the vain charge of drunkenness. No doubt the excitement in part accounted for it, but it is probable that jesting was resorted to that the impressions of the moment might be resisted. This obvious way of grieving the Spirit is sometimes exhibited in criticisms on preachers.
3. The haughty who could not bear the idea of being taught by Galileans. So David had doubt cast on his ability to show any good, and our Lord was received with suspicion because He belonged to Nazareth. But a servant has sometimes been able to teach his master the truth of God, and an illiterate preacher has often convinced men of learning whom their equals had failed to reach. (W. Hudson.)
How the seed of the Word is spread
1. In the cotton factories of Lancashire there is a huge piece of machinery fifty feet in length, and containing hundreds of spindles, which moves steadily backward and forward from one side of the room to the other. It is a great triumph of skill to insert within the machine a power by which it shall move a certain distance and then stop and go back again. There was a similar contrivance in Judaism which retained the Word of God at Jerusalem till a certain time and then sent it forth from Jerusalem. This contrivance was the regulation that all the people should repair to the capital to celebrate their appointed feasts; and this regulation was observed even after the Jews had been scattered all over the world. Hence the gathering at Pentecost. Up to that period the arrangement seemed devised to keep the worship of God in one place and to forbid the spread of true religion. But now it seemed expressly invented for the universal diffusion of the gospel of Christ.
2. In a still, sultry autumn day, as you walk through the fields, your attention is arrested by a tiny sound at intervals, like an explosion in miniature, and a few seconds after a shower of tiny bails falls upon the ground. It is the bursting of seed pods in the sun. The casket that contains the seed of some plants is composed of four or five long narrow staves, joined together like Cooper work, but without the staves. The staves are glued together at the edges, and the vessel so constructed is strong enough to contain the seed till it is ripe. But if the seeds were retained beyond that the purposes of nature would be thwarted. Accordingly at this stage there is a turning point, and the action of the machinery is reversed. The same qualities in the vessels that hold fast the seed while it is green jerk it to a distance after it is ripe. The staves of the little barrel are bent, the bursting force overcomes the adhesion and opens them with a spring that flings the seed as if from a sewer’s hand. By this contrivance, though no human hand were near, a whole field would soon be sown by seed from a single plant. Thus the law in Israel that confined the sacrifices to a single spot, and so brought Jews from all parts at Pentecost, threw the seed of the Word as by a spring out from Jerusalem into all the neighbouring nations. These Parthians, etc., were the vessels charged with precious seed at Jerusalem, and then thrown back on the several countries whence they had come. In this way the gospel was in a single season brought to regions which otherwise it might not have reached in a century. (W. Arnot.)
The visitors at Jerusalem
The list is characteristic of the trained historian and geographer--trained, it may be, in the school of Strabo--who had carefully inquired what nations were represented at that great Pentecost, who had himself been present, at least, at one later Pentecost (Acts 21:15), and knew the kind of crowd that gathered to it. There is a kind of order, as of one taking a bird’s-eye view of the Roman Empire, beginning with the great Parthian kingdom, which was still, as it had been in the days of Crassus, the most formidable of its foes; then the old territory of the Medes, which had once been so closely connected with the history of their fathers; then, the name of the Persians having been thrown into the background, the kindred people of Elam (commonly rendered Persia in the LXX.), whom Strabo speaks of as driven to the mountains (11:13, § 6); then the great cities of the Tigris and Euphrates, where the “princes of the captivity” still ruled over a large Jewish population; then passing southward and westward to Judaea; then to Cappadocia, in the interior of Asia Minor; then to Pontus, on the northern shore washed by the Euxine; then westward to the Proconsular Province of Asia, of which Ephesus was the capital. From Ephesus the eye travels eastward to the neighbouring province of Phrygia; thence southward to Pamphylia; thence across the Mediterranean to Egypt; westward to Cyrene; northward, re-crossing the Mediterranean, to the great capital of the empire; then, as by an after-thought, to the two regions of Crete and Arabia that had been previously omitted. The absence of some countries that we should have expected to find in the list--Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, Bithynia, Macedonia, Achaia, Spain--is not easy to explain, but it is, at any rate, an indication that what we have is not an artificial list made up at a later date, but an actual record of those whose presence at the feast had been ascertained by the historian. Possibly they may have been omitted, because Jews and converts coming from them would naturally speak Greek, and there would be no marvel to them in hearing Galileans speaking in that language. The presence of Judaea in the list is almost as unexpected as the absence of the others. That, we think, might have been taken for granted. Some critics have accordingly conjectured that “India” must be the true reading, but without any MS. authority. Possibly the men of Judaea are named as sharing in the wonder that the Galileans were no longer distinguished by their provincial patois (cf. Matthew 26:73)
. (Dean Plumptre.)
We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.--
The thousand-tongued hallelujah of the world in honour of God
I. Begun on the morning of creation in the kingdom of nature.
II. Renewed at Pentecost in the kingdom of grace.
III. Perfected, but never finished, on the day of manifestation in the kingdom of glory. (Gerok.)
The wonderful works of God
I. The subject itself. And where shall we begin? All that God does is wonderful. Let us enter--
1. The field of creation. Here, how wonderful are the works of God! Think of--
(1) Their number. Look at the heavens. Though infidelity has mocked at the idea of comparing them to the sands of the sea-shore, the discoveries of astronomy have proved it to be a fact. Look on the face of the world, how many inhabitants are there, visible and invisible!
(2) Their diversity! How large are some, and how minute are others! Take up the microscope and the telescope. What vastness in the sun! what smallness in the mite! And yet there are creatures less than these, and all of them have their peculiar qualities, tribes, families, birth, breeding, education, government. Only observe the commonwealth of the ants and the queendom of the bees!
(3) Their support. They are all provided for. There is sufficient for all and for all seasons.
(4) Their structure. Take only one of the vegetable tribes; how miraculous its growth, how simple its form, and yet how beautiful! “Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” What man contrives man may comprehend; whereas in the works of God we find that we are in the region of infinity.
2. The field of providence. Here all is wonderful! Nothing comes by chance.
(1) What an astonishing series of events are displayed in the history of one single country! What mighty movements proceed from causes almost imperceptible!
(2) The history of every individual is equally wonderful.
3. The field of grace. How wonderful is the work of redemption and its application to the soul! How wonderful the history of the believer from conversion to glorification! Angels desire to understand these things, and the more they discern the more they are surprised, and at each discovery they sing new songs, “Great and marvellous are all Thy works, Lord God Almighty.”
II. The way in which the subject was announced. “We do hear them speak,” said the audience, diversified as it was, “in our tongues.” It is the duty of ministers to tell the people in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. “The poor have the gospel preached unto them,” said Christ. “The common people heard Christ gladly,” says the evangelist. What are philosophical expressions and learned disquisitions to these? I fear we may apply what the apostle says of speaking in an unknown tongue to many of them. Ministers should use “great plainness of speech.” But this speaking to men of various languages is--
1. Nothing less than a real miracle. Two things are essential to a miracle.
(1) There must be something addressed to the sense as well as to the reason. These are called “signs,” and it would be wonderful if signs could not be seen.
(2) It must be above all known second causes. God only could have stored the minds of these men with such a multitude of merely arbitrary signs, and have given them power and ability to utter such a variety of distinct sounds.
2. The truth of it is evident also. It was undeniable.
(1) These men were well known.
(2) Their judges were competent to detect imposture.
(3) They did not go to a distance to tell their tale; they began amongst their enemies.
(4) The time was when large multitudes were present.
(5) Mark their boldness; they charged the Jews around them with the murder of an innocent young man.
(6) Note the result.
3. This miracle was expressly predicted. Christ said, “They shall speak with new tongues.”
4. This miracle was necessary for the accomplishment of their world-wide mission.
5. This gift of tongues was continued for years.
6. The want of this gift in the work of evangelising the world must now be supplied by human learning. And we ought to be very thankful to God that His Word is translated into so many tongues.
III. How this subject was heard.
1. Some heard with wonder. So it is now. And this is not surprising; for the natural man discerns not the things of God. Christians are “men wondered at”; the men of the world wonder that you run not to the same excess of riot with themselves, not knowing that you have meat to eat which they know not of. And this is often attended with a good effect, for it induces them to examine, and truth always gains by investigation. But then, on the other hand, the wonder often dies away, and he who wondered comes within the number of those of whom it is said, “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish!”
2. Some heard in mockery. And so it is now. That which devils believe, and the belief of which makes them tremble, furnishes such men with matter for mirth.
(1) Some of these mockers were Once professors; the apostate is seldom found neuter.
(2) Some mock from the affectation of greatness. These things may be well enough for the common people, but will not do for men of taste.
(3) Some mock from the affectation of wisdom. “What will this babbler say?” “We preach Christ crucified, to the Greeks foolishness.”
(4) Some mock from ignorance. They mock at what they do not understand, at what they never read. Many are afraid to hear or to read the truth lest it should destroy their peace.
(5) Some cannot deny certain facts which are before them; but then they show their malignity by accounting for them. They ascribe the zeal of the Christian to disappointed love--to ambition--to a sanguine complexion--to a heated imagination--to enthusiasm, etc. So here, the multitude ascribed the phenomena to drunkenness.
3. Some heard and believed. (W. Jay.)