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The Filling of the Spirit (Part 1) |
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By Ralph I. Tilley
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Any careful student of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles will discern two defining, life-changing and ministry transforming events in the lives of the apostles. The first definitive event occurred when the Lord Jesus initially called each of them to become his disciple. One such example is the calling of Matthew: "As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he rose and followed him.”[1] These original encounters with the Anointed One were unforgettable moments for the disciples. So unforgettable in fact, that Matthew inserted his encounter and call from Christ in his own historical narrative of the life and ministry of our Lord. One's conversion and call to discipleship is epochal. Who could possibly forget such an event—or want to? I never will. My conversion to Christ occurred when I was just a young man. I went to church that Sunday evening with no immediate plans to give my heart to Christ. But before the evening was over, I was converted, called to preach, and went to Bible college—all within six hours! I think something similarly happened to those twelve men.[2] They were for the most part devout Jews, but their call to follow Jesus took each of them by complete surprise. This is often true of adult conversions. But not only was the initial call to follow Jesus a defining and transforming event for those disciples, so was the Pentecost event on which occasion they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
Inadequate Disciples During their brief years of apprenticeship under the ministry of the Lord Jesus, the disciples were faithfully taught by their Teacher as well as being eyewitnesses to many miraculous signs performed by him. They listened intently on the hillside as Jesus enunciated the principles that would characterize his kingdom people. They heard their Lord expound on eternal realities in the Temple and synagogues, in homes and on highways. They were taught on land and on sea, at a wedding and in a cemetery, in a garden and by a pool, by night and by day. Their eyes and ears witnessed God's Perfect Revelation performing amazing wonders: blind people received their sight, deaf people suddenly heard, lepers were cleansed, the lame restored, storms calmed, the dead raised. And the greatest sign of all—they were witnesses to the resurrection of the Son of Man. And yet, for all their ears had heard and their eyes had seen, these men remained spiritually inadequate by the time their Master ascended into heaven. Such inadequacies and deficiencies in the Twelve can be clearly seen in the Gospel accounts. The following observable characteristics are indicative of the inner spiritual inadequacies the disciples experienced, with Simon Peter usually at the forefront:[3]
The disciples were anything but prepared to faithfully serve the Lord Jesus following his ascension. Jesus knew this. That is why he spent so much time in his final days speaking about the promised Paraclete, the Helper.[5] The spiritual state of the disciples prior to Pentecost was not dissimilar to that of another group of believers in the early 18th century. Of the Herrnhut, Germany Moravians, under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf, it was said: Differences of opinion and heated controversy on doctrinal questions threatened to disrupt the congregation. The majority were members of the Ancient Moravian Church of the Brethren. But other believers had also been attracted to Herrnhut. Lutherans, Reformed Baptists, etc., had joined the community. Questions of predestina-tion, holiness, the meaning and mode of baptism, etc., seemed likely to divide the believers into a number of small and belligerent sects.[6] Of these inadequate, failing saints, the Scottish hymn writer, James Montgomery, who was raised in a Moravian manse, would later write: They walked with God in Peace and Love,
These Moravian believers, as well as Christ's disciples, were to later discover a spiritual power and cleansing for their pronounced inadequacies.
Hints of the Spirit's Definitive Coming Before the Lord Jesus' Final Discourse regarding the promised Paraclete, we see hints of such a coming event in the Prophets, the ministry of John the Baptist, and the teachings of Christ. I'll note three examples. For example, Malachi writes about a future purifying event. Such a cleansing occurred in the hearts of the disciples at Pentecost:[8] 1Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.[9]
John the Baptist prophesied of the Pentecost event when he announced: I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.[10]
In John 7, Jesus speaks of the inauguration of the age of the Spirit. He says when this event occurs, the disciples will experience a power previously unknown to them. 37On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' " 39Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.[11] While Bible scholars may differ (and they do) as to the implications and applications of the above references in Malachi, Matthew, and John, it is inconceivable that any should dispute that these prophets (including Jesus) referred to any event other than Pentecost. When Luke records what substantially happened in the hearts of the disciples at Pentecost, he summarizes it as a "filling" (Acts 2:4). Malachi spoke of the coming event as a "refiner's fire" and a "fuller's soap"; John the Baptist spoke of this future event as a baptism with "the Holy Spirit and fire"; and Jesus likened the results in the lives of those who would experience this defining moment as "rivers of living water." Christ's Final Discourse The final extensive teachings Christ shared with his disciples about the promised Holy Spirit were his most comprehensive. Jesus informs his disciples that when the Holy Spirit comes in this new, anticipated dimension, his coming would be manifested to the disciples in many distinct ways; these distinctives are drawn from the words of Jesus in John 14-16:
In view of what the prophets and Christ prophesied about the multiple future ministries of the Holy Spirit, I want to now go to the book of Acts and examine the Spirit-event itself. Wayne Grudem says, "The work of the Holy Spirit is to manifest the active presence of God in the world, and especially in the church.”[13] The disciples were about to experience this "active presence" as never before. During their Lord's earthly ministry among them, God was present in the person of Jesus; that was soon to change. God was about to step inside—inside each disciple, filling every thirsty-hearted believer with himself by his Spirit.[14]
The Filling of the Holy Spirit: The Initial Corporate Event Acts 2 records the fulfillment of the promised descent of the Spirit upon the disciples; it occurred on the Jewish feast of Pentecost. In preserving the account of this historic Spirit-event, Luke says of the assembled disciples, "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”[15] In view of this study, there are two questions in particular that need to be asked about this phrase. First, who were the "they" spoken about here? Second, what is meant by "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit"? First, who were the "they" spoken about in Acts 2:4? In Acts 1 and 2, Luke provides us with several hints as to who these people were who experienced the filling of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. 1. They included the Eleven apostles. Explicit references are made to the Eleven in verses 1-14: Jesus' post-resurrection appearances to the Eleven; Jesus' instructions to the Eleven to stay in Jerusalem until they received "the promise of the Father"; Jesus' promise to the Eleven of the reception of "power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you"; the presence of the Eleven at Jesus' ascension into heaven; the names of the Eleven who were present in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. 2. Acts 1:14 implies that, in addition to the Eleven, there were unnamed women, the mother of Jesus, and Jesus' "brothers" present. These had been meeting for prayer with the Eleven between Jesus' ascension and the Pentecost event. 3. When the Eleven selected Matthias to fill Judas' vacant seat, 120 "brothers" were present.[16] These "brothers" undoubtedly included the Eleven; the aforementioned "women"; Mary, the mother of Jesus; some of Jesus' family members, called by Luke "brothers”; and Justus and Matthias.[17]
4. Acts 2:1 says, "When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place." Could it not be the "they" of those mentioned in Acts 1?[18] In examining how many were present that eventful day, Simon Kistemaker believes all of the 120 mentioned in Acts 1:15 were present. However, he notes three primary objections to this interpretation: "the last verse of the preceding chapter (1:26) mentions the apostles in the second chapter, not the 120 but Peter and the Eleven occupy center stage (v. 14); and at the conclusion of Peter's sermon, the crowd addresses the apostles and not the 120 (v.37).[19] Nonetheless, Kistemaker believes the evidence supports his conclusion that 120 were present. 5. Furthermore, it is clear from the teachings of Jesus that only those who were his disciples were candidates for this future filling of the Spirit. In his High Priestly prayer, Jesus says of those who would later receive this filling: "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you";
"I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours";
"I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world";
"They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”[20]
From the above citations, we may logically conclude the following about those who were filled with the Spirit at Pentecost:
The second question that needs to be asked about this Acts 2:4 phrase is, what is meant by "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit"?[21] I will make the following observations. 1. The filling of the Spirit the disciples of Christ experienced on the day of Pentecost was a sudden event. While Acts 2:2-3a uses the term "suddenly" to describe the phenomenal appearance of wind and fire—"And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues of fire appeared to them . . ."—the verb employed by Luke in 2:4 points unquestionably to a moment-in-time filling. The word "filled" (eplēsthēsan) is in the Greek aorist tense, suggesting punctiliar, momentary action. Noting the tense used here, New Testament scholar F. F. Bruce says this filling was "instantaneous."[22] Few would dispute this. 2. The filling the disciples experienced at Pentecost, according to Peter, was the fulfillment of several prophecies:
In Part II of this series, among the issues I will explore are these:
In bringing this first part of the series to a close, would you join with me in offering this prayer of James Montgomery? Lord God, the Holy Ghost,
- Soli Deo Gloria - 1 Unless otherwise noted, the Bible version used in this series is the English Standard Version.
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