It has been said that the name of Luke’s second volume, Acts of the Apostles, should be Acts of the Holy Spirit. I think that’s right. It’s especially appropriate when you consider the Day of Pentecost. Many have typically focused on Peter and his message on Pentecost, and that’s truly important. I will write about that next week. In the wing of the Restoration Movement in which I was raised, the emphasis was on the very end of Peter’s sermon, focusing on the call to repent and be baptized, usually stopping short of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. But there is no sermon and no church apart from the coming of the Holy Spirit!
Unlike Mark’s and Matthew’s post-resurrection emphasis on the disciples going to Galilee, Luke emphasizes the disciples staying in Jerusalem. There are ways to reconcile this, but there remains a difference. Luke ends his Gospel account with this:
Luke 24: 45 Then [Jesus] opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (NIV)
In the opening of Acts, we are told:
Acts 1: 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (NIV)
Luke’s point is less about the location of Jerusalem than it is about why they need to be there. Jerusalem is where the Holy Spirit will come upon them and where a large crowd will gather. Luke describes the scene:
Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (NIV)
And so, the day begins with the Holy Spirit and the sermon ends with the Holy Spirit, forming bookends to the birth of the church:
Acts 2: 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (NIV)
Peter’s sermon, itself, begins with a response to some skeptics’ derisive suggestion that the disciples who were heard in understandable languages were simply drunk. Peter replied that it was too early to be drunk, but not for the intoxication of the Holy Spirit (see also Eph. 5:18-19). Instead, the Spirit’s work was the fulfillment of Joel 2, and the coming of the last days, inaugurated by a prophetic renewal of God’s people by God’s Spirit.
The promised gift of the Holy Spirit to all who responded by repentance and baptism clearly tells us that the Spirit’s profound work was not just a one-day affair, but His continuing work through all who were far off. I believe that applies not only to geographic distance (ends of the earth) but also chronological distance (last days). That is, it speaks to not only Luke’s first readers, but to us and however many generations will yet read his words.
Let me close as I began: There is no church apart from the Holy Spirit. He will still descend upon our hearts! One of my favorite hymns is just that prayer by George Croly (1854):
1. Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
wean it from earth; through all its pulses move;
stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art,
and make me love thee as I ought to love.
2. I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
no sudden rending of the veil of clay,
no angel visitant, no opening skies;
but take the dimness of my soul away.
3. Has thou not bid me love thee, God and King?
All, all thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see thy cross; there teach my heart to cling.
O let me seek thee, and O let me find.
4. Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh;
teach me the struggles of the soul to bear.
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh,
teach me the patience of unceasing prayer.
5. Teach me to love thee as thine angels love,
one holy passion filling all my frame;
the kindling of the heaven-descended Dove,
my heart an altar, and thy love the flame.
I encourage you to listen to a beautiful arrangement of this hymn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Cw9guM-9A
Tim Kelley