Our Lord had commanded His disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until the promise of the Father should be given and they should be endued with power from on high. (Luke 24:4949And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. (Luke 24:49).) So we read of the twelve apostles, with the women and Mary, the mother of our Lord according to the flesh, and His brethren, continuing in prayer and supplication in an upper room, waiting for the moment when the new era of Christianity should be inaugurated. (Acts 1:13,1413And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. 14These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. (Acts 1:13‑14).) They waited till the fiftieth day after our Lord's resurrection should arrive, prophesied in Lev. 23, as we have already seen. This wonderful day in the history of the world, " the morrow after the sabbath," " the first day of the week," the day of our Lord's resurrection from the dead, saw the disciples, numbering about one hundred and twenty, gathered " with one accord in one place." (Acts 2: I.)
It must have been a moment of intense and awesome expectation, a strangely new experience, for none knew exactly what was to be expected. We read: " And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting." (Acts 2:22And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:2).)
That the coming of the Holy Spirit of God should be likened to " a rushing mighty wind," would show that the Spirit's 'power is irresistible. We have heard of winds reaching such high velocity as to tear up giant trees by the roots as if they were rows of ninepins. The word for wind and spirit is the same in the Greek language. The wind cannot be seen but its power is felt, so the influence of the Holy Spirit can be felt, and yet not seen in a corporeal fashion. So we read, " The wind [Greek pneuma] bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit [Greek, pneuma]." (John 3:88The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8).) "Cloven tongues like as of fire " appeared, and sat upon each one of the believers, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Holy Spirit coming thus upon the disciples stands in vivid contrast to His descending like a dove, an emblem of peace, upon our Lord at the time of His baptism by John the Baptist. Everything in our Lord was pleasing to the Father. There was nothing contrary to holiness in' Him. With full complacency the Spirit could descend upon Him in this striking fashion.
In the case of believers the Spirit came upon them as " 'cloven tongues like as of fire." The tongue is an organ of speech. It is the speaking tongue that marks man in contrast to the lower creation. We read that no man can tame the tongue. (James 3:88But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3:8).) But here a new power comes into the believer, and the sign of that indwelling, the cloven tongue, sets forth separation from evil. One of the marks of the clean animals, which the children of Israel were allowed to eat, was that they had cloven feet. This teaches that the Holy Spirit of God must have separation in heart and ways in the believer, so that He be not grieved, but able to give joy and communion in divine things.
The cloven tongues were like as of fire, which speaks of judgment; that all of the flesh, and that which is contrary to the holiness of God, must come under His unsparing condemnation. If we refuse to judge ourselves the Lord will judge us; the fire must consume the evil. We read: " If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." (1 Cor. II: 31, 32.) The Holy Spirit's normal work is to comfort the believer, fill him with holy joy, guide him in his Christian life, show the things of Christ to him, but if the believer turns aside from the will of God, then the Spirit grieved may have to act in judgment, as seen in the case of the Corinthian believers, some of them being weak and sickly, and some even taken in judgment from the earth. We read: " If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Rom. 8:1313For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13).) " The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the
other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." (Gal. 5: 17.) With this agrees the judgment seat of Christ for the believer where gold, silver, precious stones-symbolic of deeds done in the power of the Spirit of God-stand the test of the fire, symbolizing the judgment of God. Wood, hay, stubble-symbolic of the deeds of the flesh-will be consumed by the fire of judgment. We cannot play fast and loose with the Holy Spirit of God.
The immediate result of the outpouring of the Spirit of God was the infilling of the believers with the Spirit, and their speaking with tongues. A vast number of Jews from all parts of the then known world were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. Hearing of this miraculous happening the multitude came together. Each heard the gospel in the tongue in which he was born. Those represented many languages and vast stretches of country. Thus would God by miracle lay stress upon the happenings on the great Day of Pentecost, when the church of God was inaugurated and set up.
This produced an enormous result. The expectant disciples, who waited for the great day to come, numbered about one hundred and twenty persons. Peter's sermon on that memorable day was used to the conversion of no less than about three thousand souls, who " continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." (Acts 2:4242And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:42).)
It is remarkable that the first effect of the outpouring of the Spirit was evangelistic, seeing there was brought into existence that day the church of God. The church is indeed the handmaid of the gospel. Without the gospel there would be no church. The more we truly esteem the one, the more we shall esteem the other. Each is part of God's plan for His own glory, and the blessing of His creature.
The reception of the gospel resulted in a completely different orientation of life for the believer, the entrance into a spiritual fellowship formed by divine teaching, and outwardly marked by the breaking of bread and prayers.