IT is not our purpose in this paper to bring Scripture proof of the Holy Spirit’s presence on earth. This great truth is no doubt more or less familiar to all our readers.
When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to the right hand of God, having accomplished the work of redemption, He sent forth from the Father (Acts 2:33) that other Comforter, the Holy Ghost, who was to abide here with the saints forever (John 14:16). We press this point of supreme importance upon the attention of our readers. The abiding character of the Spirit’s presence is what distinguishes the present dispensation from all others. When Christ came here He did not come to abide with His people forever. He came to suffer for their sins; far more, He came to glorify God about them. For this He went to the cross, He was there made sin, He who knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21). He went into death for His own; yea, He went before them, like the true Ark of the Covenant, descending into the dark waters of death and judgment that His people might walk dry-shod. Peter, impetuous and no doubt sincere, says, “Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now?” But this was impossible. Atonement Christ alone could accomplish. None could share in redemption’s toil. At the cross Christ stood alone to meet man’s bitter hatred, Satan’s power of darkness, and all the waves and billows of God’s wrath against sin. But the work is done, eternal praises to His name!
And now Christ risen from the dead has gone into heaven. Often did He announce to His sorrowing disciples that He must leave them; but He also assured them that when the Holy Ghost should come it would be far otherwise. That other Comforter, the Spirit of truth, would not only be in them, but He should dwell (or abide) with them.
It is not our purpose now to enlarge on the first of these great truths. Every Christian understands more or less clearly that the Holy Ghost dwells in him. Indeed this is what constitutes the true Christian position according to John 14:20 and Romans 8:9, “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.”
“If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.”
But is there not much misconception, ignorance, and unbelief as to the blessed truth that the Holy Spirit abides with us. Christ went away, but the Holy Ghost, He promised, “would abide with you forever” (John 14:16).
Briefly we feel led to point out from Scripture the free action of the Spirit both in the world and in the Church. It was God’s intention that the glad tidings should be preached in all the world. Since the cross a new phase of God’s dealings had come. It was no longer Jerusalem and the Jews that were the objects of His dealings, but “the whole world” and “every creature.”
A prayerful study of the opening chapter of the Acts bows the heart in wonder and worship as we see God bringing about this gracious purpose of His love. He is seen behind every circumstance, and controlling every outburst of human wrath, and turning all things to His own glory in the accomplishment of His will.
After the martyrdom of Stephen a violent persecution burst forth against the Church at Jerusalem. Satan’s effort no doubt was to crush the work at its beginning, and nip in the bud this new testimony to the One whom wicked hands had crucified and slain. But the wrath of man is made to praise Him. Up till this time the testimony had been confined to Jerusalem, but now they were all scattered abroad, except the apostles. We know from the earlier chapters of the Acts that many thousands had already been added to the Church in that city. Now these became scattered throughout Judea and Samaria (Acts 8:1).
And did these scattered ones withhold the light of the gospel from the regions where they were dispersed? By no means; the results of their labors, so far as Judea was concerned, are alluded to in the Epistle to the Galatians, for by the time Paul came upon the scene, some years afterward, not only were souls saved, but assemblies had been formed (Gal. 1:22).
Here we find a striking instance of the free action of the Spirit. It has been said that only an assembly can receive. But what assembly could possibly have received these converts of the preached word (Acts 8:4)? We do not in the smallest degree question the responsibilities and the privileges of the assembly, but it would have been an unwarrantable interference with the liberty of the Spirit’s action for the assembly at Jerusalem to have hindered in Judea and Samaria the gathering together of the saints. Indeed it could not have been done. The same power that had gathered them together at Jerusalem likewise gathered them wherever the gospel bore its fruit in the salvation of souls.
Another remarkable instance of this free and independent action of the Spirit now comes before us in the case of Samaria. “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them” (Acts 8:5). The servant had to do directly with his Master, and God wrought mightily through his means. There was great joy in that city, for “they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ,” and they made public confession of their faith by baptism.
But in the case of Samaria things were somewhat different from Judea, and hence “when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John” (Acts 8:14). This was not to raise any opposition to the work which had been so blessedly accomplished, but to prove their hearty fellowship in that which God had wrought. Difficulties might have arisen, and a barrier to fellowship might have been raised owing to the mixed state of Samaria with regard to worship. But God took care that no divided feelings should at this opening stage of the Church’s history be allowed to supervene. How blessed would it have been had this state of things continued!
From Acts 9:31, we learn that the formation of assemblies had been taking place freely throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. It could not be otherwise, for this is what God wished His people to do, namely, to gather together into one place for worship, edification, and prayer, wherever Christ was preached and souls were saved. For Jerusalem to have hindered this would have been to thwart the free and sovereign action of the Spirit of God.
But now came a crucial case, a case calculated to raise every prejudice of the Jewish mind. Up till now the work had been confined to Jews and Jewish proselytes. But God was about to open the door to the Gentiles. The keys of the kingdom of heaven had been entrusted to Peter (Matt. 16:19), and for this reason, even had there been no other, Peter must be the servant chosen for this important part of the work. Philip, who lived at Cæsarea, might be the instrument in the reception of Samaria, but he could not be entrusted with the reception of Cornelius and his household. The keys which at the day of Pentecost Peter had used to open the door to the Jewish believers, he is now called upon by the Lord Himself to use a second time in the admission of Gentiles to the same privileges and blessings as the Jews. For this he was prepared by the remarkable vision of the sheet let down from heaven. Every prejudice of his being both nationally and religiously rose in rebellion at the thought of eating what was common or unclean; and Gentiles were unclean in the eyes of a Jew. But what God had cleansed was no longer common or unclean. The free and sovereign action of the Spirit of God in connection with the work of the Lord is most marvelously illustrated in this history of Cornelius (Acts 10). God is seen to be working at both ends, preparing Cornelius to receive the message, and preparing Peter to deliver it.
Here Peter has to do directly with his Master and not with his fellow-servants. He receives no commission from man, nor does he seek the permission of Jerusalem in a case where, humanly speaking, this permission might have been deemed necessary. Had the question of receiving Cornelius been sent up to Jerusalem for consideration, we might well believe that Cornelius never would have been received. Peter acts in obedience to his Master and leaves the results with God. These results, so far as Cornelius and his friends were concerned, were blessed indeed. While the joyful news of peace and forgiveness through a crucified and risen Christ was being proclaimed in their ears, “the Holy Ghost fell on all that heard the word” (Acts 10:44).
Now comes the opposition from Jerusalem, and things looked dark indeed. Division was threatened, but blessedly averted. Why should the gracious operation of God’s Spirit lead to any such disastrous consequences? And yet there were exercised consciences to be satisfied, and prejudices to be cleared away. And how was this to be done? Surely not by raising a storm of opposition throughout the assemblies of Judea, and Samaria, and Galilee. No, but “Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order unto them” (Acts 11:4). The simple and unvarnished account of all that had taken place was enough to convince the apostles and brethren in Judea, as it had already done Peter, that the work was of God. And yet Peter divides the responsibility. It might not have satisfied others to have said, “The Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting,” but all difficulty was settled by, “Moreover these six brethren accompanied me” (Acts 11:12).
In the mouths then of all these witnesses every word of God’s blessed work at Caesarea was established: “The Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that He said... ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as He did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?”
It was right that Peter should do all that in his power lay to clear away whatever difficulties lay in the way of a hearty recognition of the work at Cæsarea, but after this rehearsal of the matter, further hostility on the part of Judea would have been withstanding God.
Yet another instance in this same chapter must conclude this brief survey of the Spirit’s free and independent action in those early days of Christianity. Hitherto none but Peter had admitted Gentile believers, but now those “scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen” extend their labors as far as to Antioch, and there preach to the Grecians (these were Gentiles). “The hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord” (Acts 11:21).
But this does not satisfy Jerusalem — “Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the Church which was at Jerusalem.” God was working independently of Jerusalem as a center, teaching the great lesson that in Christ Jesus was neither Jew nor Gentile, but all were one, and that the middle wall of partition was broken down.
Every care was taken by the Lord to preserve the Church from division, and yet nothing must be allowed to hinder the free action of His Spirit.
Barnabas was sent down to Antioch from Jerusalem, but “when he came and had seen the grace of God,” he was glad. He immediately falls in line with what God was doing, and he exhorts these young converts to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart. Oh, for more Barnabases! “He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith,” and the result of his visit to Antioch was that “much people was added unto the Lord.”
We cannot close this paper without pointing out the blessed evidences of the grace and love of Christ at work in the hearts of the saints both at Jerusalem and Antioch at the end of the chapter (vers. 27-30). The brethren in Judea were in need, for a dearth had visited the land. No resentment is found in the hearts of the disciples at Antioch for the suspicion and coldness of their reception by Jerusalem, for “every man according to his ability determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea.” No pride prevented the Jewish disciples from accepting help from those Gentile brethren whom they might have been tempted to despise.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, coolness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22, 23).
In our next we purpose to continue the subject of the free action of the Spirit in the assembly. May God guide heart and hand aright. A. H. B.