James Buchanan
2. The circumstances which accompanied their conversion and the means which effected it. It is of considerable practical importance to distinguish between these two things and to assign to each its proper place. The circumstances of this case had, in some respects, no parallel in the experience of the Christian Church. Some of the means used here were preparatory and others were not.
This great awakening of souls was preceded by servent united prayer. This was an important preparatory means. In accordance with God’s faithful promise, it engaged almighty power on the side of the preachers of the gospel. The Lord had commanded the Apostles, immediately before His ascension to glory, to wait at Jerusalem until they should receive the promise of the
1Taken with editing, from the “Illustrative Cases of Conversion” in The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit. Last month’s article discussed “the previous state of the 3000 souls who were converted”, as recorded in Acts 2.
Father. And when they returned to the city from Mount Olivet, “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. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.” The number of the disciples at this time was about 120; these all continued to meet for prayer; and so, “when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place,” when the promise of the Father was suddenly fulfilled by an outpouring of the Holy Ghost.
Mark here how prayer preceded the most remarkable awakening of souls that ever occurred in the Church of God – how it stood connected with the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. It was after frequent united prayer, and when they were again assembled for the same purpose, that “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”.
The Lord had given them an express promise which left no doubt as to the communication of the Spirit’s gifts; not only had He said before His crucifixion, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth,” but again, immediately before His ascension to glory, He said, “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”. “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of Me.” “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
The Lord’s promise was express, but it did not supersede prayer. On the contrary, the promise was the ground for prayer, according to the saying of the prophet, “I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord God: I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.” Great things are still promised in answer to believing prayer. Not only do we have the general promise: “Ask, and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you,” but specially we have that precious assurance: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him”.
A special blessing is annexed to united prayer: “I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall
be done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Let these gracious promises be an encouragement to fervent, persevering prayer; and let us, with holy importunity, never hold our peace day nor night. “Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
In answer to believing prayer, the disciples received the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, which were, in various ways, fitted to prepare for the glorious work of conversion. These gifts served to strengthen the faith of the disciples; they were a manifest fulfilment of the Lord’s promise to qualify them to declare the gospel message to men of various nations then in Jerusalem – they conferred power to speak in their languages and afforded ample evidence to others of God’s interposition.
We have already seen that the gift of the Holy Spirit was the crowning evidence of the divine mission of the Saviour: it was expressly promised as the divinely-appointed proof of His exaltation to the right hand of God, of the acceptance of His finished work, and of its efficacy in procuring those gifts for men which He died to purchase and was exalted to bestow. We may well admire the wisdom of God in providing this crowning proof of Christ’s divine mission at that particular time. It made known the truth, and its divine evidence, to multitudes who were then at Jerusalem. On their return home, they carried with them the seed of the Word, and scattered it everywhere.
But the conversions recorded here are not chiefly ascribed to the miraculous circumstances by which they were preceded; otherwise there would be no ground to expect similar conversions in modern times, when the gift of tongues has ceased. The direct means of conversion in this, as in every other case, was the preaching of gospel truth, applied to the heart and conscience by the Holy Ghost. The gift of tongues served an important purpose in preparing the way for the Apostles to proclaim the gospel, and for the people to receive it by faith; for it enabled the Apostles to proclaim the gospel in various languages, so that it could be clearly understood and intelligently believed. It was fitted also to excite interest in the gospel message, as the gift of tongues demonstrated the miraculous interposition of God; it afforded evidence to authenticate the truth and establish the divine commission of the Apostles.
But it did not go any farther; it was not of itself the means of converting the soul; that change could only be wrought by the means that are still effectual for that end – the truths of the gospel, applied with power by the Spirit of God. You will note that no conversion followed immediately on the miraculous gift of tongues. All wondered; some doubted; others mocked; but no one was converted till the glorious gospel was proclaimed.
There were, in fact, three successive stages in the experience of those who were converted on the day of Pentecost. First of all, before any discourse was addressed to them, the whole multitude witnessed the miracle of tongues, and this produced in some a sense of wonder, and in others scorn. It set the minds of both groups to work – the one to inquire anxiously, the other to offer a sceptical explanation – for it is said: “They were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others, mocking, said, These men are full of new wine.” They were not converted; they were not even convinced by the miracle; but their attention was arrested by it.
Then followed, secondly, a work of conviction which was wrought by the first part of Peter’s sermon, where he established, by incontrovertible proof, the great truth that Jesus is the Christ. This effect is thus described: “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Here we see the gift of the Spirit, the fruit of Christ’s exaltation to glory, producing in the minds of unbelievers a deep conviction of sin, as He told the Apostles: “When He is come, He will reprove [or convince] the world of sin . . . of sin, because they believe not on Me”. Still their conversion was not complete; as yet they were only undergoing the preparatory discipline of conviction, imbued with a spirit of thoughtful inquiry.
Thirdly, then followed the work of real conversion, by which they were persuaded and enabled to embrace Christ for salvation. This was effected, instrumentally, by the second part of Peter’s address, in which he declared the gospel message and exhorted them to close in with it. He presented the gracious assurance that, guilty as they were, they were welcome to come to Christ for life. “Then said Peter unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you and to your children; and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Thus, on the day of Pentecost, it was the gospel chiefly, not the miracle, which led to the great work of conversion, by which 3000 souls were added to the Church.
Let us briefly consider the substance of this remarkable discourse. It has two parts. In the first, Peter removes from the minds of his hearers a prejudice against the message he was about to deliver. Accordingly he begins by referring calmly to the accusation of being intoxicated or unduly excited, which “mockers” had raised against the Apostles. He refers to Joel’s prediction of an outpouring of the Spirit of God, that many would prophesy before “the great and notable day of the Lord”. He represents the events which they now witnessed as the visible fulfilment of that prediction.
He proceeds fearlessly to preach Christ crucified, declaring that Jesus of
Nazareth was a man approved of God among them, by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in their midst. He appeals to their own knowledge, as ample confirmation of his testimony. He charges home upon them the guilt of having taken and, by wicked hands, crucified and slain Him. Appealing to their consciences as sufficient to convict them of this flagrant sin, he declares that Christ rose from the dead – both as predicted by the Psalmist and as testified by the Apostles, who were all witnesses of this.
Finally, he declares Christ’s exaltation by the right hand of God – not merely His ascension, but His glorification, in token of God’s acceptance, and in preparation for His great reward. The gift of the Holy Ghost, he says, was received from the Father as a pledge of His approbation, and was dispensed by the Son exercising His royal power as a Prince and Saviour. This gift showed that He who once hung on the cross was now seated on the throne, and occupied it by virtue of the authority of Him who said to Him: “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy footstool”.
Thus Peter narrates the leading facts of the Lord’s personal history. The design of his whole discourse is, on the ground of proper evidence, to establish and to impress on their minds that one great but simple truth: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”.