Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became man, had died, suffering “for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring [them] to God” (1 Pet 3:18). He had risen from the dead on the third day, showing that God the Father had accepted His sacrifice on behalf of His people. Now He was to ascend to heaven as His disciples watched. Before doing so, He told them: “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 Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
For Peter or John or any of the other disciples to go out into the streets of Jerusalem and attempt to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation to those passing by would have been totally futile before the coming of the Spirit. They needed divine power to accompany their words, to make them effective. So they waited in the upper room for the promised power. They did not have long to wait; “when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (2:1-4).
Here was a series of remarkable miracles which caused amazement among those who saw what happened and heard what the apostles said in their own various languages. Though some of the crowd mocked, many were impressed with the display of power. In passing, we note that the age of miracles had not then come to an end; the miracles were intended to demonstrate that the new dispensation now beginning in the Church was according to God’s will. But when the canon of Scripture was completed, when the last part of Scripture had been written – there was no more need for miracles, to authenticate the new dispensation. Accordingly, one cannot accept the claims of Pentecostals and Charismatics to be able to work miracles such as speaking in tongues, as the disciples did on the Day of Pentecost.
The point of this article, however, is to consider the power that must accompany the preaching of the Word if it is to be effective in the salvation of sinners and in the building up of God’s people in their most holy faith. If ever in the Scripture history of the Church, the preaching of men sent out by God was effective, it was at Pentecost, and it was effective because it was accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. On the basis of various Old Testament scriptures, and what he and the other disciples had witnessed, Peter made known the truth about Jesus Christ and the great work that He accomplished in this world. And no doubt the other apostles who preached on that day spoke in similar terms and made use of similar scriptures.
We may feel that it is altogether unlikely that 3000 souls will be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God on one day in one place. But nothing is too hard for the Lord; it was entirely within His power to do such a wonder of grace in such a short time at Pentecost, and it still is. We cannot tell how many souls were brought into the kingdom of God through the preaching of the Apostles over the years until John was taken home to eternal glory; it must indeed have been no small number.
Accordingly we may wonder why, in our generation, we do not see hundreds, or thousands, of souls brought in at one time or even over a period of some years. We might attribute this to the wickedness of the generation and assume that God is leaving our nation, or other parts of the world, in judgement. Yet we should remember that Jerusalem was the city which was guilty of crucifying “the Lord of glory”. While His power is still the same, we cannot rule out that He is acting against us in judgement.
Not every one of the Apostles’ sermons was delivered to large numbers of people. For example, in Philippi, Paul and Silas went out of the city and spoke to a group of women who gathered beside a river for prayer. One of them was Lydia, “whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul” (16:14). She may have been the only one who was converted on that occasion, but it needed divine power for her heart to be opened to receive the truths which Paul was speaking. It might seem that greater power was needed to change the heart of the jailer in the same city, but the more important consideration is that neither of them could have profited from what God’s messengers proclaimed apart from the powerful effects of the Spirit’s work in each of their souls. As a result of that power they trusted in Christ Jesus as the One who came into the world to save sinners. From these small beginnings of Lydia and the jailer and his household in Philippi, the Lord’s flock there grew into an organised congregation, with “bishops and deacons” (Phil 1:1).
Another congregation which had its roots in the labours of Paul and Silas was Thessalonica. Paul reminded the people there: “Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance” (1 Th 1:5). The people needed to hear the words that these apostles used to convey their ideas to others, but that was not enough. The Thessalonians might remember, for a time at least, what the preachers had said but, apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, they would have derived no spiritual profit. But many did obtain spiritual profit; they were given much assurance of the truth of what they heard. And, also through the Spirit, their hearts were opened and they were enabled to believe on the Lord Jesus to the saving of their souls. And Paul was to write about how they “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Th 1:9,10).
In many places, over the centuries, the Holy Spirit has been poured out and many souls have been born again. One example in Scotland was a great work of grace in 1742, in the parish of Cambuslang, near Glasgow. The minister of the parish, William M’Culloch, had been particularly earnest in preaching the doctrines of the gospel, including regeneration, for most of 1741, and a greater degree of attention than usual began to appear in the congregation in the course of that winter and early in 1742.
In February 1742, the people who had been attending prayer meetings, which had been set up recently, showed intense anxiety for their spiritual interests, deep convictions of sin, and an earnestness to hear about Christ. M’Culloch felt obliged to preach almost every day and to seek help from other ministers. Many of the best ministers in Scotland visited Cambuslang during the succeeding months and were convinced of the reality of what they had seen and were filled with thankfulness to God “that they had enjoyed the privilege of beholding so glorious a proof of the convincing and converting power of the Holy Spirit”.1
What we need today is what the people of Cambuslang needed in the early 1740s – an outpouring of the Spirit to work powerfully in the souls of multitudes of sinners. It seems reasonable to infer that this outpouring of the Spirit came in answer to the petitions which were offered up in their prayer meetings. Well it would be for God’s people today at their meetings for prayer, for example, and on their own in private, to plead with the all-powerful Head of the Church: “Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at Thy presence” (Is 64:1) – that the Word of God would come to wherever we live, and indeed to all parts of the world, with irresistible power.
1W M Hetherington, History of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh & London, 1848, vol 2, p 308. The description of God’s work in Cambuslang is based on the account on this page.