Acts 1:4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem… Commanded them that they should... wait for the promise of the Father. The exact designation here employed to describe the gift, and the special gift, of the Holy Ghost - namely, "the promise of the Father" - is confined to the writing of St. Luke; as it were, the outcome of his assiduous memory. In the Gospel (Luke 24:49) he remembers it to quote it, in its completest precision: "Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you." These are the two occasions of the occurrence of this expression in Scripture. Other portions of Scripture, however, concerned with the same grand subject, are quite in harmony with these two picked expressions. They may possibly all date in the first instance from the words of the Prophet Joel (Joel 2:28, 29). But we most thankfully accept the reminding words of Jesus, as here distinctly quoted," which ye have heard of me," as good for asserting the independent choice of the designation by an original authority. When thus viewed, it will exceed in value the words of the prophet, though treasured long, if not in grateful, yet in hopeful memory. We have here - I. THE MENTION OF THE DESCENT, THE SPECIAL DESCENT, OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, UNDER THE TITLE OF "THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER." 1. This title maintains consistently the strict fidelity of revelation. The uniform representation of Scripture sets forth everything good as originating with the Father. He is the Source. He is the Beginning. Whatsoever comes even nearest of all to him, is still but "in the beginning with him." He is the "Giver of every good and perfect gift" - of the glorious array of gift that ranks the brightest among its treasures, beyond comparison the brightest, Jesus Christ, "the Son of the Father" and the Savior of the world, and the Holy Spirit, "the promise of the Father," and the Regenerator and Sanctifier of human hearts. "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift," the fit refrain of ten thousand songs - songs of life, of light, of warmth, of love, of reason, of memory, of imagination, of hope, of beauty, of joy - is nevertheless heard, first of all, in its fullest tones, in its richest strains, as the refrain of those songs, that celebrate the gift of Jesus to a once prostrate world, and the "promise of the Father" to that same world just begun to lift its head, and gasp for pure air, and to beg for a little light, and a little love and hope. To that doubting prayer of a world crushed under sin and darkness so long, and wrung from it by the bitterness of its effectual woe, how large the answer that came down wrapt in the "promise of the Father" And within the narrower limits of Christ's own testimony respecting the Holy Spirit, this title preserves the harmony of Scripture. "The Father... shall give you another Comforter" (John 14:16); "The Father will send... the Comforter, the Holy Ghost" (John 14:26); "The Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father" (John 15:26). We may notice these testimonies of Christ the more observantly, because they grow up lovingly tangled among allusions to his own relations to the Spirit, and to the "sending" of him. Of which more follows immediately. 2. The title is one that specially honors the Father. Taking into account the exact juncture, it may perhaps be viewed as intentionally an almost final act for the days of Christ's tarrying on earth, of honor, of obedience, of the reverent love of a true, sublime Sonship on the part of Christ toward God the Father. Only the day before his crucifixion had Christ spoken with some fullness and in some detail of his own relation to the Spirit. That relation must be a very close one, to answer correctly to the things which Jesus then said and implied as well. For instance: "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter" (John 14:16); "The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my Name (John 15:26); The Comforter... whom I will send unto you from the Father" (John 15:26); "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you" (John 16:7); "The Spirit of truth... shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you" (John 16:13, 14). Sot in the whole body of these sayings of Christ is there, indeed, anything that trenches upon the rights of the Father; yet now the great original Promiser is justly brought, and is as it were finally left by Christ in the place of first majesty and prominence. 3. The title offers, for all devout and reverent thought, to link together that present, which ever seems so prosaic, so unmemorable with hallowed antiquity, with the sacredness of the past, with the legitimate enchantment of distance. The promise reminds (and in this case most plainly) of the Promiser. And this Promiser of ages past, long waited for, not seldom distrusted, sometimes despaired of, is now in a moment or two going to be manifested - the faithful Promiser. He is none other than the Father everlasting! Promise adds preciousness to bestowment in several ways - in the very tension of the moral nature which it challenges, in the mutual keeping hold of hands (all the while that the promise subsists), of promiser and promisee, in the educatory processes of varied sort that are sure to be transpiring during all the same interval, and, in a word, in the preparation of the receiver for the thing prepared for him, as well as in his final supreme gratification on receiving it. But come this time, the "forecasting of the years" past, "the reaching of the hand through time to catch the far-off interest of tears" over, and the blank days that have been yield to the dawn of radiance itself. So sang Moses, when now at last he saw the land, "the promise of the Father " - "My Father's hope! my childhood's dream! The promise from on high! Long waited for! its glories beam Now when my death is nigh. "My death is come, but not decay; Nor eye nor mind is dim; The keenness of youth's vigorous day Thrills in each nerve and limb. "Blest scene! thrice welcome after toil - If no deceit I view; Oh, might my lips but press the soil, And prove the vision true!" (J. H. Newman.) And so, in higher strain, chants the apostle: "Faithful is he who hath promised, who also will do it 4. The title offers in a fresh form, to the sensitive, impressible disposition of true discipleship, a pathetic suggestion of the nearness and the continuing purpose and the watching grace of the Father. 'Tis all covered by the word promise. For a promise must be of something welcome and wished for. A promise has no part nor lot with a threat. The only question that lies at the door of promise is the anxious one, as to faithfulness; that assured, the prospect must be a grateful one. So one chosen word, an opportune name, a kindly expression, becomes a suggestion, fruitful and full of fruitfulness. The promise of the Father" must ever be the "Comforter" of the Church. II. THE COMMAND TO AWAIT TOGETHER AT JERUSALEM THAT DESCENT, OR "BAPTISM," OF THE HOLY GHOST WHICH WOULD CONSTITUTE THE FULFILMENT OF PROMISE. It is not necessary to linger over the fact that Jerusalem was to be the scene of the "baptism with the Holy Ghost," and the geographical point of departure for the new heralds of" the kingdom of God." It was the metropolis of the land; it was the shrine in a shrine. It had been the ecclesiastical gathering-place of the elect people for centuries upon centuries, and divinely appointed such. But now, if ever work was to date from place, the work of Christ might well begin from the place where he suffered, and the glory of the dispensation of his Spirit be manifested where had been first the manifestation of his soul's sore "trouble," and his humiliation unto death! This, the first crown after the cross! But other suggestions, of more intrinsic importance, arise out of this command. 1. The command, by preventing the separation and dispersion of the apostles, prepared the way for a manifestation which, if viewed merely as a phenomenon, must have been unsurpassed in the experience of the people, whether those who saw it or those who felt it as well. No amount of depth of conviction, no amount of consequent real stir, could be wondered at after such a scene, or the credible report of it only. The impression and the effect must have been justly tremendous then and there. Could we give ourselves leave to imagine for one moment a reproduction of that scene in the modern world's metropolis, we know that, taking into consideration the scale of modern thought, the character and variety and tenacity of modern skepticism, and the wonderfully advanced means of modern communication, nothing short of the genuine turning upside down of "the world" might be expected to be the result. The atheist, the rationalist, the materialist, the mere scientist, would have a hard task before them, and would have hard work to escape the administration prompt of lynch law, as it were! There were, of course, the greatest ends to be secured by that extraordinary demonstration proportionate to the time of day, and guarded from effects that would be absolutely appalling through their forcibleness. (1) That demonstration of the Spirit would be forever memorable in the thought and religious life of each individual who experienced it. (2) Also its value would be greatly enhanced in the mutual witness, which was so striking a feature of it. No hour, no moment, was wasted (as after the Resurrection) by any attempt called for on the part of one disciple to persuade or to inform another. All saw, felt, believed, and were divinely elated. (3) It irresistibly secured a wide, varied, distant circulation, at a time when this was a thing difficult to attain. 2. The command prevented apostles and disciples separating and dispersing to attempt in an individual, fitful manner their great Master's work. They are to await one united baptism - to have one distinct, impartial impression made upon them and commission entrusted to them. From the first a very needed idea was offered to them, that they were not to air their individualities, but to lose self in one glorious congregation. 3. The command scoured, on the very merits of the case, the proper preparation of the apostles for their work. Not only will they now not go forth in their own individual strength and pride, but not in human strength and pride at all. They are all to be baptized, and with such a force as the Holy Spirit! His life, his light, his love, his tongue, are to be theirs. As with Jesus' spoken charge to "the twelve," and again to "the seventy," under each permanent or temporary item of direction lay this one principle, that they were to go forth in the strength of a Stronger than man, so in this acted charge, this marvel of a demonstration of the Spirit, the same root-principle is conveyed, be it said, with a thousandfold impressiveness. Not one atom of Christ's work must they touch in their own strength, nor begin it presumptuously before they are sufficiently equipped - panoplied by the Word and the Spirit. That lesson has gone, is going, must go down through all time, and all succeeding generations and portions of the Church. Nor is it the least of important lessons being at this very time taught us, by methods often most painful, most humiliating but most healthful, that the work of Christ prospers with the man, with the Church, with the age, which is most thoroughly characterized by a profound trust, and effectual, fervent invocation of the Holy Spirit. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: And, being assembled together with them, 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. |
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