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Scripture Reading: Luke 24:49; Acts 1:5, 8; 2:4; 10:44, 46; 4:8, 31; 13:2, 13:9, 13:52; 8:14-17, 8:29, 39; 9:13-17; 19:1-7; 6:3, 5; 7:55; 11:24; 15:28; 16:6-7; 20:23, 28; 21:4, 11
In this chapter we want to see God’s New Testament economy concerning the Spirit in the book of Acts.
The first thing accomplished in God’s New Testament economy concerning the Spirit in the book of Acts was the baptism in the Spirit. This was accomplished by two instances. One happened on the day of Pentecost when the one hundred twenty were baptized (2:1-4), and the other was in the house of Cornelius (10:24, 44-46). By these two instances the Head, Christ, accomplished the baptism in the Spirit on His entire Body. On the day of Pentecost He baptized the Jewish side of the Body, and in the house of Cornelius He baptized the Gentile side since the Body of Christ is composed of the Jews and the Gentiles. All the Jewish believers need to realize that they were baptized in the Spirit on the day of Pentecost with Peter and the one hundred twenty. The Gentile believers must realize that they were all baptized in the house of Cornelius.
On the day of Pentecost the one hundred twenty disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues (2:4). At that time many Jews from the dispersion had come back to Jerusalem (v. 5). Most of these Jews could not speak Hebrew so well; therefore, there was the need for the speaking in tongues. Acts 2:7-11 shows that these Jews spoke many different languages. The speaking in tongues on the day of Pentecost was economical because it was needed to unify the people by language so that they all could understand each other.
Also, the Holy Spirit fell on the house of Cornelius, and they spoke in tongues (10:44, 46). Because the house of Cornelius was Gentile, there was the need for them to speak in tongues. The Jewish believers thought that the Lord’s salvation was only for Israel. Even Peter thought this way until the Lord revealed otherwise (vv. 28-29). To receive the Gentiles was a great thing for the Jews. The Jews would never be one with the Gentiles. They would not eat and communicate with the Gentiles, nor would they contact the Gentiles. They even condemned the Roman rulers and viewed them as robbing ones. Cornelius was a Roman ruler (v. 1), a ruler of the ancient Roman imperialism. Therefore, the Lord had to do something to cause the house of Cornelius to speak in tongues in order to show Peter and the other Jewish brothers that all these Gentiles had received the same gift and the same grace that they had on the day of Pentecost (vv. 44-48). After they heard the house of Cornelius speak in tongues and magnify God, Peter said, “Can anyone forbid the water so that these would not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit even as we?” (v. 47). The speaking in tongues in this instance was for the unifying of the believers into one Body. The speaking in tongues in today’s Pentecostalism, however, does not unite people but divides them.
Being filled (Gk. pletho) with the Spirit outwardly for power is the experience of the baptism in the Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:5, 8). In Acts 2:2 a rushing violent wind filled the whole house where the disciples were sitting. In this verse there is another Greek word for filled — pleroo. This Greek word means “the inner filling, to fill something within.” At the same time that the wind filled the house, it also filled the one hundred twenty. For the wind to fill the house was an inner filling, but to the one hundred twenty it was an outward filling (pletho — v. 4). When water fills a baptistery, that is an inner filling (pleroo). When the persons who are being baptized enter into the water, the water fills them outwardly. This is the outer filling (pletho).
Peter was filled (pletho) with the Holy Spirit again and spoke the word in Acts 4:8. On the day of Pentecost, Peter was filled once. That was his initial experience of the baptism, and Acts 4:8 is the following experience. This does not mean that he was baptized in the Spirit twice but that he applied the experience of the baptism in the Spirit a second time.
In Acts 4:31 Peter and his company were filled (pletho) again with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. This was the third time for Peter to experience the baptism in the Spirit. This was not the third time for him to be baptized but the third time for him to experience the baptism. This verse does not say that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Rather, it says that he and the other disciples spoke the word of God with boldness. Today in some Pentecostal groups, however, every time they come together, they speak in tongues. It was different, however, with Peter and the other disciples. Peter repeated the speaking of the word with boldness again and again, not the speaking in tongues. He spoke forth Christ; he prophesied in this way again and again. When there was the need, though, of speaking in tongues, God did it through them.
Paul experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit for the first time when he was filled (pletho) with the Holy Spirit right after his conversion (9:17). Then he had the same experience again when he was filled (pletho) with the Holy Spirit in his ministry (13:9). According to the record of Acts, this was Paul’s second time to be filled outwardly, economically, with the Holy Spirit.
There are three extraordinary cases of believers being filled with the Spirit outwardly, which we must investigate. First, the Holy Spirit fell upon the Samaritans through Peter and John’s laying their hands on them (8:14-17). In the two instances that constitute the baptism in the Spirit (on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius), there was no laying on of hands, because the Head baptized His Body in the Spirit directly. With the Samaritans, however, with Saul of Tarsus (9:13-17), and with the twelve disciples in Ephesus (19:1-7), there was the need for the members of the Body to lay hands upon them. The one laying on the hands is a member of the Body, and the baptism is upon the Body. When a member of the Body lays hands on another, this is to impart what is on the Body to a new member.
A number of the Samaritans in Acts 8 believed in the Lord Jesus through Philip’s preaching (v. 12). The Samaritans were despised by the Jews, and the Jews had no dealings with them (John 4:9). Now some of them believed in the Lord Jesus through some Jewish believers’ preaching of the gospel. The news went to Jerusalem, and the church sent Peter and John to Samaria to visit them (Acts 8:14). After praying for these believers, Peter and John laid their hands upon them, and the Spirit came upon them. This was the outward filling with the Spirit economically. Peter and John’s laying on of hands upon these Samaritan believers confirms that they were added to and accepted by the Body of Christ. Peter and John, who represented the Body of Christ, identified them with the Body of Christ and imparted what the Body of Christ had to them.
Saul of Tarsus was also filled with the Holy Spirit outwardly through Ananias’s laying his hands on him (9:13-17). Saul of Tarsus was a Jew who was opposing the church to the uttermost. All the church people were afraid of him, but the Lord met him on the road to Damascus and saved him directly (vv. 3-6). The Lord, however, appeared to Ananias in a vision and told him to go to the lane called Straight and seek in the house of Judas a man named Saul. Ananias, a little member of the Body of Christ, went and told Saul what the Lord had told him. Then he laid his hands upon Saul, whom the Holy Spirit then fell upon. This was a strong confirmation that Saul, the opposer of the church, was saved and received by the Lord into His Body. This was another extraordinary case that needed the laying on of hands to identify Saul as a member of the Body of Christ and to impart to him what was on the Body of Christ.
The third extraordinary case was with the twelve disciples in Ephesus, who received the preaching of John the Baptist’s teaching, which was not a complete gospel. After they received the complete gospel, Paul laid his hands upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied (19:1-7). Paul laid his hands upon these Gentile believers in Ephesus to impart what was on the Body of Christ to them. They also spoke in tongues because they were Gentiles. They needed this sign so that the Jewish believers would realize that they had been received by the Lord. All three of these extraordinary cases needed the laying on of hands. All these believers received the Spirit upon them, not directly from the Head but indirectly through the Body.
Those who were filled with the Spirit outwardly for power, being baptized into one Body, began to drink of one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). When they began to drink of the Spirit, they became full of the Spirit within. This is inwardly and essentially for life. To be baptized in the Spirit is to be filled with the Spirit outwardly for power, but to drink of the Spirit is to be full (Gk. pleres from pleroo) of the Spirit inwardly for life. After we have been baptized in the Spirit outwardly, we keep drinking of the Spirit and become full of the Spirit inwardly.
There are four cases in Acts that illustrate this matter of being full of the Spirit inwardly for life. In Acts 6:3 seven were chosen who were full of the Spirit and of wisdom. Acts 6:5 tells us that Stephen was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Acts 7:55 tells us again that Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. Finally, Acts 11:24 tells us that Barnabas was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. Being full of the Spirit in these verses is not for the outward power but for the inward life.
Acts 13:52 tells us that the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. This is to be filled (Gk. pleroo from pleres) with the Spirit inwardly for life. After being baptized in the Spirit, the disciples began to drink of the Spirit and became full of the Spirit. They were filled with the Spirit again and again inwardly until they were full of the Holy Spirit. The word joy in this verse indicates that this kind of inward filling of the Spirit is for the inner life and not for work.
In Acts, in addition to the outward filling of the Spirit, being full of the Spirit inwardly, and the inward filling of the Spirit, there was also the guidance of the Spirit. In Acts 8:29 and 39 Philip, the evangelist, enjoyed the guidance of the Spirit: “The Spirit said to Philip, Approach and join this chariot,” and “when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away.” In 13:2 the brothers in Antioch enjoyed the guidance of the Spirit in separating Barnabas and Saul for the work: “As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for Me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” In 15:28 the brothers in Jerusalem sent a letter to the Gentile churches, which also reveals something of the guidance of the Spirit: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.”
In 16:6 Paul and Timothy were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. Furthermore, “when they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (v. 7). Paul and Timothy were guided by the Spirit of Jesus. The Spirit of Jesus is a special term. Its meaning differs from that of the Spirit of God. Since Jesus was a man, and is still a man, “the Spirit of Jesus” is the Spirit of the man Jesus. Because the Spirit of Jesus possesses humanity, He could give guidance to the apostles who were carrying out the propagation of the resurrected and ascended Christ in their humanity among the human race.
In 20:23 Paul said, “The Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in city after city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.” Although this was the Holy Spirit’s testifying to Paul, it bore some indication as a guidance to him. In verse 28 of the same chapter Paul said to the elders of the church in Ephesus, “The Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers to shepherd the church of God.” The elders of the churches were appointed by the apostles (14:23). But Paul said here that the Holy Spirit had placed the elders as overseers to shepherd the church. This indicates that the apostles’ appointment of the elders was under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In 21:4 the disciples in Tyre “told Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem.” This was a direct guidance of the Spirit given to Paul through some disciples. In verse 11 of the same chapter, Agabus the prophet, having bound his own feet and hands with Paul’s belt, said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, In this way will the Jews in Jerusalem bind the man whose belt this is and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.” This was a foretelling bearing some indication of the Holy Spirit’s guidance to Paul. All these cases show that the apostles and the disciples in Acts were people living, moving, working, laboring, traveling, and doing everything by the guidance of the Spirit, who is not only the Holy Spirit of God but also the Spirit of Jesus. Outwardly, they were filled with the Spirit of power economically for them to carry out the work of God’s New Testament economy, and inwardly, they were filled with the Spirit of life essentially for them to live a life of the processed God. As a result, they moved, walked, worked, acted, traveled, and did everything by the Spirit as men of the Spirit. These were the members of the Body of Christ, living and moving on this earth for the testimony of the resurrected and exalted Christ and the fulfillment of God’s plan according to His eternal economy. Now we have the Head in the heavens and the Body on this earth living and cooperating together to live the life of God to carry out God’s economy.
