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Scripture Reading: John 16:12-15; 20:22; Acts 1:5, 8; 2:1-4, 17-18; 4:8, 31; 9:17; 13:9, 52; 6:3, 5a; Acts 7:55; 11:24; 8:29, 39; 16:6-7; Rom. 8:2, 9-11; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Phil. 1:19-21a; Phil. 3:7-10
In the Gospel of Mark we see the Lord Jesus as the One who lived a life according to God’s New Testament economy. This One is both the Sower and the seed. He sowed Himself as the seed into His disciples. The Lord gathered the disciples, the chosen ones of God, as His “soil” in which He sowed Himself so that He might grow in them and that they might grow Him. The Lord also brought His disciples with Him to the cross and terminated them. After this, He brought them into His resurrection. Having seen all this in the foregoing messages, let us now go on to see how the disciples are the continuation of the Lord Jesus.
The Gospel of Mark ends with the Lord’s ascension. What is the Lord Jesus doing now that He has resurrected and ascended? In order to find out what the Lord is doing after His ascension, we need the book of Acts.
In chapter one of Acts the resurrected Christ charged His disciples to remain in Jerusalem for the baptism in the Holy Spirit: “For John indeed baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). In verse 8 He went on to say, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Here we see that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a matter of the Spirit descending upon the disciples.
In Acts 1 the Lord talks about the disciples experiencing the Holy Spirit coming upon them. But had the disciples not received the Holy Spirit already? According to John 20, in the evening of His resurrection day, the Lord appeared to His disciples, breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22). In this verse the Holy Spirit is likened to breath. Breath is something inward, something related to the life within us. In John 20:22, therefore, the disciples received the Holy Spirit as breath for life.
Forty days after His resurrection, the Lord commanded the disciples to remain in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to descend upon them. That descending of the Spirit upon the disciples was for power, not for life. In John 20 we have the Spirit inwardly for life; in Acts 1 we have the Spirit outwardly for power, for baptism. When a person is baptized, he does not drink the water; instead, he is immersed in the water. In a similar way, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a matter of the Spirit coming upon us outwardly so that we may have power.
The Lord’s word to the disciples concerning the Holy Spirit in chapter one of Acts was fulfilled in chapter two. On the day of Pentecost “suddenly there came a noise out of heaven like a rushing violent wind,” and it filled the house where the disciples were sitting. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). On the day of the Lord’s resurrection the disciples received the Holy Spirit as breath for life. Then fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples as a rushing mighty wind. We can easily see the difference between breath and wind. Breath is for life, and wind is for power. In John 20 and Acts 2 we have two symbols of the Holy Spirit: the breath for life inwardly and the wind for power outwardly.
With the Lord Jesus we also see these two aspects of the Holy Spirit. First, the Lord was conceived of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20). Then at the age of thirty, when He came forth to minister, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and He was baptized in the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:21-22). The Lord’s being conceived of the Spirit was a matter of the Spirit essentially, but His being baptized in the Holy Spirit was a matter of the Spirit descending upon Him economically. Hence, the Holy Spirit for the Lord’s conception was essential, whereas the Holy Spirit for His ministry was economical.
Because the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit essentially, the Spirit became the essence of His being. The Lord had the divine essence of the conceiving Holy Spirit. He also received the human essence from the virgin Mary. Because He was conceived of the divine essence and born with the human essence, He was born a God-man. This means that for His being as the God-man He had two essences — the divine essence and the human essence. Therefore, the Lord was both God and man, the complete God and a perfect man. This is a matter of His being, His existence.
For thirty years the Lord Jesus lived on earth as the God-man. At the age of thirty He began to minister. For His ministry He needed the Spirit of God to descend upon Him not essentially but economically. This descending of the Spirit upon the Lord Jesus was for God’s economy; it was not for the Lord’s existence. For His existence He needed the Holy Spirit essentially to be His divine essence. But for the carrying out of God’s economy, He needed the Holy Spirit to descend on Him economically.
The disciples also received the Holy Spirit both essentially and economically. They received the Spirit essentially in John 20:22. The receiving of the essential Spirit was for their spiritual existence, their spiritual being. When the disciples received the Holy Spirit in John 20, they received the divine essence. After receiving the Spirit in this aspect for their spiritual existence, it was still necessary for them to receive the Spirit economically so that they could carry out God’s economy as the continuation of the Lord Jesus. The disciples had to carry out God’s economy in the same way the Lord Jesus carried it out. Since the Lord carried out God’s economy by the economical Spirit, the disciples had to carry out God’s economy by the economical Spirit. Therefore, after receiving the Spirit essentially, the disciples needed to receive the Spirit economically. They received the economical Spirit in chapter two of Acts.
We have emphasized that in John 20:22 the disciples received the Holy Spirit essentially for their spiritual being and existence. In Acts 1 we see the disciples living in this spiritual being. Before John 20, that is, before the Lord’s death and resurrection, the disciples had not been made alive in their spiritual being for their spiritual existence. Instead, they had a fallen natural, fleshly being. Even after the Lord had revealed to them His death and resurrection the third time (Mark 10:32-34), the disciples were still disputing concerning who was greater (Mark 10:35-45). In addition, Peter certainly was in his natural being when he denied the Lord. But after Christ’s death and resurrection, the disciples received the essential Spirit as the source of their spiritual being. In chapter one of Acts, although the disciples had not yet received the Holy Spirit descending upon them economically, they had experienced the Spirit essentially for their spiritual existence. Therefore, in their being they became spiritual.
The disciples had the essential Spirit for their spiritual being, but they still needed the Holy Spirit to descend upon them economically. This took place on the day of Pentecost. In Acts 2 the Spirit was fully consummated for the experience of the believers.
When did you receive the Holy Spirit essentially and economically? Some may say that they received the Holy Spirit essentially when they were regenerated and economically at a time after their regeneration. According to the biblical way of understanding this matter, we received the Holy Spirit essentially and economically more than nineteen hundred years ago. We all received the Holy Spirit essentially in John 20. Then the Jewish believers in Christ received the Holy Spirit economically in Acts 2, and the Gentile believers received the Spirit economically in Acts 10.
We may use purchasing a house as an illustration of receiving the Holy Spirit. Suppose a certain brother buys a house before he is married. Later he gets married and has children. When did this brother’s wife and children buy the house? The correct answer is that they bought it when he bought it. The principle is the same with our receiving the Holy Spirit. When did we receive the Holy Spirit? We received the Spirit when the disciples as our representatives received the Spirit.
Throughout the centuries a great many people have believed in the Lord Jesus. Each time a person believes in Him does the Lord come to that one to breathe on him and then baptize him in the Holy Spirit? No, the Lord Jesus breathed out the Spirit and baptized the believers in the Spirit once for all. Both the Lord’s breathing out of the Spirit and His baptizing in the Spirit are accomplished facts. In John 20 the Lord breathed the Spirit essentially into His Body. This happened once for all. Now, as a brother’s wife and children share in the house purchased by him before he was married and before his children were born, in a similar way, we have a share in the Lord’s breathing out of the Spirit as those who have become members of His Body. In the one case, there is no need for the wife and children to purchase the house again. Instead, they simply share in the house purchased by the brother. In a similar way, there is no need for the Lord to breathe out the Spirit again. We simply need to share in the Spirit breathed by the Lord into the Body.
After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus came to His disciples and, regarding them as His Body, breathed the Holy Spirit into them essentially. Fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, He baptized the Jewish part of His Body into the Holy Spirit. Later, in the house of Cornelius, He baptized the Gentile part of His Body into the Spirit. At that time the consummation of the Spirit for the Body was fully accomplished.
Whenever a sinner believes in the Lord Jesus, his believing joins him both to the Lord and to the Body. In this way, the Spirit becomes his portion. He now has a share in the Lord’s breathing of the Spirit essentially into the Body and in His baptizing the Body in the Spirit economically.
We should not think that there are two Spirits or that the Spirit can somehow be divided. On the contrary, there is one Spirit. Yet there are the two aspects of the Spirit, one aspect for essence and another aspect for economy. The first aspect of the Spirit is essential; the second aspect is economical. Today in our experience we have both aspects of the Holy Spirit. We have both the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit.
In the book of Acts we may say that there are two lines concerning the Spirit — the line of the essential Spirit and the line of the economical Spirit. Let us first consider some verses related to the economical Spirit and then verses related to the essential Spirit.
Acts 1:5 says, “For John indeed baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” This clearly refers to the economical Spirit. Then verse 8 goes on to say, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” The Spirit coming upon us is a matter of the economical Spirit.
Acts 2:4 says that the disciples “were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Here we see that the disciples were filled with the Spirit economically for their ministry.
Acts 2:17 and 18 say, “And it shall be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and upon My slaves, both men and women, I will pour out of My Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy.” These verses speak of the pouring out of the Spirit. This differs from the breathing of the Spirit into the disciples out of the mouth of Christ at His resurrection. The pouring out of God’s Spirit was from the heavens at Christ’s ascension. The former is the essential aspect of the Spirit breathed into the disciples for their spiritual being and existence; the latter is the economical aspect of the Spirit poured upon them as power for their work.
In chapter four of Acts the economical aspect of the Holy Spirit is mentioned twice. Verse 8 says that Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit.” This was an economical filling of the Spirit for ministry. Verse 31 says, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” This also was an economical filling of the Spirit.
In Acts 9:17 we see that Ananias was sent to Saul of Tarsus so that Saul might receive an economical filling of the Holy Spirit: “Ananias went away and entered into the house; and laying his hands on him, he said, Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, so that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Before Ananias came to him, Saul had already received the essential Spirit. When Saul called on the Lord’s name, he began to participate in the essential Spirit. But in 9:17 Ananias came to lay hands on him so that he could participate in the economical Spirit.
Acts 13:9 tells us that Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit. This also refers to the economical aspect of the Spirit.
Other verses in Acts refer to the essential Spirit. One of these verses is Acts 6:3: “Now brothers, select seven well-attested men from among you, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we shall appoint over this need.” This refers to being filled with the Spirit essentially for life. To do the service spoken of in chapter six does not require power; it requires life with wisdom and endurance. For this service we need to be full of the Spirit of life, not with the Spirit of power. To be filled with the Spirit of power is for God’s economy, but to be filled with the Spirit of life is for our spiritual existence. In this verse “wisdom” indicates that the filling is the filling of the essential Spirit for life.
In Acts 6:5 we are told that Stephen was “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” Once again, this refers to the essential aspect of the Spirit.
When Stephen was stoned, he was full of the Spirit essentially: “Being full of the Holy Spirit, looking intently into heaven, he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (7:55). The filling of the Spirit here is a matter of life, not of power. Hence, it is the filling of the essential Spirit.
Speaking of Barnabas, Acts 11:24 describes him as a “good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” This verse also speaks of the essential aspect of the Spirit.
Acts 13:52 says, “The disciples were made full of joy and of the Holy Spirit.” The filling of the Holy Spirit here is not for power but for life. In this verse the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit essentially for life, not for power.
As we consider these verses in the book of Acts, we see clearly the two aspects of the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, we see the essential aspect of the Spirit for our spiritual being; on the other hand, we see the economical aspect of the Spirit for our work to carry out God’s New Testament economy.
