A Class-Book of New Testament History

by G. F. Maclear

4. The other disciples.

Though the duty enjoined upon them at this time, was that of patient waiting for the bestowal of the promised gift of the Holy Ghost, one thing could be done by way of preparation for the work they were called to perform. They could restore their original number as it was composed by their Lord, and fill up the gap which the treachery of Judas had made in their body.

Accordingly, the Apostle Peter, already beginning to take that lead for which his natural gifts no less than the prophetic words of the Saviour had destined him, stood up in their midst, and called attention to the deserted seat of the traitor. He had fallen, as they all knew, and after a terrible end[646] had gone to his own place (Acts i. 25). The language of inspired prophecy had not been silent respecting his shameful treachery, but the same Psalms (Ps. lxix. 25; cix. 8), which had foreshadowed his fall, had spoken also of the election of another to take his charge or office of oversight (Acts i. 20). He advised, therefore, that they should proceed to choose a new Apostle, and suggested, as the conditions of his election, that he should be one who had companied with them from the beginning to the close of their Lord’s official ministry, from the Baptism of John to the Ascension, and so be qualified in an especial degree to be a witness of His Resurrection (Acts i. 22).

His suggestion found favour with the assembled body of the brethren, and they nominated two of their number, who eminently possessed their confidence, as also the special qualifications thus laid down. One was Joseph Bar-Sabas, surnamed Justus, and Matthias, of whom, however, nothing further is known in the New Testament[647]. These they put forward, and leaving to the Lord the final determination, they prayed that, as the Searcher of hearts, He would indicate whom He had selected for the office, and then gave forth their lots[648], and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the Eleven Apostles (Acts i. 26).

Thus quietly and without observation was the first seed sown of what was destined to grow into a great tree[649] (Mtt. xiii. 31–33). Never did it seem more unlikely that the religion of the crucified Redeemer could be revived. The City had been restored to peace, as though nothing extraordinary had taken place. The Roman guard had been bribed to contradict any rumour that might be bruited about of the Resurrection; in the popular estimation the death of Jesus had extinguished all ideas that He was the Messiah; and no leader of any weight appeared likely to rally the little band of His once attached followers[650]. The triumph of the Sanhedrin appeared complete.

But this was the very hour when the new Faith was to achieve its first conquest. Ten days passed away after the Ascension. The Fiftieth, the day of Pentecost[651], the Feast of Weeks, was come[652]. The Holy City, crowded with strangers from every quarter of the then known world, presented a scene of unusual animation. There was scarcely a region but had its representative in its streets. Not only from Palestine[653] itself, but from the lands beyond the Euphrates, whither the Israelites had been carried by the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities[654], Parthia and Media, Elam[655] and Mesopotamia[656]; from the various districts of Asia Minor, Cappadocia and Pontus[657], Phrygia and Pamphylia, as well as those fringing the Western coast-line, Mysia, Lydia, and Caria, and now comprehended under one name, Roman Asia[658]; from the islands of the Mediterranean[659]; from populous Alexandria and the flourishing region of Cyrene[660]; from the capital of the West itself, Jews and Hellenists, “proselytes of righteousness[661]” and “proselytes of the gate,” had flocked to take part in the great Festival (Acts ii. 9–11).

All gathered together in one place, the disciples were awaiting any indications of the Divine will, when suddenly there arose out of heaven a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, which filled the whole house where they were sitting (Acts ii. 2), and simultaneously tongues as if of fire[662] distributed[663] themselves amongst and settled upon each one of them (Acts ii. 3). The Strengthener, the Comforter, had come, the disciples were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and though poor, illiterate, and obscure men of Galilee, found themselves by the operation of the indwelling Spirit able to speak not only in their own rough unpolished language, but in as many dialects as were represented that day at Jerusalem[664] (Acts ii. 4).

Meanwhile the noise[665], with which the mighty rushing wind had descended from heaven, had been audible all over the city, and attracted a great multitude to the abode of the disciples. Arriving there they were confounded to find natives of the despised region of Galilee speaking of the wonderful works of God, not only in the language, but the very dialect of the language, which each recognized as his own (Acts ii. 6). In the minds of most this strange portent excited emotions of serious awe. What meaneth this? they exclaimed; are not all these which speak Galilæans? There were not wanting, however, some who ascribed the strange sounds they heard to the effects of drunken excess; these men, said they, are full of new wine (Acts ii. 13).

Thereupon the Apostle Peter stood up with the Twelve, and having in a loud voice indignantly refuted the charge of drunkenness by a reference to the hour of the day, the third only from sunrise[666] (Acts ii. 15), proceeded to explain the meaning of what they heard and saw.

“Eight hundred and fifty years before, as they knew from the Scriptures of the Old Testament, the prophet Joel (ii. 28, 29) had foretold the coming of days, when God would pour out of His Spirit on all flesh, not on one or two only, but upon His people generally without distinction of age or rank or sex, upon sons and daughters, upon young men and old, upon servants and handmaidens (Acts ii. 17, 18). Thus had the prophet spoken, and this day they beheld the fulfilment of his words. Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved[667] amongst them by miracles[668], and wonders, and signs, which God had wrought by Him in their midst, as they themselves knew full well, they had taken and by the wicked hands of Roman soldiers had crucified and slain. But in so doing they had not frustrated the gracious purposes of Him who had sent Him. All things had happened according to His determinate counsel and foreknowledge (Acts ii. 23), and He had raised up that same Jesus, and had loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible that He could be permanently mastered by them. For He, of whom the Psalmist had said that God would not leave His soul in Hades[669] nor suffer Him to see corruption, could not be the patriarch David. He had died and been buried, and his ashes had long reposed in the tomb which was before their eyes. It was not of himself that he had thus spoken, but of Another, the fruit of his loins, whom as a prophet he foreknew God would raise up to sit upon his throne; and this King was no other than Jesus (Acts ii. 32). Him God had raised from the dead, and exalted to the right hand of power, and made both Lord and Christ, and He had that day bestowed upon His disciples those wonderful gifts which they saw and heard, the expressions and indications of the presence of the Spirit promised by the Father.”