Conclusion
Chapter Four
The promise of the Father: the gift of the Holy Spirit
The overall argument of this book has been that the book of Acts is best understood within the framework of inaugurated eschatology. Luke aims to teach about the nature of the kingdom of God in this era between the inauguration of the kingdom in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension, and the consummation of the kingdom at Jesus’ return. This focus on the inaugurated kingdom, therefore, is why Luke draws attention to the continuing reign of the Lord Jesus (he is enabling the spread of the word and the establishment of local churches even in the midst of opposition), the significance of the resurrection (this especially highlights the arrival of the blessings of the age to come that may be offered on the basis of Christ’s death and resurrection) and the restoration of God’s people (God’s saving promises for Israel and the Gentiles are being fulfilled). This framework of inaugurated eschatology also helps us to understand Luke’s focus on the role of the Holy Spirit in Acts. The Holy Spirit has been poured out in fulfilment of God’s promises for the last days because God’s kingdom has been inaugurated through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and reign on the throne of David. Thus, following a brief reminder of the prophetic hope for the Spirit, this chapter will highlight the following key features of Luke’s teaching about the Spirit in Acts: the Spirit and the kingdom, the Spirit and the reign of the Lord Jesus, the enabling power of the Spirit, the transforming work of the Spirit, the Spirit and the unity of God’s people, and the reception of the Spirit.
The prophetic hope of the Spirit
Although the Holy Spirit was at work among God’s people in the OT, enabling the hearts of the remnant among the people of Israel to respond to God and empowering individuals to accomplish particular tasks, the prophets hoped for more. Isaiah (32:15; 44:3), Ezekiel (36:27; 37:14; 39:29) and Joel (2:28–29) in particular look forward to a time when God will pour out his Spirit in fullness upon all his people. In these texts the prophets look forward to a time beyond the experience of Israel as disobedient and under God’s judgment in exile to a time when God will again restore his people. In that time God will establish a new covenant relationship with his people, cleanse their hearts, forgive their sin, dwell among and enable them to obey him and declare his name to the nations. Thus the pouring out of the Spirit was essential to the hope of the ‘last days’ when God’s people would be restored. It is for this reason that any explanation of the ‘inauguration of God’s kingdom’ must include teaching about this aspect of Israel’s hope.
The kingdom of God and the promised eschatological gift of the Spirit
This rather long subheading is an attempt to capture in one phrase the ‘eschatological’ framework Luke provides for understanding the importance of the day of Pentecost. In Acts 1:1–8, Luke, in preparation for the major event of Pentecost in Acts 2, relates the coming of the Spirit directly to Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom as well as to the prophetic hope for the coming age. First, to recap the findings in chapter 3 briefly, Luke closely associates Jesus’ forty-day teaching on the kingdom of God to his disciples in Acts 1:1–3 with Jesus’ instruction concerning the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in 1:4–5. The close relationship between these two topics of Jesus’ teaching is indicated by Luke’s placement of the scene in 1:4–5 within the period of instruction on the kingdom he has just described. The use of kai (and) at the beginning of verse 4 in the context of this forty-day period indicates that Luke is not beginning a new section here but rather is providing a particular example, as he often does, of the general summary he has just given. Thus the imminent arrival of the Father’s promised gift is a crucial aspect of the inaugurated kingdom of God.
Jesus’ reference to the Holy Spirit as (lit.) ‘the promise of the Father’ in 1:4 not only looks back to the same phrase used by Jesus in Luke 24:49, but also looks further back to the prophetic hope where this promise is found. Jesus does not indicate in Acts 1:4 where in the OT this promise of the Father may be found. However, the terminology of being clothed with power ‘from on high’ in Luke 24:49 (which the wording of Acts 1:4 recalls) and the terminology of the Holy Spirit ‘coming upon you’ in Acts 1:8 (which Acts 1:4 anticipates) both recall the same passage in Isaiah (32:15). The pouring out of the Spirit from on high in Isaiah 32 brings Judah’s desolation to an end and also brings the arrival of the new age of righteousness and peace.
Secondly, the disciples’ question in Acts 1:6 concerning the timing of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel is also closely related to these opening verses in Acts where Jesus’ instruction regarding the kingdom and the coming of the Holy Spirit have been related. This close connection is seen in the conjunction oun (therefore) at the beginning of 1:6 and the reoccurrence of the term basileia (kingdom) in 1:3 and 1:6. In the previous chapter we observed that Jesus’ response in 1:7–8 does in fact answer the disciples’ question: he explains how the restoration of the kingdom relates to the people of Israel (though he refuses to outline the time frame) in language that recalls the hopes of Isaiah. In this sense then, in 1:6–8 Jesus again relates the two topics of the inauguration of the kingdom and the pouring out of the Spirit.
Luke’s concern to highlight the significance of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit as an eschatological fulfilment of God’s promise is further seen in Acts 2. Given the lengthy account of Peter’s sermon explaining ‘what this means’ (2:12), and the lengthy quotation of Joel within Peter’s explanation, this chapter is obviously essential for understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. The most obvious point of Peter’s explanation of what is taking place on the day of Pentecost is that this is the fulfilment of God’s promise to pour out the Holy Spirit upon his people. Peter could not be clearer when he states that ‘this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel’ (2:16). Thus what Jesus referred to as the ‘promise of the Father’, in language that alluded to the promises found in Isaiah, is now specified in terms of the promise found in Joel. Specifically, the promise is stated as, ‘God says “I will pour out my Spirit.” ’ That Peter understands this promise as related to the wider eschatological hope of the OT is indicated by his change of wording from ‘afterwards’ (as found in Joel 2:28) to ‘in the last days’ (Acts 2:17) at the beginning of his quotation of Joel. This additional phrase seems to come from Isaiah 2:2, a passage that looks forward to the day when the nations will come to the Lord’s house and ‘the word of the Lord’ will go out from Jerusalem.
As indicated in chapter 3, it is also possible that Luke is alluding to Ezekiel in Acts 2. As Bauckham has noted, the phrase ‘the whole house of Israel’ (pas oikos Israēl) used by Peter in Acts 2:36 is particularly reminiscent of the context of Ezekiel 37. In Ezekiel 37 ‘the whole house of Israel’ is associated with the regathering of Israel’s exiles (37:21), the reunification of the southern and northern kingdoms (37:15–22), the ‘resurrection’ of Israel and the giving of God’s Spirit (37:14; 39:29), the reign of a Davidic King as one king over one united kingdom (37:24–25), and the dwelling of God with his people in the fulfilment of the covenantal promises and for the instruction of the nations (37:26–28). In Acts 2 Israelites from ‘every nation under heaven’ are present and in one day about three thousand return to God (‘repent’, 2:38) and receive from the resurrected and enthroned Davidic Messiah the ‘promise of the Spirit’ (2:33, 38–39). This cluster of themes associated with the prophetic hope of Ezekiel indicates that the pouring out of the Spirit in Acts 2 on ‘the whole house of Israel’ is also meant to recall the promises of the Spirit associated with Ezekiel.
In summary: in Acts 1 – 2, with descriptions of the Holy Spirit as ‘the promise’, allusions to the prophetic hope of the Spirit in Isaiah, a direct quotation from the prophecy in Joel introduced as spoken by God about ‘the last days’, together with language that recalls Ezekiel’s prophecy for ‘the whole house of Israel’, Luke is emphasizing in a variety of ways that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is to be understood as the fulfilment of God’s promise for the last days. The fulfilment of this promise of the Spirit is therefore part of the evidence that the kingdom of God has been inaugurated. The reason for this pouring out of the promised Holy Spirit, however, is because the Lord Jesus has risen from the dead and ascended to reign at the right hand of the Father.
The Holy Spirit is bestowed by the risen and exalted Lord Jesus
As we have already seen, Luke is particularly highlighting the accomplishment of God’s promises through the Lord Jesus. Thus it is through the death, resurrection and current reign of the Lord Jesus that God’s saving purposes are accomplished. In terms of the restoration of Israel it is the Lord Jesus who is accomplishing this promised restoration (1:6). In Acts the pouring out of the Holy Spirit therefore not only follows the death and resurrection of Jesus as the next stage in God’s salvation-historical purposes, but Jesus himself, as the reigning Lord, is the one who pours out the Spirit. In this sense then, within this broad framework of the restoration of Israel, the Holy Spirit in Acts is the ‘executive power of the exalted Christ’ to bring about the Messiah’s restoration of Israel.
At the end of Luke’s Gospel, not only does Jesus command his disciples to remain in the city until they have been ‘clothed with power from on high’, but he also declares that ‘I am going to send you what my Father has promised’ (Luke 24:49). The risen Lord Jesus clearly states here that he himself is going to be the one who will send the ‘promise of the Father’. This focus on Jesus’ role in sending the Spirit is not indicated again in Acts 1:5, where Jesus simply states that they ‘will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’, nor does it reoccur in 1:8, where Jesus states that they ‘will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on’ them. Nevertheless, as we saw in chapter 1, Luke indicates that the account of Jesus’ ascension in Acts 1 is important for understanding how the events in Acts 2 come about: (1) Acts 1 refers to ‘the day’ Jesus was ‘taken up’ (1:2 and 22) and Acts 2 then refers to ‘the day’ of Pentecost (and later records that about three thousand were added ‘that day’, 2:1, 41); (2) Acts 1:10–11 emphasizes four times in two verses that Jesus was taken up ‘into heaven’. Thus, after reading in Acts 1 of ‘the day’ when Jesus went up ‘into heaven’, readers are prepared to understand that when Acts 2:2 then refers to ‘the day’ of Pentecost, when a sound like a strong wind came ‘from heaven’, the risen and ascended Lord Jesus of Acts 1 is behind the events of Acts 2.
A more explicit statement of the relationship between Jesus’ exaltation and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is found in Peter’s explanation in 2:33. The verse begins with (lit.), ‘Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God . . . he has poured out. . .’ The conjunction oun (‘therefore’, omitted in the NIV) in this context indicates that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is the consequence of Jesus’ resurrection and exaltation (and having received the ‘promised Holy Spirit’ from the Father). Peter concludes that the pouring out of the Spirit is evidence that Jesus is the Lord upon whom we must call in order to be saved (2:21 and 34–36) and the Messiah who reigns from the throne of David. Thus he is the Davidic King in the line of David anticipated in Psalms 16:8–11 and 132:11 as the one who would sit on David’s throne, and yet he is also David’s Lord who reigns from a position of power and authority at God’s right hand. The exalted Lord is reigning and this is seen in the pouring out of the end-times promise of the Spirit. Furthermore, as we noted in chapter 2, the divine authority of Jesus is also seen in the parallels between (1) Acts 2:17–18 (citing Joel 2:28–29), where it is explicitly stated that God ‘will pour out’ the Holy Spirit, and (2) Acts 2:33, where Peter strikingly says that the exalted Jesus ‘has poured out’ the Holy Spirit. Thus in Acts the Holy Spirit is both the eschatological promise of the Father and is also evidence (being poured out by Jesus himself) that Jesus is the hoped-for Davidic King, is reigning now and by his resurrection has inaugurated the last days and the restoration of Israel.
God’s empowering presence
The most obvious stated purpose for the coming of the Spirit in Acts is to empower God’s people to speak for him, proclaiming his salvation. The promised restoration of God’s people is accomplished by the risen Lord Jesus, through his sending of the Holy Spirit, who enables God’s people to announce the message in order that others may hear, respond and also participate in God’s saving promises.
Thus Jesus promises in 1:8 that the disciples will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and the result of this reception of power will be that the disciples will be witnesses of him. Luke 24:48–49 had already made this same connection between Jesus’ disciples as witnesses and the requirement first to wait in Jerusalem until they were ‘clothed with power from on high’. Similarly, in Peter’s quotation from Joel the immediate consequence of the pouring out of God’s Spirit on all people is that ‘your sons and daughters will prophesy’ (Acts 2:17). This function of the Spirit is particularly emphasized in 2:18, where, following the mention that God will pour out his Spirit, Peter’s quotation adds, ‘and they will prophesy’ (an addition not found in Joel).
What then does it mean to ‘prophesy’ in this context? The passage cited by Peter particularly stresses the activity of the Spirit on ‘all’ of God’s people. This emphasis on ‘all’ of God’s people receiving God’s Spirit was already hinted at earlier in Acts 2 in verses 3–4. What looked like tongues of fire came to rest on ‘each of them’ and ‘all of them were filled with the Spirit’. Peter states that this is what Joel spoke about: a time in the last days when God will pour out his Spirit on ‘all’ of his people (2:17). This emphasis on the totality of God’s people is then filled out in three groups which highlight the fact that there will be no distinction in age or gender among the people who receive God’s Spirit: ‘sons and daughters . . . young men and old men . . . servants, both men and women’. It is all of God’s people then who are said to receive his Spirit, but it is also all of God’s people who are said to ‘prophesy’ here. The difficulty, however, is that in Acts itself only a select few are said to be ‘prophets’ (11:27; 13:1; 15:32; 21:10) and the activity of ‘prophesying’ is rare (19:6; 21:9). The act of ‘prophesying’ in Acts 2, therefore, must be understood within the context of what Peter says in this quotation from Joel. That is, that there is a broader sense of the word in which all of God’s people ‘prophesy’. In contrast to the work of the Spirit in the OT when the Holy Spirit empowered only certain people, prophets, to mediate God’s word to the people, now all of God’s people are able to speak for God. Although not explicitly cited by Peter, it appears that Moses’ hope is being fulfilled: ‘I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them’ (Num. 11:29). Now that the promised Christ has come and God’s saving promises have been revealed in Christ, all of God’s people are enabled by his Spirit to announce the fulfilment of God’s saving plan and promises when they proclaim Christ. The ‘least in the kingdom of God’ is greater than John the Baptist (Luke 7:28)!
An illustration of this may be found in Peter’s sermon itself. In Acts 2:4 the word used to refer to the Spirit’s enabling of ‘all who were filled with the Holy Spirit’ to speak in other languages is apophthengomai (as the Spirit enabled them). The same term is used a few verses later to refer to Peter’s activity as he lifted his voice and ‘addressed’ the crowd (2:14). The use of the same term twice in this immediate context to refer to the activity of speaking indicates that Peter’s address is also enabled by the Spirit. Peter then points to the fulfilment of Scripture and God’s purposes in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension to reign, and urges people to embrace Jesus (who is the fulfilment of God’s saving promises). It is in this sense then that Peter speaks for God and himself exemplifies the words of God ‘I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.’
This link between the enablement of the Spirit and the ability to speak for God is also highlighted throughout Acts with the verb pimplēmi (filled) followed by an activity of speaking. As noted above, in Acts 2:4 Luke states, ‘They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak. . .’ Similarly, in 4:8 Peter is ‘filled with the Spirit’ and declares to the temple leadership that salvation is found in the name of Jesus alone. In 4:31 those at the prayer meeting were ‘all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly’. In 6:10, although the verb pimplēmi is not used, the Spirit enables Stephen to speak. Following Ananias’ promise that Saul will be ‘filled with the Spirit’ (9:17), Saul ‘at once’ began to preach in the synagogues (9:20). A more traditional description of prophetic revelatory speech is found in 13:9–11, where Paul is ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ and then pronounces judgment upon Elymas. The examples in Acts 4 and 6 in particular are reminiscent of Jesus’ promise in Luke 12:12 that the Holy Spirit will teach his disciples what to say when brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities (Jesus later states, ‘I will give you words and wisdom’, Luke 21:15). Other uses of the verb pimplēmi in Acts 3:10, 5:17, 13:45 and 19:29 with reference to being ‘filled’ with wonder, jealousy or confusion indicate that the meaning of being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ followed by the action of speaking seems to be a reference to the controlling activity of the Spirit that extends to the provision of the words to say, which are most appropriate to the occasion in which the good news about Jesus is proclaimed or defended. In this way the Lord Jesus himself enables all of his people to be witnesses of him to the ends of the earth in the inaugurated kingdom of God.
A restored people of God
Although the purpose of the Spirit to enable God’s people to point to Jesus is an obvious feature of Luke’s portrait (esp. in the light of 1:8), it should also be noted that this is not all Luke has to say about the work of the Spirit in Acts. As we have already observed (in ch. 3 and in this chapter on Acts 1 – 2), the pouring out of the Spirit is integrally related to the restoration of Israel anticipated in Isaiah. In this sense, as Turner has particularly shown, the Spirit is also involved in the transformation of God’s people.
This transforming work of the Spirit is also apparent in Acts 2. Thus after Peter’s explanation that the events of Pentecost must be understood as the arrival of the last days and that Jesus (the suffering Messiah and reigning Lord) has poured out the promised Holy Spirit, Luke tells us that about three thousand respond to Peter’s warnings and call to ‘be saved’ (2:40–41). Thus God’s people are those who have responded in repentance, embraced the risen Jesus as the suffering Messiah and reigning Lord, and have received the new-covenant blessings of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit. The summary passage that follows in 2:42–47 then provides a portrait of this restored community who have received the Spirit. This portrait of a people devoted to God’s word (apostolic teaching about Jesus) and expressing unity and devotion to one another through sharing food, possessions and meeting needs and praising God is also reminiscent of the hope of the prophets. Repentance, or a ‘return’ to God, is a feature of the hoped-for restoration in Isaiah and a characteristic message of the prophets in general. Warnings against idolatry and failure to care for the needy were frequently at the heart of the prophetic message. At the very beginning of Luke’s Gospel, John the Baptist declares that sharing with those in need is the ‘fruit’ of repentance (Luke 3:7–14). It should also be noted that the call to repent characterized Jesus’ ministry. He came ‘to call sinners to repentance’ (Luke 5:32). In the context of Acts 2 this portrait of a restored people is meant to be seen as a result of the new-covenant blessing of the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus himself.
A similar portrait of the unity of the Christian community is found in Acts 4:32. Like Acts 2, this is placed immediately after a reference to the activity of the Holy Spirit among the believers in 4:31. It seems unlikely that the two portraits of the Christian community (2:42–47; 4:32–37), which highlight most the selfless activity of the believers in caring for one another and which are placed immediately after references to the ‘filling of the Holy Spirit’, are meant to be read in isolation from that activity of the Spirit. This is especially highlighted in the deliberate contrast Luke makes between the ‘filling’ that takes place for the believers in 4:31–32, and the ‘filling’ that takes place with Ananias in 5:3. Similarities between 4:32–37 and 5:1–4 clearly indicate that Luke intends the two sections to be read together. Both sections deal with the selling of property (4:32, 34, 37 and 5:1), the placement of proceeds ‘at the apostles’ feet’ (4:35, 37 and 5:2) and the voluntary nature of this action of meeting needs (4:34–35 and 5:4). In 4:31 the believers are described as ‘all filled with the Spirit’ and speaking ‘the word of God’. Immediately following this ‘filling with the Spirit’, the believers are described in 4:32 as being ‘one in heart’, a unity that finds expression in selflessly giving up what they have to meet the needs of others. Peter’s declaration to Ananias in 5:3 that Satan has ‘filled your heart’ (cf. also 5:4; lit. ‘this deed in your heart’) seems to be a deliberate contrast therefore to the believers in 4:31–37. The result of this ‘filling’ is seen in Ananias’ deceitful speech. Rather than being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking the word of God, Ananias is filled with Satan and speaks, not the word of God, but lies, specifically a lie to the Holy Spirit (5:3). Thus it is likely that the work of the Spirit is meant to be seen here as more than enabling proclamation. The Spirit here also transforms hearts in the Christian community, enabling love for others and freedom from the master of money (Luke 16:13).
It is possible that in Acts the noun plērēs (full) is used to highlight this ‘ethical’ aspect of the Spirit’s work in the character of those described. In Acts 6:3 the seven who were chosen to participate in the ministry of ‘tables’ so that the apostles could continue in prayer and the ‘ministry of the word’ were to be ‘full of the Spirit and wisdom’. Similarly, a few verses later, one of the seven, Stephen, is described as ‘full of faith and of the Holy Spirit’ (6:5). In 11:24 Barnabas is described as ‘full of the Holy Spirit and faith’. Finally, in 13:52 the disciples are full ‘with joy and with the Holy Spirit’. In contrast to this use of the noun plērēs with the Holy Spirit, in 13:10 the noun is used to describe Elymas the magician as full of ‘deceit and trickery’. Thus in these instances of being ‘full of the Holy Spirit and. . .’ it seems as though some character trait is associated with the person who has the Holy Spirit (i.e. wisdom, grace, faith and joy).
Therefore, we have seen that the Holy Spirit in Acts is particularly associated with the restoration purposes of God. In fulfilment of the prophetic hopes for a restored people in which God will fulfil his saving promises we find that Jesus himself brings this restoration as the disciples correctly understood he would (1:6). His death and resurrection have inaugurated a new age and he rules from the throne of David as anticipated. The means by which the risen Lord Jesus brings about this restored people, however, is through his sending of the Holy Spirit. He grants repentance, forgiveness of sins (5:31) and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 2:33, 38; 16:7). The Holy Spirit then enables Jesus’ people to be his witnesses (Luke 24:48–49; Acts 1:8), to ‘prophesy’ or tell forth the fulfilment of God’s plans in Jesus (Acts 2:14–36) and to speak with appropriate boldness in difficult settings (4:8, 13, 29, 31). The Holy Spirit also brings about the new-covenant change of heart that leads the restored people of God to display their love for one another in tangible expressions of giving as the ‘fruit’ of repentance (2:42–47; 4:32–37) and a new-covenant change of character such that wisdom, faith and joy characterize those ‘full of the Holy Spirit’. Another significant feature of Luke’s teaching on the role of the Holy Spirit in Acts is that all who believe in the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sins receive the same gift, the Holy Spirit. There is, therefore, only one people of God.
One people of God
Luke explicitly emphasizes the fact that the giving of the Holy Spirit means that there is one people of God under the one Lord. This is especially seen in the account of the inclusion of Gentiles among God’s people in Acts 10 – 11. The overwhelming emphasis of the passage is that these Gentile believers are part of the same people of God as the Jewish believers who received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Numerous parallels are made with Pentecost as well as explicit statements that emphasize this unity. Thus (1) Peter declares that ‘everyone’ who believes in the name of Jesus receives the forgiveness of sins (10:43; cf. 2:38). (2) The Gentile believers are heard to be ‘speaking in tongues and magnifying (megalynontōn) God’ (10:46; cf. 2:11). (3) The Holy Spirit is described as God’s ‘gift’ (dōrea, 10:45; 11:17; cf. 2:38). (4) Peter’s recollection of ‘what the Lord had said’ refers to his promise to baptize with the Holy Spirit (11:16; cf. 1:5). (5) Peter explicitly states that ‘they have received the Holy Spirit just as we have’ (hōs kai hēmeis, 10:47), the Holy Spirit came on them ‘as he had come on us’ (hōsper kai eph hēmas, 11:15) and God gave them ‘the same gift as he gave us’ (tēn isēn dōrean . . . hōs kai hēmin, 11:17).
If we missed those narrative clues to the unity of God’s people through the gift of the same Holy Spirit to those who believe in the Lord Jesus (11:17), then Luke highlights it again in his summary of Peter’s speech to the Jerusalem Council in 15:8–9. Peter, looking back to the inclusion of the Gentiles through faith in the Lord Jesus, states that God gave ‘the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us (kathōs kai hēmin). He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.’ It might also be noted that in the narrative of Acts between these two accounts of the inclusion of the Gentiles into the one people of God, it is the continuing ‘work’ (Acts 13:2) of the inclusion of the Gentiles that is the focus of Paul’s first ‘missionary journey’ (Acts 13 – 14). The account of this first journey opens with an emphasis on the calling and sending by the Holy Spirit for his ‘work’ (13:2, 4) and concludes with the completion of this ‘work’ (14:26), marking out this Spirit-initiated journey as a narrative unit. The summarizing conclusion of this ‘work’ specifically highlights the inclusion of the Gentiles (14:27; cf. also 13:46–48, 52), which, of course, also prepares the reader for the issues raised in Acts 15.
Thus, on the one hand, this unity comes about because all equally receive forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit both works to bring messengers to proclaim that good news and is then the common gift to those who receive that good news. It is for this reason that, in Acts, to be a follower of Jesus is to have the gift of the Spirit and to be a full member of God’s people. It is misreading Acts to think that some of God’s people have the Spirit and others do not, or that the Spirit is merely an ‘additional gift’ given to God’s people to empower them for proclamation.
Sometimes Acts 2, 8, 10 – 11 and 19 are said to provide a pattern for individual believers who, after coming to faith, must seek an additional empowering of the Spirit for proclamation and that the reception of this empowerment is evidenced in the ability to speak in ecstatic tongues. Although space prevents a full treatment here, the overall framework of inaugurated eschatology in Acts helps to evaluate these claims. Luke’s focus in these texts is on the fulfilment of prophecy, salvation history, and the beginning of the last days rather than paradigms for individual experiences. In each of these chapters Luke emphasizes ‘corporate experience’. Thus Acts 2 highlights the unique salvation-historical time frame (1:5; 2:1) for the sending of the Holy Spirit from the ascended Lord Jesus for Jesus’ disciples among the people of Israel (2:14, 22, 36) as the setting for the day of Pentecost. Acts 8 highlights the inclusion of Samaria as a whole. The wording of 8:14 (‘Samaria had accepted the word of God’) is almost identical to that of 11:1 (‘the Gentiles also had received the word of God’). The emphasis, therefore, in Acts 8 and 10 – 11 is on the Samaritans as a group and Gentiles as a group.
The ‘disciples’ in Acts 19 are no exception as they do not appear to have been believers in Jesus. In 19:3 it appears that they are a group who for some reason have been caught out of sequence. They appear to have been followers of John the Baptist who missed out on transitioning to faith in Jesus. In a sense they are caught in a salvation-historically unique time warp. Thus, after they state that they have not heard that the Holy Spirit has come, Paul’s response is not to tell them about the Holy Spirit but to tell them that they ought to believe in the one coming after John; that is, Jesus. They then demonstrate their newfound allegiance to Jesus in baptism (as in 2:38) – the missing link for them was Jesus. As with the Gentile Cornelius and his household, the followers of John the Baptist in Acts 19 are told about the Lord Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit. The laying on of hands and similarities with Pentecost (19:6) are specifically designed to demonstrate the inclusion of these transitional John-the-Baptist believers into the new-covenant people of God. Thus, after the salvation-historical event of Pentecost, the only occasion in which there is a delay for believers in Jesus to receive the Spirit is with the Samaritans in Acts 8. As we observed in the introductory chapter, when we want to discern the difference between what is prescribed as normative or what might be described, a helpful hint is to look for what is repeated. This unique situation in Acts 8 does not constitute a pattern for individuals today. In addition to the ‘corporate’ emphasis on ‘Samaria accepting the word of God’ noted above, the traditional antagonism with the northern kingdom seems to lie behind this emphasis on their equal inclusion among the people of God. Peter’s declaration in Acts 2:38 that allegiance to Jesus results in the reception of the Holy Spirit (and the forgiveness of sins), and his statement in 11:17 that God gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who believe in the Lord Jesus, express what is normative in Acts. This is why Paul asks the disciples in 19:6 if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed. He assumes that if they had genuinely believed in Jesus they would have received the Holy Spirit. Their ignorance about the Spirit leads Paul to speak about faith in Jesus.
Overall then, Acts 2, 8, 10 – 11 and 19 contribute to this broad point about the role of the Holy Spirit in Acts. The giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts highlights the oneness of the people of God. These particular stages along the way accentuate that unity as Jew, Samaritan, Gentile and transitional John-the-Baptist-followers caught out of sequence are brought into the one people of God through faith in the one Lord Jesus and are given the same eschatological gift, the promised Holy Spirit.
Faith, repentance, baptism and the reception of the Spirit in Acts
Something should also be said in this context about the relationship between the responses of faith/repentance and baptism and the promises of forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit. Although Luke does refer to God’s initiative and prior work of grace, our focus here is on the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit as a mark of being a believer in the Lord Jesus. Throughout this chapter we have examined Luke’s theology of the Holy Spirit within the broad framework of the inauguration of the last days. Here, however, we will briefly note the relationship of this gift (along with forgiveness) to the required responses of faith/repentance and baptism. First, it must be observed that there are a number of passages where belief only is highlighted as the required response, there are a number of passages where repentance only is highlighted, and there are some passages where repentance and faith are grouped together. In this regard, occasionally the reception of the Holy Spirit is linked to belief only and occasionally the reception of the Holy Spirit is linked to repentance only. These passages indicate that repentance and faith are two sides of the one coin: they are not identical, but where one is mentioned by itself the other may be presupposed.
In a number of places throughout Acts baptism is also seen to be part of the expected response towards Jesus. Thus it is true to say that baptism in Acts is part of the ‘conversion-initiation’ experience. The idea of unbaptized believers is foreign to the book of Acts. Furthermore, as the exception of the Samaritans in Acts 8 indicates, the idea of a long separation between baptism/conversion and reception of the Holy Spirit is also unusual (nearly foreign!) in the book of Acts. It should be noted, however, that baptism is not a means of receiving the Spirit ex opere operato (from the work performed). Although Simon ‘believed’ and was baptized (8:13), the subsequent narrative makes clear that this ‘belief’ was spurious. Just as Simon had ‘amazed’ the people of Samaria for a long time with his magic, so also he was ‘amazed’ at the miracles performed by Philip (8:11, 13). Peter’s response to Simon’s attempt to purchase the Holy Spirit so that he could do his own amazing feats is essentially ‘To hell with you and your money!’ (8:20). Furthermore, things do not look good for Simon when Peter says that he has ‘no part or share in this ministry (logos, ‘word’)’, his ‘heart is not right before God’, he must ‘repent of this wickedness’, ‘perhaps’ the Lord will forgive him and, finally, he is ‘full of bitterness and captive to sin’ (8:20–23)! Clearly Simon’s baptism did him no good! It should also be noted that in Acts 10:47–48 the reception of the Holy Spirit is given as the basis for baptism. It is because these Gentiles have received the Holy Spirit through faith in the Lord Jesus that Peter says they ought to be baptized. Thus in Acts the norm is that the Holy Spirit is received by all believers at conversion and that baptism is associated with the response of conversion as an outward display of an allegiance (trust and repentance) to the Lord Jesus. Faith and repentance are primary, however, as baptism, in and of itself, does not guarantee genuine conversion and the presence of the Spirit.
Conclusion
Luke’s teaching on the Holy Spirit in Acts is also best understood within his explanation of the inaugurated kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus has risen from the dead and is continuing to reign and administer God’s saving promises. The Holy Spirit has been poured out in fulfilment of God’s promises for the last days and Jesus is the one who has sent the promised Holy Spirit. As promised, therefore, all who turn to the Lord Jesus in repentance and faith receive God’s Spirit, all are enabled by his Spirit to proclaim the good news of God’s saving action in Christ, transformation is accomplished by his Spirit, and there is just one people of God under the Davidic King Jesus. Since the kingdom of God has been inaugurated in the death, resurrection and reign of Jesus, however, what happens to the old system and its authorities? The following two chapters will address the role that the temple, temple authorities and law play in the new era of the inaugurated kingdom of God in Acts.