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". . . . . show whether of these two Thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this
ministry and apostleship (from which Judas by transgression fell) that he might go to his
own place . . . . . and he was numbered with the eleven."
The fact that the Holy Spirit made no difference between Matthias and the rest of the
apostles should silence all objection. That Paul himself speaks of "The twelve" as
separate from himself is eloquent testimony to the accuracy of the inclusion of Matthias
among the twelve (I Cor. 15: 5). In face of these facts we believe that the appointment of
Matthias was in complete harmony with the will of God, and that of necessity, therefore,
Paul was an apostle of an entirely distinct and independent order.
We have now cleared the way for a consideration of the true purport of Pentecost, a
subject with which we hope to deal in our next article.
#10.
Pentecost and Power (2: 1-13).
pp. 161 - 165
In our last article we found that the company of apostles had been made up to the
complete number, twelve, and that there was a purposed connection between this number
and the representative gathering of Jews at Jerusalem. All was now ready for the great
initiatory work of Pentecost. Something of this thought seems to be in mind in Acts 2: 1
where we read that the day of Pentecost had "fully come". This is a word used only by
Luke, and occurs but twice in his Gospel: in the first occurrence it has the ordinary
meaning of filling, in that case the filling of a boat with water (Luke 8: 23), and in the
second it has the meaning of fulfilling, as of a prophecy (Luke 9: 51). Thus we see that
in the choice of this word the writer had in view the thought that everything was ready for
the fulfillment of all that Pentecost stands for in the O.T. type. The enduement with
power from on high, for which the apostles were instructed to wait, came upon them as
cloven tongues of fire:--
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2: 4).
Here we must pause to observe an important distinction. As the passage stands in the
A.V. "The Holy Ghost" and "The Spirit" are indistinguishable from one another. The
subject is of importance and must be treated accordingly.
Upon examination of the original we discover that there appears to be a reason why
we sometimes read pneuma hagion, "holy spirit", without the article, and sometimes To
pneuma to hagion, "The Holy Spirit". The passage before us is a case in point. The first
reference to the Holy Ghost is written without the article: it is simply pneuma hagion,
"holy spirit", whereas the second reference, "the Spirit", is written with the article and
refers to "the Spirit" Himself. In other words "The Spirit" is the Giver, whereas "spirit"
is His gift. In Luke 24: 49 the Lord bade the disciples wait at Jerusalem until they