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Following His fulfillment of Passover and Firstfruits, for forty days the Lord Jesus
Christ taught the disciples and opened "their understanding that they might understand
the Scriptures" (Luke 24: 45). He also told them:
"Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of
Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24: 49).
Why did they have to tarry? To suggest that they were not ready or were not
sufficiently mature is to cast doubt on the ability of the One Whom they had followed for
over three years and Who had just opened their understanding of the Scriptures. Again,
He said unto them:
"that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which, saith He, ye have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye hall be
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence" (Acts 1: 4, 5).
Why "not many days hence"? Why not there and then? Some of those of Pentecostal
or Charismatic persuasion have made much out of the need to "tarry" or to "wait for the
promise", failing to realize that the only reason for the delay was that in the O.T. there
were exactly fifty days between Firstfruits and the feast of Weeks! God's symbols and
His types and shadows are exact, and just as the Passover had been perfectly fulfilled, so
now the feast of Weeks was to receive its realization--at the right time. When the fifty
days were up, and Pentecost means "the fiftieth (day)", the feast would be fulfilled.
(The name Pentecost, describing the feast of Weeks, is found only in the N.T. and occurs
in Acts 2: 1, 20: 16 and I Cor. 16: 8). Thus the reason for the "wait", the reason why
they had to "tarry" was nothing to do with the disciples themselves. It had nothing to do
with their spiritual condition or lack of readiness. It was to do with the perfect fulfillment
of the feast of Leviticus, and so we read:
"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come (lit. being fulfilled: Gk. sumpleroo)
they were all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2: 1).
What happened next must have been a complete surprise to all those present. Not one
of them could have foreseen what was about to happen.
"All of a sudden a sound came from the sky like a blast of violent wind, and it filled
the whole house where they were sitting. There appeared to them what looked like
tongues of fire, which divided themselves up, and settled on each of them. They were all
filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit enabled
them to speak" (Acts 2: 2-4, William Barclay).
In John 3: 8 the Lord Jesus Christ likened the Spirit to the wind. It "bloweth where
it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and
whither it goeth". Thus in Acts 2: it is not surprising that this great work of the Holy
Spirit is accompanied by the "sound . . . . . as of a rushing mighty wind". What is
unusual is that there was a visible manifestation of the Spirit. Such had happened only
once before. Just after His baptism by John . . . . .:
"Jesus . . . . . went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened
unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: