The word Pentecost comes from pentekontae 'fifty', and was the name given to
the feast held fifty days after the morrow of the offering of the firstfruits
(Lev. 23:15-21). It was one of the three feasts held at Jerusalem at which the
attendance of every male was compulsory.
In Acts 2 we find Jews, gathered out of every nation, at Jerusalem for this
feast. No Gentile would or could attend it unless he was already a proselyte.
Peter declares that the day of Pentecost fulfils the prophecy of Joel 2:28,29,
and links up the sevenfold outpouring of spiritual gifts with the now postponed
sevenfold wonders in heaven and earth that belong to the day of the Lord and
the book of the Revelation. Addressing 'men of Judaea', 'dwellers at Jerusalem',
'men of Israel', and 'all the house of Israel', he declares that in the capacity
of the Seed of David and the Occupant of his throne, the risen Christ has shed
forth 'this' which they see and hear. One has only to consider Peter's attitude
upon being told to go to Cornelius (Acts 10), or the amazement of the church
in Acts 11, to be sure that no church began at Pentecost in which Jew and Gentile
were included on equal terms.
Without following the theme of the Acts step by step, we take it up again in
the last chapter. There the conditions of Mark 16:15-20 are in full force; the
hope of Israel still holds good (Acts 28:20), the Jew is still first (verse
17), and not until Israel in Rome reject the Messiah, as Israel in the land
had done, do we read the words : 'The salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles,
and that they will hear it' (Acts 28:28).
The prison ministry of Paul follows, and in this ministry miraculous healings
cease. Paul who previously cured disease by a handkerchief (Acts 19:12) now
sends a prescription (1 Tim. 5:23). Yet he retains his faith to the end (2 Tim.
4:7). Miracles had a message for Israel and all who, as instructed by the Hebrew
Scriptures, looked for the Messiah (Matt. 11:2-6). They were given to the Gentile
churches during the Acts to provoke Israel to jealously, if possible (Rom. 10:19;
11:11). When the olive tree was cut down in Acts 28, the Gentile branches could
no longer stand. A new movement from God was absolutely necessary to meet the
new circumstances, and that new movement was the revelation of the present dispensation
of the mystery, in which the hope of Israel and Pentecostal conditions have
no place.
For the difference between the body of 1 Corinthians 12 and of Ephesians the
reader is referred to The Berean Expositor, Vol. 18, p. 177.