In Acts 1:8 we read:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
It is the power of the Holy Spirit that explains how it is that the apostolic witness to Jesus as the risen, ascended Lord has indeed reached to the ends of the earth.
The importance of the role of the Holy Spirit is emphasised at the very outset of the book of Acts:
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen (1:1-2).
This is a significant verse because the Holy Spirit is involved in relaying Jesus’ instructions to the apostles even though this occurs during a 40 day period when Jesus appears to them to speak to them about the kingdom of God (v3). Evidently, then, as Jesus speaks the Holy Spirit is operating upon the hearts and minds of the apostles providing them with a special ability to understand and grasp the truths conveyed.
In the context of speaking to them about the kingdom of God, Jesus commands them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift his Father has promised. Jesus had previously spoken to them about this. Indeed, John the Baptist had contrasted himself with the Messiah by sayinig that while he baptised people with water, the Messiah would baptise people with the Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16). This baptism with the Spirit and fire would demonstrate that the Messiah was far more powerful than John the Baptist had ever been. This promise is associated with harvest imagery, for John goes on to describe the Messiah as holding a winnowing fork, clearing his threshing floor, gathering the wheat into his barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
In Acts 1:5 Jesus takes his apostles back to these foundations and tells them that in just a few days John the Baptist’s promise will be fulfilled, when they themselves are baptised with the Holy Spirit.
It is in this context that the apostles quiz Jesus about the timing of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel (v6). The promise of Acts 1:8, drawing upon the notion of Israel as God’s witness from Isaiah 43-44, is given in response to this question. The baptising of the apostles with the Holy Spirit is part and parcel of God’s program for promoting the kingdom of God (v3), which involves the restoration of the kingdom to Israel (v6).
Consequently, when, in the very next chapter, the apostles are baptised with the Spirit at Pentecost, it is from “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven” (2:5) that 3,000 are added to the 120 Jewish believers with which the early church begins. Significantly, all this occurs in Jerusalem, as commanded by Jesus, and all of these new believers are accepting Jesus as their Messianic King (2:36). In a very real sense this is a first fulfilment of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel and a fulfilment of the vision of Isaiah 43-44. In Isaiah 43, in the very context in which God declares true Israelites to be his witnesses, God promises that he will gather dispersed Jews from the east, west, north and south and, indeed, from “the ends of the earth” (vv5-7). It is this we see occurring at Pentecost in fulfilment of the promise of Acts 1:8 which in turn echoes the promises of Isaiah 43-44.
Given this essential background in Isaiah 43-44 we must not allow Peter’s explicit citation of Joel 2 to prevent us from seeing also at Pentecost the fulfilment of Isaiah 44:1-5:
But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. This is what the LORD says - he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. One will say, ”I belong to the LORD”; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, “The LORD’s,” and will take the name Israel.
Posted January 16, 2010
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