Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2, verses 1-11
1 The apostles filled with the holy Ghost and speaking diverse languages are admired by some and derided by others1 Corinthians, Chapter 12, verses 3-7, 12-13
1 Spiritual gifts, 4 are diverse, 7 yet all to profit withal, 8 and to that end, are diversely bestowed, 12 that by the like proportion, as the members of a natural body12
12:3 Therefore - Since the heathen idols cannot speak themselves, much less give spiritual gifts to others, these must necessarily be among Christians only. As no one speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed - That is, as none who does this, (which all the Jews and heathens did,) speaketh by the Spirit of God - Is actuated by that Spirit, so as to speak with tongues, heal diseases, or cast out devils. So no one can say, Jesus is the Lord - None can receive him as such; for, in the scripture language, to say, or to believe, implies an experimental assurance. But by the Holy Ghost - The sum is, None have the Holy Spirit but Christians: all Christians have this Spirit.
12:4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit - Divers streams, but all from one fountain. This verse speaksof the Holy Ghost, the next of Christ, the sixth of God the Father. The apostle treats of the Spirit, Co1 12:7, etc ; of Christ, Co1 12:12, etc ; of God, Co1 12:28, etc
12:5 Administrations - Offices. But the same Lord appoints them all.
12:6 Operations - Effects produced. This word is of a larger extent than either of the former. But it is the same God who worketh all these effects in all the persons concerned.
12:7 The manifestation - The gift whereby the Spirit manifests itself. Is given to each - For the profit of the whole body.
20
20:19 Mar 16:14 Joh 20, Luk 24:36, .
20:21 Peace be unto you - This is the foundation of the mission of a true Gospel minister, peace in his own soul, Co2 4:1.As the Father hath sent me, so send I you - Christ was the apostle of the Father, Heb 3:1. Peter and the rest, the apostles of Christ.
20:22 He breathed on them - New life and vigour, and saith, as ye receive this breath out of my mouth, so receive ye the Spirit out of my fulness: the Holy Ghost influencing you in a peculiar manner, to fit you for your great embassy. This was an earnest of pentecost.
20:23 Whose soever sins ye remit - (According to the tenor of the Gospel, that is, supposing them to repent and believe) they are remitted, and whose soever sins ye retain (supposing them to remain impenitent) they are retained. So far is plain. But here arises a difficulty. Are not the sins of one who truly repents, and unfeignedly believes in Christ, remitted, without sacerdotal absolution? And are not the sins of one who does not repent or believe, retained even with it? What then does this commission imply? Can it imply any more than,
- A power of declaring with authority the Christian terms of pardon; whose sins are remitted and whose retained? As in our daily form of absolution; and
- A power of inflicting and remitting ecclesiastical censures? That is, of excluding from, and re - admitting into, a Christian congregation.
2
2:1 At the pentecost of Sinai, in the Old Testament, and the pentecost of Jerusalem, in the New, where the two grand manifestations of God, the legal and the evangelical; the one from the mountain, and the other from heaven; the terrible, and the merciful one. They were all with one accord in one place - So here was a conjunction of company, minds, and place; the whole hundred and twenty being present.
2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven - So will the Son of man come to judgment. And it filled all the house - That is, all that part of the temple where they were sitting.
2:3 And there appeared distinct tongues, as of fire - That is, small flames of fire. This is all which the phrase, tongues of fire, means in the language of the seventy. Yet it might intimate God's touching their tongues as it were (together with their hearts) with Divine fire: his giving them such words as were active and penetrating, even as flaming fire.
2:4 And they began to speak with other tongues - The miracle was not in the ears of the hearers, (as some have unaccountably supposed,) but in the mouth of the speakers. And this family praising God together, with the tongues of all the world, was an earnest that the whole world should in due time praise God in their various tongues. As the Spirit gave them utterance - Moses, the type of the law, was of a slow tongue; but the Gospel speaks with a fiery and flaming one.
2:5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews - Gathered from all parts by the peculiar providence of God.
2:6 The multitude came together, and were confounded - The motions of their minds were swift and various.
2:9 Judea - The dialect of which greatly differed from that of Galilee. Asia - The country strictly so called.
2:10 Roman sojourners - Born at Rome, but now living at Jerusalem.These seem to have come to Jerusalem after those who are above mentioned. All of them were partly Jews by birth, and partly proselytes.
2:11 Cretans - One island seems to be mentioned for all. The wonderful works of God - Probably those which related to the miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, together with the effusion of his Spirit, as a fulfilment of his promises, and the glorious dispensations of Gospel grace.