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TEXT:—"And when the day of Pentecost was fully
come, they were all with one accord in one place.
* * * And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”
Acts 2:1 and 4.
HAT THIS “day of Pentecost” means.”
Literally, the word “Pentecost” means
“Fiftieth,” that is, it is the fiftieth day
after the feast of unleavened bread, and
is called the harvest feast. It was the
time set apart in God’s revealed plan for
His people’s service, when they brought
offerings of the harvest of the field
and gave thanks to God. According to
to
the Hebrew idea of the day of Pentecost, it was
not only a feast of gratitude for blessings already
poured out to them; it had its prophetic significance,
though they did not understand. It was significant
of the different dispensations of God on this earth.
It meant that there could be no real filling of the
measure of gratitude to God until the three persons
of the God head had had an earthly ministration.
God the Father had had His manifestation in the
Old Testament Scriptures; Jesus the Son had His
as recorded in the gospels, and this day of Pente
cost that they were so blindly celebrating was the
day for the Holy Spirit to begin His earthly min
istry, and so the day of Pentecost could not fully
come until the Holy Spirit Himself had been poured
out as we find Him poured out on the day of Pen
tecost, when He assumed charge of the Kingdom of
Jesus Christ on the earth. The expression, “When
the day of Pentecost was fully come,” should be
translated according to the margin, which is the
better translation, “When the day of Pentecost was
being fulfilled,” or “being filled full.” While they
waited on that day in that upper chamber Pente
cost was filled full in that the Holy Spirit was
fully revealed.
Holy Spirit, of course, existed all through the Old
Testament dispensation and during the ministry of
Jesus Christ, but during that time He had no con
trol of the Kingdom. When those men and women
gathered in that upper chamber and made a com
plete surrender of themselves to the Holy Ghost and
He assumed full and complete mastery of them,
then was the day of Pentecost fully come. Then the
measure was filled full; that for which they had been
ignorantly looking all through the Old Testament
dispensation. The Holy Ghost assumed complete
charge of them as they -waited in obedience to the
Lord. You will find that the first evidence they
had of this was the sound that they heard, like unto
the noise of a mighty rushing wind.
LIKE AS TO FIRE.
The next sign they had was tongues like as of fire
that sat upon each one of them. This was not
a tongue of fire; it was a tongue “like as of fire.”
Please note that it not only sat upon the disciples,
but upon each one that had gathered with the disci
ples. There were one hundred and twenty there
and this light sat upon each one. This was a sign
to each and every one that they had received this
enduement of the Holy Ghost which had been prom
ised.
Previous to this, Jesus had said, “Receive ye the
Holy Ghost,” but while they had the Holy Ghost;
in their hearts, there had not been filled to the full
with the Holy Ghost; up until this time the Spirit
had not been given perfect and complete
right of -way in their hearts and lives. They
had not been enveloped controlled and mas
tered by the Spirit. It was on the day of
Pentecost that this was made a reality in their lives.
They had not before had Him as their paraclete;
Jesus had been their paraclete, the one to whom
they culd turn and speak and from whom they
could get inspiration and guidance, but now Jesus
had gone back to God the Father, and the Holy Spirit
had been sent down and given control of the things
of the Kmgdom; and He is to be their paraclete, their
guide, their Comforter.
In our reading of the lesson we saw the disciples
assembling in that upper room. You remember that
they went there because they were told by Jesus
''THIS IS THAT"
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. Broughton, D.D.
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
The Golden Age for June 16, 1910.
to wait for the promise of the Father, wait for the
enduement of power from on high. That is what
they were sent there to do, but that is not what they
did. The first thing they set about to do was the
election of one to fill a vacancy. They had not been
given any instruction to do this. They were simply
told to tarry until they had received power from on
high. But they began casting about to find one to
take the place of Judas and they elected Matthias,
which, I believe was a great blunder on their part.
They were not told to do that, and I do not believe
he was the right man, because we hear no more ot
him, and we find after awhile the Spirit taking Paul
and making of him the great apostle. I think Paul
took that empty place instead of Matthias, and took
it by the direction of the Holy Spirit. They got
ahead of the Holy Ghost.
I am quite sure that this is true of many of
us today. I believe that the majority of Christians
are guilty of the very same thing. I am sure it is
oftentimes true of the church. We get in such a
hurry to do things that we cannot wait for the
guidance of the Holy Spirit. We see a gap that
needs to be filled up and plunge in to fill it and
oftentimes get ahead of the Spirit. We do a thing
in our own strength, and then the Holy Spirit has
to rectify matters. My prayer to God is that He
will keep me so close to Him and so much under
His teaching as that I will fill gaps only when He
speaks. It is less excusable for us than for them;
we have the Holy Spirit and can always seek His
guidance, but then the Holy Spirit was not come.
SPEAKING WITH TONGUES.
The next thing that occurred was that the disci
ples began to speak with other tongues. This was
not a mere gabble, such as we heai* of today. Those
disciples spoke a distinct language. You under
stand that at this time in the city of Jerusalem
there lived a great number of people who had
come from all the countries around about, and on
this particular occasion there were a great number
of visitors in Jerusalem; they were there for the
purpose of worshiping at this feast, and it would
have been impossible for one man with one lan
guage to have addressed that crowd. And so the
Spirit of God, in order that the church at its foun
dation might have world-wide opportunity with all
these people from all the countrys around and all
with different languages and different dialects, that
they might go back home with an intelligent idea
of the great religion that the Holy Spirit had come
to propagate. He worked a miracle, he gave them the
gift of tongues, of language, so that they could be
heard in all the different languages and dialects by
those that listened.
We find several instances after the day of Pen
tecost, when the gift of tongues was bestowed. If
you will turn to the twelfth chapter of first Corin
thians, verses four to eleven, you will find that the
gift of tongues is set down as one of the gifts of the
Spirit. If you will go a little further in this
epistle you will see the restriction that the Apostle
puts upon this gift. He anticipates that this gift
will be misunderstood or abused by cranks and
fanatics just as there has been and always will
be. There has been and always will be effort
after effort on the part of the devil to
discount every gift of the Spirit; to make them
ridiculous; to drive sane people away from accept
ing the Holy Spirit by the fear of being made ridic
ulous; and the Apostle warns them in this four
teenth chapter that if any among them claims to
have the gift of tongues that he shall be kept silent
until an interpreter can be found. If a man claims
to have the gift of tongues, they must put to him
first of all this question, What language do you
speak? If he says, “I do not know,” the answer
shall be, “Well, keep still until we can get an
interpreter to find out what your language is,
to see that you speak a sure enough language, no
mere gabble. If the interpreter is able to testily
that your language is a sure enough language, a
language for use, then, you may speak, until then,
you must keep quiet.” This same test should be
applied to day when any one claims to have this
gift of tongues.
But 1 do not mean to say that the gift of Longues
is not possible now, as in the early days of the
church. If the necessity arises, 1 think He would
supply it. But, instead of giving us the gift of
tongues today, He has given us means of study that
they did not have in those days. We have means
of study and travel and of communication that they
never had. It was absolutely necessary that there
should be some kind of dissemination of knowledge
in this miraculous way, and so God used this meth
od. If you should in some way get into an unknown
land with an unknown language and no way to learn
it, I believe that this gift would be bestowed upon
you. He will give such gifts as are necessary to
the propagation of the Gospel, but as long as we
have minds and means to learn languages, it will
not be necessary to have this miracle performed.
God puts no premium on laziness. He has given
us minds and means and expects them exercised.
After the gift of tongues, we find tne multitude
assembled. The disciples could stay in the upper
room no longer, for they were under the guidance
of a mighty Power and it was time to do their
work, and so they reach the streets where a multi
tude had gathered possibly to find out what was
the meaning of that sound they had heard; that
sound “as of a rushing mighty wind.” We find
there all kinds of people; all nationalities; and all
classes, few of them speaking the same language
or the same dialect. Possibly they were in some
great public square or some wide street;
they followed the direction of the sound that
they heard, and when they were all gather
ed together, they found men speaking in var
ious languages teaching a religion of which they
had never heard. They knew that these men were
natives of this country, and so when they heard,
each man in his own language, they were confound
ed. No wonder they were! If we should go out
on a public highway and hear men standing up
and talking in languages that we knew that they
knew nothing about, it would confound us. This
is a good basis' to begin work upon, for until the
world sees something unusual in our religion they
are not ready to take it. So long as the world can
understand the church, the methods of the church,
the power of the church, rest assured it is not
going to have the respect for the church that it
should have. It is when the church becomes an
interrogation point, and does things that it could
not do of its own strength, that the world is con
founded.
They were confounded, but tried to explain away
the mystery. This is just as we find men today.
They said, “These men are drunken.” They had to
assign some reason for this unnatural demonstration
that had so confounded them, and so they laid it to
the stimulation of strong drink.
Peter heard this explanation being disseminated
and began to preach that marvelous sermon,, the
first part of which is the answer to this criticism
“But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up
his voice and spake forth unto them, saying, Ye
men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem,
be this known unto you and give ear unto my words
For these are not drunken as ye supposed; seeing
it is but the third hour of the day.” The third hour
of the day was the hour of the prayer. He reminds
them that it was too early in the day for them
to have become drunken, then he proceeds to re
lieve their minds of doubt by telling them just
what th’s all meant. After reminding them of that,
he proceeds to give them an answer to the query that
he knew was in their minds.
PETER’S TEXT.
Peter said “This is that. This mysterious, in
explicable occurrence; this power that enables
these men to speak in unknown tongues, this that
you see is that which was prophecied by the proph
et Joel.” Some one has said that Peter’s text that
day was, “This is that.” This mysterious work on
the day of Pentecost is that which was prophecied
nine hundred years before by the prophet Joel.
Then he proceeds to preach unto them Jesus Christ
Jesus has been put to death as a criminal, and
(Continued on Page 14.)
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