Acts 2:39 For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call. 1. One of the earliest and most vital errors into which the Church fell was the conception that the Church's power is proportionate to her wealth. 2. The second great error of the Church was made when it began to depend upon political power as a means of effecting spiritual ends. 3. The third great error which has delayed the realisation of the blessings of Pentecost by the Universal Church has been the conception that education and culture could do the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us consider briefly what were the different features foreshadowed in this promise. I. First and foremost, undoubtedly, was what we may term evangelistic power, the power of leading men to Christ, of so influencing them that they should abandon their sins and put their trust in a crucified Redeemer. 2. Closely allied with this element in the promise, and yet distinct from it, is the power of conquest which it involves. It is a remarkable fact — in many respects an incomprehensible fact — that Judaism, with all its great revelations of the truth, with all its wonderful striving after righteousness and its profound reverence for the unity of the Godhead, nevertheless, was by no means an aggressive religious force, and its converts at no time in its history were an important factor in its life. Mohammedanism spread by the power of the sword, and owed its victory to material, rather than to spiritual causes. Christianity, on the other hand, has ever spread, and will continue to spread, in virtue of a special power bestowed upon its apostles in answer to behoving prayer. 3. The next element in the promise is the element of boldness. 4. It only remains, in concluding our consideration of this subject, to point out with all emphasis that this promise was not limited to the apostles and their proximate or remote successors. (H. S. Lunn.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. |
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