and, being assembled with [them], commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father, which [said he] ye have heard of me.
Between the resurrection and Pentecost, the Lord tells the apostles to do nothing but wait in one city. Why wait, why in Jerusalem, and what is "the promise of the Father"?
The opening phrase, "while staying with them," appears in older versions as "being assembled with them." A note in the margin offers a different reading again. One writer tests it against what Peter later said about the days after the resurrection:
The day of His final departure was near. The disciples were hearing His last instructions. Being assembled with them — or, as the margin puts it, "eating with them" — the Lord told them not to leave Jerusalem... The margin's reading would fit well with what Peter said to Cornelius and his friends (10:41): that the disciples ate and drank with the Lord after He rose from the dead... What times those must have been! What grace they show!
The Lord adds that they had heard this promise from Him. One writer traces what that memory would have brought back:
They remembered what He said to them in the upper room, after He gave them the Lord's Supper. The Lord had made the astounding statement, "It is better for you that I go away"... He said, "If I do not go away, the Comforter will not come, the other Comforter. The One Who is coming will come to take My place, and He will be to you even more than I have been. He will live with you, not for three years, but will stay with you for ever."
People often mix this gift up with two other works of the Spirit. One commentator separates them, and shows why the timing depended on Christ's leaving:
It matters greatly that we understand this. Many wrongly apply the Spirit's baptism either to miraculous displays or to the new birth... The question here is not the great basic need of sinful people at all times to be born of the Spirit. Still less is it those gifts... It is the immense and lasting privilege of the church: the Holy Spirit sent down in person to stay with the saints and to be in them... This depended on the Son's going away. If He did not go away, that other Advocate, the Spirit of truth, would not come. But once the work of reconciliation was done, Jesus went on high and sent the Spirit down here.
This settles an old puzzle. In John 20 the Lord had already breathed on the disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. Yet here He still tells them to wait.
Was this giving of the Spirit the gift spoken of in John 7:39; 14:17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-13? No. In Acts 1:4, at a later date than the one John writes about here, the Lord told His disciples that they were still to wait for the promise of the Father.
The promise also pointed them away from Israel's earthly hopes:
The sending of the Holy Spirit also led them out of the Jewish field of promises that were only earthly. The Father's promise of the Holy Spirit was a very different thing from the promise that Jehovah, the God of judgment, would restore the kingdom of Israel by His power.
The command fixes them in one place together, and that detail carries weight:
Acts 1:4 reminds us that the early disciples did not receive the Holy Spirit one by one. The Lord commanded them to gather at Jerusalem and wait there for the promise of the Father, the blessed Holy Spirit of God... The Spirit came and formed the believers into one body — Christ the Head in heaven, the believers the body on earth.
Being told to wait was itself a test, and one writer draws out what they did with it:
Fallen nature cannot wait. It is impatient, because it distrusts God. The Israelites could not wait for Moses to come down from the mountain. King Saul could not wait for Samuel to come. The Lord tested the disciples at this very point. He said "Wait," and they gathered in Jerusalem in submission to Him, bound together in the bonds of Divine love, and waited as He had said.
That wait was for one occasion only. God answered their prayers, and the answer stands:
The hundred and twenty people gathered there took their stand on that promise. They prayed and received the answer. If we now ask for the Holy Spirit to be sent, we are centuries behind the time. He is here. How sad it is to neglect His presence!
- Promised — the Father's promise is the Holy Spirit Himself, a Person sent to stay for ever, not a burst of miracles and not the new birth.
- Purchased — the gift waited on Christ's going away. He finished the work of reconciliation, went on high, and sent the Spirit down.
- Postponed — the breathing in John 20 was not this gift, since the Lord still tells them here to keep waiting.
- Placed — the Lord kept them together in Jerusalem, because the Spirit came to form one body, not to visit believers one by one.
- Past — their wait tested their obedience, and prayer carried them through. Ours is over: the Spirit has come and remains.
For John indeed baptised with water, but *ye* shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit after now not many days.
The risen Jesus spends forty days with His disciples. Then He leaves them with a command to wait and a promise to hold on to. That promise sets John's baptism beside something new. It raises three questions: what is this baptism, when did it come, and who is included?
The verse works by contrast. One commentator draws the line between repentance and the power Christianity brings:
Repentance did not, of course, stop under Christ. In a world of sin it will always be the necessary path of a soul born of God. Still, a soul turning to God, with a sense of sin and self-judgment, is one thing. The divine power that sets evil aside is another. That power rests on a redemption accomplished by the grace of God. This is the characteristic blessing of Christianity.
John's baptism belonged to an older order and pointed forward. Another writer sets the two side by side:
John's baptism called for repentance, but it never came out of the Jewish sphere... it was a baptism to repentance for man on the earth, and not Christ's death and resurrection... In fact, John's baptism only taught repentance here below, so that people would receive Christ. Christianity taught the effectiveness of the death and resurrection of a rejected Christ. On that basis they would receive the Holy Spirit, the Comforter come down from heaven.
Two common misreadings are worth clearing away, and one commentator names them both:
Many wrongly apply the Spirit's baptism either to miraculous displays or to the new birth. They do so all the more because He certainly worked in both these ways at Pentecost, and on a large scale. But the reader has only to consider John 14–16 to learn from God's word what is in view here. It is not the great primary need of sinful man at all times, to be born of the Spirit. Still less is it those gifts so freely given to those who confessed the Lord at that time. It is the immense and lasting privilege of the church: the presence of the Holy Spirit, sent down in person to remain with the saints and be in them.
The timing rules out the second misreading:
These disciples were certainly born again before Pentecost. So this baptism was not their new birth.
The Lord gave no date, only a short wait. One writer counts the days:
They saw the Lord during forty days after He rose from the dead. Then ten days passed from His ascension until the day of Pentecost (or fiftieth day) fully came. When it came, the promise was fulfilled.
Those ten days were not empty. No witness could begin until the Spirit came. Yet the disciples could still "take and maintain the safe place of utter dependence upon God" (F. B. Hole).
The Lord's promise names the Spirit, but says nothing about fire. One writer explains why:
His earthly work of the cross was over. All its fruits will come in due time. His heavenly work of baptizing with the Holy Spirit — spoken of so often in the Gospels — was still to come... The baptism "with fire" is left out, because that is still future. The fire of judgment will yet cleanse His kingdom of every stumbling-block and those who practise wickedness. It has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit's appearance in tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost.
This baptism was not only a personal gift. It formed one body, and its reach goes far past the group who heard the promise:
This is a distinctive Christian blessing. From 1 Corinthians 12:13 we learn that by it the body of Christ is formed: "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free." All real Christians share in this as regards its effects, though not all were present on either occasion when it took place (Acts 2; 11:15–16). Paul was not even converted at the time. Yet he, along with the Corinthians, came to share in it. So do all real Christians, who receive the Holy Spirit. This is an important truth. All true believers share in forgiveness of sins, and they all necessarily have part in this baptism too. That point matters greatly.
- Contrast — John baptized with water for repentance. Christ baptizes with the Spirit, on the basis of a finished redemption.
- Correction — This baptism is not the new birth and not miracle-working. The disciples were already born again; what they lacked was the Spirit sent down in person.
- Countdown — Forty days of appearances, then ten days of waiting, then Pentecost. The wait was short, and the promise came true to the day.
- Cancelled clause — Fire is left out of this promise. Fire means judgment, and that day is still to come.
- Company — Every real Christian shares in what happened that day. Paul was not yet converted, and he came to share in it too.