E-Book, Englisch, Band 10, 416 Seiten
Calvin / McGrath Acts
1. Auflage 1995
ISBN: 978-1-4335-5411-7
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection
E-Book, Englisch, Band 10, 416 Seiten
Reihe: Crossway Classic Commentaries
ISBN: 978-1-4335-5411-7
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection
John Calvin (1509-1564) was one of the most influential theologians of the Reformation. Known best for his Institutes of the Christian Religion, he also wrote landmark expositions on most of the books in the Bible.
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Acts
Chapter 2
Verses 1-4
1. When the day of Pentecost came. The miracle described in this chapter was performed on the festival day in order to make it better known, because during the festival very large numbers of people converged on Jerusalem. Similarly, Christ often went up to Jerusalem on the holy days Qohn 2:13; 5:1; 7:2,10; 10:22-23; 12:1), so that many people might see his miracles, and because in the larger crowds there might be more fruit from his teaching.
2-3. A sound ... came from heaven ... they saw ... The gift had to be visible, so that the disciples might be roused through their physical senses. We are so slow to think about the gifts of God that unless he wakes up all our senses, his power passes away without our noticing. These physical signs prepared the disciples to understand more clearly that the Spirit Christ had promised had now come. Even so, God did not have to use an outward sign when he gave the apostles the ability to preach the Gospel. They would have understood that they had not suddenly changed as a result of some accident or through their own hard work. So the tongues of fire were more for our benefit and the benefit of the whole church. Throughout the ages Christians have been helped by these signs.
The violence of the wind made the disciples afraid. We are not ready to receive the grace of God if our cocksure natures have not been tamed. Just as access to him comes by faith, so humility and fearfulness open the gate for him to come into us. He has nothing to do with those who are proud and unconcerned.
The Spirit is often symbolized by wind (Ezekiel 1:4). Indeed, the word “Spirit” is itself a figure of speech. The or Person of the divine being who is called Spirit is beyond our ability to comprehend. To refer to him, the Scriptures borrow the word for wind, because the Spirit is the personal power that God pours into all his creatures, as it were, by breathing into them.
3. What seemed to be tongues of fire. Only here does the Spirit take the shape of tongues. Just as the Spirit took the shape of a dove coming down on Christ (John 1:32) because a dove was a good symbol of the work and nature of Christ, so now God chose a sign that suited the Holy Spirit’s work in the apostles. The different languages were an obstacle threatening the spread of the Gospel; yet if the preachers had spoken in only one tongue, everyone would have thought that Christ was confined to a small corner of Judea. But God invented a way of allowing the Gospel to break out. He divided the language of the apostles, so that they could tell everyone what had been told them.
This reveals the very great goodness of God. Something that had plagued men and women and had been a punishment for human pride was now turned into a source of blessing, for how did this diversity of languages come about if not to thwart the evil and godless plans of humankind (see Genesis 11:7)? But now God equipped the disciples with many tongues, so that they might call home men and women who were wandering aimlessly here and there and bring them into a unity made happy by God. These languages made everyone speak the language of Canaan, just as Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 19:18). Whatever language they spoke, with one mouth and one spirit they called to one Father in heaven (Romans 15:6).
As I said, all this was done for our sakes, and not only because we received its fruit, but because it shows that the Gospel did not come by accident but was planned by God. He gave the disciples different languages so that no nation would miss out on their teaching. This proves, first, that God has called the Gentiles, and, second, that the disciples’ teaching was not man-made, for the Spirit lived in their tongues.
As for the fire, there is no doubt that it symbolized the effectiveness of the disciples’ words. Otherwise, even if their voices had been heard in the remotest parts of the world, they would only have been beating the air, without doing any good at all. So the Lord showed that his fire would inflame the hearts of their listeners, consuming the emptiness of the world and cleansing and renewing all things. They would never have dared take on such a hard task if the Lord had not assured them that their preaching would be powerful. Nor was this power restricted to the time of the apostles. It is still seen every day.
Finally, the Lord gave the Holy Spirit a visible shape so that we may be certain that the church will never lack his invisible and hidden grace.
4. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. When Luke says that everyone received the fullness of the Spirit, he does not mean that they were all filled to the same extent with the gifts, but that each one received what was best for him to fulfill his own calling.
And began to speak. Luke shows the immediate result of the gift, and the use to which they put their gift of tongues. Some people think Luke does not mean that the apostles spoke different languages, but that they spoke one language that all the foreigners could understand as well as they could understand their own language. A further view is that since Peter only spoke one sermon, and everyone understood it, the voice that came to their ears was not Peter’s.
But we must notice, first, that the disciples really did speak in strange languages. If not, the miracle would not have been in the disciples at all, but in the hearers, and the imagery of wind and flames would have been false, since the Spirit would have been given to those listening. Later, Paul thanked God that he spoke in other tongues (1 Corinthians 14:18) that he claimed he could both understand and use. He did not acquire this ability by his own study and hard work, but it was a gift of the Spirit. In the same passage, Paul maintains that this is a special gift that is not given to everyone. From all this it is clear that the apostles were given various languages and the ability to understand them, so that they might speak in Greek to the Greeks and in Latin to the Italians, and so true communication would take place.
A question I have left unresolved is whether there was a second miracle, enabling the Egyptians and Elamites to hear Peter speaking in Chaldean as if he were speaking in different languages. Some arguments lead me to think this, but they can all be refuted. It may be that the apostles spoke in different languages one after another, to one person in one language, to the next person in another, the miracle then being that they were able to speak in different languages. Regarding Peter’s sermon, most of those listening may have been able to understand it wherever they came from, for it is thought that many of those who came to Jerusalem were familiar with Chaldean. But it does not matter if we maintain that he spoke in other languages; either way I do not mind, as long as it is agreed that the apostles changed their language.
Verses 5-13
5. Now there were staying in Jerusalem. Luke writes that they were God-fearing men in order to show that they came to Jerusalem to worship God. In the years after the Jews had been scattered throughout the world, God brought back to Jerusalem some seed that was left, for he had, as it were, set up his banner in that city where the temple still served some useful purpose. In passing, Luke shows who benefits from God’s declarations of power in his miracles. As we shall see, evil and godless people laugh at them or ignore them. Also, Luke is citing as his witnesses people whose faith in God makes us more willing to believe them.
From every nation under heaven. These different countries were far apart (verse 8ff.), and this adds to the greatness of the miracle. People from Crete and Asia, for example, who were near neighbors, might have had similar languages, but not Italians and people from Cappadocia, or Arabians and residents of Pontus. Indeed, this was itself a work of God worth remembering and wondering at. In that huge and horrible fragmentation of the people, God always kept some survivors. Not only that, but he made foreigners join these people, though they were living in misery and were all but destroyed. They lived in exile, in distant places, so far apart from one another that it was as if they lived in different worlds; yet they were united by their faith. Not without reason does Luke call them God-fearing men.
11. “The wonders of God.” Luke records two things that filled the hearers with wonder. First, the apostles had been uneducated men who came from nowhere of any importance. Yet they spoke profoundly about the things of God and the wisdom of heaven. Second, they had suddenly been given new languages. Both these things are worth noticing. If the disciples had churned out any old rubbish, those listening would not have been impressed. The majesty of the subject matter ought to have spurred them on to think about the miracle. In their astonishment, they did give God the honor due to him, but the primary fruit of the miracle was that by asking questions they showed they were willing to learn. Otherwise their amazement would not have done them much good. We, too, must let our sense of wonder at what God does lead us to reflect about him and wish to understand.
13. Some, however, made fun of them. Here we see the monstrous...
