Acts 2:13

Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

Others mocking, [ diachleuazontes (G1315a), the strengthened form of the verb, is the true reading] said, These men are full of new wine, [ gleukous (G1098)] - rather, 'sweet wine;' that is, not "new wine," but wine preserved in its original state (which was done by various processes), and which was very intoxicating.

Remarks:

(1) The relation which the work of the Spirit bears to that of Christ has already been explained (see the note at John 16:14, and Remark 2 at the close of that Section, p. 448); more particularly its bearing on the glorification of Christ at the Father's right hand (see the note at John 7:39, and Remark 3, at the close of that Section, p. 339). But there is another aspect of the Spirit's work of scarcely less importance-the contrast between the new and the old economies, or between the period before and after the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. On this point there are two extremes to be avoided. The one is, that until the day of Pentecost, the souls of believers were total strangers to the operations of the Spirit, and consequently, however devout and religious men might be under the ancient economy-however God-fearing and righteous-they could not, in strict propriety be called regenerate and spiritual.

Some good critics and otherwise orthodox divines hold this; founding chiefly upon the statement, that the Holy Spirit "was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). But besides that this is opposed alike to the letter of some passages of Scripture and to the spirit of it all, the general analogy of divine truth-which proclaims that only the pure in heart shall see God, and which ascribes all sanctification to the operations of the blessed Spirit-points assuredly in a very different direction. Let anyone try to enter into some of the breathings of Old Testament saints, even in patriarchal times (see, for example, Genesis 49:18), and especially those of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, and then say if he can find anything, even in the New Testament-however superior in its point of view-more characteristic of a renewed nature and of true spirituality. But the other extreme-which would reduce the superiority of the one economy to the other, in respect of the Spirit's work, to one merely of greater copiousness and extension-is not less to be avoided. The day of Pentecost lifted the Church out of infancy into manhood; out of darkness, about the whole work and kingdom of Christ, into marvelous light; out of the externality of the law into the spirituality of the Gospel; out of the distance and dread of servants into the nearness and confidence of dear children; out of the bondage of sinners into the conscious liberty of the children of God. And though this was not all developed at once, the change dates fundamentally from the day of Pentecost; its special features began immediately to appear in the disciples of the Lord Jesus; and in the apostolic Epistles we find its principles and details unfolded in all their breadth, riches, and glory.

(2) The Pentecostal "tongues" have occasioned much learned discussion, most of it as worthless as it is wearisome. The laborious and leaned efforts to disprove the miraculous character of these utterances, mostly by German critics, scarcely deserve notice-such as that they were no articulate languages at all, but incoherent shouting sounds, uttered in a state of religious enthusiasm; or, that though a real language, it was their own and mother tongue, only spoken on this occasion in so excited a way as to seem to others like foreign languages. Such explanations, in themselves almost ridiculous, so flatly contradict the statements of the historian which they profess to clear up, that one has only to read the narrative itself, with an intelligent attention to its phraseology, to be convinced of their baselessness. That it was in real articulate languages that the disciples spake "the wonderful works of God;" that these tongues were unknown to those who used them; but that they were recognized by the different nationalities then present to be their own: this, which is stated in naked terms by the historian, is the only view of the subject which his words can without force be made to express.

The difficulties which devout and believing critics have felt in the subject have arisen partly from their finding no evidence of the use of these languages in the subsequent preaching of the Gospel in foreign lands-which they imagine must have been the chief intention of such a gift-and partly from certain things about "the gift of tongues" in the Corinthian Church, (1 Corinthians 14:1.) But there is no ground for thinking that the Pentecostal utterances were a permanent gift of speaking in foreign languages, or that they were intended for any but the immediate purpose which they most completely served-to arrest the attention of multitudes of Jews from every land (compare 1 Corinthians 14:22, "Wherefore tongues are for a sign"), and to afford them irresistible evidence that the predicted effusion of the Spirit "in the last days" had now taken place; that, by settling down on the disciples of the crucified Nazarene, God was in this august way glorifying His Son Jesus; that if they would experience the promised blessings of Messiah's kingdom, they must flock under the wing of this risen and glorified Nazarene; and (though this indirectly) that soon the spectacle now beheld in the streets of Jerusalem would be seen in every land, when, in all the "tongues" of men, the unsearchable riches of Christ should be proclaimed. As to the "gift of tongues" at Corinth, though in some respects it undoubtedly resembled what took place on the day of Pentecost, it differed from it so considerably that we only confuse both by mixing them up the one with the other: each is best explained by itself; and not until we have viewed each independently shall we be able to perceive at what points they meet and part.

Peter Preaches Christ to the Assembled Multitude (2:14-36)