Acts 1:5

5. And finally, together they must stay in order that together they may receive the one Pentecostal unction.

Promise of the Father See notes on Luke 24:49; John 14:16-26, John 16:7-11. So called because predicted in the Old Testament as from God. See note on Acts 2:16; Joel 3:1-2.

5. Baptized with the Holy Ghost Under the old dispensation it was the law, the type, the ritual, and the shadow that were prominent, and the Spirit was in the background; under the new, reversely, all these retreat into the background, and the Spirit is predominant. This is the dispensation not of the ritual but of the Spirit. Hence it must be inaugurated by a full and overwhelming manifestation of the Spirit, as the old was inaugurated by the physical splendour of Sinai. And if this dispensation be ever glorious in its realization, if it ever attain a latter-day glory worthy to be the antitype of which the Pentecost was the type, it must be by the power of the Spirit poured forth upon men of the advanced culture of the future.

Baptized By a curious contradiction Lechler on this verse tells us that this baptism was an immersion, and yet on verse seventh calls it an outpouring. Now, no one would say that a shower, however copiously outpoured, immersed a man. Nor would the most inconsiderate reasoner say that the person was plunged into the Holy Ghost. The element is applied to the person, not the person to the element. Nor does the Greek preposition εν , in, reasonably imply immersion. Thus, the Greek Septuagint renders Ezekiel 16:9, “I washed thee with water, εν υδατι , and anointed thee in oil, εν ελαιω .” The Pentecostal baptism was certainly not by immersion.

Not many days hence Though the days of delay of fulfilling the promise were to be not many, yet why so many? Why not the immediate charisma? The reasons may be several: 1. Their hearts must be trained by yet further experiences before they are fitted to become recipients of so wonderful an outpouring of the Spirit. Errors (like their question in Acts 1:6) must be corrected; trials like the last departure of their Lord must be endured; hours of earnest supplication (Acts 1:14) must be passed before their own hearts, minds, and wills are ready to co-operate freely, fully, and energetically with the Divine Spirit. 2. As we shall soon illustrate, the final departure of the Son was a requisite condition before the advent of the Spirit. 3. As it was at the Passover that the crucifixion was to take place, so the founding of the new Church must in the Divine order be placed at the Pentecost. An epochal event must have its epochal day.