" These five things that accompanied the
believers are all supernatural. Of the three promises of Jesus--which
are all that are recorded in the New Testament--only two refer to the
Holy Spirit, and both of these to its _supernatural manifestation_.
If we go back of the Saviour to the Old Testament, we find a distinct
promise of the gift of the Spirit: "And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young
men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the
hand-maids in those days will I pour out my Spirit" (Joel 2:28, 29).
This promise is the one quoted by Peter to explain the manifestations on
the day of Pentecost to the people drawn together by that wonderful
event. From it he delivers by the Spirit a sermon on the claims of our
Lord. He shows that they had taken the Lord by wicked hands and had
crucified and slain him; that God had raised him from the dead and had
exalted him to his right hand; had given him the _promise of the Holy
Spirit_; that what they _saw_ and _heard_ was the fulfillment of Joel's
promise. This promise was not simply to the apostles, for we read in the
preceding chapter that the apostles, and the women and Mary the mother
of Jesus, and his brethren to the number of one hundred and twenty all
continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.
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