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Commentaries
English
Acts
  
39“For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” 40And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.


When Peter had, in Jesus’ name, shown the disturbed, repentant multitudes that they could come in to Christ through true turning and faith baptism as a condition for receiving the Holy Spirit, he strengthened them in this knowledge and clarified to them the greatness of the love of God, saying:
“The Holy Spirit is a gift and not a wage. No one is worthy that God should come to him to dwell in his heart. This dwelling is a great privilege, which Christ purchased for us with his own blood. If Christ had not died on the cross no man would have deserved the Holy Spirit. Be he had died and wiped out the sins of all men. Everyone, without any difficulty, can receive the Holy Spirit provided that he should know, repent of, confess, and leave his sins with all his determination. The Holy Spirit is holy and cannot be in agreement with your impurities or lies. This truthful Spirit glorifies the Son and does not allow any pride in you. As you surrender to his motives, believe in Christ the Son of God, and receive his atonement for you, you become both justified and sanctified. The more you give up yourself to Christ and open your heart to the love of his Spirit the more you become filled with the power of God. Do not resist the voice of the Holy Spirit, for he wishes to turn you into the image of God the Father that you may become merciful as he is. Your turning back into the image of God is the aim of the Holy Spirit’s sanctification.
The portion in the promise of the Father is not only for the Jews, but also for all men if they heard God’s call, believed in the Savior, and repented of their evil past, without distinction in their color, cleverness, past, or life experiences. The Holy Spirit does not distinguish between children and parents, men and women, rich and poor. But whoever repents and accepts Christ’s cross receives God’s adoption, and knows the only Son Christ of whose fullness we have all partaken. Today the Holy Spirit is calling you and millions of people to come into Christ’s salvation. The motto of our generation is the call of the Holy Spirit to all men, and his free offer to merge with the family of God the Father. So who hears? Who comes? Who recognizes his sins? Who believes in Christ, and lives in the fullness of his power?
Peter and the other apostles spoke too much to individuals, and clarified to them personally the mysteries of salvation. They refuted their doubts, showed them their wicked hearts, and confirmed to them the greatness of the love of God. In these statements, the Holy Spirit enlightened them to call all men perverse. No man is upright. They are all walking in devious ways, and are complicated in their being. No one is good and right in this world. All are wedded to lying, injustice, cheating, trickery, hatred, murder, envy, and personal interests.
Yet the Holy Spirit frees us from pessimism, calls us to Jesus Christ, and saves us from our selfishness. He does not reform the world, but changes the believers in their innermost essence. You are not in need of reformation of your character, but of principle salvation. You are marked for ruin in God’s anger, and are lost as all men. Peter, the apostle calls upon you: “Be saved from this perverse generation.” He does not say to you: “Remain half-perverse and half-saved” or “Believe in Christ and continue at ease in your sins.” No! The Holy Spirit has come to the world since the Day of Pentecost, and Christ saves with his power whoever believes in him truly and completely. Salvation has been made on the cross, and the Holy Spirit will realize this privilege in you every day if you open yourself to the rays of Christ’s power believing in his love.
On the birthday of the Christian church, the number of those who heard the call of the Holy Spirit amounted to three thousand. Only few of the preachers in the history of men have experienced in their ministries as extraordinary results as Peter, the illiterate speaker, whom God himself spoke through, experienced.
The disturbed repentant immediately believed in Jesus, for the Holy Spirit opened the eyes of their hearts, and enlightened their minds. How wonderful! The apostles did not give them time for contemplation, or probation that they might not turn back, nor did they deepen them in the fullness of God’s word, but immediately baptized them the same day on which the repentant began to believe. This faith was neither a superficial, mental belief, nor a smart thought of spiritual things, but the Holy Spirit had poured out his pleasure into the believers and practiced his judgment in the unrepentant. In his sermon, Peter declared the principles of our faith with all clearness: Christ’s life, the cross, the resurrection, the Lord’s ascension into heaven and his sitting at the right hand of the Father, and the truth of the Holy Spirit in the believer. He who recognizes these truths, believes in them, and dies for himself in baptism in Christ’s name becomes worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit immediately.

Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, we worship to you because of the miracle of the Holy Spirit who dwelt in us perverse and complicated. We thank you because you forgave us all our sins and purified us. Fill us with you truth and love that we may call with great humility all the people to follow you, for you have saved every individual and purchased for him the right of receiving the Holy Spirit. Lead us to living, abiding faith.
Question
Who is worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit? Why?