In the previous reports, Luke, the evangelist clarified to us how Jesus arranged the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, and how this fatherly Spirit was poured out like a tempest of love, joining joy with truth, and holiness with love.
From now on Luke, the physician shows us what and how the Holy Spirit worked, for the promise of the Father had been fulfilled, and Christ’s power worked, triumphed, and is still building even today. A new age in grace had entered, and the love of God made those who believed in Christ supermen after their selfishness was broken in them and they were filled through their faith with God’s goodness.
How does the work of this Holy Spirit appear in practice? Luke the Greek tells us in a brief, beautiful, rhetorical way about the essence and the result of the Holy Spirit:
He leads the believers to the fullness of the word of God, especially to the apostles’ reports, for there is no life from the divine Spirit without continuous, deep penetration into the Gospel through which Christ teaches his students even today. Without the apostles’ doctrine there is no faith.
This deep penetration into the will of God, and taking the daily spiritual nourishment of the word does not take place in an isolated manner, for the believers lived together in the fellowship of love where each one of them regarded the other higher than himself. There is no Christianity without fellowship, for God’s Spirit is love.
The believers continued not only in conversion, and in fellowship of mutual affection to each other, but also in partaking to the Lord’s Supper, believing that the Lord Jesus himself was centered in their bodies through the symbols of the bread and the wine. They were revived and strengthened in pleasure and thanksgiving.
On these three basic elements in the temple of God there climbed prayers, songs of praise, supplications, confessions of sins, and invocations, for the emblem of their meetings was not worldly thoughts, or philosophical wisdoms, but their direct relation with God their Father, and continuous communication with him. Do you pray continuously in the fellowship of brothers?
The faith of those who were filled with the Spirit was not superficial, for they had experienced God’s holiness in its glory, and quaked before him. They loved the Lord with all their hearts and trusted him, but not without humility, reverence, and fear of his greatness. The Holy Spirit creates in us the fear and the love of God as a solid ground of the living faith.
He who is so bound by the one Holy Trinity experiences his heavenly power in the communion of saints, for our Father answers the common prayers of his children, and makes salvation, protection, healing, sanctification, and guidance from the fullness of his mercy.
The love of saints does not end in the purse, but the Holy Spirit guides us to give cheerfully, for it is more blessed to give than to receive. They sold their possessions, became free from mammon, and put their incomings in the common fund of the church.
Thus they all lived as the family of God, and trained themselves on willful cooperation, where Christ is the managing center. The Holy Spirit freed them from misery, envy, and covetousness, and guided them to carry out practical love.
They all waited for the forthcoming coming of Christ, and were certain that they would see his glory while they were still living. They loved their Savior inasmuch as they thought of him day and night, expecting the kingdom of his glory.
They did not discuss whether their faith were true, their love strong, or their hope living, but they were glad in the simplicity of their hearts at the truth of the Holy Spirit, and praised God without weariness.
Having continued in grace, they did not leave their meetings in their houses, but met everyday to hear the apostles’ doctrine, and common prayers in small circles. They did not despise the temple that was made with hands, but joined the common prayer. They were indeed the temple made of the Spirit.
Such a church is very attractive and pleasant. Many asked those who were filled with love: “How were you transformed?” And they testified to them that Jesus, the living Christ had given them the gift of the Holy Spirit. Because of this testimony, the church grew up and new souls were added to it every day in that great spiritual revival.
In these words, we read the word “church” for the first time in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Our twelve explanatory points represent the true description of the living church. The end of the work of the Holy Spirit is not the individuals’ faith, but the communion of saints, for our God is love, and his love is only realized in communion.