Лекция восьмая. Сошествие Святого Духа на апостолов в день Пятидесятницы

In order for the Apostles to become fully capable of carrying out their apostolic ministry, such a miracle had to take place, such as the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The need for this miracle is obvious. The apostles were all from the common people, people without any enlightenment. At just over three years old, was it possible to turn them into people capable of preaching to the whole world? Obviously - impossible. Therefore, Jesus Christ promised His disciples the Holy Spirit (John 14:16–17), Who should teach them everything, take His place in relation to them (John 14:26, 16:13–14), remember to them everything that He told them (John 14:26), - Who, if the gift of prophecy is needed, will communicate it to them (John 16:13), in a word: instruct them “to all truth,” to protect them from lies and make them infallible in the matter of religion. This is the essence of the promise! How did it come true? It was fulfilled ten days after the ascension of Jesus Christ, in accordance with His promise (Acts 1:5). The execution was the most solemn and popular: it left no doubt that the ascended Jesus actually received Divine power and authority in heaven, which he could use in favor of His disciples. The Feast of Pentecost was chosen as the time of the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1), on which there was an extraordinary gathering of people from all countries; place - a house in Jerusalem near the church, and almost in one of the vestibules of the church. It is known that the vestibule of the church had many sections, and each of them housed a special crowd of pilgrims who came to the holiday; therefore, it is very likely that the apostles were right there and, one must think, were placed in the compartment that was occupied by the Galileans (see Acts 2:7) The book of Acts (Acts 1:12–14, 2:1) says that after the ascension of Jesus Christ, the Apostles “returned to Jerusalem... And when they descended, they went up to the upper room (εις το υπερωον), where byahu abided... in prayer and supplication... And when the day of Pentecost ended, all besha... unanimously together.” The “upper room” is the upper part of the house, the upper room, which was usually chosen for prayer and other pious activities (Dan. 6:10, Luke 22:12, Acts 10:9). But where was this upper room? Opinions about this are different: Nicephorus and Kedrin think that she was in the house of the Evangelist John; Theophylact - in the house of Simon the leper; Baronius - in the house of Mary, mother of John, nicknamed Mark; M.I. Bogoslovsky calls it “the upper room of the temple of Jerusalem,” or “the upper room at the church.” In any case, from the book of Acts one can see that the place of stay of the Apostles on the day of Pentecost was not far from the church. At the third hour of the day, when everyone was engaged in contemplation of God, a storm suddenly appeared, and an extraordinary noise was heard above the church itself: “Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a storm blowing, and it filled the whole house where it sat” (Acts 2:2). Everyone notices that this noise was directed from the compartment where the Apostles were. At the same time, the Apostles see the likeness of fiery tongues descending from on high, which descended on them and held over the head of each: “and the divided nations appeared to them like fiery ones, sitting on one of them” (Acts 2:3): this is a visible image of the appearance of the Holy Spirit! What was going on in the hearts and minds of the Apostles then was only known to them. At the same time, many feelings are born in them, completely new and joyful; and from the fullness of their souls they begin to speak in different languages ​​and glorify the greatness of God: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues... The Spirit gave them to proclaim... the greatness of God” (Acts 2:4, 11). These movements were involuntary. Attracted by the extraordinary noise, people flock to this spectacle. They see... the Galileans speak all languages; everyone was amazed: “all of them marveled and wondered, saying to each other: “Are you not all these who speak Galileans?” and how do we hear each... our tongue, in which we were born? (Acts 2:7–9, 12). Only a few - the depraved, the most prejudiced and, one must think, young people - decided to make jokes on this occasion; They mockingly said that there was nothing to be surprised about: all “they were drunk on sweet wine” (Acts 2:13: “filled with wine.” Γλευχος (from γλυχνς, sweet) - sweet, unfermented, new wine. But since, according to Chrysostom’s remark, “then it was not the time at all for new wine, because (it was in May) it was Pentecost,” then those who said: “the essence is filled with wine” cared only about saying something; they cared not about saying something reasonable, but just about saying something... In order to mislead the listeners and show that the apostles are really drunk, they attribute everything to the properties of such wine, which could not yet exist (Discourse 4 on Acts, § 2. 3)). Why did they decide to force the Apostles to appear drunk? Because, without a doubt, their movements were extraordinary, immoderate; they spoke quickly - not to each other, but each in his place, to God. It was this speed of movement and, probably, the unusual appearance that served as a reason for self-willed people to say: “they are drunk.” When, therefore, some were amazed at the miracle that had happened; others, on the contrary, cursed: the Apostle Peter, standing in front of the people, begins his speech: “Some of you call us drunk. But is this possible on such a holiday at the third hour of the day, and in the church? No! everything that happened to us came true according to the prophecy of Joel, who said that in the last days God will pour out His Spirit on His servants and on His handmaids, and they will prophesy. Why, you ask, are we the only ones worthy of this grace over all the Israelites? This happened as a result of the orders of that Jesus, whom you crucified, but whom God raised again, of which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2:15–36). Thus, the Apostle attributed all the glory of this miracle to Jesus Christ. His words, accompanied by extraordinary actions, were so convincing for many of his listeners that without any dispute they recognized Jesus as the Messiah. They ask the apostles, “What should we do?” Peter tells them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah.” As a result, about three thousand souls joined the Apostolic Church (Acts 2:37–41). Here is an event - the most solemn, the most striking, which opened over the apostles with the communication of Divine gifts, over the witnesses - the conversion of several thousand! If there was nothing impossible or extraordinary in this event, is it possible for three thousand people to recognize as the Messiah the One whom they crucified on Calvary in fifty days? That several thousand were actually converted on this occasion and five thousand subsequently (Acts 4:4) cannot be denied: history clearly testifies that the next year after the ascension of Jesus Christ, when the great persecution of the Church occurred (Acts 8ff.), there were extremely many believers in Jerusalem. If this and similar miracles had not happened, how would the apostles have confirmed the truth of the resurrection of Christ? And without this, conversion could not be expected. The moral need of this miracle is obvious by itself. It was impossible to make the apostles Apostles in such a short time using natural methods: this required not three or four years, but decades. It was even more difficult to recruit others as apostles, and there was no one. Whether you take the Pharisees and Sadducees with their proud and depraved hearts, whether you take the learned Greeks with their false systems, or simple pagans with their fables: how much work had to be done to form them into people capable of carrying out apostolic service! So, the moral need of this miracle is visible; To put it briefly: if ever Providence had to perform a miracle, then it was at this time - on the day of Pentecost. But perhaps it will occur to someone that such an instant transformation of the mind of the apostles from above does not imply violence in the moral nature of man? – To eliminate this confusion, it should be noted: there is no need to imagine this transformation in an enlarged form. Not suddenly, when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, all their thoughts changed. At that moment they felt only the presence of a higher power within themselves, and their way of thinking remained partly the same. He changed gradually, only as a result of the inner incomprehensible guidance from the Holy Spirit, much more quickly than it could have been in a natural way. Evidence that in the apostles, soon after the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the way of thinking remained part of the previous one is in the apostolic history itself; for example, what truth could be more important for the first disseminators of the faith, if not the fact that not only Jews, but also pagans should enter the kingdom of the Messiah? And yet the first of the apostles doubts baptizing Cornelius. This example sufficiently shows that the teaching of the Holy Spirit does not occur suddenly, not in a violent manner, but adapting to the moral nature of man, so as not to violate his freedom... The consequences of the enlightenment of the apostles from the Holy Spirit were expressed in the Epistles of the Apostles. The first thing we can notice in this regard is that the apostles appear to be acting and writing decisively in the name of God, or as Divine messengers, as if each of them were taking the place of Jesus Christ Himself. This decisive tone could only be a consequence of the inner confidence that they were acting under the guidance of the Spirit of God, this Teacher of truth. However, with all this kind of confidence, they do not act like enthusiasts, who present all their inner thoughts as Divine inspirations: The Apostles clearly distinguish what God speaks in them, and what is the fruit of their own reflection (see, for example: 1 Cor. 7:12, 25). Therefore, in their minds there was a constant feeling of the difference between their own thoughts and the Divine suggestions. Further, the enlightenment of the apostles from the Holy Spirit had limits in them, which they, following the example of their Teacher (see: Mark 13:32), did not hide. This kind of recognition is seen, for example, when they talk about the future coming of Jesus Christ. This subject, as you know, is one of the most curious; but according to God’s intention, for the benefit of the people themselves, it is necessary that people should not know him in detail; For this reason, it was not revealed to the apostles in all its details. Thus, since the enlightenment from the Holy Spirit on this side had limits in them, they offered their own considerations. But what they needed to know, what the needs of religion and the Church required - the circle of all this was illuminated for them with the clearest light. Thus, the Apostle Paul decisively says in this regard: “I did not hesitate to tell you (the Ephesian elders) the whole will of God” (Acts 20:27). It is also useful to mention here how they try to explain the miraculous Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles in a natural way. Here we will see how all this kind of explanation is poor and, so to speak, unnatural. a) The apostles received the gift of speaking in other languages. As if this means that they “began to speak strangely, that is, to pronounce incoherently sounds that they themselves did not understand.” The explanation is the strangest! Why did they start talking this way? - “Because they became very excited, mistaking the phenomenon of the storm, which, however, was natural, for the fulfillment of the promise.” An absurd assumption, which is completely refuted by history! If this were so, then the strangers from every nation under heaven would not have distinguished their national dialect in the sounds uttered by the apostles. The Apostle Paul would not thank God that he speaks in tongues more than all the Corinthians (1 Cor. 14:18), that is, (as it follows from the explanation of the freethinkers) he pronounces sounds that are incomprehensible to him more than all of them! b) Another way of explaining: “To speak in other tongues means to speak in a way other than what you should. It was necessary to pray in ancient Hebrew, which, however, few people knew anymore. But the apostles, in a strong movement of feelings, in order to express them more freely, began to speak in the native language. This drew the attention of those present to them, and they considered that they were speaking in other tongues.” Again, this assumption is refuted by history. The Acts of the Apostles directly says: “Are not all these speaking Galileans? and how we hear each our own language, and it is added: in it we were born!” (Acts 2:7–8). The expression is strengthened: the sacred writer seemed to have foreseen that there would be those who would refute this event with incorrect explanations. So, if the apostles spoke in the native Galilean dialect, then how could strangers from all sides be able to distinguish each of their languages ​​in their verbosity? Let the apostles, living in Galilee, be able to become familiar with all foreign languages ​​(which, however, is unreliable); nevertheless, they were not able to express themselves freely in these languages. Finally, let us make one remark and with it we will cover all doubts about this miracle. It seems that even if the Acts of the Apostles had not said that the apostles received the gift of tongues from above, then something similar would have to be assumed, knowing the history of their ministry. It is known that they scattered throughout the world to preach; for example, Bartholomew preached in India; Thomas preached in Persia, Parthia, and went almost to present-day Tibet. Without a doubt, the Greek and Roman languages ​​were not so universal that they could have had much or perhaps even any use in these countries. Therefore, the apostles knew the native languages ​​of these countries when they preached here and founded the Churches. The question is: where did they get this knowledge? This cannot be explained otherwise than by the fact that they received it miraculously. You might be interested in: