In the previous messages, we have covered the functions of the Spirit in the Old Testament and in the four Gospels. The functions of the Spirit are what the Spirit did, what the Spirit does, and what the Spirit is going to do. In this message we want to see the functions of the Spirit in the book of Acts.
Concerning the Lord Jesus, Acts 1:2 says, “Until the day in which He was taken up, having given command through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He chose.” The Lord gave the command to the apostles through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of the Lord’s resurrection. Actually, the Spirit is the resurrection. When the Lord was giving command to His disciples in His resurrection, that means He was doing something in the Spirit. Actually, by that time, as the resurrected Christ, He was the Spirit. The resurrected Christ is the pneumatic Christ. Because He is the pneuma. He is pneumatic. The pneumatic Christ is the pneuma, and the pneuma is the Spirit as the breath. The Spirit as the breath is for breathing.
Whenever the Lord speaks, that is His breathing. John 3:34 shows that Christ is the unlimited One who speaks the words of God and who gives the Spirit without measure. Speaking the word of God is related to the giving of the Spirit. The Lord gives us the Spirit by His speaking. Christ’s speaking the word of God is His breathing, and His breath is the Spirit. The Spirit as the breath is the pneumatic Christ Himself.
Without the breathing of the Spirit, our meetings would be empty. This breathing implies the speaking of the word of God. We minister the Spirit to others by our speaking of the word of God. If our speaking is normal and proper, our speaking is a part of the Lord’s speaking. This speaking is a breathing out of the Spirit. After listening to such speaking, we are enlivened and full of joy. The proper speaking of the holy Word is a kind of breathing that releases the Spirit into the listeners.
The Spirit also has a function in the baptizing of the believers (Acts 1:5; 8:15-19; 10:44, 47; 11:15-16; 19:2, 6). When we say this, we do not mean that the Holy Spirit is the baptizing Spirit. What we mean is that the Holy Spirit is for baptizing. This is like saying that gasoline has a function in the driving of a car. Gasoline is the means and the power by which a car is driven, so the gasoline is for driving the car. The Holy Spirit is the means by which the Lord Jesus as the Head baptized all of us into one Body. Because the Spirit is the very means by which the Lord Jesus baptizes, we can say that this Spirit has the function of baptizing.
In Acts 1:8 the Lord told the apostles, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the remotest part of the earth.” The Holy Spirit functions in giving the power of God to the apostles. Actually, this power, the power from on high (Luke 24:49), is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has the function of being power to us.
The book of Acts shows that the Spirit functions in prophesying (1:16; 2:17-18; 4:25; 11:28; 19:6b; 21:11; 28:25). The Bible does tell us that the Spirit speaks, but it is hard to find a verse which directly tells us that the Spirit prophesies. This is because prophesying implies the principle of incarnation. In the principle of incarnation, God does not do anything by Himself. He does everything with man, through man, and in man. In the principle of incarnation. God cannot prophesy without man. If God speaks by Himself or if we speak by ourselves, that is not prophesying. Prophesying is our speaking with the Spirit, in the Spirit, and through the Spirit. We cannot prophesy without the Spirit, and the Spirit cannot prophesy without us. Prophesying is carried out entirely in the principle of incarnation.