THEY HAD
BELIEVED on Christ: “For I have given unto them the words
which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have
known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed
that thou didst send me” (John 17:8). “And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God” (Matthew 16:16).
They had been born again: “But as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God” (John 1:12, 13). [“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that
begat loveth him also that is begotten of him” (I John 5:1).]
Their names were written in heaven, as were those of the
Seventy: “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the
spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your
names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). They had been sent
to preach the gospel: “And as ye go, preach, saying, The
kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 10:7).
They were not of the world: “If ye were of the
world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of
the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you” (John 15:19). “They are not of the
world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:16). They kept
God’s word: “I have manifested thy name unto the men which
thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou
gavest them me; and they have kept thy word” (John 17:6).
They were clean through the word: “Now ye are clean
through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John
15:3)—which is effected by “being born again” ... by the word
of God—“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
for ever” (I Peter 1:23).
Neither was the experience of the apostles abnormal, for
the disciples of Samaria also received the Holy Spirit
subsequently to their
conversion.
