If you read Peter’s sermon, you will see that he had proclaimed to them all that they needed to hear in order to be saved, and so while Peter was still preaching, the gentiles believed on the Lord Jesus as their Saviour and they were born again. It was at that instant that God acknowledged them, because He knew that their hearts had been changed and it was only then that God filled them with the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:8). An important aspect to this account is the fact that the Jewish disciples recognised that the gentile believers had also been filled with the Holy Spirit even as the Jews, because they heard them speak with other tongues. And so, clearly the manifestation that was evident to all was that they began to speak with other tongues. But in a later account of this incident, Peter implied that other manifestations also took place on this occasion, for he said that the Holy Spirit fell upon the gentiles, as upon the Jews at the beginning (Acts 11:15), thus implying that the same manifestations that we discussed earlier were also present on this occasion, i.e. some of the disciples would have begun to tremble under the tangible power of God, some would have wept and still others would have laughed, while some may also have fallen down under the power of God. In this instance, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit directly from heaven, as when the saints were filled on the day of Pentecost. Nevertheless we see that the main points remain the same, i.e. every disciple was filled with the Holy Spirit after they had already been saved. Every disciple present was filled with the Holy Spirit. And every disciple filled, spoke with other tongues.
Michael E.B. Maher
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