Received and Poured Out

Received and Poured Out Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. This is how Peter exalted Jesus as he explained the events of Pentecost. How do we relate to this outpouring today? The church cannot succeed without the right spiritual power. If we depend on our own human strength, we will flounder. But when we minister with power from on high, the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be victorious. The early church had to wait for this power. Jesus had given His church a clear mission. In suffering death and then rising again, He had paid the full price for salvation for all. Now this good news of Jesus must be preached to all nations. Jesus calls all who have received Him by faith to be His witnesses to others. Yet they were to wait. He said to them, I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. His command was to wait until they received. Jesus had shared this promise of the Spirit earlier in His ministry. In John 7:37-39 we read: On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Millions of people were and are spiritually thirsty, dying without Jesus. But Jesus promised that streams of living water would soon flow from within believers to reach these thirsty ones. These streams represent the Holy Spirit flowing from within us to touch others. However, the Spirit would not be given in this way until Jesus was glorified by crucifixion, resurrection, and His ascension to the Father. The night before His death, Jesus told His followers that it was good for them that He was going away. Earlier that evening, He told them that we would do greater works than He had done. Because He was going to the Father, He would ask the Father, and He would give the Spirit to us. He added that after He returned to the Father, He would send the Spirit to enable our witness. God had a plan with a timetable. First, Jesus would complete His atoning work by dying for us and rising again. Then, Jesus would ascend to heaven and return to the Father's right hand. Only then would the Holy Spirit be poured out on His followers. So, it was good that Jesus went away! Jesus remained on earth for forty days after His resurrection. According to Acts 1, He used that time to further teach His apostles. He commanded them to wait for the promised gift of the Father. He called this gift baptism in the Holy Spirit. He told them that the purpose of the gift was that they would receive power and be His witnesses to the whole world. Then He ascended before their eyes and was taken into heaven. In obedience, they and other believers waited and prayed for ten days. On the feast day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit manifested Himself with a sound like wind and an appearance like fire. Then all of the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit and gave evidence of His presence by speaking in languages they did not know as He enabled them. Luke's account in Acts 2 emphasizes this speaking in other tongues. Peter then spoke prophetically to the gathered crowd. He proclaimed Jesus, witnessing in the power of the Holy Spirit. He emphasized the crucifixion and especially the resurrection of Jesus before explaining what the crowd had just observed. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of the Father. The Father has given Him the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has poured out this gift on His followers. The crowd had seen and heard the results. Peter emphasizes that this gift assures us that Jesus is both Lord and Christ and then calls on them to repent. About 3000 people turned to faith in Jesus that day because of the work of the Holy Spirit. Peter also declared that this gift of the Spirit will be available to all who respond to God's call by turning to Jesus in repentance and declaring their faith in baptism. The rest of Acts shows that believers in Jesus continue to receive this baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Have you turned from your sin to follow Jesus by faith? Jesus is Lord. He deserves to rule your life and make you what you were designed to be. Jesus is the Christ. He is God's answer to our need for a Savior. Will you trust your life and eternity to Him? If you are a believer, have you received the gift of the Spirit? The Holy Spirit comes to indwell every person when they put their faith in Jesus. But the gift of the Spirit to fill and empower us goes further. Have you been filled? Are you living and serving God in the fullness of the Spirit? The promises of salvation and of the gift of the Spirit are for all, but we must receive by faith.