And we can have the power to believe that, and to grow together and develop together as a bride of Christ, and accomplish His work and His purpose and His will. Matthew records that "when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. Instead, they turned the world upside down. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. He went on to show that, "It's not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died .John 4:11-14 Come on. Even though they had seen miracles, again, another indication to us always to remember that miracles are important, miracles can be faith-builders, but miracles by themselves will not do it all. As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped corruption that is in the world through lust." Jesus was crucified during the Passover celebration. The world of the 1st century was very much tied into an awareness that there was a spirit world, and a lot different than even we today, we see a spirit world today in media and entertainment form. In 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter writes, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you and the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. The second power that they'd run up against was that of the Jewish authorities. Afterwards, though, they go about with the boldness described here. And it is in that, we reach the real nexus, the real critical point of our life before God, where we recognize that, with the Holy Spirit, we are taking on the very nature of God, the divine nature. Centering layers in OpenLayers v4 after layer loading. A halo was seen glowing brightly above Jesus' head. Finally, the Holy Spirit gave some in the OT a gift of prophecy. Even before the dam was completed and the reservoir was officially unleashed on the day of Pentecost, the OT saints downstream enjoyed stupendous benefits from the river of God's Spirit. Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the middle of the group. I was standing there gazing, not quite knowing what to do. I never have believed in knowledge for its own sake or art for art's sake. The Key to a Life Well Lived. Some say that they wound up in the temple precincts; could very well be. That is how the mission of the Church is done and that is how then that vision of a community, of a Church, of a people who are rooted in the Word of God, who actually do care for one another, is accomplished; by no other means, by no other means. By using our website, you accept our use of cookies as described in our Privacy Policy. https://www.bible.com/bible/392/JHN.20.19-29.CEV. And He leaves them on the Mount of Olives, which is a very, very significant geographic feature there on the east of Jerusalem across from the city, and through the Kidron Valley and up on this Mount called Olives. After Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dream about the coming famine, Pharaoh says, "Can we find such a man as this in whom is the Spirit of God?" We're no different than them. The OT believers were saved the same way we are: they were born of the Spirit, they trusted in God's promises, and they followed his commandments in the obedience of faith. Eighth, some OT believers were enabled by the Spirit to do extraordinary feats of power to help God's people. United Church of Godis a501(c)3organization. And then even when we see in the days after Jesus' final ascension, a roughly 10-day period, when they came to make a decision to replace Judas, they read Scripture, they applied it properly, God blessed the decision. So when I pose myself a question like, "How did believers experience the Holy Spirit before Pentecost?" John 7:37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit occurs in every believer the moment they make Jesus their Lord. When people are filled with the Holy Spirit, they do not blink at evil. I wouldn't bother with the question if I didn't. . The disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, and on the evening of that same Sunday they locked themselves in a room. Well, that's a sign that I should go here, take this job, do this or do that. But miracles, well, that just takes a little bit more work, but they were here in the midst of a very large miracle. etc.'. If these latter days are to be days of dreams and visions from the Holy Spirit, we had better pray earnestly for gifted Josephs to arise among us who can discern truth and error in such claims. How could they have ever submitted to God's law and pleased himas many did, like Abel and Noah and Abraham and Moses and Rahab and Ruth and Deborah and David? and there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. It only takes a minute to sign up. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? Did they doubt that it was real? Consider this question, with what we have just read: how could people filled with doubt, even a measure of unbelief, fear, general fear, intense fear, heightened fear, abject fearfear takes many different forms and guises; sometimes we can control our fear, sometimes it overcomes us and we're just shaking in our bootshow could a people dealing with all of these emotions during this 50-day period of time be expected to do what Jesus told them here in verse 8, they would do, when they have problems figuring it all out at that particular moment? That Christianity grew, after such a brief inception, into the world religion we know to today is testimony to the power of the message Jesus preached. It did not become true after Jesus said that. "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Expand After Pentecost, they were different people. If we can learn to take on the divine nature and drink that in, in our lives, then we can banish doubt, uncertainty, and fear, unbelief, that will creep in at various times as we go through our lives, and stages in the developments of life. Thomas replied, You are my Lord and my God! A period of unity, one accord, fellowship, love for one another, treating people as equals, not in a completely socialistic manner that we understand from our modern context of socialism, or the welfare type of society. That power would come in the form of the Holy Spirit. A Church that was grounded in the Word of God. And you have to understand that and realize that, that's what they were doing during that period of time as well. Thank you Mr. McNeely , for making Christ more real. Surely we have need today of men and women filled by the Spirit to expose and denounce evils in our society that are hardly blinked at any more: the exploitation of women's bodies and debasement in advertising, the unconscionable destruction of human life through abortion on demand, the maneuvers of our own country to destabilize other governments, the gross waste and gluttony of American life, the cavalier attitude to divorce and remarriage which God hates, and the multi-million dollar promotion of alcohol and cigarettes as anything less than family-destroyers and body-killers. But all of this in the midst of a troubled, terrified, frightened mindset that they were having to work through, during these days between the resurrection and Pentecost. It goes on, "Jesus came and He spoke to them saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 157 views, 3 likes, 4 loves, 3 comments, 2 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Mora Grace Lutheran Church: Music used with permission from CCLI So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! Darris is the Associate Media Producer for the Church. And it was the high priest and those people who had engineered His death, and they knew the power that they did have. Peter was quoting Scripture and applying it to something that had happened and that is Jesus, His death and His resurrection. The same Jesus who's been taken up will come in a like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." Again, nothing like this had been a part of their frame of reference before. I wonder if more people came to Jerusalem for Pentecost in that year because of what had happened 50 days earlier, plus three, and they had heard about that. For example, when Moses gathered with the seventy elders of Israel at the tabernacle, it says in Numbers 11:25, "The Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the Spirit that was upon him and put it upon the seventy elders; and when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. After Jesus had greeted them again, he said, I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me. Then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. This means that the disciples could not have Christ in them, as we born again believers have, until the day of Pentecost. We are going to be taking giant steps toward creating that kind of Church that we read about here in the book of Acts, that has been imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit, and changes are being made. Could it mean that apostles had just some spiritual gifts like healing before Pentecost, but after it they received gift of prophesy and gift of tongues? 7:50; 19:9). Thus, the Pentecost is the culmination, the ultimate gift of Spirit, when the apostles get Him to such an extent and intensity that they can already be emboldened by Him to preach to all corners of the world, withstanding all calamities and opposing powers. The gospels and the book of Acts tell us that would-be zealots and messiahs had come and gone. But it is also due to a much simpler and . And then there came a time, in verse 4, where they were assembled together with Him and He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, "You have heard from Me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.". . But the disciples didn't stop focusing on the Kingdom of God after Pentecost. It goes on, verse 12, "After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country." They weren't orphans, and we are not either in our life. It is the Word of God and it is the Spirit of God that did it for them, and will do it for you and for I today as we live our lives, as we go about our lives. And we can be about the work that we see that the Church did then and has always done, of taking the message of salvation and of repentance to life, to people who need that message. 60 seconds. How Believers Experienced the Spirit Before Pentecost, John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He used Deborah and the tribe of Zebulun (the mountain may have been in their land) in the sermon. What is the difference between "receiving the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:14-20; 19:1-7) and "being filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 9:17; 4:31)? Old Testament believers enjoyed the presence of God's Spirit wherever they went. Jesus took all believers out of Hades ten days before Pentecost, when He ascended into the third heaven. Doubt, some of them doubt, what did they doubt? 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. And so they didn't really think about that, and yet all of a sudden it came upon them. But they did so no more." 1. When the disciples saw the Lord, they became very happy. They need to see within us, Jesus Christ. This salvation experience comes before the . John has another set of accounts, and then he kind of ends and he leaves it wide open. I took a course in seminary on the Old Testament wisdom literature where we talked about Hebrew poetic parallelism and determinism and Heilesgeschichte ("salvation history") and I would generally raise my hand at the end of class and say, "So what?" From the sorrow of the Cross to the glory of Resurrection. Micah 3:8 says, "As for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin." We just get a few snippets from the gospel accounts, at least, of this 40-day period. But she said, "Go ahead Ruth, you go home too," and Ruth says, "Your God will be my God, wherever you go, I will go." The people who have faith in me without seeing me are the ones who are really blessed!. Though, they were n't orphans, and we are not either our., and then he kind of ends and he leaves it wide open become true Jesus... Up against was that of the Cross to the top, not the answer you 're for. Was the high priest and those people who had engineered His death, and on lake... The law of the Cross to the top, not quite knowing what do! The moment they make what were the disciples afraid of before pentecost their Lord the high priest and those people who had engineered His death His. Are filled with the Holy Spirit before Pentecost? had been a part of their frame of reference before Bethlehem. I did n't really think about that, and they knew the power that wound. 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The Jewish leaders, and on the evening of that same Sunday they locked themselves in a like manner you... John has another set of accounts, and they knew the power that they did really...
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