The last holy day season, the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread had seen the death of Jesus Christ, and then three days later He was resurrected and He had appeared to them. 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? It was celebrated 50 days after Passover and was marked by pilgrims coming to Jerusalem from all over the world to celebrate the event. For example, Numbers 14:24 says of Caleb, "My servant Caleb, because he has a different Spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into this land." Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! It was their life. This was a healthy fear of respect and awe and wonder at now what had happened. Some say that they wound up in the temple precincts; could very well be. When the disciples saw the Lord, they became very happy. No longer did they flee like sheep without a shepherd. Whoever believes in Jesus has everlasting life. I like that phrase. They'd likely not seen it. I was standing there gazing, not quite knowing what to do. The Word of God. "Let all that you do be done in love" (1 Corinthians 16:13). And yet, they had not been able to completely separate the fact that now what they were part of was the real, the real thing, because Christ had died. Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. They had a very life is now, living in the present mindset that this was all going to happen in their lifetime, which is something that pertains to every group of people from that time forward, that looking for the appearance of the Kingdom, the return of Christ. But we do not debate and discuss biblical topics. It had been organized quite well and in that remote backwater of Judea, the Roman government kept things in order. Jesus continued: "Truly I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Surely for a Christian all study and all creative work must justify itself in terms of love. Number one was the Roman Empire. Could very old employee stock options still be accessible and viable? What is this gift of prophecy? Was the gift of the Holy Spirit promised only for the first-century Church, according to Acts 2:38-39? That is the vision that Jesus has for His Church as articulated by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:16 Ephesians 4:16From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love.American King James Version, and they had it at this moment. It goes on, "When He had spoken these things," in verse 9, "they watched and He was taken up in a cloud, received Him out of their sight. Were on a mission to change that. 38Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. When the disciples saw the Lord, they became very happy. 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?" He understood that, and again, He is just laying it out that they were troubled and there was doubt. What are examples of software that may be seriously affected by a time jump? What happens?". It did not become true after Jesus said that. So there is going to be a gap. It goes on, "Jesus came and He spoke to them saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. That's what He did. These were redeemed from among men being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. But how could the various prophecies found in Ezekiel, Joel and Zechariah be fulfilled if this were true? It was a mighty, powerful machine, the most powerful that the world in that day had ever seen. But the Christian ought to see the creative, imaginative work of God's Spirit. And we have by and large absorbed their mechanistic view of things. . This salvation experience comes before the . Zechariah 4:6 says, "Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts.". There's a lot of information in the details that we are given in chapter 28 verse 16. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. That Numbers 32 and verse 23, is correct. What we are seeing here is again, the power of the Word of God. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit occurs in every believer the moment they make Jesus their Lord. These significant events from the life of Jesus are made easier to comprehend and better-illustrated thanks to the passages . The goal is that the addition of scriptural verses will assist you in meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary as you pray. And Numbers 27: 18 says, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Take Joshua the son of Nun, in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand upon him.'" I hope you share this world view with the OT saints: namely, that your conception as a person in your mother's womb was a sovereign act of creation by God's Spirit and that every breath you take now and every chemical transaction in the cells of your body is sustained every moment by work of the Holy Spirit. And then this dramatic miracle takes place, festive occasion. Well, the real answer is for you and I, the same things that are going through your mind right now, and my mind. Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the middle of the group. And a voice from heaven like many waters, and the voice of thunder, and the sound of harpers playing their harps, they sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. He greeted them and showed them his hands and his side. Second, the OT believers experienced the new birth and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Sadducees were more focused on the Five Books of Moses than the history and prophets. They might have fidgeted a bit and wondered, "Well, should we go fishing?" 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 so it was very key that His final ascension would be from this mountain. 60 seconds. 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." 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. 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. It's an interesting way that they did. I think it will make a difference. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. The disciples had seen Jesus reach out across ethnic and religious divides birth in His parables and in real life. So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! He quotes Joel, he quotes Psalms and he gives interpretations upon those scriptures, here in chapter 1, no one had ever heard of before. I don't think it was an intergalactic tour that He was on to get to the third heaven. At what point of what we watch as the MCU movies the branching started? And speaking about the deep things of the Kingdom of God to prepare them for what they were to take part in, and what they were to be a part of. "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.". 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. The difference between a historian and a preacher is that the historian says, "Was it so?" Fourth, OT believers experienced the Spirit of God as their Counselor or Teacher. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues a as the Spirit enabled them. This is the underlying message Jesus gave to his disciples in today's 2nd Sunday of Lent year A Gospel (Mt 7:1-11) which narrates the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, after having announced to them his Passion and Death on the cross. Again, the answer is yes. But they were terrified, and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit." 2. "Behold, He said, My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. "Also for this very reason, giving all diligence into your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, the divine nature. Put your hand into my side. In light of Acts 10:44-48, were the disciples in Acts 2 praising/exalting God in tongues (contrary to the view that they were "preaching" in tongues)? That's how I imagine it and He was home, He was back at, He was at the third heaven. Did they experience fear, doubt, and disbelief as we sometimes do? We give ourselves to that devotion, to that devoted study and the process of taking on the nature of God. Yet until the spirit was poured out at Pentecost, the disciples were a homogenous bunch. Back in Mark's account, chapter 16 of Mark, we see that the same thing lingered among the wide group of people there. Before Pentecost the river of God's Spirit blessed the people of Israel and was their very life. When thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground.". This time, Thomas was with them. This means that all the saints of the OT who trusted God and followed his ways in the obedience of faith were born again by the Spirit and indwelt by the Spirit. YouVersion uses cookies to personalize your experience. Any Israelite who has ever been saved had to be born again by God's Spirit. What is "the gift" of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38? The indwelling Spirit permanently dwells in the believer. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Trials hit us that will shake our faith, test our faith. The ministry has had those two themes for the past two conferences. It only takes a minute to sign up. In Revelation chapter 14, we are given an image of the firstfruits, called the 144,000 in this part of the Revelation. They had not been a part of anything like that before. 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. Pre-Feast of the Origin of the Fair Trees of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord. And I sat, and I sat, and I thought somebody will come along and tell me what to do. First, and most basic, the OT believers were conscious of God's Spirit as the Creator and Sustainer of their natural life. Before or after this instance. Old Testament saints knew then and Christians know today that victory over all threats and obstacles belongs to God. Ninth, the Spirit enabled some OT believers to interpret God's revelation in dreams. Somebody will tap me on the shoulder and tell me what to do next, but you know what? Every now and then in extraordinary circumstances of need the Spirit enables ordinary Christians to perform amazing feats of rescue far beyond their ordinary capacitylike lifting a car off of a pinned husband or escaping from a raging rapist. Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? And it was the high priest and those people who had engineered His death, and they knew the power that they did have. Just think, if Jews returning from God's judgment in Babylonian exile can take heart that God's Spirit will protect them, how much more fearless should we be who have the overwhelming assurance of God's love and power in Jesus' death and resurrection! The disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, and on the evening of that same Sunday they locked themselves in a room. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. Summary of Ideas of the Sunday readings. John 16:7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Would it make any difference for our lives today if we knew the answer? They turned the world upside down because they fully understood two simple . "Let all things be done for edification" (1 Corinthians 14:26). It seemed to point to something more that might come in the future. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Or: "The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and the ropes which were on his arms became as flax" (15:14). If we begin to look at one another as less than trustworthy, then that has other consequences in relationships, and that's taking place among the disciples here at this moment. Jesus was enveloped within a burning bush, but was not harmed. As I got up this morning, prepared to come over here, go through the day, same things that will be in my mind tomorrow, and next Thursday, and a month from today. The second obvious change in the lives of the disciples was in their spiritual strength. They had been told to be there, to wait in Jerusalem until that day. Judges 5:14 talks about the tribe of Zebulun either being scribes or having a commander's staff. Is lock-free synchronization always superior to synchronization using locks? 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. The appearance of Jesus' face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. He greeted his disciples and said to Thomas, Put your finger here and look at my hands! And one set upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Maybe they had their hands in their pockets kind of like this, thinking, "Wow, that was neat. 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. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ. Behold I send the promise of My Father upon you, but tarryor waitin the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. In the New Testament, Elisabeth, John the Forerunner's mother, was filled with Spirit as she saw the pregnant Virgin, and she prophesied immediately (Luke 1:39-41) and so did the old widow-prophetess Anna at vision of Jesus taken to the temple (Luke 2:36-38); John the Forerunner himself was filled with Holy Spirit from his childhood (Luke 1:15), and of course the apostles, even before the Pentecost, had a degree of presence of Spirit in them (at least no less than John the Forerunner), through which presence they could act miracles; they got even to a greater degree of intensity the gift of the Spirit, when Jesus - before the Pentecost - blew in them the Spirit and added to them (through this new dimension of the presence of Spirit) an ability to forgive sins (John 20:22). Show them otherwise what had been done, rebuke their unbelief, as it goes along here. 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