Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the middle of the group. When did that become true? And so I made a certain few inquiries, I got on the bus, didn't miss it. And yet some doubted. 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. They got the courage and strength they needed and they came out of their hiding place, starting to proclaim Jesus's death and resurrection. To be candid, it does feel like a complete change of the subject. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. Christ Is Risen - An Easter plan by Matt Maher, The Essential 100 Bible Challenge14The Cross Of Christ. As I was sitting there gazing around, nobody came. Tradition places the receiving of the Spirit on Pentecost in the upper room of Acts 1. That's the famous road to Emmaus experienced from the book of Luke, "and they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either." Go, therefore, make disciples of nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded, and lo, I am with you, always, even to the end of the age.'" Jesus was crucified during the Passover celebration. Where is it being manifested in the church today? It wasn't there and so a lot had happened in that 50-day period that brought them to that morning of Pentecost. The disciples stood gazing, and they didn't know what to do. There was doubt. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. Again, what they thought that they were becoming a part of was a movement that was noble, that was good, there had been many movements of other Messiah-type figures at this period of time in Judea. It's God's Spirit that is the only thing that we can have to overcome those fears, because really, it's all the Church of God has ever had. Today the Spirit still instructs us by the Word of Scripture and we ought to pray earnestly for an outpouring of God's enlightening Spirit so that the Scriptures really live for us and become intensely personal. But the text says that God called Bezalel by name and filled him with his Spirit. And this dramatic miracle, but beyond that, 3,000 people being added to the Church, and then a community being developed. 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. 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 NIV adds the word "disciples," saying, "The disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid." But the word "disciples" is not in the Textus Receptus Greek text. I am not comfortable with that speculation. Labor in the Word, meaning to read the Word, and to learn it, and to soak it in and drink it in; and to live the Word, this past year. Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? And had they seen anything near that type of an ecstatic demonstration, it might have been in a form by someone doing something by their form of religion that they didn't identify with. But by doing so, when you read the account, you understand that they knew the Scripture, and they applied Scripture to their choice and their decision to replace Judas. It seemed to point to something more that might come in the future. And you will be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Somebody will tap me on the shoulder and tell me what to do next, but you know what? I didn't know how to read a board to tell me these things. And as we've seen, even when they were confronted with the miracle of Christ's resurrection, and they recognized that they still had to deal with the hostility of the world around them, in a kind of a two-pronged government called the Roman Empire and the Jewish society, plus their own human nature, and themselves. Again, nothing like this had been a part of their frame of reference before. I can't think about it more than five minutes without saying, "So what?" It goes on, "Jesus came and He spoke to them saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Expand 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. That's what the gift of the Holy Spirit is for us. The Essential 100 Bible Challenge14The Cross Of Christ. Having Peter's undivided attention, Jesus spoke of the eventual crossing of Peter's own finish line. What did they do during that 10 days? That He had to rebuke them and teach them. '", And so Luke's account gives us a very specific instruction, how He told them, You wait in Jerusalem and then you will receive the power from on high. And that is what they were doing as they waited for that period of time to come about. Best Answer. He understood that, and again, He is just laying it out that they were troubled and there was doubt. 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. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.". And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up," and this is through the account here in Luke, then, would be the final bodily appearance of Jesus to them. And when they saw Him they worshiped him. We sometimes just kind of tail off when we get to the end of one of the Gospels and we know the events, Christ was crucified, Christ was risen, and we don't look at some of the details there. Was the power they received in Matthew 10 different from the one they received in Acts 2? 60 seconds. They thought that Jesus Himself didn't actually know that asleep people wake up? Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. "Let all things be done for edification" (1 Corinthians 14:26). And this small group of people who had signed on to what they thought was a remarkable, gifted rabbi, and followed Him around and soon learned that they had fallen into something quite different than anything they could have ever imagined, as they witnessed miracles of loaves and fishes, and people being brought back to life, and dramatic healings. The gospels and the book of Acts tell us that would-be zealots and messiahs had come and gone. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. Let's go into Luke's account. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. "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. What does a search warrant actually look like? No, He said wait till, wait in Jerusalem, and so they were there and they continued. It's an encouraging sermon, it's very pointed and direct, that includes a dramatic call to repentance. Could very old employee stock options still be accessible and viable? Does anybody care? "He appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom He had cast seven demons. As Jesus' disciples they may be afraid of someone that would deliver them to soldiers to punish them for taking part in 'rebellion' (as occupants may see it). He greeted them and showed them his hands and his side. Because they were seeing Christ risen and they saw Him in a bodily form, but then they were attributing something different to that. He greeted his disciples and said to Thomas, Put your finger here and look at my hands! On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. With a UCG.org account you will be able to save items to read and study later! 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. Prior to Pentecost, the Apostles and disciples gathered in fear, behind locked doors. 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." And you have to understand that and realize that, that's what they were doing during that period of time as well. In other words, I'm not teaching or requiring anything new. 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. From this point, they had only 10 days. Jentezen Franklin preached a sermon about scribes. At least part of the answer to that is found in the teaching on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 1214, which we will soon begin to study in an evening series. And not for the reality that the 1st century world would have known and experienced, that other dimension. As such, it requires a sabbath. The ministry has had those two themes for the past two conferences. I don't think it was an intergalactic tour that He was on to get to the third heaven. And yet Peter does, and he gives a bold sermon. What's the next step?" And I was going to go out to California, my first trip to California, visit my brother for about three weeks. But they were terrified, and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit." 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. Even as the reservoir was filling, part of the river was allowed to flow past. For example, in the life of Samson we read, "The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he tore the lion asunder as one tears a kid" (Judges 14:6). . He and his wife, Debbie, have served in the ministry for more than 43years. After Pentecost, they were different people. 'It's a ghost,' they said, and cried out in fear. 3 days by their calendar. Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! Mark chapter 16, verse 9, now, "When He rose early on the first day of the week," speaking of Christ's resurrection. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to Gods law; indeed, it cannot. 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. And this express bus took Route 66 out of St. Louis all the way to Los Angeles, my first time to get on that fabled highway, Route 66. 1 Samuel 11:6 When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he burned with anger. 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? In verse 14, it says, "Then later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table and He rebuked them, rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen." Fifth, the OT saints believed that craftsmanship and artistic ability in the service of God was a gift of the Holy Spirit. You know, before we ever get to that rushing wind that came in, it's good to think about this question, because it has a direct application to you and I today. After the disciples received the Holy Spirit, received Christ in them, they began to operate under the strength and ability of Christ in them. And those days you didn't fear getting on a Greyhound bus, and you could go all over the country on a very cheap pass. 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? 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. It gives me a lot of encouragement, when I am called to go places where I feel insecure, to know that the Spirit is within to give me the words I need and that he is also already in the place where I am going to prepare the way and to hold me when I get there. https://www.bible.com/bible/392/JHN.20.19-29.CEV. . Psalm 139:710 says, "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? We give ourselves to that devotion, to that devoted study and the process of taking on the nature of God. A Church that was grounded in the Word of God. 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). But I had to go to St. Louis about 100 miles north of my hometown and pick up what they called an express bus, that would go through the larger cities. Now, it was all beginning to come together. 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