Still chewing on from Sunday!

I think I am going to transform Wednesday in the Word to write a little more about the previous Sunday's sermon and call it Still Chewing.  There is always something I forget to say.  So let's go back to this pivotal point of 40 days between Jesus' resurrection and His ascension.

 The first chew is to go back a little further and see how Luke ties the start of his gospel account with the end of it.  In the beginning of the book, the angels announce to the shepherds in the fields watching their flocks by night, the birth of Jesus.  The shepherds make their way to the manger in Bethlehem, witness everything as the angels had said and then, "The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told" (Luke 2:20, CSB).

At the end of the book, the angels announce to the women who relay the message to the disciples, the re-birth or resurrection of Jesus.  The women and the disciples witness a risen Lord who allows them to see His scars and is with them another 40 days before returning to heaven.  What is the response of the disciples?  It is the same as the shepherds at the manger.  "After worshiping Him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.  And they were continually in the temple praising God" (Luke 24:52-53).

The gospel of Luke starts with shepherds praising God for the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, and the gospel of Luke ends with disciples praising God for the coming of Jesus, the Messiah.  I wonder what we should be doing?

The second chew is about the Holy Spirit.  We have the Holy Spirit; we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit; and we have the Holy Spirit come upon us.  A clarification of these three connections with the Holy Spirit is crucial to not veer into an extreme.  This will not be my only time talking about this because the book of Acts is full of references to the Holy Spirit.

The disciples were told by Jesus of the coming Holy Spirit, the Counselor and Comforter, from the Father.  Multiple times Jesus reinforces His going with the Holy Spirit's coming.  After the disciples witnessed the risen Lord, recorded in the gospel of John, Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22b CSB).  This corresponds with the Apostle Paul's teaching in the book of Ephesians. "In Him you also--when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you also believed--were sealed in Him with the promised Holy Spirit.  He is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:13-14, CSB)  At salvation, all true believers receive the Holy Spirit.

In our passage Jesus tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come on them.  They already have the Holy Spirit but throughout the Scriptures we are told of times when the Holy Spirit comes upon a believer in power to accomplish something God has ordained.  This is not an opportunity for the believer to puff themselves up as someone special but rather to serve and speak of God.  Jesus tells them ahead of time, like He has many times in the past, of something that is going to happen.  They are to obey Him and wait.  I would hypothesize that if the Holy Spirit is going to come upon a true believer to accomplish a task for the Lord, it will be with an obedient child of God.  

As we who are Christians, true converts of the faith, who have received the Holy Spirit at salvation, continue to be filled with the Spirit by over indulging ourselves with God (not drunk with wine but drunk with the Spirit) then we may at times have the Holy Spirit come upon us in power to accomplish something special for God.  The something special for God might seem small or large in our eyes or by the world's standards but it will always be something that we do not take credit for.  As we will see, Peter will only point to Jesus for the power of the Holy Spirit that has come upon him.  We should always do the same.

Pastor Adam