Psalm 103; Isa. 30:18-21; Acts 2:26-47; John 14:15-31
There is a promise of more than return to the Land, it is a promise of presence. The Lord waits on us to turn to Him to show us grace and mercy we are blessed if we wait on Him. Here the blessing is that when we turn to Him we will see the Teacher with our eyes and He will be with us to guide us. What is required of us to have this blessing is eyes to seek to see Him and ears tuned to listen to Him. We have to relinquish control, admit that the messes we get into are due to our own failure to seek Him and to listen to Him. When we get to that point we begin to fear moving ahead without seeing or hearing Him and we are able to listen and obey His voice.
"Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" Could Judas (not Iscariot) have understood the answer to this question at the time? The Holy Spirit is a complete mystery to those who don’t have the Spirit. He is a self-authenticating truth that is impossible to share with another person. Holy Spirit isn’t the same as conscience because He does so much more than convict us of right and wrong but He does that. He is the fulfillment of the passage from Isaiah, the Teacher who guides us in God’s ways, leading us into truth. Holy Spirit is a person, the Lord and giver of life who has spoken through the prophets. He is the presence of God within us, the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to be with us always, that we are never alone. He is the greatest gift to the church. We cannot appreciate the gifts we have unless we recognize that they come from the Holy Spirit and worship and glorify Him with the Father and the Son. Without the Holy Spirit we wouldn’t have a church, we would have a book club who had chosen a particular book to use for moral and ethical teaching. We would have chosen well but that would be more about luck than anything else.
How did Peter know that if the people repented and were baptized they would receive the Holy Spirit? What did he think that would look like? He spoke powerful words of truth here regarding eternal life and that it was clearly evident in the Old Testament and he spoke with powerful certainty concerning Jesus. He also saw 3000 people come to faith this day of Pentecost, the ingathering of the first fruits, the fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Weeks itself. Jesus had told them the fields were ripe for harvest and here they see He was right, the only thing missing for the harvest to be realized was the Holy Spirit poured out. What a wonderful thing it is to see those final verses of this chapter with signs and wonders being done, awe filling the hearts of believers and a hunger to know more, to pray together, to share all of life with one another. I pray that we would see such an outpouring in our day.
Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!
Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!
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