40 days after Jesus resurrected from the grave, conquering sin, death and hell, we read in Acts 1 that He then ascended into Heaven where He sits even today at the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for us as our Great High Priest. Before He ascended into Heaven, and even before He was crucified, He had told His disciples that when He was gone, He would send the Comforter. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit. In Acts 1:8, He repeats the promise and gives them charge concerning it:
"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
If you need a reminder about that Command "Ye shall be witnesses," (that is a command just like, Thou Shalt Not... only it's plural and positive, Ye Shall...) might I recommend reading: Looking Unto Jesus today. And for some more specifics, Dying Young would not be a bad read today too.
Jesus gives His disciples charge to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came to them. He had promised this Holy Spirit earlier, that He would be their Comforter for Christ after He was to leave them. We know from Acts 2, that on the day of Pentecost, this Comforter came down upon the disciples, fulfilling the Lord's promise. From that day forward the Holy Spirit indwells those that put their faith in Christ's work on the cross. With Him, we have been sealed eternally - that have put our faith in Christ.
Ok, the preliminaries out of the way, here's today's thought: The day of Pentecost in Acts 2 was 50 days after the feast of firstfruits, which happens to be the day that Jesus rose from the dead. That means that after 40 days, Jesus ascended into Heaven, and then 10 days later the Comforter came. The title of my post is: The saddest 10 days.
The disciples had fellowship directly with Christ for 3 years. I imagine that the 3 days after His death were worse than these 10, but that's a different post - For 10 days, they were without Christ. For 10 days, they lived without the Holy Spirit inside of them. What a strange time it must have been. How many times in our lives do we end up walking around, even for 10 days, not realizing that we don't "have" Christ or the Holy Spirit with us? Yeah, I know... He's there, but we may have well left Him at home by the way we act.
For 10 days, these men were in limbo. Obeying Christ's command to wait. One observation is that this is when THEY replaced Judas' spot as one of the 12 Apostles - without Christ's presence, and without the Holy Spirit. They chose two men, and had the lots decide between the two. Am I the only one that thinks that the Apostle Paul was the man that God had planned to replace Judas?
The thought for the day is: what a sad 10 days it must have been for them without the presence of God that they had been accustomed to, or that they were about to experience. The challenge for the day (besides "Ye shall be witnesses"): Make sure that you're not walking around without the Holy Spirit. The worst way to make decisions is to make them on your own.
Just a thought...
"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
If you need a reminder about that Command "Ye shall be witnesses," (that is a command just like, Thou Shalt Not... only it's plural and positive, Ye Shall...) might I recommend reading: Looking Unto Jesus today. And for some more specifics, Dying Young would not be a bad read today too.
Jesus gives His disciples charge to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came to them. He had promised this Holy Spirit earlier, that He would be their Comforter for Christ after He was to leave them. We know from Acts 2, that on the day of Pentecost, this Comforter came down upon the disciples, fulfilling the Lord's promise. From that day forward the Holy Spirit indwells those that put their faith in Christ's work on the cross. With Him, we have been sealed eternally - that have put our faith in Christ.
Ok, the preliminaries out of the way, here's today's thought: The day of Pentecost in Acts 2 was 50 days after the feast of firstfruits, which happens to be the day that Jesus rose from the dead. That means that after 40 days, Jesus ascended into Heaven, and then 10 days later the Comforter came. The title of my post is: The saddest 10 days.
The disciples had fellowship directly with Christ for 3 years. I imagine that the 3 days after His death were worse than these 10, but that's a different post - For 10 days, they were without Christ. For 10 days, they lived without the Holy Spirit inside of them. What a strange time it must have been. How many times in our lives do we end up walking around, even for 10 days, not realizing that we don't "have" Christ or the Holy Spirit with us? Yeah, I know... He's there, but we may have well left Him at home by the way we act.
For 10 days, these men were in limbo. Obeying Christ's command to wait. One observation is that this is when THEY replaced Judas' spot as one of the 12 Apostles - without Christ's presence, and without the Holy Spirit. They chose two men, and had the lots decide between the two. Am I the only one that thinks that the Apostle Paul was the man that God had planned to replace Judas?
The thought for the day is: what a sad 10 days it must have been for them without the presence of God that they had been accustomed to, or that they were about to experience. The challenge for the day (besides "Ye shall be witnesses"): Make sure that you're not walking around without the Holy Spirit. The worst way to make decisions is to make them on your own.
Just a thought...
5 comments:
Thanks for the plug..."Dying Young would not be a bad read today" you could have gussied it up a little more for me...something like
"Hey check out Dying Young it's not horrible today, and there is not that much hersey on his latest post" something like that would have perhaps gotten me more traffic. Then maybe a street preacher would have actually read it...lol. and what's with you might recommend Looking unto Jesus? that's a site you should ALWAYS recommend.
Andy, i think that the passage you are referring to in Acts does not state that they were without the Holy Spirit for 10 days but after that period of time "8But ye shall receive POWER, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:..." (my capitalization). Just a quick thought which could be explored in greater detail later but here's the question to the post, can you be saved without the Holy Spirit dwelling within you? If not then there are two conclusions, either the disciples weren't saved yet, or perhaps the Holy Ghost being sent was to enable them to have power to go out boldly, do miracles, etc etc.
http://www.eternallifeministries.org/awp_sal.htm excellent article on the Holy Spirit by AW Pink. (a writer that you probably don't agree with too much, but an excellent writer all the same;)
Also, Ps. 22:18, 1Sam 10:20,Prov. 16:33 to name a few references about lots being cast. I would venture to state that God was in control of which man was appointed to be numbered with the rest of the apostles. Especially as Acts is specific to state that they prayed prior to casting the lot.
maybe you want to take back your e-mail telling me about your blog?;) you conclusion and application of your point is excellent by the way.
comments?
I almost made a comment in the email about me not being sure if I wanted to send you the link!!
You bring up a good clarification - the Holy Ghost did still work on the earth and in the lives of the apostles during those 10 days.
However, there is a difference in the working of the Holy Ghost in different places in the Bible. (For your sake, I refrained from using the word 'dispensations.') When Jesus said, I am going to go away, but that's good, because when I go, I will send the Comforter. That tells us that the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, was not at that time "there" in the same way that He would be after Christ left. I assume Pentecost is the specific fulfillment of that prophecy. So, to say that the working of the Holy Spirit is the same throughout all of time, I don't think Scripture supports that.
"Can you be saved without the Holy Spirit dwelling within you?" Nope, I can't!!
Again, the promises of Christ that the Holy Spirit would come, I see to be a different work than what He had done at that time and in the Old Testament. The OT doesn't speak of a sealing by the Holy Spirit, or about a regeneration. It does speak in Jeremiah 31 that there would be a new covenant made... So, the apostles were saved through faith just as we are. However, before Christ's death, I don't see how it could have been faith in Christ's blood. So, I think they were saved through faith, but did not have the Holy Spirit in the way that we do.
I will read Pink when I get some free time... I have read some of his stuff, particularly his book on Saving Faith, and I thought it was pretty good.
As for the lots - good point that they were praying first - but what I was saying about the casting of the lots is that they picked two people, and said, God tell us which one - they cast lots and the lots landed on one of them. But IF God wanted Paul to be the man that was to take Judas' bishoprick, then He would have had to have the lots vaporized when they were thrown, or have them sucked into heaven... It's not a point that I would go to blows over, but I do see Paul as being God's choice to replace Judas, not Matthias.
Welcome to my blog :) Your comments are appreciated, and I look forward to more of them... sort of!!
aw you threw in the D word... haha i will try to answer in graceful terms of disagreement in such cases... notice i abstained from commenting on your calvinism blog, although i have to admit i had about 3 paragraphs typed and thought better of it at this time;)
one last thought on the Holy Spirit, when Jesus sent out the disciples Luke 9:1-6 and gave them power and authority it didn't change how Jesus was 'with them' prior to that start point, it just began another portion of His ministry with them. i would submit that it was extremely similar to Acts when He is speaking of the Holy Spirit...
'So, the apostles were saved through faith just as we are. However, before Christ's death, I don't see how it could have been faith in Christ's blood.' i won't get in to that but it's a very interesting conversation, just remember if we get on that subject later that you brought it up first;)
as far as paul being judas replacement, in ministry he may well have, however, i have always understood and read several times that the definition of 'disciple' and the ability to be numbered with the 12 was restricted by Acts 1:21 'Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,' Thus Paul who did not learn directly under Jesus or walk with him during his time on earth could never be numbered with the 12.
get some work done will you?
I just wonder where Peter got that definition of apostle? And Paul DID learn directly under Jesus (Gal 1:12), though he did not walk with him.
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