They received manifest supernatural power

Manifest: everybody knew it happened
Supernatural
Power: they received boldness to witness
Insight into Scripture
Released to apostolic mission
All Jerusalem felt the impact

Resurrection SundayPentecost SundayResurrected ChristAscended/Glorified ChristInbreathed SpiritOutpoured SpiritThe result: lifeThe result: power

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Once again, by the title, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is a very central theme to the whole of the New Testament. It’s a theme which vitally concerned every Christian because every Christian is expected to receive the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately within the church, particularly, shall we say, the Evangelical/Pentecostal/Charismatic section of the church, there is a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding about what it means to receive the Holy Spirit. For instance, your good Baptist will say, “Well, I received the Holy Spirit when I was born again. There’s nothing more to receive.” The Pentecostal will say, “No, you didn’t receive the Holy Spirit when you were born again. You don’t receive the Holy Spirit till you’re baptized in the Spirit and speak in tongues.” And they tend to get rather angry with one another.

Now, as in most cases where sincere Christians disagree on the basis of scripture, the truth is that each of them is partly right and partly wrong. And I believe I can help you today to unravel this confusion. The fact of the matter is that the New Testament speaks of two different ways in which people receive the Holy Spirit. When we distinguish these two ways, then there’s no more confusion. I’m going to use two historical situations from the New Testament to define the two ways, to describe them and to distinguish between them.

I’m going to refer to two Sundays, two Sundays of tremendous historical importance for the Christian church. The first I call Resurrection Sunday; the second, which came seven weeks later, I call Pentecost Sunday. Now on both those Sundays the believers had an experience of receiving the Holy Spirit. But, it was different. And when we can see the nature of each experience, then we can understand where we are in relation to this personally. Have I received the Holy Spirit, is there something more for me to receive? What is involved in receiving the Holy Spirit?

I’d like to read therefore, first of all, the account of the Resurrection Sunday first appearance of Jesus to His disciples in a group as it’s recorded in John 20. John 20:19–22:

“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week...”

You know, of course, that the first day of the week is what we call Sunday. The sabbath is the seventh day of the week, Sunday is the beginning of a new week. In Hebrew it’s called yom reshon, the first day. So, Hebrew is actually much more faithful to the Bible in its titles for the days of the week than we are. Regrettably, our days of the week in English, and in most European languages, are named after pagan deities. Like Wednesday is ?Woden’s? day. Thursday is Tho

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