Before Jesus, God’s spirit didn’t reside in people. Sometimes His spirit would rest on prophets and others to accomplish specific things. 

Joel 2:28-29

Pentecost (Festival of Weeks) was an existing holiday in the Jewish calendar. It was fifty days or seven weeks and one day after Passover. Celebrates the full harvest.

Jesus resurrects and appears to his disciples for forty days. Before he ascends back to heaven He tells his disciples to go and pray and wait in the upper room for the Spirit He would send. 

Acts 2:1-4 The Holy Spirit is poured out, people speak in languages empowered by the Spirit, and Peter stands up and tells the crowd that what is happening is what Joel prophesied. The Kingdom expands out from Jerusalem into the world and into all people. 

1. The person of the Holy Spirit- Now what, but who. He is not the force. Both the Hebrew word and Greek word have the root of breath or wind. There is one God, but we shouldn’t be surprised that the creator God of the universe is more complex than me. There is one WHAT: God; and three WHOs: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person is the fullness of God. The Spirit is the third person of the godhead. He has personal attributes. He thinks, speaks, wills, is grieved. It is divine mystery. 

2. What the Holy Spirit does- draws the person toward Jesus, applies to the person the work of Jesus, actualizes in the person the life of Jesus, and seals the person as belonging to Jesus

Every person that trusts in Jesus has the Holy Spirit in them. Not an invisible Jiminy CricketThe Holy Spirit makes holy. He sanctifies us. He is the comforter and helper. John 14:16-17, 14:26, 15:26, Ephesians 1:17, 4:3-6, Romans 8? Acts 1:8 empowering to be a witness. Supernatural, miraculous boldness and radical hospitality. He gives spiritual gifts both miraculous and mundane. Genuine Pentecost doesn’t take the focus off of Jesus and his work and put it on charismatic phenomenon. Full Gospel is Jesus is our savior, redeemer, Spirit baptizer, and soon and coming King. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to do things in and through us for His Kingdom advancement; to continue doing His ministry. It’s not to do silly things for the sake of weird. It’s about what happens out in the world not what happens at the altar. 

3. Receiving the Spirit- initially when we put our trust in Jesus as Lord. Subsequently, there isn’t a formula, but some general principles. It is a gift. It is received not earned. It is a miraculous faith thing. We can’t conjure it or manipulate it. God does it how He will do it. We come under the control of the Spirit. We don’t wield it. 

4. Evidence of the Spirit- How do we know if we have received Him. At salvation His spirit confirms with our spirit. At the subsequent gift (baptism) He will give us boldness to speak. Acts 4:8, 4:25, 4:31, 6:10, 7:55-56, 13:9, 21:4 Does speaking in tongues happen, yes! If we don’t take the power with us outside of the church service then what happened at the altar is meaningless. Speaking in tongues is just the evidence to us that we have received it so that we can go out and use the baptism of the Spirit in our world. Sanctification is evidence that we have been baptized.