THE HOLY SPIRIT PART 3: THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Acts 2:38, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
Ezekiel 11:19, And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 18:31, 32, Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord GOD. Therefore, repent and live.
Ezekiel 36: 25-27, Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD, I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man His brother, saying, Know the LORD, for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the LORD, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. from Jer.31
Ezekiel sees beyond the physical restoration of the people of Judah to their little territory round Jerusalem. Like the other prophets, he saw an even greater restoration of the people to God himself and also that this required an even deeper work of grace in the hearts and wills of the people. They needed not merely political liberation and geographical relocation. They needed a radical heart transplant. In fact, they needed nothing short of resurrection. And both would be the work of the coming Spirit of God
Ezekiel 36:24-37 moves quickly beyond anything that ever perfectly characterized the returned exiles in their postexilic history. It speaks of spiritual reality with ethical results. It speaks of cleansing and moral transformation, of radical inward change and radical outward obedience. It is, in short, a very rich word about what God alone can do through His Spirit. Knowing the Holy Spirit through the Old Testament could not be more profound, or more prophetic of Christ s work, than this. - Christopher Wright
Joel 2:28-29, And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. Joel 2:32 whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.
, However we describe the extent of the Spirit s ministry to believers under the old covenant, we do see that there will be a newness and intensity when the Spirit comes. The presence of the Spirit according to this promise announces the central new covenant blessing. It looks beyond the cross to the seal of the cross-work of Christ in the Spirit. - Reuther
Zechariah 12:10, I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
He would grant A New Heart (Regeneration) He would give A New Spirit (Indwelling) He would implant A New Obedience (Sanctification) He would make A New Covenant (Sonship) He would order A New Constitution (The Church) He would give A New Perspective (Of Christ)
NT PROMISES OF THE SPIRIT Luke 3:15 Acts 1:4-5 Holy Spirit baptism is the central feature as well as the crowning blessing of the promise of the gospel. - Reuther
NT PROMISES OF THE SPIRIT Galatians 3:13, 14, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, (for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree ), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
NT PROMISES OF THE SPIRIT Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. - John 7:37-39
NT PROMISES OF THE SPIRIT This ceremony focused on the need of the people and their desire for salvation, and was anticipated by them in the pouring out of the water ceremony. The prophets spoke of this pouring out of the Spirit and of drawing from the wells of salvation. So when Jesus uttered this magnificent cry at the high-point of the Jewish festive cycle in the city of David, He was calling attention to Himself as the long-awaited Savior, and the coming days of the Spirit in the hearts of men. - Reuther
THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT The polluted source becomes clean. It is cleansed by drinking of Christ and being filled with the Spirit. Jesus stated that this was to be in accordance with what the Scripture says. It does not appear that Jesus was referring to any one Scripture passage, but rather to various parts of the Old Testament where God promised a thorough cleansing from sin and the planting of a new garden. - Reuther
THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT Isaiah 55:1, Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. Isa. 12:3, Therefore you will joyously draw water from the wells of salvation. Zech. 13:1, In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David, and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for iniquity. Jer. 31:12, and their life will be like a well-watered garden, and they will never languish again. Isa. 61:11, And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT 1 st, In the Incarnation, the Son takes upon Himself a form that He did not have before. He becomes man and retains it in a glorified body in heaven. 2 nd, The Spirit, according to John 7:37-39, comes in a way which He could not do until Jesus was glorified. This means that He comes specifically as the Spirit of Jesus. John Duncan had it right when he said: The Holy Spirit in this Pentecostal dispensation is what he could not be before: The Spirit of a glorified Savior. - John Reuther