Joel's remarkable prophecy of

the Holy Spirit

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, our young men will see visions. And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-30)

Purpose of the outpouring upon the apostles

The Spirit would be their “helper”

• Teach them all things and remind them of what Jesus had taught

• Bear witness of Jesus• Convince the world• Guide them into all truth, revealing

Jesus’ word and convincing the unbelieving that Jesus was the Christ

Purpose of the

outpouring upon the

disciples the apostles

made

The purpose of the outpouring in disciples

• Some gifts were revelationary (assisting the knowledge of truth)

• Some gifts were confirmatory (assisting the belief of truth)

What blessings were the result of the Spirit’s outpouring?

The Spirit bore witness to Jesus as the resurrected Lord leading sinners to believe in Him.

• “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me, and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning. (John 15:26-27)

• “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. (Acts 2:33)

• And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:3-5)

• For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. (Romans 15:18-19)

The Spirit convicted sinners of sin leading them to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.

• “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;. (John 16:8-11)

• Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)

• He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5)

The Spirit brought about a “new birth” in sinners resulting in entrance into God’s family.

• Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)

• For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

• For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)

The Spirit wrote the law of God into the hearts of new covenant members leading them to serve Him in a new way.

• “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Hebrews 8:10)

• But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. (Romans 2:29)

• But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. (Romans 7:6)

• You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)

The Spirit liberated the sinner from the bondage of Law and brought Him into the freedom of grace!

• Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (2 Corinthians 3:17)

• There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:1-2)

The Holy Spirit was the effective cause of conversion in the alien sinner. Yet, none of this depended upon a “second channel” of work for the Spirit or a “direct operation” of the Spirit in addition to the work the Spirit was doing through the apostles in teaching and performing miracles.