We are talking about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit in and through the life of the Christian. In these lessons, we are focusing on the supernatural aspect of the Holy Spirit working through every believer's life.

As I mentioned in our last lesson together, I was raised in a church. I heard many messages about Jesus. About His life and His work on this earth. I heard many messages taught from the four Gospels and the messages focused on the miracles of Jesus – the parables He taught – the principles of the sermon on the mount.

I appreciate all of the sermons and messages I heard – I still apply much of the principles that I received from the teachings of my pastor and the church that I grew up in.

However, I do not remember hearing anything specific to the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. To me, the Holy Spirit was the invisible force or the invisible power of God working all around us. He was never seen. He worked behind the scenes. Therefore I assumed the Holy Spirit was like my silent partner in life. Because of that, I did not give much attention to the Holy Spirit or what He came to do in my life.

I knew that the Holy Spirit was God and that He was involved in some way with the work of salvation or the new birth. But that was about all I knew.

However, when I began reading the Bible, I discovered that everything that happened in the early church, in the life of the Christian beginning with the book of Acts, happened as a result of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit.

I saw that the early church began with a manifestation of God’s power and the following chapters, which covered a span of approximately 32 years of the history of the church, we see a continual operation of the Holy Spirit ministry.

When I read the book of Acts, I was immediately impressed with the manifestations of God's power – not only through the early apostles but also through what we would call the laity or every individual in the church.

If you read the title of the book of Acts that is written in your Bible – it says, The Book of Acts or The Acts of the Apostles. However, when you read the book of Acts, I believe the actual title should say – The Acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the believers of the early church.

I firmly believe that we, as a church, are still writing the final chapters of the book of Acts. What do I mean by that? Do I mean that we are still writing books of the Bible or that we are still writing additional chapters for the Bible that contains new revelation from God?

No, the Bible that we have in our possession is the complete revelation of God given to the church and given to every believer. The books that we have contained in the Bible are a part of what we call the canon of the scriptures. We are not writing any new books of the Bible or any new revelation from God.

What I am referring to when I say we are currently writing the last chapters of the book of Acts is – since 62 AD, the church is continuing to take the Gospel to every part of this world, from 62 AD until now. The history of that journey unto this present time is the unwritten chapters of the Acts of the Apostles or the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the modern church.

If the early church needed the ministry of the Holy Spirit to carry out God's will in the beginning of Christ's ministry through his body on this earth, is it not reasonable and also necessary that the modern church needs the ministry of the Holy Spirit to finish the work that was started nearly 2000 years ago?

In this lesson, I want to begin looking at what Jesus said to his disciples immediately after He rose from the dead.

Let's begin reading in John chapter 20, verses 19 through 23.

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

And when he had said so, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.

Then said Jesus to them, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Notice verse 22 – now remember, this happened after Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven. After Jesus placed his blood in Heaven, He descended into the upper room and appeared to His disciples.

Notice that Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." What happened to the disciples when Jesus said these words? We know from reading correlating passages of scripture, the disciples received the first work of the Holy Spirit post-Jesus' resurrection. What was that work - the new birth?

Titus 3:5 says, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us – how….by the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible in Basic English translation says – “it was through the washing of the new birth and giving of new life in the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 5:5 says, “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.”

1 John 3:14 says, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren….” Here, John is talking about passing from spiritual life or spiritual death to spiritual life.

How do we know that we have Jesus living in our hearts? How do we know that we are Christians? One way that we know is the fact that we have God's love in us. The moment we are born again, the Holy Spirit comes into our heart, into our spirit and regenerates us – another way to say that is, the Holy Spirit recreates our Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes us brand new on the inside.

When the Holy Spirit comes in, He brings with him the life and the nature of God; among other things, one of God's greatest attributes of God’s nature is love.

John said we know that we have passed from spiritual death to spiritual life – how? Because we love the brethren….we, genuinely love people.

2 Cor. 5:17 says, Therefore if any man (woman too) be in Christ, he (or she) is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.

Paul is describing what happens when the Holy Spirit comes into our life and into our Spirit, and we become Christians. The Holy Spirit regenerates or recreates our Spirit. We become new on the inside. Our Spirit, which was once contaminated with sin, is re-created by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our born-again recreated Spirit now has the life and the nature of God in it. We are made righteous. We have become a child of God. We now have complete access to God because we have been made acceptable to Him.

This is the first work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The moment we hear the Gospel and believe the Gospel and accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, the Holy Spirit comes immediately into our spirits to regenerate us, to recreate our spirits – we call that experience the new birth or being born again.

At this moment, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us.  We become the temple or the house of the Holy Spirit. Notice what Paul writes.

1 Cor. 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Notice that, he said, do you not know or understand that you are the temple of God that the Spirit of God lives inside of you?

1 Cor. 6:19 What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Notice in these two verses. Paul said that your body, that you as a believer, you are called the house of God, the temple of God. That means that’s where God resides. How does He reside or live in you? By the person of the Holy Spirit.

Remember what Jesus said in John 14:16&17– Jesus was referring to this experience that we call the new birth?

So, in the upper room, when Jesus breathed on His disciples, He said to them, receive the Holy Spirit, they received the first work of the Holy Spirit, which is the new birth.

Now, let's turn in our Bibles to Luke, chapter 24, verses 44 to 49.

This is Luke's account of the same experience that we read in the Gospel of John. And of course, we have new information shared in this Gospel because it’s written by Luke.

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spoken unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And ye are witnesses of these things.

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry (or wait) ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

Notice the 49th verse. This is an interesting statement. Notice two statements Jesus makes.

The first statement – I send the promise of My Father upon you.

The second statement – wait in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.

Both of these statements reveal the work of the Holy Spirit that is different from what we call the new birth or being born again.

We can find the statement – the promise of my Father – in another portion of the Scripture. In Acts chapter 1 and verse 4 but before we read this verse, remember, Luke is not only the writer of the Gospel of Luke, he is also the writer of the Acts of the Apostles. We could say that Luke is giving us a brief commentary about what he wrote in Luke, chapter 24.

Acts 1:4 - And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father. There is that statement, so what is the promise of the Father? You have heard of me… Jesus said, For John truly baptised with water, but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

So now we know what the promise of the Father is – Jesus said, it is the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.

So in our next lesson, we will begin looking at this experience that Jesus calls the promise of the Father. He also calls it in Acts chapter 1 verse 4 or 5 the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What is this experience? What does the Holy Spirit do in our lives when we receive this experience? Join us next time as we explore this subject together and we talk about the promise of the Father or what Jesus referred to as the baptism with the Holy Spirit.