Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Luke 24:49 "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
PROMISES . . . PROMISES
After Jesus returned from death victorious, He renewed the divine promise to send the Spirit to His disciples. One promise fulfilled set the stage for the next. After the promised substitution of God's own Son for this world of sinners had taken place, after the Lamb of God was handed over to death for our sins and was raised in declaration of the price fully paid, the time had come for the proclamation of these promises fulfilled to go out into all the world.
So Jesus told His disciples: ". . . stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." They did as they were told and Jesus did as He had promised . . . on the Jewish festival of harvest called Pentecost."
Outside help was absolutely necessary in order that our sinful race might be redeemed from sin, death, and hell. This could not be done as a "self-help project." The lost could not seek and save themselves -- certainly not when blinded by sin. So the Son of God "came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man, and was crucified . . . buried . . . and the third day rose again."
Outside help was also absolutely necessary in order that the disciples of Jesus might faithfully deliver the Word of deliverance to those who have been delivered. This is not a task for sinners -- even sinners redeemed and restored -- to attempt on their own and by their own power. Just as sinners can only stand before God if they are wrapped in the robe of Christ's righteousness, even so, redeemed sinners dare not stand before the unregenerate with the word of reconciliation unless enwrapped in the Holy Spirit. There is no hope for the spiritually dead apart from the power of the Lord, the Giver of Life.
