Acts 3:26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant, has sent Him to bless you... John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter... (17) Even the Spirit of reality... (18) I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.
After presenting Christ as the Healer in a number of different aspects, Peter utters a concluding word in verse 26. God has sent back the ascended Christ to the Jews first by pouring out His Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Hence, the Spirit God poured out is the very Christ God raised and exalted to the heavens. When the apostles preached and ministered this Christ, the Spirit was ministered to people. At the time Peter was speaking the word recorded in verse 26, God's Servant had ascended to the heavens and was still there. Nevertheless, Peter told the people that God had sent Christ to bless them. God sent Him by pouring out the Spirit. That was God's way of sending the ascended Christ to the people. From this we see that the poured-out Spirit is identical to the ascended Christ. In God's economy Christ and the Spirit are one for our enjoyment. Here [in Acts 3:26-4:12] Peter seems to be saying, "God has sent this One first to you to bless you. He sent Him in the way of pouring out His Spirit to you in order to bless you. Now you need to receive this One. He is not far from you. Although He is in the heavens, economically He is among you as the poured-out Spirit to bless you. If you call on His name, you will receive His person--the Holy Spirit. The name is 'Jesus' but the person is the Spirit. Call on the name of the Lord Jesus and receive the Spirit. Then you will have God's blessing."
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Acts, pp. 113-115. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
To unsubscribe from the mailing list, either: Send an email to: [email protected] (No subject or message needed; a blank email will work) or visit www.emanna.com and fill out the unsubscribe form there.
