Acts 2:38: Two Commands and a Promise

[Charnock]

Is there any place in the Bible where men are commanded to receive the Holy Ghost?

Peter referred to it as a gift, not a work.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Charnock

Is there any place in the Bible where men are commanded to receive the Holy Ghost?

Peter referred to it as a gift, not a work.

In Ephesians 5:18 Paul commended them to be filled (ongoingly filled or keep getting filled) with the Holy Spirit. These folks had already been born of the Spirit and sealed with the Spirit according to Ephesians chapter 1 where they are called "saints" and "faithful" and "in Christ" in verse 1 and in verses 13 - 14 it says:
13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

So these folks were already saved an were commanded to be filled with the Spirit.

Another place, and some here will not agree with this, is in Acts 1:4-8 and Luke 24:45-53 where Jesus commanded His disciples (who were already saved in my opinion) to wait/tarry for the empowering experience of the Holy Ghost Baptism.

In my opinion, Saul was justified/saved/born again on the Damascus Road on January 25, AD 32 but not baptized in the Spirit or filled with the Spirit until 3 days later when Ananias laid hands upon him. No command here but Saul had been told to go into Damascus and he would be told what to do and when Ananias came in he said, "I've come here to lay hands on you and minister the Holy Ghost Baptism to you" and then commanded him to get up and immerse himself since he had already had his sins washed away when he had called on the Lord.

[mizpeh]

Originally Posted by Charnock

Is there any place in the Bible where men are commanded to receive the Holy Ghost?

Peter referred to it as a gift, not a work.

How can someone be commanded to receive the Holy Ghost? We can't take it from God, it has to be given to us. It's a passive thing on our part we receive, God gives. We have to ask.

But as for a command, an imperative to receive the Holy Spirit? John 20:22

[Sam]

Originally Posted by mizpeh

...But as for a command, an imperative to receive the Holy Spirit? John 20:22

20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
John 20:20-23 KJV

When Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Ghost," what (if anything) do you think happened?

Was this the beginning of a new creation and just like YHWH breathed life into man's nostrils and man became alive, is this YHWH in flesh breathing life/Spirit into a dead body/church and the church became alive?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Sam

20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
John 20:20-23 KJV

When Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Ghost," what (if anything) do you think happened?

Was this the beginning of a new creation and just like YHWH breathed life into man's nostrils and man became alive, is this YHWH in flesh breathing life/Spirit into a dead body/church and the church became alive?

Jesus “breathed upon them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost” KJV
In the Amplified Bible it says “Receive (admit) the Holy Spirit.”
Ken Wuest translates this in the Expanded NT as “Receive at once the Holy Spirit.”
Malcolm Smith translates/paraphrases it as “Receive here and now the Holy Spirit.”

There are differences of opinion on what actually happened here that night as they saw and believed in the resurrected Christ and acknowledged Him as Lord.

Some believe this was a symbolic gesture, a preview of when the Holy Spirit would come later on the Day of Pentecost. John Mac Arthur has a note in his Study Bible which says, “Since the disciples did not actually receive the Holy Spirit until the day of Pentecost, some 40 days in the future (Acts 1:8;2:1-3),this statement must be understood as a pledge on Christ’s part that the Holy Spirit would be coming.” Those who hold to this view believe that the disciples were not born again or did not have New Testament salvation at this time but that they would be saved/born again on the Day of Pentecost.

Others believe that this was the beginning of the New Testament dispensation. The disciples had been saved/born again by faith and this was the actual impartation of the Holy Spirit coming to dwell within them. He had been with them but now He was within them. Later, on the Day of Pentecost, the disciples were baptized in and empowered by the Holy Spirit. David J. DuPlessis said, “The upper room on the resurrection day was a maternity ward. Pentecost was a baptismal service,” Those who hold this view believe that a person is born of the Spirit by faith in Jesus and then as a child of God has a promise of a baptism in the Holy Spirit which is called ”the promise of the Father” as an experience subsequent to salvation/regeneration.

Here is a note from The Spirit Filled Life Bible
“The allusion to Gen 2:7 is unmistakable. Now, Jesus breathed life into His own. Some interpret this statement, ‘receive the Holy Ghost’ as symbolic and as anticipating Pentecost. Others understand the Greek to denote immediacy, in the sense of ‘receive right now’ and view the day of the Lord’s resurrection as marking the transition from the terms of the old covenant to those of the new covenant. The old creation began with the breath of God; now the new creation begins with the breath of God the Son.” page 1613

Here is a quote from Derek Prince’s Foundation Series, Vol 2 page 60
“...the tense of the imperative form ‘receive’ indicated that the receiving was a single, complete experience which took place as Jesus uttered the word. It is therefore an incontestable, scriptural fact that at that moment the apostles did actually receive the Spirit.
In this first encounter with the resurrected Christ, the apostles passed from ‘Old Testament salvation’ to ‘New Testament salvation.’ Up to that time the believers of the OT had looked forward by faith, through prophecies and types and shadows, to a redemptive act which had not yet taken place. Those who enter into ‘NT salvation,’ on the other hand look back with clear vision to a single historical event: the death and resurrection of Christ. Their salvation is complete.”

A Jay Snell Evangelistic Assoc. Publication dated June/July 1998 says:
“He meant for them to ‘receive’ the Holy Ghost then and there. How do we know this? We know it because ‘receive’ is in the imperative mood in the Greek text. The imperative mood in the Greek had no future. It was the mood a Greek would use to tell someone very strongly that he/she wanted them to do something now. In other words, Jesus meant for them to ‘receive’ the Holy Ghost then and there. He issued the directive of a command to be obeyed at once. There never was a future concerning the Greek imperative. It always meant ‘do it now.’”

[Sam]

Originally Posted by mizpeh

...But as for a command, an imperative to receive the Holy Spirit? John 20:22

20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
John 20:20-23 KJV

When Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Ghost," what (if anything) do you think happened?

Was this the beginning of a new creation and just like YHWH breathed life into man's nostrils and man became alive, is this YHWH in flesh breathing life/Spirit into a dead body/church and the church became alive?

[TGBTG]

Originally Posted by Charnock

Is there any place in the Bible where men are commanded to receive the Holy Ghost?

Peter referred to it as a gift, not a work.

We can ask God to fill us. Not sure if that passes for a command though...

Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?