The pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was the fulfillment of many promises, going at least as far back as the words of the Prophet Joel (whom St. Peter quotes in Acts ch. 2).
Let’s take a step back and look at this, big picture:
The Messiah was to come, suffer and die, be raised up, and then take up His throne.
Jesus’ ascension is the Son of Man being taken up before the Ancient of Days and given everlasting kingdom (see Daniel 7:13-14). This is the exaltation of the Messiah (see also Philippians 2:9-11). As side-note, the exaltation of the Messiah does not mean the Lord was without glory before His Incarnation; as God the Son He always knew the glory He had with the Father (John 17:5); this is about His Messianic work. As King Messiah He reigns until all His enemies are a footstool (Psalm 110:1-2, 1 Corinthians 15:25-26).
The sending/pouring out of the Holy Spirit is about the inauguration of this new Messianic Reign, where Christ having suffered and died, is ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father. The Messiah has been raised up, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, reigning as King of kings and Lord of lords.
But the Lord Himself told His disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18), though He would disappear from their sight, ascending and taking up His throne in glory, He would send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. For the outpouring of the Spirit inaugurates this newness: Christ reigning in heaven, and through His Church through the Holy Spirit; for when the Spirit came He empowered the Apostles to their apostolic task, “You will be My witnesses beginning in Jerusalem…” (Acts 1:8), the same Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin (John 16:8) and He will remind us of Christ’s word, glorifying Christ (John 16:12-15). It is therefore the Holy Spirit who, through the preaching of the Law and of repentance convicts sinners by the Law; and it is the Holy Spirit who through the preaching of the Gospel gives ears to hear, “For faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). For we are sealed by and in the Holy Spirit when we heard and believed the Gospel, God’s guarantee of His promises (Ephesians 1:13-14).
So the Holy Spirit came, giving power to the Church to preach the Word of God, to minister, to bear witness to Christ, to bring the life-saving power of the Gospel to all four corners of the globe. The Holy Spirit seals us and keeps us in faith, we are sealed, the Spirit lives in us, and through Him Christ is in us and works through us, as both individual members of His Body, and collectively as His Body; through which the Lord continues His work in the world, for the preaching of forgiveness, that’s the Lord’s work, and we are His servants and ministers bearing this before the world through the preaching of the Word, through our lives of obedience to Christ as disciples, by our ordinary Christian vocation.
The giving of the Spirit means Messiah is on His throne, and we are citizens of His kingdom, walking in accord with Him and His Way, to be His Church, His Body, His representatives to a grieving, sinful, wicked, and suffering world–to announce Good News: What God long ago promised through the patriarchs and the prophets, and which the Torah itself looked forward to, has finally come: God is covenantly faithful to His creation, to His people, and indeed to all people for when Adam and Eve first fell it was declared that a Child of Eve would break the serpent, and long ago God called Abram out from Ur of the Chaldeans and told him he would be a father of many nations. And to Abraham was born Isaac, and to Isaac was born Jacob, and to Jacob was born the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and from Judah came Jesse, from Jesse came David, and from David came the Christ, Jesus our Lord.
The Holy Spirit, living and indwelling us means we are a new people in the Messiah, a chosen nation, a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), taking us and making us a kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6), for He is King, and High Priest forever, in the style of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:17). We are His, we are priests of His priesthood, we are called to be kings under His Kingdom–not in the ways of sinful kings of this fallen age; but rather in the way He is King, and how we were called to be in the beginning–bearing the image of God and “have dominion” over creation, through ministry. Dominion, not domination. Our calling is to reign with Christ, and indeed we are (even now) seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6), heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), for the Holy Spirit dwelling in us Himself means we cry out to God the Father with “Abba!” for Christ’s Father is our Father by adoption, by the indwelling of the Spirit.
The pouring out of the Spirit required that Christ be glorified–for the Messiah was to come, suffer and die, rise on the third day, and take His throne–and He did, when He ascended, for He is seated at the right hand of Majesty–and because of this, the Spirit has come, and He lives in us. Bearing faith into our hearts, sanctifying us, drawing us, keeping us, and making us everything God declares us to be, and is working to make us be, so that in the end we are obedient, holy, witness-bearing, and ultimately with the Lord as He sets all things to rights and makes everything new. World without end.
…I close down to people who do not act in love. And so do many other people.