In John 7:37 Jesus says, "If any man is thirsty let him come unto me and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly will pour rivers of Living Water. (This was spoke concerning the Holy Spirit, which was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.) This is an invitation by Jesus to come and drink from the Living Waters. But in Acts 1:4, Jesus stands in front of the charter members of His Church and hands down a direct order: Do not leave your present location until you have received the power to witness of my resurrection. That these two scriptural references address the same experience is abundantly clear for when the Holy Spirit baptized those believers who were passionately waiting, rivers of Living Water poured out of their bellies. So the question remains; what changed from John 7:37 to Acts 1:4?
The answer may be found in Matthew 28:18 as Jesus says, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." It appears as though Jesus' death on the cross changed Jesus' standing in the Godhead. It certainly appears as though Jesus did not have all power before His resurrection from the dead, which would mean that in John 7 Jesus did not have the authority to command believers to receive the baptism with the Spirit. The baptism with the Spirit is a strictly New Testament, new covenant, experience. At no time before Jesus' death on the cross was the Holy Spirit able to come inside a man to dwell. He could come upon, He could empower, but He could not dwell inside.
The new covenant was established by the shed blood of Jesus. Therefore the new covenant was established at Jesus' death on the cross and continues to this present day. The old covenant was established by the blood of bulls and goats at mount Sinai and continued till Jesus' death on the cross. The old covenant ended at Jesus' death and the new covenant is the covenant now enforced by Jesus. Jesus blood utterly clears away sin. Jesus only issued one command after His resurrection, under the authority of the new covenant, to wait for the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Revelation 1 reveals this glorified and empowered Lord to us as John writes down a description of Him. John fell down dead at the sight of Him. This reaction to Jesus by John was very different than the reaction Moses had to God at the mount of God, when God came down on the mount to meet with the Children of Israel. Hebrews 12:21 records Moses' reaction. "And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. The major point of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is greater than angels, greater than man, greater than the old covenant priests, including Melchisedec, his blood is greater than the blood of bulls and goats and His covenant is greater than the old covenant. The promises of the new covenant are better than the promises of the old covenant and it would be more wise to obey the one command of the new covenant, than to keep all the commandments of the old covenant put together, because the mediator of the new covenant is as much greater than the mediator of the old covenant as the heavens are greater than the earth. The presence of the God of the New Testament is more terrible than the presence of the God of the Old Testament and as sure as the judgments of the old covenant was, the judgments of the new covenant far surpass them.
One of the points the book of Hebrews makes is that Jesus is superior as priest of the new covenant to those of the old covenant because He is of an eternal nature. The old covenant had many priests because they kept dieing. Jesus ever lives to enforce the command and the promises. Therefore, when He stood in front of His disciples and issued the only command He would issue under the new covenant, it was an eternal command, made to an eternal Church. It was made with all the authority of heaven and earth and disobedience carries a more stiff penalty than disobedience to any commandment issued under the old covenant.
We worship the God of love, who is full of mercy and grace, but it would be wrong of us to think that we can test and try this God without any repercussions. Since the majority of the Church walks in blatant, arrogant, willful disobedience to this commandment, made by the King of kings and Lord of lords, the modern day Church is walking under a curse brought about by their own disobedience. Look around. The Church of today can't access the great promises made to them. They have lost their saltiness and are ready to be thrown out with the refuse.
Please join with me in prayer that the great God of heaven would convict His people of their great sin.
Even if the modern day scholars were correct in their interpretation that because the disciples perfectly fulfilled their obedience to this commandment, carrying the gospel message out in ever widening circles, we aren't responsible to the command, our responsibility is to continue to carry the gospel message forward, in no way does that negate the eternal nature of this commandment. The fact that the disciples perfectly fulfilled their part, does not negate our responsibility to wait for the empowerment to witness for ourselves. Contrarily, by their interpretation and the publicizing of their interpretation they have caused the Church to walk in a daily, callous, arrogant disobedience to their Lord and Christ.