The twelve apostles had been filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, along with the other 108 believers who were in the Upper Room. They had listened by the hour as Jesus had finished his teachings on the Holy Spirit, promising that He and the Father would send the Holy Spirit to them. They had heard enough from Him to realize the importance of the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives and ministries. Jesus had made it clear that if they missed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they could never qualify as His Kingdom agents on earth. Even before they had received the Spirit in His fullness they understood that they must learn to maintain a relationship with Him even as they had with their Lord. He was Someone to host. He was to be treated as the Divine Guest. No doubt they felt privileged to become His temple, to sense His Presence, to hear His voice, to follow His direction. The apostles soon realized that just as He was the Spirit of the Father, even so He truly was the very Spirit of Jesus Christ. He was no different in nature and in relationship with them than Jesus had been. He was not only with them, but He was in them.
Jesus' final business with the crowd that had gathered on the Mount of Olives on the morning of His ascension to the Father was to issue a command and give a promise. The command was, "Go back into the city of Jerusalem and start a prayer meeting." The promise was, "I and the Father will send the Holy Spirit." It is believed that about 500 believers heard the command and the promise. And yet only 120 obeyed the command. And only 120 experienced the fulfillment of Jesus' promise: "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit," said Luke (Acts 2:4).
We might wonder what happened to the 380 who did not join the prayer meeting. Did they not consider the Master's command and promise to be urgent? What did they consider more important than obeying the Lord? Was it family, personal plans or just unbelief that hindered their moving out with the 120 toward the city? Even today, in most of our churches and fellowships, we see about the same ratio of the disobedient to the obedient -- four to one. I believe 120 out of 500 represent 24%. Most pastors I know would be quite encouraged to have one out of four of their members passionately seeking the sanctifying fullness of the Holy Spirit, on fire for Christ and joining in prayer for a sweeping revival through the church and out into their city. But let me encourage us: We need to be reminded that if there is an obedient, Spirit-hungry minority, the disobedient, indifferent majority cannot prevent revival! God worked mightily through the 120 who were filled with the Spirit.
By the time Christ's apostles were imprisoned, threatened and persecuted by the Jewish authorities for boldly proclaiming Jesus Christ as God's appointed Savior of the world, they had learned enough about the Holy Spirit to know that He must be obeyed. They realized that if they were to continue to be filled with the Spirit and minister in power, they would need to be as sensitive to His voice as they had been to their Lord's. Therefore when ordered by the Sanhedrin to cease their teaching in Jesus' Name and filling Jerusalem with their Christian doctrines, their reply was, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
