Greetings in the name of Jesus:
I hope this finds you well. I received your responses to my five questions. Thank you for sending them. It was very revealing, and I shared your answers with the whole body here, and it touched our hearts for God’s people.
You also sent me a question about some who are said to have been filled with the Spirit before the day of Pentecost. In particular, you mentioned the family of Zacharias the priest.
In answer, we know that no one received the holy Spirit until Jesus ascended and was glorified because John said so in his gospel (Jn. 7:39). We also know that the New Testament did not begin until after Jesus died (Heb. 9:16-17) and that the new Testament is the Spirit entering into a heart and writing God’s will on it (Heb. 8:8-12).
So, Zacharias and his family were living in Old Testament time, which requires us to understand their “filling” as something other than a New Testament kind of being filled. Even the prophet Micah once said, “I am full of the spirit and power of God,” but no one (except Mormons, and a few others) believes that Micah and the prophets received the baptism of the Spirit and were born again. There obviously was a being filled with the Spirit under the Law, but if it was the infilling/baptism of the Spirit that Jesus came to suffer and die for us to have, he could have saved himself a trip, seeing it was already here.
No, the Spirit was not given to man until the day of Pentecost, after Jesus was glorified, just as John said (7:37-39).
I hope I adequately explained this. If not, I will be happy to try again.
Your servant,
Pastor John