Joel： Outpouring of the Spirit For Today？ - Part 2 — Tim Conway

Just to come up to speed here, let's follow the flow of Joel. You can go to Joel 1, very quickly, verse 4. What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten.

What the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. And we just have locusts and more locusts, and anyway, plague of locusts. We see these, chapter 2, verse 11. The Lord utters His voice before His army.

So these locusts are God's army, He brought this. His camp is exceedingly great. He who executes His word is powerful. And then we see this, there's a call to repentance, verse 12. Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart.

And then you see, the Lord has pity. Go to 2 .18, then the Lord became jealous for His land, and had pity on His people. The Lord answered and said to His people, behold, I'm sending you grain, wine, oil, you will be satisfied.

If you go to 2 .24, the threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I'll restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.

You shall eat in plenty, you'll be satisfied. Praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never again... This is the way the ESV puts it, my people shall never again be put to shame.

It's just, in the original, it's the idea of they will never be put to shame forever. And it says it twice here, you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is none else, and my people shall never again be put to shame.

Joel’s Prophecy of the Spirit in the Last Days

And then, this seems to be, all of this was for Joel's day. There was a restoration that God poured out His blessing upon them, but then in 28, something happens here. It's right here that Joel gives us a look into the future.

Verse 28, and it shall come to pass afterward, and Peter says last days. It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, even on the male and female servants, in those days I will pour out My Spirit.

And this is interesting. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. Now, you might almost think, okay, He just told us something that sounds very positive.

The Spirit of God is going to be poured out. And yet, verse 30 sounds like, it sounds typical of the prophets when they're speaking about some kind of judgment. I will show wonders in the heavens and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.

The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so, you kind of look at verses 30 and 31.

Okay, what is all that? The heavens, the earth, wonders, blood and fire, columns of smoke, sun shall be turned to darkness, moon to blood. I mean, is that basically all sorts of judgments and God's fury being shown forth right before the great and awesome day of the Lord?

It actually seems like it may be indicating something that actually happens at the time when the Spirit is poured out, even in this age, in this gospel age. It, brethren, the thing is that that is apocryphal language about just some type of great movements.

And some think that this is just the awful violence of the church age. And that may very well seem or be right. You know, the thing is, Peter quotes this as being fulfilled. Even those verses right there, he doesn't leave them out.

And he even captures the first part of 32. It shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But here's the thing that I want you to see. Notice the timeline. There's two words here.

Notice afterward in verse 28. You see that there. And then the word before in verse 31. Afterward. After what? Well, after all the things that are before this in Joel. So in Joel's day, basically, it shall come to pass after that.

So sometime in the future, beyond Joel's day, after that, God's going to pour out His Spirit. And that's all going to happen before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. So you see the timeline.

It's, you know what we see here? Is we see that God is going to actually postpone the final judgment until what? Until He first brings a dispensation of the Spirit. And so the prophet sees this intervening period.

Because throughout the book, he's been looking ahead at the day of God's judgment. The day of the Lord. He's been mentioning it through here. But then right here, he says, you know what? Before that comes, he sees an age of the Spirit.

He sees this season. There's going to be an extraordinary work of the Spirit before the great day. When God's decision or God's verdict is handed down at the end of time. When this world finds its culmination.

So when exactly is that going to happen? When exactly is it going to happen that God's going to pour out His Spirit on all flesh? Well, in Joel, it doesn't specifically tell us. But the reality is Peter does tell us.

Peter tells us exactly when that happened. And he tells us in Acts chapter 2. And he says that this is that. This is what Joel said. Now, I want you to go over here. Because look. I mean, when I'm reading this, I'm saying, okay, what does this have to do with us?

Pentecost and Peter’s Interpretation of Joel

And I think a lot. Go to Acts. I want you to see in the book of Acts where Peter quotes this. And I want you to get the feel. And so we're going to read the first 21 verses of Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

So Pentecost. Pent. That idea is 50 days. It's 50 days after Passover. The day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind.

It filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered. Because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

And they were amazed and astonished saying, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that we hear each one of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene.

Visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans, Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, what does this mean?

But others mocking said they're filled with new wine. But Peter standing with the eleven lifted up his voice and addressed them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words.

These people are not drunk as you suppose since it's only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. So we know that from Joel's day he saw that before the day of the Lord would come, sometime after Joel's time, but before the day of the Lord, this would happen.

And Peter says this is the day that that has happened. That's what's happening here. Verse 16, this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.

And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below. Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes.

The great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so there you have it. Now, no one in this room who believes their Bible that it is the Word of God.

Not a one of you is going to argue about whether Joel chapter 2 verses 28 through 32a was finding fulfillment on that day there in Pentecost 2 ,000 years ago when Peter stood up and he was preaching there.

Nobody's going to argue that. That's not the question. Acts 2 .16 right here ends that question. This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. I mean, we see it. The question is this. What does Joel's prophecy have to do with me and you?

Does it have anything to do with me and you? Listen, if God's going to pour out his spirit, I think what we need to ask is this. Was God only promising to pour out his spirit right there on Peter and his cohorts?

Or does the promise stretch to us? In fact, does the promise stretch all the way until the day of the Lord? But what I'm most concerned is, does it stretch to us? Because we're here now. We're the ones alive.

This has to... Whatever happens in the future happens there. But listen, you know what this has to do with? It has to do with God's promises. I hope that you do not have the ability to look at a promise in Scripture and not take it seriously.

If God gives us promises, he means to fulfill the promise. And I would just say this. If God has promised to pour out his spirit, then you know what? We should not let go of God until we see the very fruit of what he has promised.

Now, if you can convince me from Scripture that it was only for Peter and for his day, well then, you know, we don't really have anything to argue. The promise doesn't pertain to us. So that's the question.

Does the promise pertain to us or was it just for them? There's no question it's being fulfilled then. But is there a question? Listen, this has to do with us. Because what was happening? They were bringing this Word to all these people of these different languages concerning the mighty works of God.

And you know what? The Spirit of God moved in that place. And things happened. And if we're going to try to take the Gospel to say Poland or other places or to the city center, then this is not just a moot point.

What does Joel's prophecy have to do with you and me and the church today? That is a significant question. Did Joel's words get fulfilled in Peter's day and that's it? And now it's all over. Or do they apply to us?

You see, the question is this. Are Joel's words for one day? I mean, what are they for? Are they for one day? Are they for what? The days while the apostles lived? Is that what it's for? Or are they for the church all the way to the day of the Lord?

The question is this. How is Joel's prophecy fulfilled? We have to ask that. Was that on the day of Pentecost just the beginning of blessing? A blessing we should expect to extend all the way to our day.

Should we believe this prophecy is far from complete? So, and that question produces this one. How many of our old men dream dreams? How many? How many of our young men see spirit-given visions? Where are the sons and daughters prophesying?

I mean, what are we supposed to make of this? By simple observation, do we just conclude, well, we're not seeing that. I mean, I don't know anybody here that's necessarily had a vision or a dream lately.

So, we could just automatically conclude, well, this is not for today. Those things happened back then, but not today. And to be quite honest, oftentimes the people that do come forth and say they had a vision, the people that do come forth and say that they got some word from God, the vast majority of the time, they're, a lot of times, they're not all together there.

A lot of times, it's not the people that you consider to be the most godly and holy people in the church. A lot of times, that's not the case at all. So, perhaps Joel's prophecy was filled back then, it's complete.

We can just close it up and we can go home. Now listen, I'll tell you this. Everything in me wants this for today. Everything in me wants this for today. The British church needs something that comes from the outpouring of the Spirit of God.

The British church needs, I mean, doesn't it seem in need of the very thing that Joel promises? Which is what? I mean, we can get so bored and apathetic with the very unamazing results of the church in our day.

Living, you know what? A lot of Christianity lives on a heritage of the people from the past. They live on a heritage of Martin Lloyd-Jones or Spurgeon or Carey or, I mean, you'd fill it in, McShane, the champions from the past.

We can just, we can live on that. But the fact is, where is the Spirit of God now? Where is that? Is it not true that vast numbers of little personal problems and petty issues in the church could just absolutely be swallowed up if we were to experience some kind of new and fresh effusions and refreshing outpourings like you talked about here of the Spirit of God in our time?

Listen, I want Joel's prophecy to be for today. I desire it with all my heart. But listen, I don't want my desire for it to jade my views on it, to find something in Scripture that I probably really shouldn't find.

So does this premise apply to us? And I just want to make some observations here that I think may be helpful to all of us. Because, listen, brethren, if we've got promises in Scripture, you don't want to let go of the promises in Scripture.

Listen, if you can claim this promise, then you should have an expectation of outpouring of the Spirit in ways above and beyond what you have known before. And that ought to encourage you. Now listen, I would say this.

The Spirit’s Outpouring Is for All Flesh

Joel's prophecy. Let's just stay here in the book of Acts. We don't need to go back to Joel. We'll see Joel's words here. But I would say this. Be careful what you emphasize. Now notice this. Notice the prophecy again.

Verse 17, Acts 2. In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams.

Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my Spirit and they shall prophesy. Now, I think it best that we don't get obsessed with the prophesying part of this, the dreaming part of this, and the visions part of this as being the primary thing that Joel is emphasizing.

I don't think that this is the primary aspect of his prophecy. And here's why I think that. Think with me. When Peter says this is what Joel said, was anybody having dreams? Was anybody having visions?

Was anybody prophesying in the sense that they were foretelling the future? Were any of those three things happening? It was tongues. It wasn't anything that Joel said. So anyways, no one was dreaming.

No one was having a vision. No one was predicting the future. Acts 2 .4, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, I think that's key. Look at Acts 2 .4. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

They, who? All. Now, that's what you want to emphasize. Now, 2 .4 is not part of Joel's prophecy, but that is the issue. They all, all who? All who? Well, it was the 120 that were in the upper room. And you remember, there were men and women up there.

And this is the issue. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, that you want to catch. All of them were filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit gave utterance.

Now, just tuck that away. How is it that we hear each of us in our own native language? Verse 8 and 10 says, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. What we want to stress is the diversity and totality of the outpouring of the Spirit.

You see, Joel says, Now, here's the thing. When you go through the Old Testament, if you were to think right off, where's the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament? Do you know the primary thing you find about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament?

Two things. One, you find the Holy Spirit is being prophesied about. His work in the New Testament is being predicted. Like it is in Joel. Like it is in Isaiah. You see promises of the new covenant. But you know what?

The Spirit primarily shows up in the Old Testament as coming upon certain individuals. Can anybody here tell me, somebody in the Old Testament that the Spirit of God came upon? Who? Saul. What happened to Saul when the Spirit came upon him?

He prophesied. Well, now isn't that interesting? You see, prophesying…. Now, and listen. I don't think you want to take prophesying in the strict sense that it's got to do with predicting the future. Prophesying can be taken in the sense….

I'm not saying Saul wasn't doing that. But I'm just saying prophesying can basically include setting forth, say, the mighty works of God. Saul was a king. Anybody else? Take a shot at who the Spirit came upon.

Who? Samson. He was a judge. Who else? Let me give you a running…. Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find a man like Joseph in whom is the Spirit of God? Exodus, Bezalel. God says, I have filled him with the Spirit of God.

Who is he? He was the guy that designed the Ark of the Covenant and all that. He basically created that. Numbers 11. The Lord came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it in the seventy elders.

As soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. Very interesting. Now, two of the men remained in the camp. One named Eldad, the other named Medad. And the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent.

So they prophesied in the camp. And the young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, from his youth said, My Lord Moses, stop them.

And Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets! And the Lord would put His Spirit on them. Now listen, when you go through the Old Testament, you know what you'll find?

In different places, when the Spirit of God came upon people, they prophesied. And what you will find is that almost exclusively, the Spirit of God came upon the leaders in Moses' day, the judges, the kings, certain prophets, and certain priests.

And that's it in the Old Testament. And so the point is this, what Joel is saying is that this is for men and women. Basically, we are going to come into a dispensation where the Spirit of God is going to be poured upon all flesh, Jew and Gentile, man and woman, old and young.

That's key. All flesh. All. God is going to make Himself known and felt in a powerful way to all. Now you think of pouring. He says He's going to pour the Spirit. Think of the imagery there. It's being soaked, poured, saturated, swept along by the Spirit of God.

And this is not just any longer for the prophet, for the priest, and the king. It's for our sisters just as well as for the brothers. It is for the young. It is for the old. It is for the Jew. It is for the Gentile.

You know what Joel is saying to each of us? Don't think that this is beyond your reach. This is an experience that you don't want to put in that category of, well, maybe Spurgeon had it, I can't have it.

Maybe some other men and women have demonstrated throughout time. Don't think that such an experience of God is for the spiritual elite, for certain pastors, for certain missionaries. Well, yeah, if I was Martyn Lloyd-Jones, perhaps I could have.

The point of Joel's prophecy is this. The Spirit will be poured on all flesh. Man, woman, young, old, servant, master, the promise is for you. That's the idea here. Do we not in the New Testament believe in the priesthood of all believers?

That's basically the idea. Moses said to Joshua, would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit on them. It sounds like that's precisely what Moses wanted to see happen back then, but didn't happen back then.

It's precisely what Joel promised would happen in this time of the new covenant. Now, is this also for today as much as in Peter's day? That's the question. Now, listen. If you say no because you're uncomfortable with visions and dreams, well, listen, just simply because you perhaps haven't experienced that doesn't mean that certain men and women may have.

I mean, don't rule that out based on your own experience. And I would just say this, prophesying in the broadest sense is the idea of proclaiming the excellencies of God. I said, tuck this away. Remember, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance.

We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. Now, you want to think about what the Spirit does when He comes upon these people. What is it that was happening then? What does the outpouring produce?

Rivers of Living Water and Spirit-Empowered Witness

Now, listen. Listen to this. John 7 .38. Don't turn there, but listen to it. Jesus said this, whoever believes in Me. Now, you do want to capture those words, because He says that about some pretty amazing things.

Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now, this He said about the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

And you see, He's talking about exactly the same thing. He's talking about the Spirit that would be given, how they would be clothed with power from on high after He went to His Father. And He keeps saying that, when I go to my Father, it's more advantageous for you that I go to my Father than staying here.

Why? Because if I don't go to my Father, I don't send the Holy Spirit. And He says this, whoever believes in Me, so all believers, Jew, Gentile, young, old, man, woman, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

And it says, He said that about the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, but now it has been given. It got given on that day Peter said, this is what Joel said was going to happen.

Now listen, if you're a true believer here, do you believe this? Do you grasp this? Do you live in the reality of this? That out of your heart will flow rivers of living water? I mean, what is that? Well, it's like the Spirit is poured out and doesn't just drench us.

It actually is poured in and flows out. It's like the Spirit so fills us. And you think about the imagery. I mean, what does that mean? Out of His heart will flow rivers of living... Does anybody feel like you're that?

Does anybody feel that? Folks, the heart, out of the heart will flow rivers of living water. The heart is the seed of emotion. Something flows out away from the believer. That is life-giving. Rivers of living water.

The ones who come along and turn the world upside down are people who have something going on in the heart and something flowing out of them. Folks, what was flowing out when they said this? They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance.

We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. What does this have to do with? It has to do with what comes out of us. We have the words of life. We're the witnesses of what Christ did.

Listen, we have a message. You recognize, we have a message to preach to people that's fuller and more complete than Christ Himself preached. Because Christ only could preach certain things as being future.

They hadn't come to pass yet. We now preach looking back on a complete salvation that has been worked out. Folks, you need to recognize this. This is no small thing. To be a child of God in this world means that you, being endowed with the Spirit, when you speak, you know, we can feel awkward.

We can feel insufficient. But I want you to know when you're speaking these things, look at this, whoever believes in me, and it's, listen, the ones who come along and turn the world upside down, they've got a heart that's giving, a heart from which rivers of living water are coming.

It means that something's got to flow out of you. Something has to come out there. And obviously, it's with the heart. It's coming from, it doesn't say from the mouth. It's from the heart. It tells me something about the passion of these people.

They're passionate about the message, passionate about the souls. The ones who come along and turn the world upside down, you can recognize they're not ones who are indifferent. The Spirit of God has a real tendency to make people care, to make people love, to make people concerned, to make people want to give themselves and sacrifice for the sake of reaching people.

It's not the indifferent people. That's not what the Spirit of God does. It's not the disinterested. It's not the sort of, you know, neutral, cool, spiritual individual that usually makes a difference in this world.

Rivers of living water. And Jesus said, whoever believes in Me, I'll tell you this, if you're in this room right now and you're a genuine believer, there should be an expectation. Lord, I have an expectation that something akin to rivers of living water are going to flow from Me.

And if all we do all day long is speak the Word and nobody lives from it, it's not life-giving, then what is that promise? What is it? From the heart. It's the passionate people who tend to exchange safety, comfort.

I mean, the Spirit-inspired life and progress and course of the church. That's not always the safe place. Folks, listen to this. You know this is true. You can usually tell whether a person's been drenched with the Spirit by whether his mouth is giving to declaring the excellencies of God.

When God Almighty pours Himself into an individual, a river of life tends to flow out. And I just want you to consider the book of Acts. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, what happens? He begins to preach to the rulers of the people and the elders.

This is in Acts 4. Or how about this? Just listen to this. Acts 4 .31, When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And so what did they do when they were all filled with the Holy Spirit?

Sit around and have a Holy Spirit high? Laugh hysterically at each other? Feel good? Go home? Back to their safety and security? Is that what they did? That's not what happens. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness.

Acts 6 .10. They could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which Philip was speaking. The spirit. He was speaking. Acts 13 .9 Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit. What did he do?

He looked intently at him and said, You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness. Anyways, he went to speaking. Acts 19 .6 When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

I'm reminded by what the Old Testament Scripture... What does the Old Testament Scripture say is going to happen when the Spirit of God comes upon Christ? It says this, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

You get that? He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, opening the prison to those who are bound. You see the proclamation of that, that the fact is that the Spirit of the Lord God is upon Christ, because the Lord has anointed Christ to bring good news to the poor.

Listen, we need this. We need an outpouring of the Spirit to be able to proclaim with boldness and with power. And I could just jump in right here and say, how do we tap the Spirit? I'll tell you this.

Study Christ. Speak of Christ. As you behold Him, you're transformed by the Spirit into that same image. But the Spirit came to glorify Christ. So speak of Christ. Speak often of Christ. Don't let your tongue.

We are the people who are to proclaim a people for his own possession, a people for proclaiming the excellencies of Him. That's what we're called to do. Listen, I believe you grieve the Spirit when you don't do that.

I believe you grieve the Spirit. And you know what grieving the Spirit is called? Over in 1 Thessalonians, it's called quenching the Spirit. You see, we're talking about fire. We're talking about energy, spiritual energy, spiritual power.

Don't grieve the Spirit through worldliness. Don't grieve the Spirit through bitterness and disunity among ourselves. These are ways that these things can happen. Brethren, we need to be taking opportunity.

I mean, one of the things that's going to happen is you're going to find that the Spirit of God is going to tend to help as we set ourselves. And you know what? It may not be that you're going to pack up and go down to Nigeria and speak the gospel.

You may not go with us and preach the gospel in Poland. You may not do that. But you know what? You can be deliberate. You can meet with your neighbor and you can talk. You can meet with a family member and you can talk.

A fellow worker. Just opportunities as they arise throughout the day. Now look, in Acts 2 .17, Peter said, in the last days it shall be. This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. What was uttered?

In the last days it shall be. That's pretty important. In the last days it shall be. We're in the last days. So from that aspect, it applies. Now listen, I could tell you some stories about people that you highly respect who would say that they have had visions or dreams.

People you respect. I know that Mack Tomlinson has been studying very carefully all the miraculous that happened among the Scottish Covenanters. I could tell you some things, the Spurgeon experience. I don't want to get into all that right now.

And like I said before, I don't even believe that that is the thing to emphasize. The thing to emphasize is that this is for everybody. Don't be thinking this is for some spiritually elite person. Don't think that this is just, well, yeah, the pastor or Sonny goes down there and preaches or any of these other guys that go down.

It's for them. And you know what? You just think about the numerous passages that seem to support the fact that we live in the age of the Spirit, that we're in a Pentecostal age in which the ascended Christ is yet pouring out His Spirit.

Christ’s Baptism with the Holy Spirit and the Great Commission

Now listen, John the Baptist came and he said very specifically, look, I baptize you with water, but there's one who's coming who's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Is there any reason to believe that that was limited to that day at Pentecost?

There doesn't seem to be any indication. Christ is called He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And you know what? That's what John's Gospel says. He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

That is one of the titles for Christ. He who baptizes with the Spirit. I'll tell you this, He who baptizes with the Spirit is at the right hand of the Father. And He's very much concerned with what we're doing.

And He told us, lo, I am with you to the end of the age, He who baptizes with the Spirit. And so He said, therefore go. And it may be going across the street to your neighbor. It may be going across the country.

It may be going further away than that. Or how about this? You know that I love this verse and I keep saying it. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me, there's that again that we saw over in John 7, whoever believes in Me, not just the apostles, whoever believes in Me, will also do the works that I do and greater works than these He will do because I am going to the Father.