Most Christians know about the Holy Spirit’s power granted one morning in Jerusalem seven weeks after Jesus’ resurrection. It occurred on the Jewish Festival of Passover recorded in Acts 2. Many Christians don’t know what John 20 reports. This text is about Jesus’ giving the Holy Spirit before the exciting spiritual event at the Passover Festival.

Seven weeks before Pentecost we’re with Jesus late on the day of his resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection has announced that he’s back for good. His students thought he was gone forever. His enemies reckoned they’d safely stuffed him, dead, in a tomb. But his students’ breathtaking (and breath-receiving) experience in John 20 shows that Jesus is back and will never again be absent from their lives.

We might as well get used to that with Jesus. He’…