On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

–          We can glean from this that Jesus promised that anyone who believes in Him after He was glorified (after He rose from the dead) would receive the Holy Spirit.  Every born again believer has the Holy Spirit inside of them, because they are born of the spirit. 

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 

–          This is the account of the fulfillment of the promise given in John 7:37.  Jesus is talking to His disciples.  He gave them the commission “I am sending you” and also ability to fulfill it – “He breathed on them and said, ‘receive the Holy Spirit’”.   

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

–          Jesus is talking to His disciples (those who had already received the Holy Spirit in John 20 when Jesus breathed on them). 

–          Therefore there is a clear distinction from having the Spirit live in you, and having the Spirit come on you

–          The purpose of the Spirit coming IN you is to enable you to be His witness… the purpose of the Spirit coming ON you is to empower you to be His witness to the world

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.  When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.  When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

–          They prayed that the new believers – who according to John 7:37 already had the Holy Spirit in them – would receive the Holy Spirit because He had not yet come on them.

–          The Holy Spirit came on them at the laying on of the apostles’ hands