In the upper room Jesus announced to His disciples that he was going to a place where they could not go. But He did tell them that the Holy Spirit would come to actually indwell them, comfort, and teach them. Instead of anticipation for this new experience, the disciples were consumed by their own expectations about what they believed about the destiny of their Master.
After Gethsemane, Golgotha, and the resurrection at the garden tomb, the disciples are hiding in what we called a panic room for fear of the Jewish religious establishment that was seeking to kill them. In a surprise event, the resurrected Christ is present among them. He reiterates the coming of the Spirit, commissions them with the good news of His kingdom, and opens their minds to be able to appropriate what He told them.
Jesus then appears to hundreds of believers over the next forty days. At Bethany He tells the disciples of the baptism and the power of the coming Spirit that would enable them to proclaim His kingdom to the nations. They were directed to wait ten days in Jerusalem for the Spirit’s coming. Suddenly, He ascends into heaven. The universal cosmic order is now identified with an individual human being: the authority and the power over the world reside in this God-man. God’s throne room is the hub or the center of what is about to take place.
The expectations and the comprehension of the disciples were beginning to align with the purposes and promises of their Messiah. They are in a waiting room in Jerusalem. Instead of making their own plans, they were spending all their energy seeking God. Along with other believers, they were fiercely devoting themselves to prayer. They were also obedient to the Scripture which led them to seek a replacement for Judas. They could not legislate what was about to happen. As they sought God, Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, was about to happen to them.