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This passage exhibits the leading features of Christianity.

I. THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION WAS TO BE CHARACTERISED BY SPIRITUALITY. "I will pour out My Spirit."

1. Formerly the Spirit dwelt with man.

2. Whereas formerly the Spirit dwelt with men, now He dwells in them, There is a sense in which the Spirit was not given to men before the day of Pentecost. This sense is explained in John 14:15-17. Jesus was the first human being in whom the Spirit abode

II. THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION WAS TO BE CHARACTERISED BY LIBERTY. "In Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance."

1. The Gospel finds us in chains.

(1)  In bondage under the tyranny of sin.

(2)  He also trembles under the tyranny of death.

(3)  The terrors of hell are upon him.

2. But the Gospel bursts our bonds in sunder. The believer is justified by the merits of Christ.

III. THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION WAS TO BE CHARACTERISED BY POWER. "I will show wonders," etc.

1. Here are marvellous spiritual signs. Prophecy, as prediction and as preaching. Visions. At the inauguration of Christianity there were apparitions. Throughout the dispensation there have been spiritual revelations. Dreams.

2. Here also are stupendous physical wonders. Some of these were associated with the great transactions on Calvary. Some were associated with the complementary transactions upon Zion. These wonders show that Omnipotence is behind the truth.

IV. THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION WAS TO BE CHARACTERISED BY EXPANSIVENESS.

1. Its salvation is universally free.

2. The conditions of this salvation are level to all capacities.

3. The expansiveness of the Gospel triumphs over conventionalities. Both the social and the national.

(J. Alexander Macdonald.)

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KJV: And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

WEB: "It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.