The impartation of the Holy Spirit by Jesus to His disciples on resurrection day was not the baptism in the Spirit as experienced at Pentecost. It was the disciples’ initial new covenant experience of the regenerating presence of the Holy Spirit and the impartation of new life from the risen Christ.
During Jesus’ last discourse with His disciples before the trial and crucifixion, He promised them that they would receive the Holy Spirit as the One who would regenerate them. Jesus now fulfills that promise.
The Gospel of John chapter twenty verse twenty-two refers to regeneration where Jesus breathed on the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. This verse is similar to Genesis chapter two, verse seven, where God breathed into Adam’s nostrils to receive the breath of life. In Ezekiel, chapter thirty-seven, verse nine, John’s use of this verb indicates that Jesus was giving the Spirit to bring forth life and a new creation. As God breathed into physical man the breath of life and he became a new creation, so Jesus now breathed on the disciples spiritually, and they became a new creation in a new covenant sense. Through His resurrection, Jesus became a “quickening life-giving Spirit as stated in First Corinthians chapter fifteen verse forty-five.
The phrase “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” establishes that the Spirit entered and began to live in the disciples. The Holy Spirit was to regenerate them to make new creatures in Christ. The disciples “receiving” of life from the Spirit preceded both the authority of Jesus and baptism in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
The disciples before this time were technically true believers and followers of Jesus and saved according to old covenant provisions. They became regenerated when they entered the new covenant provisions based on Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was at this time the church was born and not at Pentecost. The spiritual birth of the first disciples and the church are the same.