Clothed: Day 14 (Conclusion)

"Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God." - Luke 24:44-53

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He wasn’t staying. To the great joy of his disciples, Jesus had come back from the dead. But now, he might as well be dying again, for he was leaving them. But he had prepared them for this moment just a few weeks before: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). And so when he departed, they were not sorrowful but filled “with great joy.” Why? Weren’t they going to miss their Friend? Was he not their beloved King? Indeed, but he left them with a promise, and not just any promise: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is absolutely central to this age in which the resurrected Christ is bodily absent. Just as Jesus walked this earth – healing, teaching, preaching, convicting, pitying, counseling, encouraging, exorcising, blessing, reconciling – so he sends the Holy Spirit to carry on the same ministry. The Holy Spirit is now with us to manifest the person of Christ to us. He does so regularly through the preaching of his Word, through the Lord’s Supper and baptism. But also, as the wind blows where it wishes, the Spirit also reveals him to us however he desires, through things as ordinary as the budding of a flower or as extraordinary as visions and dreams of Jesus himself.

The Holy Spirit is central to everything God’s people do, whether things as spiritual as corporate worship, prayer, and Bible reading, or things as earthly as washing dishes and having coffee with a friend. He is our power to believe and to obey, he is our strength to learn about God and love our fellow man, he is our deliverance from depression and addiction, and he maintains our fellowship with God and nourishes our weary souls. He is also our power for ministry, for preaching the gospel with boldness, for mighty works that verify the gospel, and for lives that draw people to the gospel. Everything that Christ won for us in his cross and resurrection – forgiveness and righteousness and power and life and wisdom and adoption and deliverance and everything else – this is all just religious jargon until applied to us and revealed to us through the work of the Holy Spirit.

For all these reasons and more, the disciples had no reason to grieve the departure of Jesus, for just as he had promised, “I will be with you always,” and so by the Holy Spirit, he would, indeed! He would “clothe them with power from on high,” continuing his ministry from the throne room of heaven, a ministry newly based on his accomplished work, a ministry performed through the mediation of the Spirit. And so, for all this, the disciples had great reason for joy. And so do we.

But let us not imagine that this is how it will always be. No, the age of the Spirit concludes with the return of the King. The Spirit is fast at work, preparing the nations for the revelation of the King of kings, purifying a people for his own possession, glorifying him through their works of love and justice, attesting to his worth through lives of costly obedience, witnessing to the truth that our God not only lives, but reigns.

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1. Why did the disciples not grieve over Jesus’ ascension back to heaven?
   
2. How is the Holy Spirit central to the age that we currently live in, when Christ is bodily absent?
   
3. How does the Holy Spirit’s work relate to the work of Christ?
   
4. Is the Holy Spirit actively at work in your life? Does he convict you of sin? Reveal God’s grace in Christ to you? Does he give you desires for the things of God? Power for ministry? Does he teach you about God through his Word?
   
5. Will Christ always be bodily absent, reigning and ruling through the Spirit? What is the ultimate purpose of the Spirit’s work in this age?

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