Glorified, Risen and Ascended (Pt 3)
Right, so we've established that Christ's Ascension was not an end, but a beginning. But, what exactly did He begin to do? Well, more than one thing in fact.
Let's start off today by being Pentecostal. 'What's being Pentecostal got to do with the Ascension?', I hear you ask. Everything, I reply.
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter explained to the crowd what had happened. Yet Peter wasn't content simply to recount an experience. Rather, he made known the theological foundations of the experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. In fact, Peter explained that it is the Ascension that lies behind the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. 'Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.' (Acts 2:33). Christ's receiving of the promise of the Spirit from the Father is a result of Christ's Ascension (His exaltation to the right hand of God). That means that Christ's pouring out of the Holy Spirit on His people is a result of the Ascension. Thus, the Ascension of Christ is the theological foundation for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is the Ascended Christ who pours out the Spirit and it is to the Ascended Christ that we look in order to receive the promised Holy Spirit. Without the Ascension there is no Pentecost. Without Pentecost there is no Pentecostalism. Therefore the Ascension has everything to do with being Pentecostal.
(To be continued...)