What Promise Did Jesus Give Before His Ascension?

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The last promise that Jesus gave to His Apostles before His ascension to heaven was the promise that the Holy Spirit would come upon them to empower them to take the gospel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Luke records the fulfillment of this promise beginning in Acts 2, which tells us how the Spirit descended on the church at Pentecost.

Under the old covenant, Pentecost was one of the three major pilgrimage festivals that required the Israelites to go up to Jerusalem (Deut. 16). It was also called the Feast of Weeks because it took place fifty days, or seven weeks, after the Feast of Firstfruits, which was observed on the first day after the first Sabbath during the week of Passover. Pentecost marked the end of the spring grain harvest under the old covenant (Lev. 23:4–22). Over time, the Jews came to associate Pentecost with the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, probably because about fifty days had elapsed between the exodus from Egypt and the receiving of the law (Ex. 19:1).

The Holy Spirit had been with the covenant community before the new covenant day of Pentecost, for He regenerated old covenant members and gave them the gift of faith.

Moving into the new covenant, the Holy Spirit came upon God’s people on the Pentecost that immediately followed the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Spirit came with the sound of “a mighty rushing wind.” The word for “spirit” in both Greek and Hebrew is the same word translated as “wind,” and Scripture speaks of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in terms of a mighty wind or breath (Ezek. 37:1–14; John 3:8). Along with the sound of the wind, visible tongues of fire appeared and rested on the heads of the people (Acts 2:3). Fire signified the divine presence and the promised sanctifying baptism of the Messiah (Ex. 3:1–6; Luke 3:15–17).

Of course, the Holy Spirit had been with the covenant community before the new covenant day of Pentecost, for He regenerated old covenant members and gave them the gift of faith. He had to do so because the only way that anyone believes in the one true God under any covenant is by being born again by the Spirit (see John 3:3). Nevertheless, the new covenant experience of the Spirit is much greater, for now all Christians possess the Spirit’s gifts for ministry.