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Luke 24:48–49
“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.”
Preparing the disciples for His bodily return to heaven and His physical absence, our Lord told them not only that the Old Testament prophesied His coming, atoning death, and resurrection but also that it predicted the church and its global gospel ministry. A new phase in the history of salvation was beginning, and God’s truth would no longer be confined mostly to ethnic Israel. The church—first the Apostles and then those who come after them—would preach the good news to all peoples, beginning in Jerusalem (Luke 24:44–47).
This is a tall order indeed, and no doubt at least some of the disciples who heard this word considered it an impossible task. Jesus, however, next assured them that they could fulfill their mission because they would not go forth to the ends of the earth in their own power. Our Savior would be clothing them with power from on high (vv. 48–49). Of course, Jesus was referring to His outpouring of the Holy Spirit without measure on His people only a few weeks later at Pentecost (see Acts 1:1–11; 2:1–41).
Three things are worth noting in today’s passage. First, Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as the promise of His Father that Jesus would send (Luke 24:49). The Western church has seen in this an allusion to the double procession of the Holy Spirit. What makes the Holy Spirit a distinct person from the Father and from the Son is that He proceeds from Them from all eternity.
Second, by calling the Holy Spirit the “promise of my Father,” Jesus reminded the disciples that the Old Testament predicted the Spirit’s coming. Joel 2:28–29 foresees the clothing of all of God’s people with all of God’s Spirit. The prophets knew that the church was coming and that it would succeed because it would receive the Holy Spirit.
Finally, the Holy Spirit is referred to as “power” in Luke 24:49 because He alone can make the witness of the church effective. Not even the Apostles were capable of fulfilling the mission on their own. Matthew Henry comments, “Christ’s apostles could never have planted his gospel, and set up his kingdom in the world, as they did, if they had not been endued with such a power.” How much more, then, do we need the Holy Spirit to reach the ends of the earth? John Calvin writes, “No mortal is of himself qualified for preaching the gospel, except so far as God clothes him with his Spirit, to supply his nakedness and poverty.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Although we play a part in taking the gospel to the nations, we cannot succeed in this endeavor without the empowering of the Holy Spirit. God grants us the Spirit in conversion, and we must rely on Him continually by seeking Him in prayer and corporate worship. By learning His Word and seeking to follow it, we are empowered to proclaim the gospel.
For further study
- Isaiah 44:1–5
- Micah 3:8
- John 4:15–30
- Galatians 3:1–4:7
The bible in a year
- Zechariah 4–6
- Revelation 18