First Sunday after Ascension

^†  

The Church is on the cusp of one of the most exciting feast days for the ‘populum’, the people, and certainly for us Gentiles. Pentecost was the Day, fifty days after JESUS’ Resurrection and ten days after His Ascension, to be precise, when the Spirit of GOD came from His heavenly Abode to earth, to shatter all barriers and hard lines of distinction between the races, genders, and classes of people. When the Holy Spirit came, no longer would there only be one ethnic people of GOD who inherited the Abrahamic promises, but from Pentecost forward, as Saint Paul has said: “If ye be in Christ by faith, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3.29). For by the Spirit of Christ, we who were “once aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without GOD in the world; we, now, being in Christ JESUS (by faith and Holy Baptism), were sometimes far off, are now made nigh by the Blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both people (Jew and Gentile), one” (Ephesians 2.12-14a). Thus, In anticipation of His Ascension, and the coming of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, JESUS tells His disciples in John’s Gospel, “When the Comforter comes, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, Who proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me” (St. John 15.26).  

And as we discussed on the Feast of the glorious Ascension of JESUS to the right hand of the Father in Heaven (Christ bringing His glorified Flesh and Blood through the Gate of Heaven and presenting His Gift to the Father), the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth  could then come to the Church to bring GOD’s gifts to men. And when the Holy Spirit came at the behest of JESUS on the Feast of Pentecost, He began (and He continues) to testify of JESUS to the world; first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. — We should then ask, how does the Spirit of Truth testify, or give witness of JESUS as the Christ, the Son of GOD, to the world. — He does so in three ways. 

First, the Holy Spirit brings evidence of Christ’s existence, character, and purpose as the Savior and Redeemer of mankind through the Holy Scriptures. JESUS says to His disciples in the Gospel of John: “If I had not come and spoken unto the Jews, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin” (15.22). — JESUS was not saying that the race of Jews that He encountered in His generation would have been without sin if He had not come. No, for Saint Paul sayeth: “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of GOD” (Romans 3.23), and in another place, he also sayeth, “The Scriptures hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of JESUS Christ might be given to them that believe” (Galatians 3.22). — Thus, the sin of the Jews of JESUS’ generation was that they rejected Him, the foreordained, prophesied, and divinely revealed Messiah of Israel. “The Jews had not been chargeable with a contempt of Christ if JESUS had not come and made an offer of His grace to them. For sin is not imputed where there is no law, so unbelief is not imputed where there is no revelation of the Gospel; and, since the Gospel was imputed to them, it is thus a damning sin; their rejection being a sin against the remedy, the Gospel, which is personified in JESUS…”¹ 

We have many areas in the Gospel where the situation and circumstances of JESUS’ identity were obvious to all, yet the religious elite and cynically skeptical refused to acknowledge the reality of the role in Jewish history that JESUS was fulfilling, and which He thoroughly fulfilled. — Once, because there was no longer any room to enter through the door of a house where JESUS was teaching, a paralytic man was lowered through the roof by the man’s friends. JESUS seeing their faith, said to the paralytic: “Man, thy sins be forgiven thee” (St. Luke 5.20). To this the scribes and Pharisees responded, “‘Who is this that speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but GOD alone?’ To this JESUS responded, ‘But that ye might know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (He said unto the paralytic), I say unto thee, arise and take up thy mat, and go to thine house'” (St. Luke 5.20-21, 24). Alas, the Apostle John then reports that while the people saw the miracles and heard the teachings of JESUS, they exclaimed, “This is the Prophet that is to come into the world,” yet the doubters, deniers, and foolish in heart, “though He had done many signs before them, they did not believe in Him” (St. John 6.14; 12.37).  

The Holy Spirit gave Israel a revelation of the Father’s plan for redemption and forgiveness for the whole world in their own language, which was the Hebrew Scriptures. That revelation was first given through the patriarchs and prophets, and secondly, it was elaborated upon in the New Testament writings. — The Bible testifies of itself, saying: “knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture, (Old Testament or New) was of any private interpretation [of individual men]. For their prophecies came not in old time by the will of man; viz., the holy men of GOD spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (1 Peter 1.20-21). — Thus, the Scriptures, inspired by the Holy Ghost and revealed of their truths by Him, we can then understand that the first means through which the Holy Ghost testifies to the world about JESUS as the Christ, the Son of the Living GOD, comes to humanity through the Scriptures to those who will read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest their truth.   

The second means by which the Holy Spirit testifies, and bears witness to Christ JESUS as The LORD Our Righteousness, is the indwelling Presence of the Spirit of Christ in the believer. This is a theological concept that is harder to grasp, but it does not mean it is any less true. — Let us first understand that the Spirit of Christ is not a quantum force, nor any sort of energy field emitting power and influence over men, by which any scientific methodology can measure Him. The Holy Ghost is a Person, and a distinct entity of the Godhead, as we confess in the Creeds: “The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding … For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost … The Godhead is all one, the Glory equal; the Majesty co-eternal.”² And as the Church confirmed in Nicaea in 325 A.D., He is the LORD and Giver of Life. If His Word can divide joints and marrow, soul and spirit, so as to discern the thoughts and intents of the human heart (which is beyond all human understanding), what will impede the Spirit’s Presence from indwelling that human heart? (cf. Heb 4.12; Jer. 17.9)  

King David understood this indwelling Presence of the Holy Ghost very well. He says in the Psalms: “O LORD, you have searched me and known me … You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, You know it altogether … Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your Presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Hades, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139.1,3-4,7-10). — For him in whom the Spirit desires to dwell, His Presence is inescapable and mysterious, as David says in Psalm 139.6: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.”  

Yet this Presence of the Spirit of Christ, the second means in which He testifies to the world, is not an ominous and threatening Presence that we should fear. Quite the contrary! — David, being our witness, facing the wrath of GOD for his sin against GOD and his neighbors, prays unto YHWH GOD: “Create in me a clean heart, O GOD, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your Presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me by Your generous Spirit” (Psalm 51.10-12). — The Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, He strives within us, mercifully and gently (to work upon us, like a master craftsman), chiseling, molding, pruning, and refining our spirit by His sanctifying grace, to make us more and more like our Head, who is Christ, and to appreciate the joy of our salvation. The Spirit, in the heart of the Christian, wills and works in us the perfect contrition and obedience, that we might not relapse into sin. “As for the works of the Spirit, the fruits of faith, charitable and godly motions, if we have any in us at all, they proceed from the Holy Ghost, who is the only worker of our sanctification; making us new men and women in Christ JESUS.”³ And through us, the fruits of the Spirit testify to the world that we have been born again in Christ and made new creatures through Him.   

The Spirit testifies to Christ JESUS through the Holy Scriptures, and He testifies to Christ by His indwelling Presence in the heart of each believer, causing us to walk in GOD’s statutes in this world, keeping His judgments, and helping us to do them. (cf. Ezek. 36.27) — And thirdly, the Spirit testifies to Christ in the world through His Church, the Apostles being the foundation of our testimony. Saint Paul teaches the Ephesian church that, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of GOD, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, JESUS Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone” (2.19-20). — JESUS, foreseeing this cascade of testimony of Himself after His Ascension by the Church, says to His Apostles in the Upper Room: “And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning” (St. John 15.27).   

The witness of the Apostles was a direct result of the coming of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, who landing upon the Apostles (as JESUS promised), guided them into all truth. — To this the Apostles testified, upon many occasions. — Concerning the testimony of his Gospel of JESUS Christ, Saint John the Apostle writes: “This is the disciple which testifieth of these things and wrote these things [in this Gospel]; and we know that his testimony is true” (St. John 21.24). — Speaking to the people in the Temple after he and John healed a lame man in the Name of JESUS, Peter said: “But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom GOD raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses” (Acts 3.14-15). — And in Cornelius’ house, the Gentile centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, Saint Peter said: “And we Apostles are witnesses of all things which JESUS did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him GOD raised upon the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all people, but to witnesses chosen before by GOD, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by GOD to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the Jewish prophets witness that, through His Name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” (Acts 10.39-43).    

Dear church, the Holy Spirit testifies to the world through the Holy Scriptures, by His holy indwelling Presence in the hearts of all believers, and in the witness of the Church built upon the teaching of the apostles and prophets. — As the Holy Ghost has proceeded from the Father and the Son to testify of JESUS as the Savior and Redeemer of the world, our role at St. Mark’s is to continue in the same. — Let us then, dear brothers and sisters, work alongside the Spirit of Truth in Ellis County to testify of Christ, that He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. For we, being in Christ JESUS, were sometimes far off, but now, being made nigh by the Blood of Christ, are His salt and light at this time and in this hour, so that those who will hear us and will be salted by us, will be exalted along with us, unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before. Let us not lose hope, nor grow weary, for our calling has been made sure, in the Name if Him who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen. 

—  

1 BlueLetterBible.com, Henry, Matthew. “Commentary on St. John 15.22.” Accessed 15-May 2026. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Jhn/Jhn_015.cfm?a=1012001    

2 ACNA, To Be A Christian: An Anglican Catechesis, “The Creed of Saint Athanasius,” (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 129-130.  

3 Anglican Divines, The Book of Homilies, (London: The Prayer Book and Homily Society, 1852), 429.