Few would deny that a relationship exists between the miracles of the first century and the coming of the Lord. However, there is also a relationship between the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and the imminent return of Jesus, after His ascension. A connection exists between the Holy Spirit’s presence to Jesus’ absence from His apostles. When Jesus speaks to his disciples/apostles with intimate details of his leaving them, He tells them that He is going to prepare a place for them and would come again to bring them back with Him (John 14:1-3). Only the eleven are left with Jesus, as Judas had already left them in chapter thirteen. The time is after the Passover meal (John 13) and immediately before his betrayal and journey to Gethsemane. Jesus tells them that he is going away as his time had come (cf. John 12:1). He tells them that the Holy Spirit cannot come unless he leaves. The apostles had been given the promise that they would be endued with power from on high in the city of Jerusalem, where they were told to wait. So, we find Luke recording Jesus’ ascension in Acts 1 and the Holy Spirit’s outpouring in Acts 2. The gifts of the first century were proof of the Holy Spirit’s presence (1 Cor. 1:4) The text reads as follows:
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The coming of the Holy Spirit and the work he would do was in the interim of Christ’s earthly ministry and His return in glory. Three things stand out in this text. First, the end is the same end referenced throughout the New Testament, the end of the age, i.e,. the time of completion, maturity, or perfection.
Second, through the Holy Spirit, Jesus was confirming their message until that time. Once fulfilled, a new age would be ushered in its place. At the time Paul wrote this letter, Jesus had gone to the Father for the Holy Spirit to come and complete his work before the Lord’s return. The Lord had not come at the time of this writing. Meanwhile, those gifts of the Spirit would confirm them as children of God, and that the Apostles as apostles of Jesus Christ by confirming their message as the Word of God through signs and wonders (cf. Hebrews 2:1-2).
Third, these brethren from Corinth that lived in the first century were eagerly waiting for the revealing of Jesus Christ (v. 7). This is not a reference to the revelation of truth, but a revelation of Jesus. The nature of that revelation is described in the Revelation of Jesus Christ that was given to John, the apostle. However, in no passage of Jesus’ return do we find the promise of Jesus’ physical presence. The Charismatics are correct to emphasize the connection between the absence and presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. However, since they believe in the bodily return of Jesus at the end of time on planet earth, they also believe that the Holy Spirit will continue until then. This is the most consistent conclusion if you believe he has not come, yet. If he hasn’t come and his absence is tied to the Holy Spirit’s presence, then the Holy Spirit’s guidance must still be active, today. On the other hand, if it can be shown that Jesus did return and accomplished what he had promised, then, the Holy Spirit’s work has also been completed.
One of the difficulties of accepting the fact that Jesus has come is the expectation of his physical presence. We can easily show that Jesus’ physical presence is not involved in His coming or presence (parousia). Just a casual observance of John chapters 14-16 shows that he has to go away and be seen no longer so that the Spirit can come. Yet, even though he was physically absent, there is a sense in which he was still with them as he would say to them before His ascension, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Still, when He says He must go away, the context supports His physical departure. Notice, he clarifies when he writes, “You see me no longer.” As a result, we have Jesus with them through the work and power of the Holy Spirit, while being absent in body. Reading chapters 14-16 of John shows that He would send the Holy Spirit, who would come in His name, take from Him and declare it unto them. Before ascending into the heavens, He promises them that He would be with them until the end of the age. This explains how he can be with them while leaving them.
It is in this same sense that we imagine Jesus coming in judgment. His physical presence is not necessary for him to have come. To wait for the fulfillment of that promise because we are looking for his physical return is a grave mistake. If he came back for them in the promise of his “parousia,” then (1) he would no longer be considered absent and the Holy Spirit would no longer need to guide them. (2) Furthermore, after His resurrection, when he showed himself alive by many infallible proofs, it was necessary that he come in the same form in which he left. Those physical appearances were only designed to provide proof of the resurrection for the testimony of the apostles. He neither took them back with Him during that forty-day period nor at His ascension to the Father. As proof, Jesus told Mary at the tomb not to hold on to Him as He would only be with them for a short time. He explains that he had not yet ascended to the Father. His coming to take them with Him, therefore, was not a reference to the forty days after the resurrection. Many other texts support this conclusion, such as the chronology of Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 20.