The kingdom Jesus inaugurated advances through the outpouring of the Spirit. The life, death, and resurrection of Christ was not the completion of God’s promise to Israel. Thus, after his death Jesus told his followers to wait in Jerusalem so that the promise would become fully realized. Pentecost is the climax of the Christian year, as only with it can we tell the whole story of God’s redemption.

But Pentecost is also the beginning. Christ is the living Lord. He is not absent in some far-off spiritual realm. A new era has begun, a new creation is born. All is finally summed up through God’s new creation of the church.

At Pentecost God undid what was done at Babel.