Last Words - Acts 1:6-11

© February 9th, 2025 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Acts

Most people recognize the importance of a person’s final words. If someone knows they are about to die, they often use their final words to communicate important truths to those they love before they die. That might be some final instruction, an insight they want you to be sure you remember, or just to tell you they love you. When we know someone is speaking their final words, we should pay attention.

Today we look at Jesus’ last words while He was on earth. As you would expect, we want to pay careful attention to the final things He said to His disciples before ascending into heaven. Jesus’ last words gave His disciples marching orders. Just as they applied to the first-century disciples, they continue to guide us today.

The Disciples’ Question

As we mentioned last week, Acts is the continuation of Luke’s gospel. In this first chapter, Luke overlaps a bit of what he recorded in his gospel, so there’s some value in looking at his account of this same event there.

50 Then Jesus led them to Bethany, and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. 52 So they worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy. 53 And they spent all of their time in the Temple, praising God. (Luke 24:50-53, NLT)

Luke recorded these words immediately after Jesus told the disciples not to leave the city until the Holy Spirit came upon them. So it appears that after that conversation, He led the disciples to Bethany, and that is where He returned to heaven. In Acts, Luke records one more question and answer period with the disciples. This may have occurred during their trip to Bethany, or after they arrived. Whatever the case, it seems apparent that the disciples still hadn’t quite grasped the point of Jesus’ ministry yet.

6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” 7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. (Acts 1:6-7, NLT)

The disciples wanted to know when Jesus was going to restore Israel to its rightful place in the world. Notice the language they used. They asked if Jesus was going to free Israel. The people of Israel were subjects of the Roman Empire, so the disciples imagined Jesus was going to overthrow Rome, or at least declare Israel’s independence from Rome.

They also asked if Jesus was going to restore the kingdom. Restore implies going back to a previous state. They likely had in mind the time of King David, and were expecting that Jesus would restore Israel to the level of prosperity and freedom they enjoyed during that time.

They also asked if Jesus would restore our kingdom. They expected that Jesus would provide salvation only for the Jewish people. Others would be welcome to share in their blessings, of course, but only if they became Jews first.

The disciples still didn’t really grasp what Jesus was doing yet. Soon they would begin to carry out the calling He’d placed upon them. But at this time, they were still missing the point.

Jesus didn’t answer their question. He didn’t affirm that these things would happen someday (though it does seem it will in some sense), nor did He deny it. Instead, He changed their focus. He told them that the Father is in charge knowing the what, how, and when of life. Instead, He pointed the disciples to the fact that they have a different job. Rather than trying to figure out timelines, they were to be fruitfully engaged in the Lord’s work.

This should serve as a reminder for us as well. There is value in trying to understand the things the scriptures have told us about what God will do in the future. However, some people become so fixated on trying to figure these things out that they miss the point! Jesus tells us not to bother trying to figure out the timetable because we can’t. Instead, we should be focused on serving Him faithfully. This point of direction to the disciples is equally relevant for us today.

The Task

After telling them not to be so focused on trying to figure out the what, when, and how of God’s future plans, Jesus told them what He wanted them to do instead. What He says is both prophetic (telling them what will happen) and directive (telling them what they should do.)

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NLT)

Jesus had told the disciples they shouldn’t leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them. But now He tells them that once that happens, they will be His witnesses everywhere.

Before we dig into where they were to witness for Christ, we should first talk about that word witness. What was Jesus telling the disciples to do?

A witness is someone who testifies to what they have seen and heard. That’s what Jesus was asking the disciples to do. He wanted them to tell other people about their experience with Christ—to tell people about the truth of the resurrection and the difference Jesus made in their lives. He wanted them to tell people that Jesus is alive and that He is the One true God. And He wanted them to do that so others would come to know Him in much the same way they had.

This is the task before every believer. We are to be witnesses to Jesus Christ. We are to tell people about what He has done and the difference He has made in our lives and to call people to follow Him for themselves.

Unfortunately, we can easily get sidetracked from this important task into all sorts of other pursuits. Let me give you some examples of things that keep us from doing the job of witnessing to Christ.

We can become so engrossed in trying to be successful in business that we forget about (or are unwilling to risk) telling people about Jesus.

We can become crusaders for some cause (moral, political, social, or otherwise) and spend all our time and energy trying to win people to that instead of to Jesus.

We can become so focused on being well-liked and popular (with our friends, co-workers, family, even our children) that we are unwilling to chance ruffling the feathers of those who do not know the Lord.

We can choose to indulge in activities we know are not right even though they hinder our witness with others and damage our credibility.

We can become so busy with other pursuits that we simply don’t think about sharing our faith.

None of these things are necessarily bad, but they should not be our primary focus. Our focus, above all, should be to make the gospel message known to others. We must not allow these other pursuits to keep us from pointing people to Jesus. This is the task assigned to all Christians, so we should take it seriously.

While Jesus told the disciples they would be His witnesses, He didn’t stop there. He told them that that they would witness in three places: Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (The NLT separates Judea and Samaria, but most translators believe Jesus intended Judea and Samaria as a single entity), and to the ends of the earth. It’s probably easiest to think of these places as concentric circles, with Jerusalem in the center and extending outward in all directions.

It made sense that the disciples should be witnesses in Jerusalem. That was the center of things and the place where the Jewish leaders were. So it made sense that they should be working right where they were with the people they already knew to tell them about Jesus. But Jesus didn’t want them to stop at just witnessing in Jerusalem.

He also told them to go to Judea and Samaria. This surely raised a few eyebrows. They had been rejected in Judea several times, but it may have still made sense for them to go back and tell these people about Jesus. The statement to go to Samaria, however, would have been perplexing. Samaria was the home of the Samaritans. They had rebelled against the nation of Judah and gone off on their own. They had built their own temple and created their own form of worship. They had intermarried with the people from Assyria and Babylon who had settled there during their captivity by those nations. The Jews viewed the Samaritans as half-breeds and traitors to the faith. For Jesus to say that they should witness to those people would have surely taken them by surprise.

And yet, Jesus had already begun to sow the seeds of this truth during His ministry. He had ministered to a Samaritan woman and had chosen to travel through Samaria as opposed to walking around it, as most Jews would do at the time. And Jesus had made a Samaritan man the hero of one of His parables (the Good Samaritan). So maybe this wasn’t quite as shocking as they might have expected. To this point, Jesus was still telling them that they should be His witnesses inside their own country.

But the last place He told them to go was to the ends of the earth. This statement surely caught their attention. Jesus was not telling them to set up a kingdom in Israel at all. He was telling them that the message they had was something to be carried around the world. This message was not only for Jewish people, but also for Gentiles.

They might not have fully understood that point just yet, but they would in short order. Their understanding of what the gospel meant was about to shift drastically. They would quickly come to understand that Jesus’ goal wasn’t to set up an earthly political kingdom at all, but that He was focused on something far greater than they had grasped to this point.

Their job was to tell the world about what Jesus had done. The same thing is true for us today. This should drive us to support missionary efforts around the world, to carry the gospel to people who don’t know it. But this commission applies to each of us as well. We are supposed to take the message to our own Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and ends of the world. Exactly what that looks like may be different for each person, but the message is clear, we are to carry the gospel to those the Lord puts before us. Our goal should be for every person in our circle to know about Jesus, to know about what He has done in our lives, and to know how they can trust Him for themselves.

As we continue through the book of Acts, we’ll see that’s exactly what the disciples did. They started as witnesses in Jerusalem, then in Judea and Samaria, and then they traveled far and wide, to Rome and beyond, sharing the message of Jesus with anyone who was willing to listen. This is the same approach we should take today.

Ascension

The last part of the story is fascinating, confusing, and even somewhat humorous.

9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” (Acts 1:9-11, NLT)

After Jesus told them to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, He ascended back to heaven in a cloud. I’ve got lots of questions about what this looked like. Did Jesus just float up and away into the clouds? Was it kind of like He rode up on a cloud? Or did He disappear into a cloud on earth, then it rose up and disappeared?

I’m inclined to think the last one might be most accurate, as God’s glory is often depicted in scripture as a cloud. So it is possible that Jesus was surrounded by the glory of God (much like may have happened at the transfiguration), and then this cloud of light which surrounded Jesus just disappeared into the sky and out of view. Whatever the case was, it was a sight that left the disciples in awe and speechless.

We don’t know how long they stood there, looking up into the sky before the angels showed up, but I imagine they may have just been looking at each other, mouths agape for some time. But then two angels appeared and spoke to them. I find this encounter kind of funny. They asked a rhetorical question, “Why are you standing here staring into heaven?” It seemed pretty obvious—they’d just seen Jesus go that direction! But then the angels gave the disciples one final bit of encouragement and direction: Someday Jesus would return in the same we they’d seen Him go!

Why was this a comfort? Why would this have made them do something besides look to heaven? How about for us? Why does it matter that Jesus is coming back?

First, it means the story isn’t over. It would have been tempting for the disciples to wonder what was next, even though Jesus had just told them. It’s a reminder for us as well. Jesus is coming back one day and the story will end…but that day isn’t here yet, so we’ve got work to do.

Second, it shows history has a purpose and a goal. Life is not meaningless, and the Lord is working toward something. Our lives have purpose and God is working in them, even when we don’t see it. This should enable us to live with confidence and boldness, even when we don’t understand the how or why of life. Jesus is still working in our world, even when we can’t see Him.

Third, it means there will be an end. Many people believe they don’t need to deal with the “religious stuff” because it is ancillary stuff. They don’t see their faith as something central to their lives. Many believe they can continue to live as they are with impunity. That’s not true. Jesus is coming again. We don’t know when, but we know when He comes He will punish sin once and for all. We should be ready, and we should do our best to help those around us be ready for that day too.

Conclusion

I wish we had more details on these things. I wish we knew the when, how, and what of Jesus’ return. I wish we knew more about this final encounter with the disciples. And there are a thousand other questions to which I’d like to know the answers. But here’s the point—these things aren’t things we need to know. Jesus told his disciples (including us) everything we need to know. And His concluding words are basically this: “It’s time to get to work!”

So, let me give you some practical applications we can take from this passage. First, witnessing isn’t complicated. Sometimes we shy away from telling others about Jesus because we aren’t sure how. But it’s not that hard. If you are a Christian, simply tell other people about the difference Jesus has made in your life. Explain to people what you have come to understand about the gospel. Tell them about how you realized you were a sinner who couldn’t save themselves, but that Jesus made it possible to be forgiven. And then tell them how following Christ has changed you. Jesus simply calls us to testify to what we have seen and experienced—each of us can do that.

Second, you don’t have to be able to answer every question or objection. Many times people don’t want to share their faith because they are afraid someone will ask a question they don’t know how to answer. No one knows all the answers. And just because someone asks you a question that stumps you doesn’t mean they have disproven the Christian faith. If that happens, simply tell them, “I don’t know the answer to that, but it’s a good question. Let me see what I can find out and get back to you.” Most people find that kind of honesty refreshing. They feel their questions are real. And it gives you an opportunity to continue the conversation in the future. Most of the questions I can answer now are because at one time, someone asked me and I didn’t know. The more times you get stumped, the more answers you’ll have in the future.

Third, we don’t witness in our own power. Our job isn’t to change people’s hearts. That’s good, because we can’t do it. Our job is to testify to the truth of Jesus. Remember that God can use you in ways you might not expect. Just because you stumble over your words, or don’t know that much, or feel inadequate, it doesn’t mean God won’t use your efforts to make a profound, possibly life-changing impact on the person you’re talking to. Be bold in your witness, knowing that the Holy Spirit is with you and will guide you and help you.

Finally, God gives each of us a mission field. You are going to have the opportunity to share the gospel with people I may never meet. You have relationships with people that nobody else does. God uniquely equips each of us to bring the gospel to our own sphere of influence. Some people are called to cross the world to share their faith. Others are called to cross the room. But every one of us is called. Be alert for the people God has given you to reach. Be open to opportunities to tell people about Jesus in every situation and every sphere of influence. Recognize that the places you end up in life and the people you encounter aren’t an accident. God may be giving you an opportunity to share with someone who needs it. See yourself as a missionary wherever you go!

Jesus’ last words before leaving earth are something we should pay close attention to. And His last words were marching orders. We are to tell others what we know about Him. Refuse to allow other things to distract you from what Jesus has called you to do. Witness to Him wherever you are and hold on, because if you do what He tells you to, God might use you to change someone forever.

© February 9th, 2025 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Acts