A New Year bringing new beginnings.
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Lord God Almighty,
You who sent Your Son to redeem the world and poured out Your Spirit to empower witnesses, we come before You now with humble hearts. Make us bold and faithful witnesses for Jesus. With Your Holy Spirit empower us with your loving words and allow our lives point others to Christ. Give us courage where fear would silence us, gentleness where pride would harden us, and wisdom where doubt would cloud us.
The last work of Jesus before His ascension to heaven.
1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
Jesus’ final instructions to the disciples.
4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
a. He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem: Jesus had nothing else for the disciples to do other than to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit (the Promise of the Father). Jesus knew that they really could do nothing effective for the Kingdom of God until the Spirit came.
To wait means that it was worth waiting for.
To wait means that they had a promise it would come.
To wait means they must receive it; they couldn’t create it themselves.
To wait receive means that they would be tested by waiting, at least a little.
b. He commanded... the Promise of Father... baptized with the Holy Spirit: Here we see that He (Jesus) told of the Promise of the Father, which is the coming of the Holy Spirit.
i. It is significant that this coming, filling, and empowering of the Holy Spirit is called “the Promise of the Father.”
It shows that we should wait for it with eager anticipation; a “Promise of the Father” could only be good.
It shows that it is reliable; the Father would never Promise something He could not fulfill.
It shows that the Promise belongs to all His children, since it comes from God as our Father.
It shows that it must be received by faith, as is the pattern with the promises of God throughout the Bible.
ii. “The ‘promise of the Father’ now became also the promise of the Son.”
c. You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit: The idea of being baptized is to be immersed or covered over in something; even as John baptized people in water, so these disciples would be “immersed” in the Holy Spirit.
i. It may be more useful to describe the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a condition than as an experience. We should perhaps ask, “Are you baptized in the Holy Spirit?” instead of asking, “Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit?”
The disciples ask Jesus a final question before His ascension.
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
a. Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? They also knew that the restoration of the kingdom to Israel was part of the New Covenant (as seen in Jeremiah 23:1-8, Ezekiel 36:16-30, Ezekiel 37:21-28).
i. It was actually reasonable for them to wonder when the rest of the New Covenant would be fulfilled. The response of Jesus in the following verses also indicates that He did not rebuke them or even correct them for the question. He simply told them that the answer wasn’t for them to know.
ii. “The verb restore shows that they were expecting a political and territorial kingdom; the noun Israel that they were expecting a national kingdom; and the adverbial clause at this time that they were expecting its immediate establishment.”
iii. The disciples certainly knew the many Old Testament prophecies describing the spiritual and national rebirth of Israel. The disciples probably thought that the spiritual rebirth seemed certain, so the national would also come.
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Jesus’ final teaching and final promise before His ascension.
7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
a. It is not for you to know: Jesus warned the disciples against inquiring into aspects of the timing of God’s kingdom, because those things belong to God the Father alone (which the Father has put in His own authority).
i. It was wise for Jesus not to outline His plan over the next 2,000 years. It was good for the disciples to not know that the full restoration of the kingdom to Israel that they hoped would happen soon would not come for some 2,000 years. It might overly discourage them in the work they had to do right then, and might make them think less of the aspect of the kingdom of God that was present with them.
ii. At the same time, Jesus did not say that there was to be no restoration of the kingdom to Israel; He simply said that speculation into the time and date of this restoration was not proper for the disciples.
b. But you shall receive power: If the national kingdom they wanted would be delayed, the power they needed would not. They would soon receive power with the coming of the Holy Spirit.
i. With their question about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, it is possible that the disciples still saw power too much in terms of Caesar’s kind of power, and not enough in terms of God’s kind of power.
c. And you shall be witnesses to Me: The natural result of receiving this promised power would be that they would become witnesses of Jesus, all over the earth.
i. Notice that this really wasn’t a command; it was a simple statement of fact: When the Holy Spirit has come upon you... you shall be witnesses of Me. The words shall be are in the indicative, not the imperative. Jesus didn’t recommend that they become witnesses; He said they would be witnesses.
ii. If we want to be witnesses, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The best training program for evangelism is of little effectiveness without the filling of the Holy Spirit.
iii. Isaiah 43:10 has the Lord proclaiming to His people You are My witnesses. A group today claims that this is their mandate for being “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Unfortunately, they fail to see Isaiah 43:10 in the context of Acts 1:8; we are truly Yahweh’s Witnesses when we are Jesus’ Witnesses.
d. In Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth: The progress of the spread of the gospel message from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and then to the end of the earth becomes the outline of Acts.
Acts 1-7 describes the gospel in Jerusalem.
Acts 8-12 speak of the gospel in Judea and Samaria.
Acts 13-28 tells of the gospel going to the end of the earth.
i. We may imagine the objections the disciples might think of to the places of ministry Jesus described.
Jerusalem was where Jesus was executed at the word of an angry mob.
Judea rejected His ministry.
Samaria was regarded as a wasteland of impure half-breeds.
In the uttermost parts of the earth, the Gentiles were seen by some Jews of that day as nothing better than fuel for the fires of Hell.
ii. Yet God wanted a witness sent to all of these places, and the Holy Spirit would empower them to do this work.
Lord of the harvest, we ask You to send out Your people into the uttermost parts of the world. Raise up laborers from your churches, men and women willing to go, give, pray, and stand with those who have never heard. Open the doors in places where you may send us. Soften the hearts, prepare ears, and remove obstacles that keep the good news from being known.
Use us, Lord — wherever we are — to be witnesses. Impower our hands to serve, our mouths to proclaim, and our feet to go. May Your kingdom come and Your will be done.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
