Sending the Gospel
Notes
Transcript
Smile?
Mrs Kathy - OCC
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
The amazing time of after the resurrection but before the ascension. Where the disciples were given a glimpse of what a glorified(maybe transformed) body was like. What it looked like and what it felt like and what it could do.
40 days. This is the last of the 40. Our author here, Luke, has already recorded His appearing to them on the road to Emmaus, to Peter and to the disciples as a group. The truth of the ressurection is as factual an event as we have observed and recorded in history.
The relationship between these three verses bears looking into. So often we clue in on v.8, maybe even the last half of the verse. But it wasn't said In a vacuum.
v.6 the question about the time of the kingdom
v.7 Jesus’ rejection of the speculation about times
v.8 and replaced by what is important - our task in this time before the kingdom comes: Be My Witnesses
Speculation about the times and dates is useless. Jesus denied such knowledge even for Himself in
“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Vesuvius/Pompei - In 1984 NatGeo ran a story with pics/drawings of the swift and total destruction. Weeks of rumblings before the eruption. Even an ominous black plume of smoke. If only they could have seen the ‘signs of the times’.
Urgency of ‘be my witnesses’. God pursues.