“Going and Coming”
Acts 1:6-11
4.29.07
Last week, we said that the very idea of a book named “Acts” would be fairly unique to Christian faith, in that many faiths, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and the like, do not concern themselves so much with history as they do ethics. But because Christianity is a historically-based faith, the truthfulness of the events that the Bible depicts is utterly critical. If God did not create the earth; if David didn’t really slay Goliath; if there was no Daniel in the lion’s den; if Jesus did not rise from the grave, then we are wasting our time, because we have nothing if those things are not historically true. But if they are true, then we have the basis for a faith that is living and vibrant, and Jesus gave gifts to the church, as we saw last week: instruction, leadership, and the promise of the Spirit. Today, we look further at Christ’s work prior to going to Heaven. PRAY
“Anticipation”, sang Carly Simon, “is making me late; it’s keeping me waiting.” The disciples had anticipated a number of different things; they’d anticipated Christ establishing an earthly kingdom, the Messiah of God come to defeat Israel’s enemies. They’d anticipated their own assistance in this project. They’d anticipated some kind of outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And even though Christ had taught them many times, still they had these anticipations, some of which were based upon misunderstanding.
Luke begins today’s text by recording a question from the twelve. “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
The question of the kingdom was so engrained in their minds that they must have missed what Jesus had been teaching them. Sometimes it’s discouraging for preachers/teachers to know that after so much time and effort has been put into the crafting of some message, so little is actually retained. One fellow in PA, a bright fellow, committed to Christ, one of my best friends in the church, told me on more than one occasion that his mind was such that he hardly remembered the things I had preached on any given Sunday! And yet, for all of Jesus’ teaching, these guys still interpreted the things He said through the lens of their preconceptions, and thus continued to miss the fact that His was not to be a kingdom in the sense that they’d come to expect. And to be fair to them, in their expectations of the coming kingdom, the renewed work of the Holy Spirit played a huge role, so when Jesus spoke with them about this new work of the Spirit, they fell back to their default understanding and tried to interpret His words through the grid they’d used for generations to understand this kingdom. But as we said last week, they were wrong.
Further, as sinful human beings, the disciples had more than an altruistic interest in the establishment of this kingdom in the way that they envisioned; on several occasions, they had even argued among themselves as to which among them would have the highest places in the “administration” as it were of Christ’s kingdom. But Jesus fixes their misconceptions:
I. Jesus cautions the disciples against misplaced priorities :6-7
Literally, Jesus was saying, “it’s none of your concern”, these dates and times specifically. “Times” and “seasons” are two Greek words, chronos and kairos, and they signify two different things. Chronos refers to a certain duration of time, while kairos refers more to some special given moment in time. The time, for instance, that a student would spend working on a college degree would be chronos, while the actual time of awarding the degree would be kairos. And the point for us is that the sovereign hand of God is working in history in both the chronos and the kairos, in both the timing of the events yet future and the actual substance of those events when they come. It’s not important that we concern ourselves so much with either the chronos or the kairos, but rather that we leave those to a sovereign God.
On date-setting, and a preoccupation with such things: we are all, as human beings, inquisitive about the future; it’s a natural thing. Yesterday was the first day of the NFL draft, and football fans such as myself begin speculating months in advance, wondering what is going to happen, who the Falcons are going to take (in my case, who the Steelers are going to take!). We want to know the future, and this prompts the disciples’ question in verse 6, just as it prompts many a Christian to spend a whole lot of time looking into prophecy. There is nothing wrong with looking into prophecy; it’s part of God’s Word, unless—and I’ve seen this happen—we get so wrapped up in things that are to some degree speculative that we miss things that are not speculative, that are both urgent and important, that God has given us to do in the here and now. And to a significant degree, I think that Jesus’ words to His followers then might be a good word to us now: don’t sweat the things that are in the control and under the authority of God the Father; don’t worry about timing and when this is going to happen or that’s going to happen. Is the antichrist alive today? He might be, and he might not be. Will Jesus return to earth in our lifetimes? He might, and He might not. Our task is not to overly concern ourselves with such things, but rather to do the things that the Lord would have us to do in the meantime; be watchful for His return, by all means, but not obsess over future events. After all Jesus, Who laid aside certain of His divine prerogatives in coming to earth, had told His followers that even He did not know the date of His own Second Coming (Mark 13).
This apparently was the last flicker of concern for this idea of a literal kingdom as the disciples had envisioned; from this time forward, we hear no more mention of it, and they devote themselves to the Jesus’ main agenda item:
II. Jesus commissions them to undertake a kingdom priority task :8
He refocuses their thinking with His next words:
A. Power – “when the Holy Spirit comes”
Now think about it: Christ promised something greater than political power in the Person of His Holy Spirit, a Power Who would fill them and work in and through them in miraculous ways. Instead of Christ being with the apostles in person, He would be in them through the Holy Spirit. No longer could anyone ask, “where’s Jesus?” The answer is, “He is within His followers.”
“Sanctuary” issue with Cumberland Creek homeowner – Catholic, she said – didn’t like using the room upstairs, which we call a “sanctuary”, for their meetings. I tried to help her understand that it is just a room, that we are the sanctuary of God!
The unleashed Holy Spirit has through the centuries empowered generations of followers of Jesus to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Today, there is a concerted effort to make sure that the gospel is accessible to every person on earth. Wycliffe Bible Translators has “Vision 2025”, an initiative to put the Bible in every needed language of the world within the next 18 years. People are risking their lives and livelihoods to take the gospel into places where it could cost them everything to attempt to win others to Christ—but these folks aren’t doing it merely because they think it’s fun or a good idea; they’re doing this because the Holy Spirit is prompting them and moving them forward!
The purpose of the unleashed Spirit is to glorify God; throughout the Bible, we see this refrain:
• Numbers 14:21 – “the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord”
• Isaiah 42:8 – “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols”. This comes in the middle of a passage which is a prophecy of Christ, the Messiah, and it points to God’s work of sending His Servant, Christ, to be a light to all peoples of the earth.
• The purpose, then, of the Spirit’s work of planting churches and saving us is the purpose of bringing glory to God.
B. Person – “My witnesses”
This is not an ethical message that the disciples are to share with the world, not a message of “become better people” or “live more morally” or what have you. This is the problem that so many folks have in understanding Christian faith. I was listening to a news show this past week, and there was a fellow on there named Russell Simmons who has written a new book. He was talking about how he had gleaned secrets from all of the great religious teachers, like Mohammed and Buddha and Confucius and Jesus—and according to Him, they all taught the same stuff. Sorry, but Mr. Simmons needs to look again! The message of Jesus was bound up inextricably with the person of Jesus.
Our problem isn’t our failure to self-actualize or our inability to cope with life or our negative self-image; our problem is that our sin alienates us from a holy God Who is the just Judge of the universe. The solution is that we need a Savior, not a program or a new leaf turned over in our lives, and that is why Jesus came: Paul said that “the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world”, not merely a great moral teacher that we can glean things from and stick in a book alongside a bunch of founders of religions. Jesus said, “be My witnesses”, not “give this morality message or self-help message”. It is all about Jesus. The Holy Spirit brings glory to Jesus; the Father glorifies the Son. Our message is that only through Jesus Christ is there life and peace, reconciliation with God and hope for eternity.
C. Program – “Jerusalem, Judea…”
God regenerates lost sinners via the Holy Spirit, but He uses human beings as bearers of His message and spreaders of His truth. The Holy Spirit empowers us to witness for Him and to serve Him, not merely so we can have Him resident within us. There are folks who seem to be intent on receiving all the time, but don’t seem to concern themselves much with serving or witnessing for Christ. I should add that there are some who seem to go the other direction as well, by the way. Let me give you a picture you’ll see again. A pool of water with inflow but no outlet will eventually become stagnant; it’ll stink and become unfit for much use. On the other hand, a pool with little inflow but much outflow will eventually dry up; that’s no good either. What is needed is a balance of inflow and outflow in the Christian life, and when the Holy Spirit came, He did so to enable the followers of Christ to be effective servants and witnesses of Christ. If your Christian life stagnates, it may be because you’ve not got enough outflow, and let me tell you this from experience: my faith grows when I serve God, and shrinks when I don’t. It’s that simple.
This was not a new commission; God had given to Israel a task that they had almost completely ignored, to be His witnesses to the world (Isaiah 43:10; 44:8). Jesus picks up this task and passes it on to His followers. And Jesus gave to His followers a plan: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. It almost serves as a “table of contents” for the book of Acts, as it pictures the radiating out of the gospel that is then described in detail in the rest of the book:
• Jerusalem – Jesus was saying, “start right where you are.”
Hey, where are you? What’s your home turf? Right now, talk around the table for 3-4 minutes about this question: “my Jerusalem is…” It might be your neighborhood, your workplace, your family, the place you pursue your hobbies, whatever; where is Jerusalem? 3 minutes…
• Judea
Judea is the next realm outward. It might not be home, but you can see home from there; in fact, Jerusalem was in the province of Judea, and so maybe we can think of Judea as our Cobb County, or for our church purposes, maybe the map on the back wall is more our church’s Judea than it is our Jerusalem in some respects. I may not be over in Smyrna all that often, or up in Kennesaw all that often, but when I’m there, I’m a witness for Christ. I had some Judea connections just this week: I had my hair cut, and my barber lady, Brenda, accepted my invitation to attend our first preview service. We ate at Sonny’s, and our waitress, Dominique, told us that she needed to get in church, that she knew she had to come back to God, that she was actually looking for a church to get into. I think she might be there on our first preview Sunday. Third,
• Samaria – why did He choose to say “Samaria”?
There were other outlying provinces He could have chosen, but I think He said “Samaria” on purpose: “He had to pass through Samaria” – John 4. If you look at it on a map, that makes sense, but even though the easiest way to get from Judea to Galilee was right through Samaria, most Jews took the Samaria bypass, went the long way around just so they wouldn’t have to have any more contact with Samaritans than they absolutely had to. Samaritans were the enemies of the Jews, outcast half-breeds in the minds of Jews. It represented, at least as far as witness was concerned, an out-of-the-comfort-zone place to say the least. It involved stretching, getting beyond our normal walls and reaching beyond. We won’t do a TableTalk on this one, but what’s Samaria for you?
• Uttermost parts
Every Christian should become a “world Christian”, a person with a concern for the entire world, for the salvation of those who have never heard the gospel of Christ, as well as the salvation of their friends and neighbors. Listening to a talk show on radio this week, I heard several folks talking about how they couldn’t care less what happens to the folks who live in the rest of the world; one fellow’s solution was to wipe out the nation of Iraq, everybody there, and start over. Sorry, for the Christian, there might be a place for patriotism, but our concern for the spiritual needs of others knows no boundaries whatever; people are people everywhere, with eternal souls, whether they are Americans or Chinese, Indians or Russians, civilized or savage. Paul said in Romans 1 that he owed a debt to those who did not know Christ, to both Jews and Gentiles (that’s everybody). We owe that same debt, to get the gospel to those who have never heard, and that’s why at Red Oak, world missions will become a high priority for this church.
Jesus commissions His disciples, and gives them a program of action. Third,
III. Jesus gives convincing proof of His glory
:9
The ascension culminates Christ’s in-person work on earth and ushers in the advent of the age of the Spirit. Salvation’s work is completed in the cross and resurrection, the price paid for mankind’s sin, and the proof in the pudding of the resurrected Christ. He now completes the proof-giving, by appearing to His disciples, giving them teaching and the promise of the Spirit if they will wait on the Father’s timing. And it is His time to leave earth and return to His place at the Father’s right hand. It is His time to leave His work to His followers, empowered by His Spirit.
The ascension is the “eye-catching event” of this particular passage, of course. We don’t really say a whole lot about the ascension today; Ray Pritchard points out in Credo that the ascension of Christ “seems like a PS to the gospel, merely a convenient way for Christ to get back to Heaven”, but it was considered significant enough by the early church to warrant specific inclusion in the Apostles’ Creed, as well as every major early church creed, such as the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and so on. Christ’s ascension, unlike His resurrection, was actually witnessed as it was taking place; He rose from the ground, not as a spirit, but bodily. Now the critics will say that sounds like “beam me up, Scotty”, and that it’s physically impossible, which of course it is if one denies the supernatural, but to deny the possibility of the ascension is to deny the possibility of God.
And where He went was to sit at the Father’s right hand, to rule and reign, to intercede with the Father for His people, to be our Advocate. He had told His followers that He would go to prepare a place for them in Heaven, that where He was going, they too would soon follow, that He’d return to take home His people. Thus He was giving visible demonstration of the first part of the promise that they could know that the rest of the promise was valid as well. And so they stand watching Him leave. Finally,
IV. Jesus’ messengers correct the disciples’ focus :10-11
Two men—angels is what is meant here—announce that Christ’s ascension will prefigure His return. In like manner, Christ will one day return to earth. This is the “blessed hope” of the Christ-follower, that just as He one day went away to Heaven in this glorious fashion, He’ll return in like manner. The chronos and kairos regarding Christ’s return remain a subject of debate among serious Christ-followers. I believe that Christ’s return could come at any time, and that it will occur prior to a 1000-year time known as the millennium; some other committed Christ-followers believe that the 1000-year reign of Christ is to be interpreted figuratively rather than literally.
These men urge the disciples that standing around gazing into the sky won’t profit them any further; now there is work to be done; now there is a coming Holy Spirit. Now they are to wait for the Spirit’s coming and power. Their focus is to be on the events of earth, working out the commission given them by the Lord. John Stott reminds us that the remedy for what he calls “unprofitable spiritual stargazing” is found in an understanding of God’s historical program, laid out in the book of Acts. Acts begins with Christ’s ascension, follows with the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, continues in the mission of the church to plant churches and spread the gospel throughout the world, and will culminate with the second coming of Christ yet future. Christ was going, but the Holy Spirit was coming. Christians, in the Spirit’s power, were to be going, but all the while remembering that Christ would be coming again.
So what difference does this text make in my life? A couple:
• Power precedes witness – we said as much last week, but Jesus told His apprentices that the Holy Spirit would come with power, and when He did, they’d be witnesses. We err when we try to do the work of ministry without the power of God operating in our lives, and the power of God operates as we are people of prayer, asking God to provide for us opportunities, to open our eyes to the harvest, to empower us for service, to work through us to touch others.
• Christian faith isn’t a “gaze upon” enterprise; yes, there is a time to “gaze upon”, as we consider the wonder and splendor of God, and that’s maybe a word to those of us who are activists, but I think that for so many professing Christ-followers, the problem is that we privatize our faith, do our “worship thing”, sing our songs and hear our sermons, maybe even have our private devotions, and don’t do much to get busy with the Lord’s work. And the timing of this word is perfect, is it not? We have three weeks until our first preview service; God has opened doors for me just this week in inviting others to come, in using some of us to minister, and as much as we might enjoy coming here to worship God and hear His Word, folks, it’s time. What’s your Jerusalem? Your Judea? Your Samaria? Let’s be His witnesses in the power of the Lord.
