“You Will Receive Power” – Acts 1:1-11

What does it mean to have power? In our world, power is the ability to run things. We get power from a number of things—fame, money, position—usually a combination of the three.

Of course, for people who have power, there is then the question of how the power is used. Power, like all things, is only a tool, to be used by the one who wields the tool. Power can be used for good, and it can be used for evil. Each person, no matter how much or how little power they have, has to use that power wisely.

When Jesus was speaking with His disciples after His resurrection, one of the things He told them is that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them. The book of Acts is really a narrative of how that power was used to spread the Gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the Roman Empire and probably beyond. We’re going to spend the next few months looking at how the power of the Holy Spirit changed the disciples’ world, and changed our world, too.

Central Truth: The promise of the Holy Spirit transforms us and our world.

The promise (1-5)

The Bible records numerous times when Jesus appeared to the disciples after He was resurrected. Luke’s Gospel account ends with Jesus’ appearance the evening of His resurrection. Acts, also written by Luke, opens with an appearance by Jesus and the statement that Jesus appeared off and on over a period of 40 days after the resurrection. Luke includes two of these appearances in the first few verses of the book.

In the first of these two appearances, Jesus is eating with the disciples when He gives them the instruction to stay in Jerusalem to await the coming Holy Spirit. Jesus had spoken of the Holy Spirit, mostly in the Upper Room as recorded in John 13-16. Jesus had promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would give them the ability to do even greater things than Jesus had done, primarily because Jesus was limited to being in only one place at a time. As the spirit lived through the disciples, God’s work would spread throughout the areas where Jesus’ followers were to go.

At this point in time, the Spirit hadn’t come because Jesus was still on earth. Jesus had made it clear that He would ask the Father to send the Spirit once Jesus ascended to be with the Father. The promise was that the Father would then send the Spirit. It is for this that Jesus wants the disciples to wait in Jerusalem.

It’s not unusual for God’s gifts to come to us at a future time. Granted, we all received the Holy Spirit when we were saved by God’s grace, but there are other times in our lives when God will want to prepare us for a ministry and He will wait until we are ready before He gives us what we need to perform that ministry. The Bible is filled with people who were gifted as the need arose.

Something we need to remember about God’s promises is that God keeps His promises. When we were raising our children, Kim and I were very careful not to promise our children anything. It’s not that we didn’t want to do the things they wanted to do, but we knew that sometimes circumstances can get the best of us, and promises cannot always be kept. Such is not the case with God. The omnipotent God has the ability and the determination to fulfill His promises.

Jesus makes the promise, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father promised (v. 4). The promise is for the coming Holy Spirit, and it is a promise that transforms our world.

The ministry (6-8)

The second meeting Luke records takes place in vs. 8-11. It begins with the question, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” (v. 6).

The disciples were eager for the coming kingdom. They had followed Jesus, believing He was the Messiah and that He would re-establish the Davidic kingdom, ridding them of Roman rule and transforming Israel into the true kingdom of God. We remember all the times the disciples argued about who would be what in the coming kingdom. I was a constant item of discussion for the men, and it was something they though had ended at Calvary.

Now, they were speaking with the resurrected Christ. This wasn’t someone who had been resuscitated like Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter. Jesus stood before them with a glorified body—His was an eternal presence, and what better way to establish an eternal kingdom than with an eternal king sitting on the throne? There would never be a question of succession since He would always be on the throne.

In light of this, it is a perfectly reasonable question for the disciples to ask. In their mind, the Messiahship was equated with the earthly kingdom, and Jesus had done everything that needed to be done to make it happen. So, they asked the question—“Now?”

Jesus’ answer is the same as it has been every other time He was asked. Only the Father has set the time, and He hasn’t revealed that time to Jesus or to anyone else. Just as Jesus submitted Himself to the Father in giving up His glory to come to earth, so Jesus has submitted Himself to God’s timetable for the coming kingdom.

It’s a question that goes on even today. I’ve received several books about the Second Coming, and each one of these books begins with the detailed study of why “no one knows the date or time” really doesn’t apply to them. I remember my pastor when I was a youth preaching so many sermons about how Christ was going to come in the next year because all the signs pointed to it. I myself have stated I believe Christ will come back in less than 50 years, based upon what I’m seeing in our world today. I’m not prepared to even hazard a guess on the date or time, because God hasn’t decided to privilege me with the information. If Jesus didn’t know, why should I suppose I will know?

Nonetheless, be assured that Jesus will come again, and when He does, the kingdom of God will be established on earth for all eternity. It will be a glorious day for those who believe, but it will be a horrendous day of shame, agony and surrender for those who dismiss Jesus for any reason. There will be those who think they are His children, but they are people who never did the Father’s will, and Jesus will tell them on that day that He never knew them. The kingdom will come, but not before God is ready for it to come.

Instead, Jesus tells the disciples there is something more immediate for them to look forward to—the coming Holy Spirit. When the Spirit comes, their ministry will begin,, and it will end up being global in nature.

First, there is the assurance that the Spirit will be a source of power. The power is from the Father, because the Spirit is the presence of Christ within us. He is the mind of God, He is the presence of God, He is the indwelling gift of God that will fill us with power and courage and insight. Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, reminds him, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). That power is what “. . . works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Philippians 2:123b). It reveals to us God’s good, pleasing and perfect will (cf. Romans 12:2).

Just as Jesus affirmed His authority to the disciples as He gave the Great Commission, so here He is reminding them that they are not on their own in this matter. The Holy Spirit will bring power to them when He enters into their lives. They will no longer be indecisive and scared. They will be the voice and presence of God on earth, similar to how Jesus was.

The result of this power is that the Spirit will work in them to spread the Good News to all the world, beginning in Jerusalem, then to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the world.

For our lives, we need to realize that the Holy Spirit’s power indwells us, enabling us to live in right relationship with God, and allowing us to live in grace and mercy, sharing the Good News as we live it out each day. The ministry that Jesus called the disciples to in this passage is the same ministry He calls us to each day. It is consistent with the Great Commission, and it is how the world is transformed by His presence.

The Ascension (9-11)

This is the last thing Jesus said to the disciples. Luke records that immediately after the words of v. 8, Jesus ascended into heaven.

Can you imagine what that must have been like? One moment, we’re talking with Jesus, and the next we are watching Him rise up into heaven. It’s a poor comparison, but I imagine it somewhat like a rocket launch, craning our heads up and trying to keep watch until He is only a speck in the sky before He is gone.

Luke says they were all gazing up, looking intently at the sky. Their attention consumed them with the amazing events of Jesus’ ascension. Suddenly, they are startled by two men, dressed all in white, standing beside them. The men ask why the disciples are looking up at the sky. It’s almost as if they’re saying, “What’s the big deal? He’s only going away for a little while. He’ll be back.”

The ascension of Christ is a final proof that Jesus is Messiah. His returning to the Father is the completion of His ministry and now He is seated at the right hand of the Father. It is there that Jesus intercedes on our behalf, and it is there that Jesus uses His authority over all things in heaven and on earth.

And, there is the promise that He will come back. “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven” (v. 11). The way it reads is as if it’s a matter-of-fact statement. There doesn’t appear to be a “wow” factor to this at all. It’s more a case of, Jesus has been doing what the Father called Him to do, and He’s done it consistently an completely. There’s only one more thing, and that’s when He comes back. He will be back, folks.”

The fact that Jesus is coming back is our assurance that we need to share the Good News with our world. Just as the Spirit transforms our lives, so He can change our world and the lives of those around us. With God, all things are possible, and God can bring revival to a world desperately needing his healing and loving hand.

Conclusion

It would be easy for us to become complacent. It’s been 2000 years since Jesus rose into heaven, and the world has been spinning ever since. Sure, the Church has spread to so many parts of our world, but so many of those who profess to be Christian have no real ide what it is to be Christian, while others raised in a Christian world deny His true ministry.

That cannot happen. We must take Christ seriously, believing with all our heart and soul and mind that He can and does make a difference in our lives and in our world. He did it back then, and He is still doing it today. We have received power, because the Holy Spirit has come upon us. Therefore, we are different, and we can be used by God to change our world.

What are we waiting for?