Acts 1:4-8 (NIV)
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus’ focus in His times with His disciples during these final days was very precise, very narrow. These were not merely times of rejoicing over His resurrection, or praising God for what He had done through that resurrection to defeat sin and death. It was all about intense preparation for mission.
Sometimes the disciples got off track, as in their question here, demonstrating that they had not quite gotten rid of their old paradigm of Jesus kicking out the Romans and setting Himself up as the rightful king of Israel. But when they did get off track, Jesus simply cut off that line of questioning and redirected them back onto the correct path.
The correct path consisted of two interconnected focuses. The first was that the disciples were to be witnesses of Jesus, sharing the story of His life, His ministry, and of His death and resurrection, all of which they had been eyewitnesses to. It was this eyewitness testimony that would open people’s hearts to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior (John 1:12-13), leading to eternal life.
But the second focus was crucial. As critical as the need was, as urgent as the work was going to be, they were not to begin immediately. Instead, they were to wait for a few days in Jerusalem until they received the promised gift from the Father, the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit would completely overwhelm them, as a body is overwhelmed by water when it is submerged in baptism. He would cleanse them internally, as metal is cleansed from its impurities when it is plunged into fire. And it would provide them with all the divine power that they would need in order to be witnesses.
This divine power was not going to supply mere fireworks, but was an eminently practical power, the same power that Jesus had during His ministry. It was power to heal, power to cast out demons, and power to do miracles, all as concrete signs that the kingdom of heaven was a present reality. And it included power to hear the leading of God clearly, as well as power to communicate their witness powerfully, even in cases where that required the supernatural ability to speak in other languages (Acts 2:4, 7-12).
And ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and given the green light to begin their job of acting as witnesses immediately, starting in Jerusalem. As Jesus directed here, their mission and God’s leading would ultimately take them all over Judea and Samaria, and then thrust them out all over the known world, drawing people into the kingdom and showing them how to live out their lives as God’s new covenant people.
Father, we still need Your Holy Spirit to baptize us, to overwhelm us, to purify our hearts, and to empower us. Lord, we are far too powerless, far too ineffective at bringing people into Your kingdom. Only Your Spirit can give us what we need. Fill us now and send us out to bring the light of Your kingdom to all those wandering in darkness today. Amen.
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