Acts 1:6-8 … 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.”
They were asking when Jesus was going to establish a political kingdom in the physical land called Israel. They had waited 3 years, seen their hopes destroyed by the crucifixion, and had their hopes renewed by the resurrection. They were now convinced that the resurrection was real. By asking about restoration is was clear that they were thinking of a earthly restoration to something like King David or Solomon only better. They were tired of being ruled by pagans. Jesus had said that His kingdom was not “of the earth” and they had heard it but had not understood it. It was common to expect the Messiah to set up an earthly kingdom and free Israel from the oppression of the Romans who were really only that last in a long line of occupying forces. John the Baptist has preached, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2) and we are to pray “Your kingdom come” every time we pray (Matthew 6:10).
Luke says that Jesus, “Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17:20–21). In another place Jesus tells the parable of the talents because He was, “was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately (Luke 19:11–12). John tells us that in responding to Pilate, “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world” (John 18:36).
Don’t think that because the Kingdom is spiritual that it is less real. The Holy Spirit is God. That is all the reality there is. So the Kingdom is more real and not less real because of the way in which God manifested it at the beginning.
The idea of a spiritual kingdom was present in Scripture and clear in the teaching of Jesus. It wasn’t taught that it would always be spiritual and never manifested in fullness on the earth but it was going to be spiritual first.
So the disciples ask the question and Jesus answers in very strong language telling them, in essence, that it isn’t your business to know. This knowledge isn’t yours. This knowledge doesn’t belong to you. This is the Father’s knowledge and He sets those times. You will not know this.
You are responsible for all that is written in Scripture. That includes those portions that discuss eschatology or the end times. However, this verse alone should make you back up and check your wallet if someone tells you they know the day and the hour. That information does not belong to mankind. You know the kingdom is right now in a spiritual sense and there is a not yet aspect that you can’t know. You’ll probably find that dissatisfying. You must know the signs to be obedient but hopefully you won’t feel obligated to start marking up a calendar.
The reason you shouldn’t be dwelling on the times and seasons is because you have a job to do. That job is to be a witness in your city, your region, and the world empowered by the Holy Spirit. That is what the Book of Acts is all about really. We get to see how it is done as we read the pages. However, keep in mind that we are to be Christ’s witnesses to the Gospel. Again, we’ll get to read examples because 20 to 25% of the book is recorded speaking but keep in mind that our witness must be of Christ and His atonement. He paid the price to end the death sentence that was hanging over our heads and we are justified by faith and we are His bondservants.
Think about the Apostle Paul. Can you imagine him testifying that he was unhappy even though he was religious and he was seeking more and then he found Jesus and acquired his best life right now and recommends it for everyone? No you can’t imagine that if you’ve read Paul. The self righteous killer of Christians was knocked down, blinded, and yelled at by Christ. Then his life really got complicated as he was beaten, nearly drowned, bit by snakes, pelted by rocks …
Our testimony is the Cross because the Good News is there. The Law shows your separation and falleness but you can be set right with God by the Blood of Jesus and that is the only way to be set right with God. Communicating the Good News as a witness to its truth is the core responsibility of the Church and each member as God equips you. I think you’ve heard it before but it bears repeating that the word witness gave us the name martyr. You don’t get martyred for saying that I’m happier because a guy named Jesus told me to be nice to people. You get martyred for saying that the one true God became flesh and died to pay for our sins and that is the only way to escape eternal punishment for our sins. That will make a first century Roman say you are an atheist and a 21st century modern say you are a narrow minded and intolerant person who shouldn’t share their views. Yes it is intolerant and ironic to say that Christians shouldn’t share their views because Christians are intolerant. That is because, in our secular culture, the unforgivable sin is to state that the spiritual beliefs of another person are false or even worse will result them being in hell.
We need to be careful to be moved by the Holy Spirit. Paul knew this through and through and asked the Colossians to “pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person (Colossians 4:2–6).
We can’t be idle in respect to Jesus’ commands and we can’t use – as the disciples were already thinking of doing – the political processes of the world to win the kingdom with politics. You can’t do this by simply raising money either. God even has to be careful how much money He gives us because we are managed by it rather than the other way around. Simply passing laws will not enforce morality and promote the Gospel. We are utterly dependent on the Holy Spirit and our submission to Him to spread the Gospel and to avoid on the one hand, the sin of inattention to this command and, on the other hand, the sin of working for God without being submitted to Him.
Alfred Nobel (1833 to 1896) was a chemist and he invented and explosive that was stronger than anything known up to his time. He asked a Greek scholar fried for the Greek word for explosive power and the friend told him it was “Dynamis” so Nobel decided to use that word to name his discover and gave the world dynamite. The word “dynamis” is the word that tells what we are to get from the Holy Spirit that is translated power. This is the power to change people and each one of us is to have it and to use it but that requires submission. I had a friend who was Swiss like Alfred Nobel and he was in their military learning to use dynamite. They were removing stumps from a ski slope. Well Jean-Marie was pretty smart and he realized that all his leftover dynamite had to be carried back up the slope … so on the last stump he used all his left over dynamite. He was not in submission to his Sergeant and the Sergeant knew when the stump was atomized and a large hole was created. Fortunately for us, the Holy Spirit gives us the power and remains with us. When we do something stupid all the mess is us. But at least Jean-Marie in his weakness (maybe a little lazy) wasn’t going home with a full pack of dynamite. He was going to use it.
The first century Church understood that each person was a missionary in the place that God had put them. They were remarkably effective at spreading the Gospel in this manner as the Holy Spirit moved. Tertullian in approximately 200 AD said, speaking for the Church, “We are but of yesterday, and we have filled every place among you – cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum – we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods.” (Apology, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963, 45.)
All the preconceived notions of restrictions that the disciples had at the time of the ascension were overturned. It was not to be a political kingdom, not an ethnically restricted kingdom, and not a geographically restricted kingdom. Even Tertullian did realize that the Church still had whole continents grow on that he had no idea of.
When Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses” it is both an indicative and an imperative. It is what you are – an indicative – and what you are commanded to do – an imperative. It is prophetic as Jesus calls us into being and a command as He sends us to the world. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are made to be what we need to be. Now we just need to do it as our Sergeant says to do it.
Acts 1:9-11 … 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.”
Jesus gave us the Great Commission and then ascended up into the sky and out of sight. This was a different thing for the disciples to see even though Jesus had been teaching for 40 days. The disciples were staring up into space when they because aware of two angels. The question asked by the angels was meant to break off the staring party and send the disciples to their assignment.
The promise of Jesus’ return should motivate us to action. He will return and we will give an answer for our actions. As in the Parable of the Talents we need to be doing what He has called us to do. Your time will be up someday. We don’t need to be motivated by fear but we desperately need to be motivated. We need to allow the love of God to drive us to action and I say we desperately need this motivation because of the surpassing worth of our Savior and our duty to be living sacrifices for Him. It is so purely right for us to work in this way in response to our justification that is complete. We are not earning something we are simply serving one who deserves all we have.
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