When Jesus was on earth, He told His disciples that judgment was coming; He often referred to His coming kingdom (e.g. Matthew 19:28). After His resurrection, the disciples must have surely thought that this defeat over death was the beginning of that kingdom.

Acts 1:6 — So when [the disciples] had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

They saw that this guy who they had been following — who they had seen get murdered — was now alive again. They must have been pumped about the coming kingdom. And it made sense to them that the time for the kingdom was immediate. Notice how Jesus replies:

Acts 1:7-9 — [Jesus] 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.

I find it fascinating that Jesus — in the height of the disciples’ yearning for a revolution — simply said a few words and then disappeared into the sky. While his troops were ready for war, he vanished.

The disciples want a revolution NOW. Jesus says, “Not now.” And in the same breath, He says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” I think we miss the gravity of that phrase. We, in the church, memorize and chant the eighth verse of Acts 1, but perhaps we miss the context. The power of the Holy Spirit that the disciples were to receive is the same power that will one day establish a new world order — a new kingdom. The power of the Holy Spirit is second only to the power of the actual Second Coming of Christ to establish this eternal kingdom on earth. Yes, the power of the Holy Spirit is given to all believers — and that power is in order that we can succeed in being witnesses across the globe. But that power is not something we keep in a little locket around our neck or stuffed in a pocket. It is the omnipotent power of the coming kingdom.

Omnipotent power? All-powerful power? Yes. The full embodiment of power from the Creator of the universe given to individual humans for the succession of His kingdom. That is what we receive when we receive the Holy Spirit. That is what enables us to be witnesses for Jesus. It is that act of being witnesses that establishes the kingdom. We are all part of that process. So fear not; jump in.

Tags: acts, disciples, Jesus, Kingdom

This entry was posted by zac on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Weekly Jib Jab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.