Acts 1:1-11
Jesus calls, equips, and empowers us to be faithful, spirit-filled witnesses until he returns.
I. His Message (1:1-3)
Jesus’ life was marked by teaching and doing. Even after his suffering he appears to his disciples for 40 days speaking about the Kingdom.
“O foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and the Prophets, he interpreted to them in ALL the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:25-27
Jesus spends these 40 days proving who he is by sharing the good news. Jesus primary proof is the scriptures. The scriptures testify about his life. They are an indisputable proof that Jesus is King.
II. His Promise (1:4-8a)
Jesus knows they really need the Holy Spirit. And tells them John’s baptism was external and what they need is internal. They need new ears to hear. They need the Helper.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whole the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be IN you.” John 14:15-17
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:25-26
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is for your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. And when he comes he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement.” John 16:7-8
The need for a new heart isn’t new. Since the garden and the fall we’ve had a heart problem. And all through the Old Testament the temple was the place where the spirit used to tabernacle. The spirit would rest and the people would come to the tabernacle. Now Jesus is promising that same Holy Spirit would actually come and DWELL or tabernacle in his people.
“And I will give you a new heart, and new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove your heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Ezekiel 36:26-27
The disciples did the math and associated the promise of the Holy Spirit with the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. They took fragments of promises and glued them together with their timing. They thought they understood where this was going and the problem was their perspectives were too small.
The disciples were still thinking local. Jesus was thinking global.
III. His Commission (1:8b-11)
Jesus didn’t solely come for the people of Israel. He came for the world.
“The church must understand it’s sentness, and how sentness flows from and out of the implications of the Great Commission. As we seek to obey and apply the work of the great commission, we find that every Christ follower is commanded in Scripture to a life of being a missionary who initiates contact with a lost world.” - Doug Logan
Jesus left. Go and make. Don’t stay and wait. He’s coming back.
