Acts 1:4 (ESV)
– And while staying with them, [Jesus] ordered them not to depart from
Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.
Luke records
Jesus’ last words to his disciples in Acts 1:4-8. These show Jesus giving one,
two-part command (don’t leave Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Holy
Spirit) followed by a prophecy of what would follow (“You will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8). Christians
today often read verse 8 as a command, but Jesus worded it more as a promise.
The disciples’ responsibility was to wait. God would send the Holy Spirit. Once
they received the Holy Spirit, they would become witnesses and the message
would start to move around the world. We see the reality of that promise today
as Jesus’ church fills the world. Yet, even as that mission continues,
sometimes, as in Acts, God gives specific direction in the next steps and
sometimes it is up to his people to move the mission forward in the best way
they can determine.
Jesus’ command
in Acts 1:4 only directly and specifically applied to the next step, but his
promise applied thousands of years into the future.
If you are
like me, you often wish God would give you specific direction for every step
you need to take to fulfill his master plan for your life. Yet, for his own
reasons, often he seems to work as he did for the apostles: a next step instruction
and a long-term promise. Sometimes, though, as we’ll see with Paul later on in
Acts, the order is reversed. Jesus has already given us the long-term mission
and the short-term promise of his presence without specific direction on how to
fulfill the next step. The mission drives us to decide and take action anyway.
The disciples
needed to obey the instruction they had from Jesus before the promise would be
fulfilled. What do you know Jesus wants you to do now? Don’t worry about all of
the things you don’t know. Act on what you do.
No comments:
Post a Comment