The Kinds of Instructions Jesus Gives

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.

We Can’t Know Everything but We Can Know Some Things

Acts 1:7-8 (ESV) – [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.”

As a young Christian new to Spirit-filled churches, I was always fascinated by people who often inserted the words, “The Lord told me,” into their conversations. I did not have an experience of unmistakable divine revelation on a daily basis. I wondered if there was something wrong with me or if I needed to develop some special skill so I could hear everything from God. I used to agonize in listening prayer for some major decisions, and I often heard nothing at all.

Those questions stayed with me as I entered into full time ministry, and seventeen years ago I began an in depth study of how the apostle Paul made decisions as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles to see if God gave him special divine guidance in all of the decisions he made. I have returned to that subject many times since for my own personal decision-making and to help others make better decisions. When I began teaching the graduate course, The Shape of Practical Theology, on my arrival at Southeastern University, I saw what I discovered in that first study should form a practical theology for Holy Spirit-filled Christians. Several encouraged me to take the Story Shaping model I developed for that course into a book that could help anyone make better decisions. With help from colleagues and friends and the incredible team at Zondervan, my first book from a major publisher, How to Make Big Decisions Wisely: A Biblical and Scientific Guide to Healthier Habits, Less Stress, a Better Career, and Much More, comes out February 25, 2020.

My personal devotional study through the Bible has returned to the Book of Acts, and I thought it would be helpful for me to take a fresh look again in my reading and reflection on the Greek text. There are always new and fresh insights when we come to the scriptures with an open heart. As I find inspiring thoughts related to biblical decision-making, I will write a few for PowerWords that I pray will be inspirational and helpful for you, as well.

It only took a few verses into Acts to see the core concept I discovered seventeen years ago spoken by Jesus himself. The disciples wanted to know if one of the key hopes of the nation of Israel was about to happen. Look at his response: “It is not for you to know…” Jesus’ words here confirm that he will not tell us everything. If he did not answer the question asked by the disciples he’d spent every day of the previous three years with, should we expect him to tell us everything we want to know?

Yet, Jesus did tell them something that would happen. “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.” Jesus gave them what many Christians call the Great Commission with an incredible promise of power and effectiveness. Eleven confused young men on a hill outside Jerusalem never could have guessed on their own that a worldwide church with a billion-and-a-half people would emerge in fulfillment of Jesus’ words that day. He gave them specific divine guidance a few verses earlier in telling them to not leave Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit and the prophetic promise in Verse 8 describing what would happen.

I believe God still works the same way today. He often will let us know what he wants us to do and what will happen, but he does not always speak clearly and specifically. We can and must make most of our decisions on our own, but let’s be ready to listen when he speaks.

How to Win

John 21:21-22 (ESV) – When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

It is hard not be driven to compare myself to others to see where I stand. I know I am not alone in this. The biggest events around the world are athletic competitions. There will be winners and losers. Hard Rock Stadium was full for Super Bowl LIV with people paying more than $4,600 for the cheapest seats in the house (according to TicketCity). Most of those 62,000 sacrificed to feel the thrill of the game in hope their team would win.

Most of us tend to bring that competitive spirit into other parts of life. Have you had others accelerate when you started to pass them on the highway? Has a formerly lazy coworker ever started to work hard when you seemed to be a threat? Have you wanted to know how you well you are doing and looked at the others around you to see how your performance compared to theirs as the way to tell?

Jesus had just given Peter some very good and some very hard news before Peter asked this question. Jesus restored Peter’s ministry calling with three summons that clearly countered Peter’s three denials of Jesus a few days before. Then Jesus warned Peter his death would be through martyrdom. (See John 21:15-19) Peter then turned to see John following and asked that comparative question, “What about this man?” Peter may have wondered if he was the more favored disciple, if he would have more success in his ministry, or if his death would be more painful.

If Jesus had answered Peter with a direct answer of how he and John compared, Peter’s heart may have swollen with pride or fallen in discouragement, riding the emotional pendulum that comes from living a comparative life. However, Jesus did not answer Peter’s question the way he hoped. He said, “What is that (my plan for John) to you? Follow me.”

I believe Jesus has the same answer for us when we are tempted to compare our performance or our futures with others: “Follow me.” Jesus’ path for you is not the same as his path for me or anyone else. Certainly, we can learn from others around us, but, in life’s game, there is only one way to win: follow Jesus yourself.

Believing Without Fully Understanding

John 20:8-9 (ESV) – Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

“How much of Jesus do I have to get right to be a Christian?” This is an important question. I have had many friends who believed some things about Jesus but wrestled with one or more key ideas before making a total commitment. Does we have to have everything figured out before we can truly believe?

John 20 tells the story of the first Easter Sunday. Mary Magdalene and two other women went to the tomb were Jesus had been buried to anoint him in the Jewish tradition (Mark 16:1). When they got there and found the tomb empty, Mary ran back to tell Peter and John, who ran to the tomb themselves (John 20:1-9). John used very interesting wording in his Gospel to describe what happened: He went in to the empty tomb, he saw that it was empty, and he believed.

Throughout his Gospel, John made it clear that believing is the distinguishing characteristic of a follower of Christ and the means to receive eternal life. He closed Chapter 20 with the Gospel’s mission statement: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Believing is what grants eternal life. Yet, back in our starting passage, John 20:8-9, it is clear that John, the “other disciple,” believed in spite of not understanding something important: the Old Testament scriptures prophesied Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead.

What does this mean? We don’t have to understand everything about Jesus to believe in Jesus.

Does this mean faith is groundless? Absolutely not! John and Peter saw an empty tomb in vs 8. That was reason to believe. In vs 30 John says he chose to record the miracles he did so we could believe. You may have had a spiritual encounter that gave evidence of Jesus’ reality. Someone may have given you an answer to a troubling question that helped you overcome a hurdle to faith. Now, it is time to believe. What if you don’t understand everything about Jesus? That is okay. I don’t and I have a doctorate, read Greek, and have been teaching and pastoring for years. I know enough, though. I have explored and seriously considered a lot of belief systems and worldviews, and I know that the world makes a lot more sense with Jesus in the center than without him. He has changed my lives and thousands of others I know. There is lots of evidence for the Resurrection. I may not be able to answer every question, but I can answer many. I believe in Jesus, and he has changed my life.

I encourage you to take that step John took at the empty tomb. Go inside, take a look, and, even if you don’t understand everything, believe. You will never be the same.

Thirsty

John 19:28 (ESV) – After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”

Have you ever been thirsty? As a cyclist, I have learned how essential it is to stay hydrated on long rides. More than once, I realized just as the group was rolling out that I forgot to put water bottles on my bike. With the choice between missing a fast, but dry, group ride or being fully hydrated and alone, I usually chose the former, but by mile thirty, strange things started to happen to my body. If the group was on a longer route, I was begging to stop at convenience store or mooch some fluids by the fifty mile point, because I knew I would not make it much further. We need water to live.  

One of Jesus’ last words on the Cross was dipso – “I thirst.”  He certainly had reason to be thirsty after the beatings, carrying his cross, hanging on it for hours, and turning down the sour wine offered to him earlier. Yet, more was happening. Jesus had told the woman at the well a few years before, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.” (John 4:14, NIV) He told the Jewish faithful at the Feast of Tabernacles, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37-38, NIV) How could this Jesus who promised to be the source of eternal, living water for all who comes to him truly thirst? 

I believe Jesus’ words conveyed much more than the physical thirst he was experiencing. Notice the context John gave it: “Jesus, knowing all was now finished, said…” The Greek word for “all was finished” is the same as the last word he uttered on the Cross: tetelestai. (John 19:30) Its perfect tense drives the completion of a core objective. Jesus’ life mission was finished, but it cost him more than we can ever know. In some way beyond our ability to comprehend, paying the price for all of our sins – all the wrong things everyone who believes in him has done – cost him that living water he was, and now again is, so willing to provide. This is why John closes this segment with the words, “[He] gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30, ESV) He voluntarily chose to offer himself, but this included giving up that Spirit that was and is the source of living water. 

Yet, because Jesus was willing to pay that price, he won the greatest victory of all time, and we can all now be forgiven, have eternal life, and have the deepest thirst of our souls quenched by the living water of the Holy Spirit when we believe in him. Are you thirsty? Come to Jesus and be satisfied.

What is Truth?

John 18:37 - Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”



When the Jewish leaders finally resolved to execute Jesus, they had to hand him to the Roman governor of their region at the time, Pontius Pilate. Reading his story we find in the New Testament, in the non-Christian Jewish writers Philo and Josephus, in the Roman histories of Tacitus, and in the coins and engravings that bear his name, we get the sense he was an ambitious and opportunistic leader. His strategy in making a decision was nearly always, “What will give me the best outcome?” However, it seems his personal trial of Jesus really confused and disturbed him. What Jesus said forced to him ask a deep question, “What is truth?” Implicitly, Pilate was asking, “Is there an objective truth? Can I know it? If so, how will that affect the way I live?” That can be a frightening question to ask, but it can also give us a very encouraging answer if we are truly willing to ask it.



Many in our generation live the same way as Pilate. They base their decisions on what they think will give themselves the most and the best. If there is no objective truth that stands above my own opinions and desires, I can create my own truth to support what I want, but if there is a truth, especially if it is Jesus’ claim to Pilate, “The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37, NIV), that means the final definition of truth is outside of my own ideas and even those of all of the leaders and thinkers of human history. Now, it is no longer my right to decide what is true. Jesus gives us the ultimate definition in what he told his disciples the previous night: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NIV)



Pilate obviously wrestled with accepting the truth of Jesus that Good Friday (see Matthew 27:19-24, Mark 15:-9-15, Luke 23:13-24, John 18:31-19:16). Yet, in spite of an obvious conviction of Jesus’ innocence (and likely his truth, as well), Pilate chose not to allow that truth to shape his decision. He decided what he thought would keep himself in power, but crucifying Jesus ultimately did not help him. Josephus tells us Pilate lost his governorship a few years later. Writing shortly after that, Philo indicates Pilate’s career ended in disgrace.


If we accept Jesus’ claims of truth, we may longer get to define truth for ourselves, but we do get to know and experience the eternal Truth himself.

The Outcome

 John 17:1 - When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”

It is often hard to see anything good in the worst of times. A few hours before he was crucified, Jesus opened his prayer with these words: “Father, the hour has come.” He knew His time to die the incredibly painful death on the cross had come. This would be unimaginable suffering. Yet, Jesus’ next words seem out of place: “Glorify your Son.” Romans used crucifixion to humiliate convicted criminals. How could Jesus expect to be glorified? The glorification came in how he died and, more significantly, that he rose again. He would never have seen his greatest glory if he had not gone through the crucifixion.

In His hardest hour, Jesus focused on the good that would come out of it. Jesus’ words in the next verse show how he would glorify God the Father: by giving eternal life to those God gave him. Verse 3 gives us the greatest message in all of history: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

We would never have had the opportunity to have eternal life had Jesus not endured the pain required to have the death to be resurrected from. Even in that pain, his eyes were on the good that would come out of it, and that good is what it means for us. We each can have eternal life when we believe and come know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.