Acts 1:6-11 (NIV) 6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
How many of us wish Jesus were still here on earth in His resurrected body? The resurrection, in the eyes of the disciples, had been a really great thing, an eye opener. They believed, but still wondered when Jesus would take over Israel and settle this thing once and for all. But Jesus answers “it is not for you to know the times or the dates,” another way of saying “that’s none of your business.”
For some of us, those may be among the most important words Jesus speaks. For busy, responsible people these are words of freedom and release. Do we see God simply as One who gives us responsibility? Can we imagine God saying to us, “That’s none of your business? That is not for you to do. Stop!” Can we hear that word to our life? Can we hear that it is none of our business? That is not our responsibility? To hear those words in our heart is a break through.
“That is none of your business” is prelude to what we hear next, “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses. A witness says something about God by what they do and by what they say. When we have received the power to witness to Jesus Christ it becomes as natural as telling others about a trip or vacation. Power is given that enables us to witness, that fills our words and our actions with the truth and the life of God.
Having invested His life in the disciples and having promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus leaves them. Jesus leaves the disciples in much the same way many of us take our children to college, for the sake of their growth and development. God invested His life and love in us. Then God leaves us, expecting us to decide what is our responsibility and what is God’s. The decisions are not easy. We walk by faith rather than by infallible answers. God leaves us with the promise that we shall receive power, but does not promise when or how that power will come. Sometimes the gift may be as surprising to us as the answer is helpful to others. But we can count on the power knowing that God is counting on us and has appointed us as God’s representatives in the world. What now?
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 16, 1999
copyright Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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