But Wait, then Go!

‘He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.’ ¹ After three-and-a-half years, the disciples still needed more Jesus. Among other indications of this need was the question,

…they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He 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.” ²

The disciples were still preoccupied with God’s restoring Israel—the breaking of Rome’s power over Judea—but Jesus is still emphasizing the Kingdom of God and not a kingdom of man. After the resurrection, Jesus spent forty days pointing the disciples to the continuing of the work He had been doing and how they were to continue this Kingdom of God work. They were to be His witnesses near and far in time and place but there was more, the enabling which would make it possible in the same ability as He had demonstrated: ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses…”. It was not enough that they had something to say, something to report, something to talk about, but that what they witnessed would be witnessed to in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised this enabling earlier in His ministry to the disciples but they missed the necessity for they didn’t understand the expansion of the ministry they were to fulfill.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom 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. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ³
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. ⁴
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ⁵

If they were to be the witnesses He had discipled them to be, there was one more need they had which could not be taught. With all they had seen, experienced, witnessed, had been demonstrated before them by Jesus, there was one more urgency:

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” ⁶

But, wait, there’s more! Ten days later, God will turn these errant, wandering, questioning, distracted men into witnesses of Jesus who will change the world. And you are to be the same kind of empowered by God witness to your world.