Scripture Daily

Context No. 1521 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 1:1-5: in context

1The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, 2until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking about God’s Kingdom. 4Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me. 5For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Luke begins his second book, recalling the first, which told of all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up. After his suffering, Jesus presented himself alive by many proofs, appearing over forty days and speaking of the kingdom of God. And then, gathered with them, he gives a command that must have been hard for eager disciples to hear: do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

The command worth dwelling on is the one to wait: do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father. The disciples had been given an enormous commission, to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth; every instinct must have been to go, to begin at once, to act. And Jesus tells them to wait. Before they undertake the mission, they are to wait for the Spirit, for the power from on high that alone can accomplish the work; to go before that would be to go in their own strength, and it would fail. There is an important lesson in that command to wait, and it is one activists and eager servants especially need. There is a time to act, but there is also a time to wait for God's enabling, and to rush ahead of it, however good the cause, is to labor in our own strength rather than his. The disciples were not to begin the work until they had received the power to do it; and the waiting was not wasted time but the necessary preparation, the receiving of what would make the mission possible. We are often too impatient for that. Zealous to serve, we rush into the work without waiting on God, and undertake in our own strength what only his Spirit can accomplish. Jesus' word to the eager is first to wait, to receive the power before undertaking the work, so that what we do is done in his strength and not our own. Wait for the promise of the Father; then go.

Am I so eager to act that I rush into God's work without waiting on him, undertaking in my own strength what only his Spirit can accomplish, or can I heed Jesus' command to wait for the power from on high before I begin?

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