Dwell in the Word: Acts 1:1-11

Consider these questions as you dwell in Acts 1:1-11:

1. How does the book of Acts continue the story that Luke began in the Gospel of Luke, and what is the central theme that Luke emphasizes in this introduction?

2. What significance do the disciples place on Jesus' ascension, and how does their question about restoring the kingdom of Israel reveal their expectations? How does Jesus respond to their question?

3. How does the promise of the Holy Spirit's coming and the disciples' role as witnesses tie into the overall message and mission that Jesus imparts to them before his ascension? How does this message resonate with believers today?

Transcript:

And so, the book of Acts starts out with an introduction and then quickly moves into the ascension and this Introduction is an interesting one. We've seen on Sunday morning. We have been looking at the book Luke and we saw in Luke chapter 1, Luke started out talking about how he was writing to this Theophilus.

And so, this book of Acts is a continuation of the story that Luke has told in the Gospel of Luke. And so, what we see here is that he's looking to tell a story beyond what happened. Notice that he's talking about Jesus and what he did until he was taken up. But now he's going to be talking about something else.

But before we move on to this ascension that he's going to give us details about, we see in verse 3 that Jesus presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about The kingdom of God. And so Jesus showed that he was alive. You know, we see in the Gospels, and we talked about this a little bit in 1 Corinthians 15, we see Jesus doing things that show us that he is physically resurrected.

This is not just a spiritual thing. As I said, he breathes on people. Spirits don't breathe. He eats fish.  Spirits don't need to eat. Jesus is giving many proofs. This is important We need to understand that he is physically and bodily raised from the dead Well, what did Jesus do? He was around for 40 days and he was speaking about the kingdom of god now what's interesting about that statement what sort of Gives me a charge here is that the disciples come together with him And he has been speaking to them about the kingdom of God and then, what do they ask?

They ask the same old question in their line of thinking that we've seen throughout the Gospels. Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? He's just been speaking to them about the kingdom of God, and they're still thinking, it's now. That Jesus is going to set up an earthly kingdom now, they're impatient, and, and here they are on the cusp of one of the most important events in history, the ascension, and they're expecting Jesus to say, stay and set up his kingdom.

It's like, once again, the disciples still aren't getting it, right? And so, how does Jesus answer? It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father's fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses. How important is that truth, right?

They didn't seem to get what was going on, but the Holy Spirit is going to come and then they will get it. And it isn't going to be Jesus. Right now, reigning from Jerusalem. They say he's going to be reigning from heaven and they are going to be his witnesses. They are going to go out into the earth. Notice what the progression is here.

Jerusalem, all of Judea, Samaria, and then the ends of the earth. And we're going to see this unfold in the book of Acts. That is the progression that is going to happen. But they are going to be the witnesses to Jesus. To what he did the mission that he had and we're going to see what that message is and how it points to the Crucified and risen Lord that is reigning in heaven.

We're going to see this This is the point of the book of Acts to help us to understand who Jesus was  What he did and what it means and these witnesses are going to tell that story in the book of Acts  And so they are now, uh, sort of being put in their place that, you know, Hey, the Holy Spirit's going to come.

You're going to be my witnesses. And then Jesus departs. He goes up out of sight. And they're standing there looking up. And two men dressed in white robes say, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

So, there's a promise here. They're looking up.  They're wondering what happened and these angels come and give this message that they have looking up Don't look up. Jesus is going to return. There is work to do. Jesus had just told him that he is going to be their witnesses. Jesus has ascended He is now in heaven and we're going to see the consequence of that as we go forward in the book of Acts, but the point here is is that these disciples who are who didn't get it are going to receive the Holy Spirit and they are going to go out and be witnesses to the ends of the earth.

These are the disciples who, as we saw in the book of Mark, uh, didn't really get it, right? They were kind of the foils of the story. Uh, we talked about several months ago when we were in the book of Mark for Dwell in the Word but something's going to happen.  And they're going to be the witnesses. They are going to be the way the church expands.

That's the story that is being told here. That these men will receive the Spirit and be witnesses to the ends of the earth.  And so, what does this mean for us? You know, we have to think about the significance of the ascension of Jesus. We're long past that historical event. We're long past the lives of the disciples, but it's still up to us to be witnesses to the ends of the earth that we proclaim the gospel, trusting that people will hear and believe this good news.

So, may we remember this call that our Ascended Lord has put on our lives to be faithfully proclaiming the gospel. May that be on our lips as we go out into the world today. And may we remember that we have a King in heaven who is reigning. And there he is at the Father's right hand interceding for us.