The third thing he did was command them to wait. He gave them a task and then told them, “Not yet. Wait.” From Luke we read they were to stay in the city until they were clothed with power form on high. From Acts 1:4, they were not to depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father, which we see in verse 5 is the Holy Spirit.
And so we see that knowledge and faith about the kingdom and its king are not enough. Without empowerment of the Spirit, we won’t bear fruit for the kingdom. This, of course, naturally leads to the disciples question in verse. 6.
But notice the subtle change they make. Luke says that Jesus was teaching about the kingdom of God. They are asking about the kingdom of Israel. We can’t help but want to know how all this affects my locality. We worry about elections because we believe our kingdom is THE kingdom. “When, God, are you going to make it right—here?”
And Jesus says, “Yeah, none of your business. But good news: I’m freeing you from worrying about Israel because you are going to be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem (yes, you see I care about our countrymen) and Judea, but also Samaria (yes, even the Samaritans), but let’s not stop there. You’ll also go to the ends of the earth.”
And then he left. And they—rightly so—are gazing up after him. I would be too. You probably would be too. And then the most bizarre thing happens. Two guys in white robes show up. They ask why they’re standing there looking up into heaven. That seems either really naive or sort of cruel.
And their explanation doesn’t really help. He’s going to come back just like he left. And if I were one of the disciples, I would have said, “And that’s why we’re standing here looking up!”
But the point is that we’re not just supposed to press our noses against the glass and and just look. We’re supposed to be witnesses. Or as Matthew put it at the end of his gospel: we’re supposed to make disciples. But we are never to do so in our own strength.
So again, in these first eleven verses, we see the truth that a Spirit-empowered witness is how we present the kingdom and what we need to be ultimately concerned with in Jesus’ absence. If only we could grasp this reality and stuff down the noise from our own culture that demands we put all our faith and energy and hope in a political party. Can we hold fast to the reality of the resurrection, take seriously our need for repentance, and rest in our forgiveness? And then let us witness to the miracle of how God has changed us and loved us by loving others well.
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