The Program 9/20
Sermon Series: Acts – Faith Explosion
Text: Acts 1:6-11
Title: The Program
Theme: As the Disciples receive final instructions from Jesus they are told to wait for the coming of the Spirit and that their service will be about God’s program and not some idea of their own, and they are given the guarantee of the return of Jesus in the evidence of the ascension.
“So when they had come together, 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.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Introduction: The Hindenburg Disaster
Transition: Last week we started this new study through the book of Acts which I entitled “The Explosion of Faith.” As we opened up the book we see a picture of the disciples being surrounded by the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection and being told to wait, that instructions would be forthcoming.
Can you imagine being an eyewitness to the most fantastic thing that has ever happened and being told to just hold on? You get told by the boss that you are to wait just wait to tell the thing that you know.
We see in the passage that we read today that the disciples are getting together. I think it is safe to assume that these early witnesses to the events of Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection are getting together regularly I would think daily. Imagine you are an eyewitness to the greatest event that has ever happened in human history; could you just go to work the next day? These people have been irrevocably changed, God has stepped into history clothed Himself with flesh and then even more incredible is that he crawled up on the altar and offered Himself as a sacrifice to dissolve the eternal consequences of our sins.
I imagine that what we are seeing expressed in the words, “they came together and asked him” is the regular human reaction to say let’s get on with the program. Is now the time? Are you going to finish what you started? Are you ready for us to finish?
