“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” (Acts 1:8)

This week, Acts 1:4-8 kicks off a new series, Holy Spirit: Power, Presence, Purpose. The first chapter in Acts bridges Luke’s gospel account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection of Jesus with His ascension into heaven. Luke tells us in these first verses that the resurrected Jesus has spent forty days with the disciples, proving to them He is alive and teaching them. 

Imagine those days for a minute.

Shattered by your Savior’s death, you are overjoyed when He rises. Jesus spends time with you, “opening [your] mind so [you] can understand Scripture (Luke 24:45) and “giving instructions” (Acts 1:2) to all of you. Sure, He talks about the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God, and some “gift” that will arrive, but you’re so focused on His just being here, you still haven’t grasped His greater meaning. So you ask, again, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel”? (v.6). (Subtext: “Surely this is why You’ve risen.”)

With hindsight, we think this question is clueless, especially now, but wouldn’t we be thinking similarly: Jesus is staying here, He’s talking about His kingdom, so I’m going to ask again. They still don’t understand that “God's Kingdom isn't simply for the people of Israel, that the Kingdom can’t come until the Good News reaches the world” (Brian Emmet). In fact, it will be quite a while in Acts before the apostles move from preaching to increasingly unresponsive, even antagonistic Jews to reaching Gentiles. 

Jesus doesn’t answer their question; instead, He swiftly commissions them: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (v.8). Then - mic drop - Jesus ascends (v.9). He’s gone, again? Now what? 

Turns out the resurrection is far from the end of His story. 

The apostles obediently return to Jerusalem to wait (see v.4). It will be ten days before the promised Holy Spirit descends. Did they remember that Jesus told them “it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I’ll send Him to you” (John 16:7)? Put yourself there again. Wouldn’t you think it preposterous it could be to your advantage for Jesus to leave? You have the omnipotent Son of God with you, in the flesh. But your focus - the disciples’ focus, our focus sometimes - is short-sighted and limited.

The apostles don’t understand yet that the gospel simply can’t get “to the ends of the earth” (v.8) were Jesus to stay. He would remain their focus, ministry limited by geography. Jesus couldn’t go everywhere the disciples, empowered by the Spirit, will now go. They will gain boldness; this small number of believers will soon explode. They will soon understand the Holy Spirit “inside them is better than Jesus beside them.”* I like to imagine them nodding in agreement when St. Augustine, three centuries in their future, will write: “You ascended before our eyes, and we turned away grieving, only to find You in our hearts.”

The Holy Spirit will exponentially widen the sphere of Jesus’ work. He is mentioned almost sixty times in Acts, His essentiality to Gospel work undeniable. How are you experiencing the Spirit’s power in your life?  

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*Title Credit: J.D. Greear, Jesus, Continued…Why The Spirit Inside You Is Better Than Jesus Beside You. Zondervan, 2014.