WAITING ROOMS and OTHER PLACES of PAIN
Acts 1:1-14
Opening Credits
Author: Luke
DIRECTOR: GOD
SETTING: 1ST CENTURY JERUSALEM AND BEYOND
OUTLINE: STILL BEING WRITTEN
KEY WORD: BEGAN (FORMER ACCOUNT)
Moving to Pennsylvania has given us some very interesting experiences, lightening Bugs, snow and ice, and major rivers to name a few. One that really fascinates me however, is trying to figure out the amount of time it takes to hear the thunder following the lightening flash. The opening of Acts is an account of the flash of lightening of the incarnation and the thunder of Pentecost. The two cannot be separated. The birth, life, message, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, the Return of the Lord in the infilling as the church was infused with power at Pentecost are just as critical for us today as it was for the first century church. The same preparation for power must happen in us.
When it does, we can know Him in a greater level of intimacy tan the disciples had when they lived with Him for three years.
I) PROVISION of PROOF for REPROOF
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen (Acts 1:1-2).
The name Theophilus means: God-lover, or God be-loved. The designation ‘most excellent” identifies him as an official in the Roman government. The term instructed 0katechethes) means ‘to sound down,’ or ‘to instruct’ in the Greek. The combination of the three has led some to think that Luke was writing to a Roman official to instruct him about the peril that both he and Paul faced, and what the facts were concerning Christianity. Even when it seems like our days are dark or hopeless, God has a way of preparing us for what He sees as our best possible outcome.
Luke is not writing an argument against false information. He is forcefully instructing a receptive learner. Luke is communicating under the guidance of Holy Spirit a number of things, including:
• The telling of an exciting story,
• gives an account of what Jesus did,
• and what Jesus continues to do in Luke
One of the most important lessons we can take away from Luke is that nothing can happen through us that isn’t happening to us in a fresh way. This is why John Hewlett Scott once said that: “We get no deeper in Christ than we let Him get into us.”
God is in the business of proving what He has determined to be true with infallible proof. That’s why Jesus appeared to so many people. That’s why Holy Spirit’s introduction and Jesus ministry came with supernatural expressions: After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). That’s why we are called to go into all of Pittsburgh.
The opening of the Book of Acts demonstrates a climate we were all meant to live in. It is a climate that really has to do with knowing the Will of God for our lives: So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8). God’s will isn’t seen in the absolute unveiling in the minutiae and details of our lives or the future in regard to specifics. It is His will for us to be empowered to deal with the circumstances and opportunities that life brings our way.
Nothing has happened in your world that can’t be recovered. The Lord wants to recapture opportunity, regain initiative, make things work again. But you must choose to let the Lord do whatever is necessary to recover that which seems to be lost, redeeming the time. That’s what He was doing with these disciples. They were in a recovery mode as they went to Jerusalem and tarried in the Upper Room.
What the disciples were being told to do when they went to the Upper Room to wait was to: Buy up the opportunity for Divine recovery because everything around you is trying to press the will of God out of your life, not into it. So discern what the will of the Lord is; be filled with the Spirit, and then the will of God will begin to unfold.
It isn’t surprising to see that Paul would communicate this same concept in Ephesians when he says that: He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will (Ephesians 1:5). The same words used here are also used in the angel’s message sung to the shepherds the night Jesus was born: “Glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).
It has to do with God pouring His life, His will and Heaven into your world: He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. (Luke 11:2-4). In the beginning of Acts, just like in the beginning of Luke, His love comes to invade our world with salvation and redemption.
II) PROVISION of POWER for REPRODUCTION
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Isn’t it amazing how Creation obeys its Creator’s command, with each creature reproducing after its kind? This is a profound truth that is evident at every single birth. With each newborn animal’s or person’s birth, this truth is proclaimed in new and fresh ways. Reproduction is a part of God’s original mandate.
2) Believers are meant to reproduce. This is determined through what we call the Great Commission: “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Acts 1:8 is the fifth appearance of this Commission. Matthew 28:18-20 is preceded by Mark 16:5: “Preach the Gospel to every creature,” which has Luke 24:47 as a precursor: “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations. John contains the other reference: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21)
● Holy Spirit: don’t leave home without Him: You can’t be effective as a witness without Him.
Acts 1:4-8, John 15:4-6, John 8:27-30
● The Spirit is not an thing, He’s a person.
Acts 1:8, Romans 5:10, Galatians 2:20, Romans 8:5-9, 1 John 2:27
● His primary purpose is to make the Father’s works known in power.
Acts 1:8, 2 Timothy 1:7-9, Matthew 5:13-16
Every one of us is confronted with the basic question: What really, in the will of God, is my life about? Not what do I think I’m about, but what did God have in mind? Be patient: spiritual growth takes time to unfold. How long did it take you to become the person you are physically? We are however, supposed to step into the skin of Luke when we read this Book, and begins by telling some basic things about Jesus.
In both of the accounts records for us (Luke/Acts), Luke puts practice before preaching, doing before teaching, and deed before word. That’s the opposite of we are usually taught today. You usually hear that sound theology must precede ministry. Think about Jesus. He never wrote a theology or a book for the NT, although His teachings are soaked with sound teaching. The Protestant Reformation was in place long before Calvin and Luther. It was put in motion by men of action.
Isn’t it funny how we are often instructed about what Jesus did without telling us what He wants to do today as indwelling Spirit and engendering power? The Gospel isn’t a mystery. The idea of “mystery” in the New Testament never has to do with the mysterious. Mysterious has to do with something that used to be mysterious, but now is coming to be clear, sometimes defined as “an unfolding secret” or a “secret that is now told.” Our challenge today is to instruct people and show them that they can have both halves of their “re-birth rights.” They can abide in Christ safe and secure, and they can have Christ abiding in them, creating havoc in the world around you.
III) PROVISION of PROSPECT for REWARD
We are to be His witnesses: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Witnessing means we are to proclaim what we have seen and experienced in our relationship with Him: this is why it is so important for us to go deeper and to seek Him out experientially. We have been commissioned to demonstrate the reality of a relationship with Him, as we bring the lost to Him.
Being a witness makes us a key person, the key that releases what others were made to be. Imagine a door key that’s in disrepair. It’s bent, rusted, perhaps the teeth are broken so it won’t turn the tumblers of a lock.
Like a key, every person has a specific place that they have been fashioned by God to fit. You are a key person. But all of us have also been “bent” at some point by misuse. Some people have been broken. Some are “rusty” due to exposure to things that aren’t good.
Another way that the word “key” is used is with reference to a code that will release something that has been encrypted. DNA—which reaches back to our ancestors—is the code that releases what we become biologically. Although it automatically happens, you can still make some decisions about your biology and how you respond to it. The will of God does not automatically come about. The key to the release of what is encoded in God’s will for us is our own choice to align with the will of God, unlocking what we were made to be. God has instructed us that we unlock the door by:
• Opening up to the Way of Jesus in your life;
• Being filled with the Spirit;
• Walking in a spirit of worship;
• and Submitting to the Lord’s way.
