The 7 Next Words of Christ: Wait for the Gift | Pentecost
The 7 Next Words of Christ: Finding Hope in the Resurrection Sayings
“Wait For The Gift”
Acts 1:1-11 (New Revised Standard Version)
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set 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, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
How much of our lives do we spend somewhere in the middle of the extremes of ordinary and exceptional?
We can live exceptional lives, through the extreme power of the gift that is the Holy Spirit.
This is how we fulfill the commission of Jesus about going into the world and making disciples of Jesus Christ.
In order to fulfill this, in order to live in the extreme of exceptional, we must live and operate under God’s authority, power, and time… not our own.
It’s up to us to decide to go, and after we have made that decision then this is how we will do it.
Notice the order of progression here: 1) they would receive the Holy Spirit, 2) he would give them power, and then 3) they would witness with extraordinary results.
How often do we try to reverse this order and witness by our own power and authority?
God has important work for each of us, but we must do it by the power of the Holy Spirit, which means God’s way, God’s power, and God’s time.
It is important that we remember that witnessing is not showing what we can do for God, but it is showing and telling what God has done for us.
The gift of the Holy Spirit as described in Acts confronts and confounds the mean of our existence.
We are placed here to live exceptionally.
God has no intention of giving us the gifts of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and then watching us merely get by.
A gift is something given to us, but we don’t demand the gift of the giver, we wait for it to be given to us and then we do amazing things with it.