Picture sourced from http://jmichaeleast.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/preaching-from-the-ipad/
Acts 1:-6-8 (NIV)
“Then they gathered around him and 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.””
Our text this morning is a little like the children in the back of the car. The disciples are with Jesus and asking, “Are we there yet?” “Will you,” they ask “Return to Israel the kingdom?”
I wish to suggest this morning that in each one of us is a little kid sitting in the backseat of God’s car asking, “Are we there yet?”
Do you ever look around at the world and ask God when he might set things to rights? You may not say it quite like that but you look at the hopelessness of the situation and ask when God will fix the mess.
Do you look at the lives of those you love who are away from God, who might be sick or even dying and ask when God might heal them or bring them home? Once again you’re asking/praying when God might set the world to rights. You’re asking, “Are we there yet?”
This cry in each one of us for restoration is fed by the knowledge and hope that one day God will set the world to rights. Each one of us longs to know if we are there yet. We know that at some point this world will pass away and God will recreate the heavens and the earth. One day new creation will be the only reality in which we dwell. One day there will be no more tears, no more suffering. Jesus will be King in every sense.
But to us Jesus says, “Don’t worry if you’re there yet. That is for God to know. For now I am with you. I’m asking you to wait and to trust.”
We have before us the question of the disciples. “Will you?”
When Jesus commanded his disciples to wait he explained to them that in the same way John baptised in water, they would be baptised in the Holy Spirit. They would be immersed in God, plunged into God. They would be drenched in the Spirit of God in the same way water would drench us in baptism.
The mere mention of the Holy Spirit inspires in them a range of biblical stories. All stories of promise and hope. Stories that remind God’s people that one day God would be King again and the world would be set to rights.
The natural response of the disciples, of any Jewish person, to such a promise is to then ask, “Will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?”
Israel lived in hope that God would send a King to restore to the kingdom Israel. A king who would overthrow the oppressive powers. So the response of the disciples to Jesus is natural. He has been using language of being the Messiah, the one who would save them so for them to then ask, “Are we there yet?” is perfectly reasonable.
Just as it is for us to ask God, “Are we there yet? Will you at this time set the world to rights Lord?
“No” says Jesus, “but here is what I will tell you. Don’t worry about the when. I have a promise for you. In a few days you will be baptised in the Holy Spirit. As a result you will be empowered to give witness to who I am and what that means for the world! When the Spirit comes you will give witness to me here, there, end everywhere! You’re looking for an earthly Kingdom, but God has sent you his reign”
The question of the disciples is answered by the promise of Jesus. The promise to send them the Holy Spirit and the promise that they will be witnesses to the great hope that one day God will set the world to rights. Witnesses to the fact that Jesus is Lord. It would be easy at this point to make one of two mistakes.
The first has been quite common among Christians for quite some time:
- Because God will one day set the world to rights and take us all off to heaven there is little point doing anything in this world of lasting value. Our only goal should be to win lost souls to heaven (as if heaven is the main point) and get ready for our departure. All that matters is eternity.
The second has become more common in recent years.
- It is the belief that the Kingdom can only come in this world in and through our actions in this world. As the church works for the betterment of the world we live in, the kingdom comes. In fact the Kingdom that comes is not something eternal. It exists only in this world. What matters is this world, not the one to come.
There are in both these views elements of truth. We cannot be so heavenly minded that we are of not earthly good. And likewise, we cannot be so earthly minded we have no heavenly hope.
The mission of God in the world, our witness, and our gathering as God’s people does not rest on our ability to do things in Jesus’ name. Likewise, just because God will bring about a new heavens and a new earth does not mean we can act like bad tenants of that which has been entrusted to our care in the meantime.
Jesus is clear: You will be my witnesses. Witnesses of who I am, of what took place in and through me, and what this means for the world. In essence, we give witness in this world today of what we believe the world will be when God does set it to rights. We live new creation life here and now because we knows it’s true!
Mission lies at the heart of God. It doesn’t begin here in Acts 1-2, in fact it began in Genesis 3. Here in Acts the vocation of God’s people to be witnesses of what God has done in and through Jesus Christ becomes our calling. Witness is the vocation of God’s people.
Witness involves being keepers of the story, proclaiming the story of who Jesus is, and living out the ongoing reality of the story in this world!
As we gather together, as we pray, as we read the Bible, as we feed the hungry and clothe the poor, as we love our neighbour (whoever it might be), we are a witnesses to who Jesus was, who he is and what his story means for the world. These acts of hope, these down payments of what is to come are not grandiose. They barely look like a kingdom. They do however look a lot like Jesus don’t they?
