A Word in Season: Heavenly Power (Luke 24 46–49; Acts 1:8)

Luke twice records the instructions that the Lord Jesus Christ left his disciples and the particular promises and encouragements that he bestowed upon them for the carrying out of those instructions.

At the end of Luke's Gospel in chapter 24 he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the

Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission or forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem, and you are witnesses of these things.

Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry, wait, in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.

And after that he led them out as far as Bethany and lifted up his hands in blessing and was carried out of their sight.

The same event is recorded in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. There they are asking him because they are troubled by what's going on and they're wondering whether or not the coming of the kingdom is at hand and what this means for Israel itself.

And he says to them in Acts chapter 1 and verse 7, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the

Father has put in his own authority. Our instinct is so often to agitate about these things.

We know that we're living in the last days, but perhaps we think we need to know when is the last day, what's going to happen next, how are all these things going to pan out, not in broad strokes, but in particular details.

And Christ has indeed given us an understanding, generally speaking, of the days in which we live.

But our duty in these days is of paramount importance, just as it was for those first disciples.

And so, verse 8, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all

Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Here are the disciples' duties and here still is a window into our responsibility in the days in which we live.

We are to be witnesses to Christ Jesus. Now we are not like the apostles themselves, eyewitnesses of his majesty in the same sense.

We have not had the privilege of watching Christ with our own eyes and following him for those three years.

We don't have the particular duties that they had in terms of distinct responsibility as the layers of the foundation.

But still, it is the task of the church to go on making Christ known, to be declarers of his person and of his saving power.

In fact, the very promise of the extension of the work implies that at the very least.

In Jerusalem, yes, beginning there where they crucified me, and then out into Judea and to Samaria, even to the places where those who are in Jerusalem might think that there is nothing to say and no one to whom you'd want to say it.

And even to the very end of the earth, that according to what he said at the end of Luke, that the gospel may be preached to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

And we're still doing that today. We're still making known the name of Jesus Christ as God's savior,

God's Lord and Christ in all the earth. And we're still relying on precisely the same power.

The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church on the day of Pentecost and was not taken away.

The promises of spiritual power that were made to the first disciples are the same promises upon which we rely today.

Now, we may not be apostles and therefore we do not possess apostolic gifts, but it is the same spirit who works in God's people now to enliven us, to sustain us, to equip us, to enlighten and illuminate us, to encourage us, to strengthen us, to open our mouths that we may speak.

How much then we need to be pleading with the Lord of glory to go on granting these spiritual blessings, that as those who have been given his spirit as the down payment of our inheritance, we may know his powerful operations in our souls, that we may go on being filled with the

Holy Spirit for the work that he has given us to do. The spread of the gospel has not yet come to an end.

There are those who still need to hear and the power of the Holy Ghost is still given that when we speak,