Foundations (Part 2) Acts 1: 6-11

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Foundations matter.

Why Foundations Matter for Acts

What you do in the beginning, especially if you�re building a building, matters. In fact, as I was thinking about this, I thought I would look up some epic fails of building because what else are you going to do, right?

How about this one? This is in China. The Lotus Riverside Building Complex in Shanghai, complex of 11 buildings by the side of a river. In 2009, they nearly completed it. They were finishing it up. They piled all the dirt that they dug out for this underground garage that was part of the complex, beside a nearby creek.

Essentially, they built a dam, which diverted all the water to the building�s foundations. Then there was a huge rainstorm. The foundations gave way and the entire building fell over. So that�s one epic fail.

How about the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, designed by a famous architect named Frank Gehry? It had two surprising features, or two of its surprising features. It reflects sunlight so brightly that drivers can�t see.

It�d be a little problem in Los Angeles. And then it occasionally fires heat rays at nearby objects, including heating sidewalks to 140 degrees. Nice. Talk about frying an egg on it, right? And then there�s this one.

This is a little closer to home because it�s in Boston. Winner of the prestigious National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1977, the John Hancock Center stands as the tallest building in Boston and serves as a navigational landmark.

A few problems, though. When it got super windy, the building liked to drop windows onto the pavement below. And they said, �These aren�t cute little windows like you have in your bedroom or something.

Nope. These are 5 by 12, 500-pound slabs, they call it, of aerial death. And it wasn�t just a few of them, but hundreds and hundreds of windows hurtling down the streets below. The problem got so bad that whenever winds exceeded 45 miles an hour, police would close off the entire area around the building for public safety.

During one windstorm in January 1973, over 60 windows were knocked loose from the building�s façade. Bad. But, of course, because we have that rivalry, no list would be complete without number one on the list, New York City.

They had to one-up us. The Citigroup Center building is built over�it�s interesting to look at�it�s built over a little church, right? They couldn�t get the church to move. They couldn�t buy the church.

They couldn�t knock down the church. So they built these support columns up over the church, and so they essentially put this skyscraper over the little church. The big problem came when they started analyzing the building as it�s near completion, of course, and the architect starts thinking late at night, hmm, what happens if the winds come at an angle instead of straight on, right?

So they do some experiments, and they figure out that if it strikes the corner of the building with enough force, it�ll be enough to knock the building over. That�s a problem. So did they warn the surrounding public?

No. No. That would cause panic, right? Instead, they put extra welding on the joints, and as they�re putting this welding on the joints, a hurricane forms and starts heading towards New York City. Thankfully, the hurricane changed direction.

But the Red Cross did an estimate after this, and they said that if this calamity had taken place, as many as 200 ,000 people would have died. Foundations matter. Designs matter. And as we look at the Book of Acts, which I invite you to turn to the Book of Acts, that�s what we�re doing is we�re sort of, like Luke does, the author of Acts, we�re setting the stage for what�s going to happen now.

He�s giving us, as it were, an introduction, right? He�s setting the stage for this history of the early church so that we understand why what takes place later actually takes place. He�s giving us the building blocks so that we can understand what�s going on.

Let me read our text this morning, verses 6 to 11 of Acts chapter 1. So when they had come together, they asked him, �Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel He said to them, �It is not for you to know the times, to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed 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, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, �Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

Now last week, by way of review, last week as we introduced this, I said that R. Kent Hughes, when he was contrasting the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with the book of Acts, he said this, he said, �In the Gospels, we see the original seeds of Christianity.

In Acts, we see the continual growth of the Church. The Gospels tell us of Christ crucified and risen. Acts speaks of Christ ascended and exalted. The Gospels model the Christian life as lived by the perfect man, Christ Jesus.

Acts models it as lived out by imperfect men, the disciples. So last week, we looked at four foundations of truth that are vital to understanding Acts. First, the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. And I pointed out that because Luke, a Gentile physician, was well-educated and was very methodical in what he did, right?

Very systematic in gathering all the evidence, which I said I liked because it reminded me of like a police investigation, and that's what he does. He gathers all the evidence, he sorts it out, and then he methodically puts it together and presents it to us in a way that's comprehensible.

So we have his precise writing, and then Acts is the continuation of his account in the Gospel of Luke of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Daryl Bach said this, he's a scholar from Dallas Theological Seminary, he said, �Without Jesus and his work, one cannot make sense of the church's existence and activity.

In other words, how did the church grow without Jesus Christ, his person and his work, and without a full understanding of that? And the answer is, they couldn't. The church could not grow. It had to basically fulfill his promise to build his church in Matthew 16, 18.

Secondly, we saw the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. It was his promise to build his church. Secondly, he gave instructions to his apostles, the men he chose, right? They were his elect apostles, his chosen apostles.

He was exhorting and teaching them during the 40 days between the resurrection and the ascension. Thirdly, we saw the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The proofs that he gave his disciples during this 40-day period between the resurrection and the ascension.

The 10 appearances that we listed last week to various groups of the disciples and the promise of his return. Fourthly, we saw the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus Christ, right? He's promised it, as I taught through John, he promised the Holy Spirit would come.

And now in Acts 1, verse 4, he says,. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem. They were to wait there for the sending of the Holy Spirit. They would need this supernatural power in order to do the work that he was giving them.

The Disciples' Question About the Kingdom

So this morning, simple outline. Four questions. Four questions. Which seems appropriate as we're just talking about how Luke is very analytical, how he's very systematic, how he kind of works like a police officer, and we like questions.

That's what we do. That's what we did. That's what I did. First question, when? When? Timing, right? Is the king, Jesus, is he going to rule Israel now? Look at verse 6. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

So right away, we have yet this question, we have this question, where? Where did they gather? Where were they? You know, it says that they gathered together. Well, where was that? The answer, as Pastor Mike likes to say, is keep reading.

Because we'd see it in verse 12. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey away. Mount Olivet, or the Mount of Olives. Olivet. Who calls it Olivet?

I like Mount of Olives. A Sabbath day journey is interesting. If you've been to Israel, I remember when we went there in 2000, there were like along the phone lines around the city of Jerusalem, there were these little indicators hanging down.

And that's how far you could walk in a Sabbath day. Now, in those days, before they had tried to bound everything, the rule of thumb was you could go a thousand, about a thousand yards from your house or from where you lived.

So the Mount of Olives, we can gather just from that, is not going to be very far from where they were staying, which was in Jerusalem. And that's as far as they could go, was the Mount of Olives. In fact, if you've been to Jerusalem, you know that if you, I was going to say, if you exit the temple, like you could just walk out of the temple.

You can't do that. But from the Temple Mount, you go down a little slope and then you go up another slope. Mount. You go up another slope and you're at the Mount of Olives. So it's not very far. They're not very far outside of Jerusalem.

So that's where they are. But their question of when is a result of Jesus promising the Holy Spirit. He says, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. And they say, OK, what does this signify? Are you now going to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies?

Are you going to establish this earthly kingdom? Are you going to take your place as the rightful king of Israel? You're a descendant of David. Are you going to fulfill this prophetic moment that we've been waiting for right now?

And to give us a sense of why we're or why they're asking this, I'd like you to turn to Luke chapter one for a moment. It's going to give you an idea of their thinking. We're going towards the end of Luke chapter one, verse 67 to 74.

We would see the father of John the Baptist. It's interesting because we're going to see what he thinks the coming servant is going to do. Verse 67, And his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.

As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us, that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear.

You see that our enemies, all who hate us, delivered from the hand of our enemies. There's this idea of a physical deliverance. And we know that Judas Iscariot and others were more concerned with the physical benefits of Jesus.

This idea that he might come to rule and reign over Israel, that they might, because they're on the inner circle, either enrich themselves or have more power, that kind of thing. So back to Acts chapter 1.

They believed in Jesus. I mean, how could they not? They trusted him. They knew that he had died for their sins and had been raised from the dead. So could this be, could this be the end? Could this be the time of the ultimate kingdom?

Is the millennium at hand? Well, it's the wrong question, wrong thinking. And Jesus tells them that in verse 7. He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

Now, I'll tell you what got my attention right away was what he doesn't say. I mean, it's kind of dangerous, but I'll go there anyway. Jesus does not tell them Israel isn't important anymore. Don't even think about the country Israel.

He doesn't say that. He doesn't say Israel's been replaced. Their question is, are you now going to restore the kingdom of Israel? Are you going to rule and reign? And Jesus says, Jesus doesn't even address that question.

Instead, he says, you know what? The future is not yours to know. It's not, I mean, to put it a little bluntly, none of your business, right? This is not your concern. And it's interesting to me because I think so often we're like the disciples.

We want to know where we are in the cosmic clock, in the divine timeline. Where are we? How close to the end are we? Is Jesus about to come and set up his kingdom? And I think it's fair for me to say to you, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the father is fixed by his own authority.

Daryl Bach said this, he said, Acts, the book of Acts will show that concern for Israel alone is not the point of the gospel. Listen, the message will go to all and is for all because Jesus is Lord of all, right?

This isn't about national Israel. Your concerns are too parochial. They're too narrow. This message has to go to every nation, every tribe, every kindred all over the world. The second thing that got my attention, 2000 years ago, they wanted to know if the end was near.

We still want to know, right? Every morning when I get up, especially these days, especially on Sundays, especially when I'm preaching, I'm like, is today the day? Is it coming before 10, 15? Is eschatology the most important thing?

No. Mike and I, before he got sick, I think we were talking on the radio show. We were talking about, you know, if we had a conference here on the Trinity and there was one across the street on eschatology, you know, that place would sell out and we'd be struggling over here.

But if someone who taught that Jesus was not God, in other words, we were talking about this yesterday morning, an Arian, a follower of Arius, somebody who teaches that Jesus Christ was just a creature, turned out to have a right understanding of eschatology, a right understanding of how the world ends, would that make him a good Bible teacher?

Would we say, you know what? He got Jesus wrong, but he got the end right. No. What if another preacher had his eschatology perfect, spot on, and he said, you know, the way to get to heaven is Jesus plus your good works.

Who cares? Who cares about him? Good for him that he got the end right. We need to live in light of the truth that Jesus Christ is returning soon and there's a message, and that message is, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, lived a perfect life, died on the third day for sinners, was raised on the third day.

We need to give the gospel to people. And that's the message he's going to give them. It's not about, is this the end? It's not about Israel. It's not about any of these things that you guys are concerned about.

The words of Jesus here are very similar to what he said during his ministry. In Matthew 24, 36, but concerning that day, talking about the end, and our, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Everybody wants to know, but there's only one person who knows, and that's the Father. The first question is when. Second question, what. What. Well, if this is not the time to be concerned about eschatology and the establishing of the kingdom, then what are the disciples to do?

What is their mission? What would the Lord have them do? Look at verse 8. They're, first of all, they're going to be empowered. Look at verse 8. But you, the disciples, will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

As we said earlier, in verse 4, he's already told them that they're to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, but now he tells them that the purpose of this baptism of the Holy Spirit is dynamite, is power, is dunamine.

That's the Greek word. If they knew exactly, if they knew right then what this power was going to look like, we don't know because he doesn't tell them. However, they might have had a pretty good guess.

After all, they've seen the power of the Holy Spirit in action during the ministry of Jesus, haven't they? Seen it over and over. In fact, Jesus, in Luke 4, verse 18, said this when the scroll was handed to him in the synagogue.

What did he do? He read from Isaiah, and then he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. What does the Holy Spirit want them to do? Proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and to set at liberty those who are oppressed. So they're going to preach the gospel. They're going to do miracles that's really going to be very similar to what Jesus himself did.

Jesus had also taught the disciples to rely on the Holy Spirit in Luke chapter 12. He said this, or we read this,. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say.

Listen, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Now, I know some of us like to think, You know what? I'm going to be just like the disciples, and I'm not going to study, and I'm not going to pray, and I'm not going to do anything.

The Holy Spirit will tell me in the time, you know, what I need to say. I think you're better off, you know, being so filled with the Word of God that when the Spirit of God presses you, that you know what to say, right?

You don't need a miraculous word. But for them, they had that power, that capacity. Now, to receive power from the Holy Spirit, what does that mean? How would we define that? Our confession of faith says this about the Holy Spirit.

In this divine and infant being, talking about the Trinity, there are three subsistences. The Father, the Word, or Son, and Holy Spirit of one substance, power, and eternity. In other words, when we look at the Holy Spirit, we're not looking at a lesser divine being.

We're looking at a different person, but with the same substance, power, and eternity as the Father and the Son. It goes on to say, Yet the essence is undivided. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding.

In other words, there is no generation, there is no sending with the Father. He is the only unbegotten one. Then it says, The Son is eternally begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son, all infinite without beginning.

Therefore, but one God who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations. One of those peculiar relative powers is personal empowerment.

The Holy Spirit personally empowers believers. In fact, we read this morning, or I mentioned this morning, 1 Samuel 16, David being empowered by the Holy Spirit. We also know that Samson and Saul were empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is said to rush upon them. And now the apostles are being empowered by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. And note well, and this is going to be important, I'm going to say it again and again, especially as we go through Pentecost and various other events, the Holy Spirit is a person, not a force.

He cannot be thrown around, you know, like he's a Nerf ball or something like that. I mean, sometimes you watch these people on TV and they do crazy stuff. He is a person. Okay. Secondly, so they're good to be empowered.

They're also to be witnesses. Look at verse eight, second half of it. And you will be my witnesses. Now that Greek word for witnesses gives us the obvious definition, which is to say that they report what they've seen, what they've experienced, right?

That's what a witness does. Some witnesses are better than others, but you want them to have firsthand knowledge. And the disciples definitely had that. They'd been with Jesus throughout his ministry.

They'd heard his teaching. They'd seen his miracles and they'd seen him multiple times since his resurrection. They were good witnesses, eyewitnesses. But that Greek word, marturus, can also mean, if you just listen to it, you can hear it, marturus, martyr.

You can hear that. A martyr can mean a witness unto death. In other words, somebody who testifies to the truth of an incident or a person even while they're being put to death, maybe burned at the stake, something like that.

It's interesting because Jesus doesn't say, men, are you guys willing, now that you've seen all these things, are you willing to be my witnesses? Are you willing to put your lives on the line? Does he ask him that?

No. He just says, you will be. Not a command, just a statement of fact. You will be my witnesses. So first, when, the question that was wrong, what, what are they going to be doing? This is the important thing.

You will be my witnesses. And now the third question, where? Where are they going to witness? Well, it's pretty plain in verse eight again. In Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of all the earth.

Now again, as I said last week, I think the whole idea of being witnesses in Jerusalem is fairly daunting. Let's go testify of Jesus Christ that when we get to Pentecost, it'll have been 53 days. 53 days before that, he was put to death.

Scholar F .F. Bruce says this, he says, it's often been pointed out that the geographical terms of verse eight, what I just read, provide a sort of table of contents for Acts. In Jerusalem, covers the first seven chapters.

In all Judea and Samaria, which is the southern half of Israel and just the northern edge outside of Galilee, Samaria, Samaria which we'll talk more about, but the idea of Samaria is a place that Jews despised.

I've mentioned this before as we went through John. Why did they despise the Samaritans and Samaria so much? They despised it because the Samaritans were people who were kind of, they were of a mixed race and mixed religion.

So, you know, if I could put it this way, the Jews might have been the very first xenophobic people. They didn't like outsiders. And what was most odious to them were people that were like almost Jews.

They had part of the true religion, but they didn't have all of it. So they didn't like them more than just about anybody. But so in Judea and Samaria, covers 8 .1 to 11 .18 and then the remainder of the book traces the progress of the gospel outside the frontiers of the Holy Land until at last it reaches Rome.

And so you see Rome, or I say Rome and you say, well, why is that to the end of the earth? There are a couple of different ideas here. One is that the end of the earth means literally the end of the earth.

The other one is that when he says the end of the earth and some commentators take that to mean Rome, here's why. Because Rome as the capital of this empire represented everything else. If you could get the gospel into Rome, if you could establish a church in Rome, the thinking goes, you could plant a church anywhere, right?

Because that is absolutely the most important city in the known world back then was Rome. So first question, when? Second question, what? Third question, where? See how fast that one went? This one's a little bit longer.

The Ascension and Christ's Ongoing Ministry

Fourth question, who? Right? I could have said, what are they going to testify to? Well, we're about to see, it's a person that they're going to testify to. So who? Verse nine. First of all, he's the exalted high priest.

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. I want you to turn for a moment. There's a fuller account in Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24 verses 59 to, or 49 to 53, 49 to 53.

And it'd be interesting to have a Bible where, you know, Luke ends and then Acts picks right up because they really are a continuation of the same story. And we can see that here. Luke 24 verses 49 to 53.

And behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you, the Holy Spirit, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Again, very similar, right? And what Jesus is saying here is you're going to be clothed on power from on high.

It's going to be the Holy Spirit. And he led them out as far as Bethany, which is very near the Mount of Olives. And lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

And look at their response. Can you imagine, you know, you talk about mountaintop experiences. This was it. This Jesus that they'd spent their time with, that they knew. I mean, only one of them saw him crucified.

They knew he had been put to death and then raised on the third day. And they'd seen him multiple times after death. And now to see him just lifted up and taken up into heaven, what we call the ascension.

Their response was great joy, continual worship, praising God in the temple. Scholar Lethem points out three features to this ascension. You can go back to Acts chapter one. Three features. Number one, he gives a benediction.

He blessed them, Luke said in Luke 24, 49. He blessed them. Benediction is a priestly act. The last thing the apostles see Jesus doing is giving them a blessing. And that defines his ongoing ministry now.

What's he doing now? He's interceding for us, even as I read this morning. In Hebrews 7 verse 25, he's making intercession for those he saved. He's constantly pleading for us before the Father. He is our great high priest.

He's left them during this... Well, the second thing he does, or the second feature of this, the first part is it's a benediction. The second thing is it's a permanent leaving. Right? During this 40 days that Jesus has been with them from the resurrection to the ascension, during this 40 days, he's appeared to them multiple times.

But even as I taught through John, he would be with them, and then he was gone. He would be with them, then he was gone. And it's not like they could follow him. He just disappeared. Well, where do you think he went?

He wasn't earthbound. He wasn't stuck here on earth, just kind of, you know, biding his time. He was going back and forth between heaven and earth. But this time, Lethem notes this. He says, the parting is decisive.

It differentiates this event from the resurrection appearances. This is an ongoing departure. In other words, he's not coming back to hang out with the disciples. He's not coming back to give them any more instruction.

This is his final ascension. And so the demonstration of that is he gets lifted up in this cloud. He's gone. And he rises up, and he's taken away by the father. And the third part is, or the third aspect of this is, Jesus is passive.

Passive in this sense, that it is the father who lifts him up. He lifts him up and takes him to his right hand in heaven. Jesus, God incarnate, depended on the Holy Spirit while he was on earth, while he was doing his ministry.

And he followed the father's will. His earthly mission, up to and including this final training of the disciples, is over. So it's permanent. He's taken up by the father. And the cloud mentioned there is meant to establish, or mentioned in Acts chapter one, is mentioned because it's to establish the presence of God, the power of God, and the glory of God in this act.

We see this idea of a cloud repeatedly throughout the ministry of Jesus at important points. Let me point out a few. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew 17, verses two to six. And he was transfigured before them, before Peter, James, and John.

Transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became what is light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with them. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here.

If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud, this is the presence of God, said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. Why? Because they were in the presence of the power of God. And then again, cloud. When Jesus talks about his second coming, listen to this.

Mark 13 verses 24 to 27. He says, but in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

And then they will see the son of man coming in clouds, with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

In other words, again, this great symbol of the clouds, meaning power and glory. Bruce notes, the cloud in each case, transfiguration, ascension, second coming is to be understood as the cloud, which envelops the glory of God, the Shekinah glory, the visible token to Israel, that the divine glory has taken up residence in that location.

One scholar said this, he said, talking about the ascension, he said that it's permanent. And he said, it was basically a movement of Jesus from man's place, from earth to God's place, to heaven, a physical move of the human body of Jesus from earth to heaven.

Now, does the ascension matter to us now? Is the ascension important? And the answer, of course, is yes. Well, how so? Because in a very real sense, we are with him now. And you say, well, how's that?

Let me read Colossians verses, or chapter three, verses one to four. If then you have been raised with Christ. In other words, if you've come to faith in Christ, if you've been caused to be born again, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

We know that he's our intercessor, but listen to this, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth for you have died. And your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him.

One scholar knows this. He says, all that Jesus did is done in union with us. His people were in him as he ascended to the right hand of the father. We too are ascended in Christ. The importance of being in Christ stressed over and over and over again throughout the new testament.

Ephesians two verses five to eight, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ. Jesus, we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.