WWUTT 2538 You Will Be My Witnesses (Acts 1:6-11)

The Ascension and the Kingdom of God

The disciples asked Jesus, is it at this time you're gonna restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus said, it's not for you to know the times or seasons that the father has set by his own authority, but they would see the kingdom of God come when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ. For he is before all things and in him, all things hold together. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com.

Hey, once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come back to that introduction that we've been looking at this week and we'll finish up our study of Acts 1, verses 1 -11. I'm reading again from the legacy standard version, hear the word of the Lord.

The first account, O Theophilus, I composed about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over 40 days and speaking about the things concerning the kingdom of God.

And gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you heard of 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 were asking him saying, Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel? But he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth.

And after he had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on and a cloud received him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.

They also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven. Now, yesterday we looked at verse four where it says that Jesus gathered them together.

We're looking at verses four and five. Today we're picking up in verse six and it starts the same way. So when they had come together and the disciples asked Jesus this question, Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?

We're gonna consider that question today and Jesus' response, and then also consider what it was the apostles saw as Jesus was being lifted out of their sight, what we have in verses nine through 11. So let's come back up here to verse six.

When they had come together. Now, where is it that they are gathered together? They are on the Bethany side of the Mount of Olives. We know it's the Mount of Olives because of what's said in verse 12.

After we get done with all of this, where do the disciples go next? Verse 12 says they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. Now, what that means with a Sabbath day's journey, we'll consider that next week when we come back to this passage, but that's where they were.

They're on the Mount of Olives. However, at the end of the Gospel of Luke, it was said in chapter 24, verse 50, that he led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. And it happened that while he was blessing them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

So Luke 24 says Bethany, Acts 1 says the Mount of Olives, which was it? Well, it would have been the Bethany side of the Mount of Olives. Remember that last week of Jesus' earthly ministry, he was journeying back and forth between Jerusalem, where he would teach in the temple, and Bethany is where he would stay the night.

So he would be going over the Mount of Olives back into Bethany, and then he would come back into the temple and preach for a day. And so that was what he was doing during that last week. The friends that he had there at Bethany, which included Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

So it would have been on that side of the mountain and still regarded as Bethany, since it's not the Jerusalem side, but the Bethany side of the mountain. And as I argued yesterday, and I've said this before, that it would have been more than just the 11 apostles who were with Jesus before he departed from them.

Most movie depictions show that, where it'll be just like the 11 apostles. So the 12 minus Judas, because he would have committed suicide by this time. So just those 11 apostles. There was another movie.

I can't remember which film this was. It might've been Son of God, but I don't know. Anyway, it showed the 11 apostles plus Mary Magdalene. But it had to have been more than just the 11, because what we have at the end of Acts is the apostles choosing somebody to fill in Judas's spot.

They need a 12th man, and Judas's office has to be replaced. And there are two men who qualified, Justice and Matthias, and both of them qualified because they had been witnesses to Jesus' ministry from the time of his baptism by John to the time that he ascended into heaven.

So there were at least two other guys along with the 11 apostles that were there as Jesus gives this final blessing and this commission. Now, I've argued that it was even more than that. Dozens more, probably as many as 100, because later on in Acts 1, you've got the 120 that are gathered there in the upper room.

And most of them were probably with Jesus on the mountain before he departed from them. Jesus' own mother, Mary, who's also in the upper room with Jesus' half brothers. They may also have been there and had seen Jesus ascend because they had witnessed his resurrection.

They had seen him alive after his resurrection as the apostle Paul testifies to in 1 Corinthians 15, that Jesus even appeared to the half brother of Jesus who was James. So we can only speculate as to who it was or how many would have been there, but it surely would have been more than the 11 apostles.

But they're all gathered together there on the Bethany side of the Mount of Olives. And as they're coming together there, they ask of him. So this is the question that we have in Acts 1, 6. The apostles say, Lord, is it at this time that you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?

Now, we've talked about this as we've been going through the gospels. Through the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, I've mentioned that the expectation for the Messiah is that he would be an emancipator.

He would be a militaristic leader like David. And he's going to come and free Jerusalem or free the Jews from the tyranny that they are under, whether it's the tyranny of the Herods who occupy the palace and claim to be the rulers of the Jews, or whether it's the Romans, the suzerain state that the Jews are under.

They're serving as like vassals to somebody else. And they have been ever since the exile. The Jews have always been under the occupation of someone else, whether that was the Babylonians or the Medes and the Persians, later the Greeks, now the Romans.

So they're always under someone else. We want to be set free. That's the way they're reading the prophets, that we're going to be a great power once again. So is it at this time that we're going to be set free from the Herods and the Romans, and you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

That's what's behind their question. And they're surely thinking to themselves, well, now we've got a Messiah that death can't even stop. So who's going to stop us from being able to reclaim our birthright, what they would claim to be their birthright.

Who's going to stop us? Now that the man that we think is our Messiah has died and is risen from the dead. All right, try to beat us now because you can't even kill our Messiah. He will just come back from the dead.

So now they're even more hopeful than they were before. When Jesus was crucified, they were all very confused. And we even read about that in Luke 24. We thought that he was going to be the one to redeem Israel.

That was what the two men on the road to Emmaus said in Luke 24, 21. We were hoping he was the one to redeem us. And then he's put to death. The people that he has to free us from are the people who kill him.

But now he's back from the dead. And so we're wondering, hey, this has got to be it, right? And this is why we're coming up to the Mount of Olives. Are we marching over? Are we going to go into Jerusalem?

Are we going to take over this thing? Lord, is it at this time that you are restoring the kingdom to Israel? That's what's behind their question. They don't have any sort of eschatological purpose the way that we might read or interpret that question today.

A lot of people want to read their eschatologies into that particular question, but that's all that the disciples had in mind. We are ready to be made great again and follow our leader into the freedom that we are promised according to the prophets.

So is it now that we're going to receive it? And Jesus' response to them was, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power, is what Jesus said.

Now, I've heard this twisted before, Acts 1 .7. Jesus' response being, it's not for you to know times or seasons which the father has set by his own authority. I heard a preacher once interpret that as an excuse to not have to do any study in the end times because the apostles essentially are asking a question about the end times, and Jesus' response to them is, it's not for you to know that right now.

We've got some other work that we've got to do. And so I've heard preachers use this as an excuse to like, see, we don't even need to study revelation right now. We've got other things that we need to do.

And that's, again, you're still even reading your own eschatology into that. Your eschatology is probably that it doesn't matter. My eschatology doesn't matter. I'm pan-millennial. It's all going to pan out in the end.

And I'm not opposed to that position if all of the different positions are just difficult to understand and grasp. So you take that pan-millennial position because you're just hopeful that Christ is going to solve it no matter what.

I don't know which position to take, but I know that Christ is the solution to all of this. It's okay to take it in that sense. It's not okay to use it, though, to blow it off as if we don't need to be studying these kinds of things because they're in the Bible.

So we do need to study these things. So this was not Jesus saying to them, we're not going to talk about the end times right now because I've got other work that I have to do, other things that I'm going to have you do.

Instead, he says to them, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the end of the earth. Now, Jesus' response in verse seven probably was not all that discouraging.

It's not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father has said. But then to say this to them, that surely would have been baffling to them. You're going to be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, yeah, right, okay, that's where we got to go in order to have the kingdom of Israel restored, right?

We got to go back into Jerusalem. We got to kick out the Herods and we got to kick out the Romans. But then Jesus says, and in all Judea and Samaria. And surely the disciples would have been going, well, what does Samaria have to do with this?

Well, okay, I guess that was the Northern kingdom, so we're going to get the Northern kingdom back too, right? And then Jesus saying to them, and even to the end of the earth. Now, optimistically, the disciples still thinking in the mindset of having an emancipator as a Messiah, that would have sounded really good to them going, all right, we got to go to the end of the earth.

We're going to own everything. Israel is going to be expanded and cover the whole planet. But of course, is that what Jesus was talking about? Yeah, not in the sense that they thought he was talking about it.

At least at this time, the Holy Spirit is going to come upon them and reveal to them all truth. At this time, they want Israel to be made great again. But what they are going to learn when they receive the Holy Spirit is that this going out with the message of the gospel is the expansion of the kingdom to Israel.

Every person who comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is another person that's being added to the kingdom. And as Jesus had talked about back in Luke chapter 17, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed or in such a way that you can point to it and say, look, here it is.

But as Jesus said to the Pharisees, the kingdom is in the midst of you. It's not going to be a geographical location on earth that you can point to and say, there it is. But rather it's going to be the people of God that will be made up of every tribe, tongue and nation on earth.

And the disciples are going out with that message to Jerusalem. That's where it's going to start. But then also to Judea and Samaria. Remember that the Jews didn't want to have any dealings with the Samaritans, but the apostles were going to be expected to even go there and share the gospel and to the Gentiles as well, even to the end of the earth, which is really just a way of saying, you're going to go everywhere and spread the gospel.

Everywhere that your feet can touch, that your voice can carry, you are going to proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins so that whoever believes in him will not perish under the judgment of God that is coming upon the whole world, but you will be saved and you will have everlasting life.

That message is to go to everybody. Now, as I said, the disciples probably didn't even understand that at the time that Jesus is saying this to them, but they would understand it later. Peter did not even understand preaching to the Gentiles.

We're going to get to that when we get to chapter 10, when he goes to the house of Cornelius. He didn't even understand that. I've never eaten anything unclean before is what he says to Jesus. And yet you're telling me that I have to go now and associate with these Gentiles who eat unclean food?

And Jesus' response to him is, don't call unclean what I have called common. And this is saying to Peter, yes, you're supposed to go to the Gentiles. You are supposed to associate with them and share the gospel even with them.

So even as Jesus says this here, and even as the Holy Spirit comes upon them at the start of chapter two, that doesn't mean that all of a sudden that they just understand everything now. But as the kingdom of God expands, as they obey Christ and they go out with the message and they see the kingdom of God being added to by everybody who puts their faith in Jesus, then these things are going to make sense to him.

When are you restoring the kingdom to Israel? Well, that's what they're going to be doing when they go out with the message of the gospel. It will be the expansion of the kingdom, the expansion of all the people of God, more than there had ever been in the history of the world.

It will happen during this apostolic period, this 40 years between AD 30 and AD 70. There will be more people who believe in the true God than there's ever been in the history of the world. That's what the apostles are going to succeed at doing by the power of the Holy Spirit in fulfilling this commission that Jesus is sending them out to do.

The Ascension of Christ and His Return

Next we have in verse nine, starting in verse nine we have the ascension where Jesus does finally depart from them. And after he had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on. So as far as we know, the very last words that Jesus says to his disciples before he's carried up from them are those words in verse eight, you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the end of the earth.

So Jesus is not going to be the one that's going to overthrow any government rule. You're going to go out with the message of the gospel and build the kingdom of God spiritually through the preaching of the word and all those who put their faith in Christ are added to the kingdom.

They would become even more numerous than the Roman empire. The Roman empire would even cease to exist. And yet the church continues on to this very day. But Jesus is lifted up from their sight. He is carried away and a cloud received him is what it says in verse nine.

A cloud received him out of their sight. Now, the picture of this is often that Jesus ascends into the sky and he just disappears into the clouds. But this cloud that receives him was likely the glory of God.

It was something that may have been similar to the cloud that guided the Israelites by day after they were freed from slavery in Egypt. Or it could have been like the cloud that comes down into the temple when Solomon blesses the temple and ask God to dwell there at the consecration of the temple.

It says there's fire that comes down and burns so that nobody could even stand. But there was also the presence of the glory of God that filled the place like a cloud so that nobody could look and see.

And it may have been that same sort of a thing. They're looking up and they're seeing Jesus vanish from their sight into a cloud of God's glory. But this would have been a picture of Christ going back to his father and being seated at his right hand.

So during the time that Jesus was appearing to his disciples in that 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension, he would have been appearing to them, disappearing. We saw that in Luke chapter 24.

He's with them at dinner. He disappears. They gather together. He appears among them. Where is he disappearing to? Well, he would have been going back to heaven, but he's not yet gone back to the father and is seated at his right hand.

That's what happens here at the ascension. Jesus ascends back to the father and is seated at his right hand. And of course, Stephen sees that with his own eyes, which we'll see when we get to Acts chapter 7.

So a cloud receives Christ. They're just standing there looking at the sky. They're just gawking up in the air. And while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. And they also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven?

This Jesus who's been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven. And that's in fulfillment of prophecy as well, that Jesus would come back down and touch on the Mount of Olives just as they had seen him go from there, so will be the way that he will return.

They watched him bodily leave, and we will see him bodily return. The return of Christ that is coming on a day that the father has set by his own authority, as Jesus has said. But in the meantime, we see the kingdom of God expand through the preaching of the gospel.

And we're still seeing that happen even to this day. There are more Christians now than there have ever been. And tomorrow there will be even more. And that happens and continues through the spread of the gospel.

So it's by faith in the gospel that you have come into the kingdom of God. It's by your sharing the message of the gospel with somebody else that they too will put their faith in Jesus Christ, become a citizen of the kingdom of God, and look forward to that day that we will be gathered with him forever in glory.

Let's finish here with prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you for what it is that we have read. And I pray that we are indeed looking for a kingdom that can't be observed by human senses or in the human sense even of there being a land plot with borders and laws and things like that.

The kingdom that we are a part of is not restricted to a particular place on earth, but it's made up of every tribe, tongue, and nation of all who put their faith and trust in Jesus. And by faith in you, we have been made citizens of the kingdom of God and fellow heirs with Christ of all that the father has given to him.

Help us to live today as citizens of that kingdom, righteously, turning away from sin and pursuing holiness and godliness, Christ likeness all our days until we are gathered with you in your heavenly kingdom forever.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study When We Understand The Text.