Graduation day for me was a particularly surprising event, it was by no means a “given” that I would even get to university. I’m sure my secondary school teachers would have been happy to bet on this event never taking place. Yet it did happen. I had qualified and was ready to take on the world. The university system was satisfied that I was ready to leave the lecture hall and embark on a profession.
The disciples had a similar day - they were about to be left on their own. Jesus was about to leave them and return to heaven.
And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you 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, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you 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.
Acts 1 v4-9 (emphasis added)
This was their final question to Jesus before his ascension.
What is surprising is that, on this day of all days, their question reveals a total lack of understanding about Jesus mission. They were still thinking about an earthly kingdom. They expected that once they were filled with the Holy Spirit it was going to be check-out time for the Romans.
They had good reason to think this. Whenever an old testament character was filled with the Holy Spirit something pretty spectacular happened. Consider a few examples:
- Samson
- Gideon
- Samuel
- David
The results of the Holy Spirit filling these guys were on a national scale. The nation was changed. Often the whole direction of the nation would be affected. The disciples still assumed that this was about to happen again, even with repeated teaching and demonstrations from Jesus that this wasn’t the kind of kingdom he was bringing. They were right, however, in expecting something of scale. They just had the scale wrong. They were expecting something of national significance, what was about to happen would have global significance!
It took that filling with the Holy Spirit’s power before Jesus teaching could be properly understood.
The world has never been the same.
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