Jesus' Final Instructions

Saturday morning, January 12, 2008

These are the final instructions Jesus gave to His apostles before His return to His Father: “And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4-5). Hmmm, this has been a source of debate, even confusion and division, for longer than I can remember, which is a rather long time; however, that shouldn’t deter our brief look at His words this morning.

This is the context of our text: Jesus is preparing for His immediate departure from this earth—the Ascension, as theologians call it—and He is well-aware that He cannot leave these men without first empowering them for the task that is before them—being His witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth (vs. 8). As a result, He tells them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised—the coming of the Holy Spirit, who will baptize them with a baptism far greater than John’s, a baptism that will equip them to be powerful and effective witnesses to what they had both seen and heard, as they journeyed with Him over the past three years.

Sadly (in my opinion), many believers, rather than simply accepting Jesus’ words for what they are, have missed His real message by trying to figure out how to make this happen again not only in their lives, but also in the lives of other believers. As one might expect, trying to reproduce this event, begged this question: How will we be able to distinguish between the genuine and the false? I won’t attempt to enumerate all the options that resulted but I will say this: as a result of trying to answer this question, the church suffered much division and confusion and probably for this good reason—some things are better left to Him.

With that said, what are we to glean from this passage? Obviously, Jesus’ words were directed to His apostles, not to you and me, and for a particular time and purpose. Unmistakably, Jesus was preparing His apostles for His immediate departure, for His return to His Father. There is absolutely nothing said in this passage that would cause me to think that Jesus expected this experience to be replicated in our lives, some 2000 years later. So, what is in this text for us?

First, it is obvious that the future of the church depended upon the power of the Holy Spirit working in the lives of the early believers; without Him there would be no church, and in my opinion this holds true today. It is the Holy Spirit, who gives power and credibility to our lives, as we witness to what we have seen and heard.

Second, the evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives is seen not in our speaking in tongues or in our handling snakes, but in the power and credibility of our witness, which (by the way) often goes unseen.

Third, we are to be His witnesses wherever we are and, as believers, we should expect our witness to be credible and powerful because the Holy Spirit DOES live in each of our lives—all day and everyday!

Finally, forget about trying to replicate the Pentecost experience and, simply, accept the fact that you are living in Pentecost; you are the Temple of the Holy Spirit! YOU ARE HIS POWERFUL, CREDIBLE WITNESS AND THIS WITNESS IS EVIDENCE ENOUGH!