Thoughts and Acts: Acts 1:6-11

"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. 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.'” (Acts 1:6-11)

The historical narrative of Acts doesn't reveal much of the disciple's personal feelings or emotions at the beginnings of the Christian church but one cannot help but wonder. Was there a lot of excitement, fear, a tremendous amount of joy, puzzlement or plainly stated- a general thinking of 'what the hell is going on?' They had witnessed the Man that they had followed around for 3 years die a horrible death and had experienced the numbing anxiety as He was buried. As is evidenced by their question in verse 6, the disciples still had a strong hope that Jesus would be a political King and usher in a physical, earthly kingdom for Israel. A Messianic figure that would end Roman rule over the Hebrew promised land and restore what the Jewish people had in Old Testament times.

The resurrection, to put the terms in an understated fashion, must have injected the disciples with an uncanny excitement. Jesus had physically risen again and had begun appearing to many of His followers and others. Philip Yancey attempts to capture the perspective and attitude of the disciples on this morning: "This, perhaps, describes the change in the disciples' perspective as they sat in locked rooms discussing the incomprehensible events of Easter Sunday. In one sense nothing had changed: Rome still occupied Palestine, religious authorities still had a bounty on their heads, death and evil still reigned outside. Gradually, however, the shock of recognition gave way to a long slow undertow of joy. If God could do that..." (The Jesus I Never Knew, pg. 220) Perhaps the disciples thought that now would be the time, with a Man who had conquered death, to usurp political power unto Himself and begin the national kingdom anew.

Sometimes, the disciples understanding of "kingdom" is a little baffling to me. Hadn't they been traveling with Jesus for 3 years? Didn't they understand by now what He meant by "kingdom"- that this term was not to mean a nationalistic country but a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of believers? With the loaded terminology of "kingdom" though, I have to tread lightly. Kingdom is a massive word in the domains of theology and sparks much debate as to what is meant by God's kingdom. The disciples may have had similar discussions.

One of the most revealing aspects of what Jesus meant by Kingdom, in my opinion, is found in the gospel of John in Jesus' conversation with Pontius Pilate. John 18:35-36, "Pilate answered, 'Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?' Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.'" Jesus seems to be tipping his hat here at the notion of a spiritual kingdom versus a nationalistic theocracy. Perhaps even in these words is a hint of sadness. Jesus being a Jew has been rejected by his own people, indeed the people that He came to offer hope too. The fact should be noted however that both conservative and liberal scholars date the gospel of John's writing later than the other gospels. The gospel of John contains different accounts from those of the Synoptic gospels and contains a more mature Christology (meaning a more sophisticated view of Jesus being divine and human than the other gospels). This certainly doesn't make certain gospels superior to other gospels, just different and I stand by the Christian conviction that the four gospels are written by human authors and ultimately, inspired by God.

The minefield of the theological understanding of God's kingdom is illustrated further by the modern debates between dispensationalists and covenant theologians. The thrust of the debate lies on the question: is there a physical, earthly kingdom in Israel's future (as in around the time of the second coming)? Or, is some of the terminology of coming kingdom spiritually metaphorical in nature?

For the record, I reject much of dispensationalism which JN Darby introduced in the 1800s and the Scofield Reference Bible of 1909 made popular. Because of Scofield's Bible, many Christians in the 20th century have seemed obsessed and very preoccupied with eschatology and this has also led to the preposterous gibberish that Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have published. Anyways, for me, dispensationalism seems to organize time too neatly. I don't think that this was God's intent with inspiring people to write His Word. The Bible is very honest about human struggle and humanity's interaction with the true God (as well as false gods and idols). God's Word is not primarily or secondarily about organizing time, from Genesis to Revelation, in seven neat and tidy dispensations (some dispensationalists add more "dispensations" of time then seven). I also tend to view Revelation as being full of metaphors that point to a very important fact- that Christ will one day reign and restore His kingdom. This kingdom being a new heaven and new earth without the curse of sin. This general understanding of the second coming is tantamount to the faith and a major tenant of orthodox Christianity.

The one point of dispensationalism that causes me conflict is the central tenant of the theology: Are Israel and the church distinct entities? They are both the people of God, as far as Old Testament Israel and the believers that have embraced Jesus as Lord and Savior. However, what is the relationship between the two? Is the church a spiritual continuation of Israel as God's people or are Israel and the church different and separate entities? I don't have enough time for the complexity of that discussion but it is one that I think about in my studies from time to time. Enough on dispensationalism.

When the disciples ask the question, "Lord, at this time are you restoring the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus answer is perplexing. He says in verse 7: "It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority." In a way, Jesus seems to avoid their question. He does not answer "yes" or "no". He doesn't even acknowledge if Israel will be setup as a kingdom of God on earth ever again. He just says that the Father is the only One who knows such things and that the Father only knows the times as to which they will occur (whatever they will look like at that foreordained time).

However, coming from our Lord, this is probably the most important point. Jesus coming back to judge the living and the dead is God's business alone. There have been many people who claim the Christian faith down through the ages that have predicted Jesus' second coming. Infamously, the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, a man by the name of Charles Taze Russell, predicted that the final days of the world would come in 1914 after a war between capitalism and socialism broke out. I guess we missed that one. There have, of course, been more orthodox members of Christianity through the ages that have predicted Christ's coming. Hal Lindsay, a television evangelist, is a modern day example and a kook in my book. He has a television show trying to tie current happenings in the middle east with a strict dispensational reading of Revelation.

I hope we realize that upon our Lord's words in Acts 1:7 and also in the gospels related to the Father only knowing when the second coming will happen (see Mark 13:31-33 and Matthew 24:35-36), anyone who claims they know when Jesus will come back is fraudulent in their claim. Any person who preaches that they know the date or time is, in a sense, claiming more knowledge than Jesus because Jesus taught that only the Father knows. This is a particularly boastful arrogance on the part of heretical founders of new religions or televangelists or anyone else who may preach that they know.

The reason as to why Jesus did not want his disciples to have the information about His second coming is perhaps stated in the missiological charge of the next verse. "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." This is Jesus' final command before He ascended into heaven. Jesus asks the disciples, and the church down through the ages, to go and spread His gospel message. Matthew 28:18-20 is the Great Commission and contains a similar challenge as does Mark 16:15-16 (although the end of Mark is debated as to whether this is actually Scripture. It is not in the earliest manuscripts we have of the gospel of Mark).

The disciples and future generations of Christians were to carry on Jesus' message of testifying to the truth. The truth about the spiritual kingdom of God that exists in the heart's of all of those who believe. Jesus asks them to start in Jerusalem, their home town. Then He asks them to go to Judea, the larger and outer regions of Jerusalem and on into Samaria. Samaria was important for Jesus to include in his missional mandate. Many Jews hated Samaritans and this was a bigoted racial kind of hatred. Samaritans were ethnically part-Jewish but represented the intermarrying of Israel with other nations. Jesus clearly states that they are not excluded from His gospel message and are equal heirs to His kingdom...if they believe in Him and accept His message. Jesus then commands them to go to the "ends of the earth" taking His message everywhere on this planet. Christian missionaries have been laboring at this task for two thousand years and we still work to translate the Word of God into all the languages of the earth and to preach the good news to every person. This mandate is the central mission statement of the Christian church as far as axiology is concerned.

After giving this command, Jesus ascended into heaven. What an event for those original disciples to see with their own eyes. Jesus is taken out of view by a cloud. A cloud is a striking image in Biblical literature. There are many passages of Scripture which speak of a cloud hiding God's heavenly glory. We may recall a bright cloud enveloped Moses and Elijah during the transfiguration and from this very cloud, the disciple's present there heard God's voice (Matthew 17:5; also see Exodus 40:34-35).

To conclude this glorious scene, two men came and stood by them in white robes- obviously signifying purity. "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." In other words, don't just look up in awe, get to work on Jesus' commission.

And did the disciples ever get to work! The remainder of Acts is about their early experiences in carrying out Jesus' missiological mandate. They were now Jesus' representatives on the face of the earth, His ambassadors, as we believers are today. Go into all the nations and preach the gospel and make disciples of men!