Acts 1:1-11
1In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
The first chapter of Acts, particularly verses 1-11, gives a great picture to the beginning of the Church, because in it we find two of the most important things the Church needs: the Kingdom of God and the Fire of the Holy Spirit. Now, the actual coming of the Spirit doesn’t happen until the second chapter, but the teaching of both the Kingdom and the Spirit are found immediately in the book. Even though the “teaching” of the Kingdom seems more like an honorary mention than anything, it is, nonetheless, there.
It happened like this: As Luke tells us, Jesus showed himself to the disciples after he died and rose again. The point of this seems to be twofold: 1) He needed to show his followers that he was indeed who he said he was – the Messiah. He needed to show them by way of the resurrection. 2) He had to teach them about the Kingdom of God.
I think more often than not, this part about Jesus teaching his disciples about the Kingdom after resurrecting from the dead is overlooked, maybe because we focus on the aspect of the disciples praying for the Spirit to come, and rightly so. The coming of the Holy Spirit is not to be downplayed here. However, is it not interesting that when the resurrected Jesus came back to his followers he came to speak specifically on the Kingdom? He comes back for forty days, he can talk about whatever he wants, and he decides to talk about the Kingdom. This should grab our attention! If this is the last thing he instructs his disciples on, it’s important; especially if it is the first thing that Mark records him preaching on (Mark 1:14-15).
The Kingdom of God is at hand!
Equally as important to this fact, is the reality that at one of the times that Jesus was eating with his disciples, he also instructed them to no leave Jerusalem where they were, but to pray for the Holy Spirit, the very gift that the Father had promised to them. The disciples seemed to have another idea, possibly more pertinent to them, and asked Jesus about the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. Jesus sets them straight, telling them that their focus should not be on that, but on the coming of the Holy Spirit.
What is your focus on? Who do you focus on? It’s clear from this passage that Jesus was concerned with two things: the Kingdom of God and the Holy Spirit.
Take time to make sure that your focus is on the Father and His Kingdom. Pursue that, run after Him with all you have, “and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:33, New Living Translation).