Why Waiting for the Holy Spirit Changes Everything (Acts 1)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Do you struggle to wait on God?

Maybe you’re always eager to move, and your quiet worship time nearly kills you because you’re always ready to tackle your day. You keep telling yourself, “There’s so much to do and so little time to do it.” If this is where you’re at, now is a good time to pause and read Acts 1.

The Book of Acts should be read as the second part of the Gospel of Luke. From AD 170 onward, early Christian writers considered Luke the author, and Acts was likely written between the mid-60s and early 80s AD. This book serves multiple purposes, emphasizing the kingdom of God and the role of the Holy Spirit. Dean Pinter says, “As the Spirit propels Jesus’s ministry into the world so also the spirit will propel his followers into the world.”[1]

After pointing out that after Jesus rose he presented himself alive to his disciples with many convincing proofs, Luke sets the scene for Christ’s ascension to Heaven. Jesus instructs his followers not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the Father’s promise. But this promise is different than his disciples anticipate. In verse 6, Jesus meets with his disciples, and their minds immediately default to where they had gone before. They ask him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”

It's as if they’re saying, “Jesus, we didn’t anticipate you to die. But now you’ll do what we always thought you would, right? You’re going to overthrow Rome, and you’re going to raise up a physical kingdom.” But Jesus has other plans and says,

⁷ “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁹ After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰ While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. ¹¹ They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.”

The time for action will come, and when it does, it will look very different than they anticipated. But for now, the disciples must continue to wait and trust.