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.” Acts 1:4-8
REFLECT
Waiting can be excruciating. Especially when the details of what we are waiting for are not even clear. And in many of our eyes, God is notorious for making His followers wait. In this passage, Jesus told His disciples to wait for two events. The first for the gift of the Holy Spirit; the second for the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel. In the first instance, the wait for the promised Holy Spirit would not be long; Jesus promised that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit “not many days from now”. Even so, the waiting was perilous. Jerusalem, since Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion and resurrection, was not a safe place. The authorities were looking for the rebel Jesus’ disciples, especially after Jesus’ body was reportedly stolen from its tomb. We see the disciples huddled behind locked doors before Jesus walked through them to meet his disciples. The disciples would likely have wanted to disperse out of Jerusalem for their own safety. But Jesus had “ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise”. Even though Jesus had promised that they would receive the Holy Spirit “not many days from now”, each day of waiting in Jerusalem was excruciating. What if they got caught before they could even receive the Holy Spirit? What if God was a little bit slow and the authorities got to them first? What if they had heard wrong? Why Jerusalem? Anywhere else would have been safer than Jerusalem.
The second instance of waiting was even more painful. The people of Israel had been promised that at the coming of the Messiah, nation of Israel would be liberated. They had seen Jesus minister in the streets, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, feeding thousands of people. And it seemed as though the time for liberation by God’s powerful hand had come. And they saw him arrested and crucified. No restoration of the nation of Israel. Now that he had been raised in power, the restoration would surely come. But Jesus was standing before them bidding them farewell. When would the promised restoration come? It must have hit the disciples hard when Jesus in his final conversation with the disciples said nothing of the restoration of Israel to them. He spoke of the gift of the Holy Spirit, but nothing of the restoration. Had he missed something? So the disciples had to raise the question that was burning in each of their hearts and minds. When will the restoration take place? It must have been painful hearing Jesus: “God has fixed the time and the season. But it’s not for you to know”. What the disciples thought was the most likely time, was not the time. And they would not know when that time would be. Would there ever be another occasion such as this for the Kingdom of Israel to be restored?
But Jesus did not leave the disciples with no consolation. He added, after telling them that it was not for them to know the times and seasons that God had appointed, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…”
Even though the Kingdom of Israel would not be restored at that time, and the disciples would not know when that would take place, they had an important task ahead, and they would receive divine power to do the things which they feared: speaking boldly of Jesus in the places that had rejected him. The waiting might be indefinite, but there were good and important things to do while waiting. Yet… receiving the Holy Spirit and being witnesses for Jesus seemed so unrelated to the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.
RELATE
Centuries later, God hasn’t changed. Waiting for God is still as excruciating. And time and opportunities seem to be running out for many of our hopes and needs. The clock is ticking for the lease of our church building to expire and we have no other options in sight. We will likely need to raise an astronomical sum in any case, to get another lease. But it is hard to raise funds when we cannot even state where we want to go, or whether we plan to rent, to buy, or to build. And we feel stuck. Waiting is excruciating.
As a church, we wait for other things as well. Some wait for a revival. Some wait for the church to reach out to the community in a bigger way. Some wait for our next generation of leaders to take their place. Others wait for an explosive growth in numbers. And the prospects of none of these events taking place seem to appear in the horizon. Waiting is excruciating.
At a personal level, we wait for many things as well – a miraculous healing of the body, or a relationship. We wait for a job or a promotion. We wait for God to transform our lives or the lives of our loved ones. We wait for a life-partner for ourselves or our children. Or we wait for children or grandchildren for ourselves. And once again, waiting is excruciating.
One of the convictions that I learn to cling on to is that God makes all things beautiful in his time (Eccle 3:11). I learn that God sees the future clearly and cares that we will be taken care of. Just as it is ludicrous on hindsight to think that the disciples might be arrested before the Holy Spirit could come to them, I learn that the ticking time bomb will not explode when God watches over us. And just as the disciples were to go out to tell of Jesus while waiting for the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel even though the activity and the event seemed unrelated, we need to go on making disciples while waiting for God to provide a church for us, or for the miraculous healing, or for our life partner. Sometimes the activity and the need seem unrelated. But God knows what He is doing and we learn to just keep doing what He tells us to.
REST
In his time, in his time
He makes all things beautiful
In his time.
Lord please show me everyday
As you're teaching me your way
That you do just what you say
In your time
In your time, in your time
You make all things beautiful
In your time
Lord my life to you I bring
May each song I have to sing
Be to you a lovely thing
In your time
From the song In His Time by Diane Ball and produced by Maranatha singers in 1980
Chiu Ming Li
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