Anticipation (Acts 1)
Engineers and astronauts prepare to launch a rocket for months or years. When that extraordinary day draws nearer, they are filled with great anticipation. They wake up with renewed energy everyday, working tirelessly toward the launch. They stay up late into the night to check and recheck their calculations. The astronauts train for the rigors of space travel. When that day finally comes, every eye keeps moving to that countdown clock. There is a nervous energy. An eager expectation. Finally, the countdown begins. 10. 9. 8. Their minds start racing. Did we forget anything? 7. 6. 5. 4. Everyone holds their breath. 3. 2. 1. This is really happening! Lift off! With a successful launch, every moment of anticipation was worth the wait.
This same kind of anticipation fills the book of Acts. The followers of Jesus, just a ragtag group of about 500 men and women, receive power from the Holy Spirit in order to proclaim the gospel and make disciples throughout the world. They did so in anticipation of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory. They did not know when the Master would be returning, so they went about the work He had given them with a tireless energy and a breathtaking courage. In their minds, they kept envisioning that countdown clock ticking closer to zero.
Unlike a rocket launch, however, the countdown clock until the Lord’s coming is hidden from our view. We don’t know the day or the hour. Only God does. So, like the early church, we too must be about our mission with the same anticipation as them.
When I was in seminary in Los Angeles at The Master’s Seminary, I was part of the security team. At first, that meant that I was cycling around the parking lots to watch over the cars. Eventually, I was told to get cleaned up and put on a suit. They took me outside to stand in the parking spot that was reserved for John MacArthur, and they told me to wait there until he arrived. They said he could be there at any time within the next hour and a half. So I waited. And I waited. Whenever I would get into a conversation with someone walking through the parking lot, I would always position myself to where I could see the entrance of the parking lot. No matter what I was doing, I was always looking over to that entrance. Waiting. Anticipating. Wanting to be found at the ready when Dr. MacArthur pulled in.
Friend, do you live with that same anticipation of Jesus’ return? Are you watching and waiting? Are you going about your business while at the same time straining to hear that upward call when it comes. I believe that we have all become much too complacent. “It will happen when it happens.” Yes, it will! And when it happens, will you be found waiting? Yearning? Anticipating? I think that the book of Acts will cure this apathy. If we study Acts correctly, we will be filled with this same eager, expectant urgency to preach the gospel to all people because the Lord is coming. He could come this very day. He could come tomorrow. He could come in a year. He could come in fifty years. Or a hundred. But when He comes, will it be obvious that we have been about the work?
Before they started expecting the Lord to appear, the disciples were anticipating the appearance of the Holy Spirit. That is what chapter 1 is all about. They were waiting for the Spirit whom Jesus promised to send them. But, just like a rocket launch, they weren’t sitting idly by. They were filled with the same busy anticipation as they would be later when they were preaching the gospel to the nations.
MAIN POINT: Luke begins the book of Acts with 4 events that occurred while the disciples of Jesus anticipated the baptism of the Holy Spirit. These events reveal 4 marks of the early disciples. We need to be sure that we encourage these 4 marks to grow within our church, so that, being clothed with power from on high, we will anticipate God doing great things through us.
THE RECOGNITION OF MISSION (vv. 1-8)
Luke introduces this book, part two in a two-part series (Luke and Acts). He introduces it by reminding us where the Gospel of Luke left off. 1 In the first book (The Gospel of Luke), O Theophilus (lover of God OR beloved of God), I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 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. So, their orders were to go and preach the gospel. But, first they had to wait until Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” What we often miss–because we don’t have Old Testament ears–is that this statement about the baptism of the Holy Spirit would have instantly been connected to the New Covenant Kingdom described in the Old Testament. We’ll see in Peter’s preaching in the next chapter–and in chapter 3 and beyond–that this becomes the focal point of the apostles’ teaching: the Spirit has come, so the end times have begun. They see everything as moving inexorably to the Second Coming. The most obvious Old Testament reference to this is Ezekiel 36:27 - “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.” They understood from texts like this that national Israel’s future return to the land is part and parcel of the New Covenant. This is what the apostles were supposing was going to happen next. Just as they didn’t understand beforehand that the Christ would have to suffer and be raised again, they also didn’t understand that Christ would have to ascend to Heaven and pour forth the Spirit so that the church would be born and one day culminate in His appearance and Kingdom. They didn’t know He wouldn’t appear for thousands of years. Though Jesus had attempted to dissuade them from supposing the kingdom was going to appear immediately, His disciples were still supposing the Kingdom to be at hand.
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. Notice that their question pertained to timing; and His answer pertained to timing. “Is it at this time that you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” “No, the timing is not for you to know.” But until that time, you have work to do! 8 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 a repetition of the Great Commission. The apostles would preach Christ to the ends of the earth. Certainly, this is ongoing, but within fifty years, they were able to say that they took the gospel to the ends of the earth. Such a thing couldn’t have happened, that twelve apostles and some ragtag disciples would change the entire world by preaching about the resurrection of an obscure Jewish rabbi who was rejected and killed by His own people for the forgiveness of sins to all who believe it. With man it is impossible. With God all things are possible. Therefore, they were to wait to be clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). Then, after the Holy Spirit came upon them, they would testify, starting there in Jerusalem (where three thousand believed the first day) and in all Judea and Samaria (where people started pouring into the church) and to the end of the earth (where churches in every major city and many smaller towns and cities were springing up).
They had to recognize the mission. Do we recognize that we have this same mission? Even if we stay right here in north-central Kansas, do we see that we have a mission? There are hundreds, thousands of people who need to hear the gospel of the forgiveness of sins and entrance into the Kingdom of God. Do we have our hands on the plow? Since we have now received the Spirit, are we going forth in the power of the Spirit to preach the gospel to all?
They were anticipating the coming of the Spirit by focusing on the mission. They did so, second, by…
THE EXPECTATION OF CHRIST (vv. 9-11)
9 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. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men (angels) stood by them in white robes, 11 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.” They were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ascension into Heaven. They would come to a better understanding of what they had just witnessed, so that at Pentecost, they would be preaching that Christ HAD to ascend and be seated at the right hand of God until the Second Coming. The angels reminded them that though He had gone, He would return. They needed to be engaged in the work He had given them. First, they would wait for the Holy Spirit. Then they would wait for Jesus from Heaven, while preaching the gospel to the world.
In the same way, we anticipate Jesus from Heaven, being motivated by this to be about the work He has given us.
THE HABIT OF PRAYER (vv. 12-14)
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away (about a half-mile or so). 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James (NOT Iscariot). This may have been the same upper room as the last supper. It may not have. Either way, it is a room with enough space for a large group of people. Verse 15 says that there were about 120 there. Notice the obedience of the apostles: 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women (among them probably Mary Magdelene, Joanna the wife of Chuza, and Susanna; who had all accompanied Jesus [Luke 8:2-3]) and Mary the mother of Jesus (this is the last mention of Mary in the Scriptures), and his brothers (James, Joses, Simon, and Jude [Matthew 13:55) who were apparently believing in Him after He had appeared to James [1 Cor 15:7]).
They were praying and waiting and watching for that which was promised. They were praying for power to fill them and compel them to the work they were given. Are we devoted to this same watchful and anticipatory prayer?
They anticipated the coming of the Spirit and the power for evangelism by recognizing the mission, expecting Christ’s return, being devoted to prayer, and…
THE OBEDIENCE OF SCRIPTURE (vv. 15-26)
Before the action begins in the next chapter, we find the followers of Jesus need to conduct a business meeting. This business meeting came about through prayerful pondering of the Scriptures. 15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”
Luke takes a moment to tell us what happened to Judas. 18 (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness. We find elsewhere that he didn’t buy the field personally, but he had taken the reward for betraying Jesus back to the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leadership bought the field with the money they had paid him. Judas, for his part, hanged himself in the field. Then apparently after some days, falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) Not only was the field bought with blood money, it was stained with the blood of the betrayer.
Back to the business meeting. Peter goes to the Scriptures to show that Judas fulfilled the Scripture. 20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, [69:25] “‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and [109:8] “‘Let another take his office.’ Here is Peter’s takeaway: 21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” They needed to choose another man who fit these qualifications, to take Judas’ place as an apostle. 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” Since these men were both equally qualified, the apostles trusted the Lord to show them His will. 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. Matthias had to stand with them as the twelfth apostle and fellow witness of Jesus in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the earth. The disciples of Jesus were understanding the Scripture. They were being faithful and obedient to God’s will revealed to them in the Scripture.
They were anticipating the Spirit by obeying the Scripture.
So also now, we, having been filled with the Spirit of God, must walk in obedience to God’s written Word, so that we will be found faithful and obedient when our Master returns.
I HOPE THAT YOU SEE we carry on in the steps of the apostles and followers of Jesus. We have the same commission handed down to us. We have the same expectation of Christ’s return. We have the same need for prayerfulness. We have the same need for obedience to the Scriptures. Now, we, having already received the Holy Spirit, must be faithful to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.
After the disciples received the power of the Holy Spirit, they were relentless. They took the gospel to the ends of the earth within fifty years. They endured persecution, martyrdom, opposition, slander, imprisonment, beatings, whippings, trials, and more. Nothing could hinder them from proclaiming the gospel. They were unstoppable. Not because of their own tenacity. But because of the Spirit who was poured out on them.
The church can’t turn the world upside down without the power of the Holy Spirit. Neither can we do so without the same kind of anticipation as them. Imagine what would happen if we all took the mission seriously. If we all lived with the constant expectation of Christ’s sudden appearance. If we all devoted ourselves to constant and expectant prayer. If we put our mind to knowing and doing the Scritures. We would be unstoppable.
The Holy Spirit uses ordinary people. He doesn’t call extraordinary people to this task. He calls weak and shy men and women to this task, so that He will get the glory. He empowers. Let us be faithful to pray for and anticipate His power to work in us.
Imagine if we all fasted and prayed for the Spirit’s power. Imagine if we filled our mind with the mission. If we reminded ourselves daily that Christ is coming. If we set ourselves to obey the Scriptures and be holy in all our attitudes and behaviors. And we prayed fervently. Steadfastly.
I believe that we could then anticipate a work of the Spirit that would leave us astounded.
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