6So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8But 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.” 9And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11and 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.” (ESV)

My first observation on today’s passage is to say that there are times when Christ’s word to us is also, ”It is not for you to know…” There are certain mysteries with which we have to live. ”The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deut. 29:29). It is a ‘revealed thing’ that Jesus will return, but around His coming there remain many mysteries – at least until it becomes time for God to make them plain. In the light of that coming, Jesus calls not for speculation but evangelization. Our call is not to stand gazing but go preaching. Spread the gospel everywhere in the world. Fixing our eyes on Jesus (which we are called to do: see Hebrews 12:2; Col.3:1ff.) is not incompatible with lifting up our eyes upon the fields (John 4:35).

Over the centuries many people have wasted hours, speculating about end time prophecies and how they will (or might be) be fulfilled. Time and again they have got it wrong. Even so, this kind of sensationalist approach to eschatology (the doctrine of last things) can be seductive in its own way. It’s hard to not be sucked into the pull of its magnetic field. But here, in Acts 1, we hear it from Jesus Himself. We are not to ponder what we cannot know but preach what we do know in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is coming back to this world. Therefore we must let the whole world know.

I notice that the disciples were narrowly nationalistic in their vision (6), but Jesus’ heart is for the world (8). In fact, it’s been said that Acts 1:8 reads like a table of contents for the whole book, where we see the gospel message go out from Jerusalem to the capital of the then known world.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, give us your heart for your world.

Thought: ‘The Holy Ghost gives you a Holy go!’ George Verwer