4 On 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. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But 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.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They 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.”
12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
~Acts 1:4–14
Surely, You’ve Got a Better Plan Than This, Right?
If you were a disciple, what would you have expected to happen after Jesus rose from the grave? Imagine that you had given up everything to follow Jesus for the last three years. During that time you had seen people flock to him to be healed and respond to his offer of salvation. And you too had experienced the power of the Holy Spirit to heal others in his name as you placed your trust in him for eternal life (John 6:66–69). You had seen the terrifying opposition of the religious leaders steadily increase as they plotted against Jesus and had watched in horror as they made a mockery of justice, handing him over to the hated Roman occupiers for a brutal, humiliating execution. If you had experienced all of this, what would you expect to happen after Christ had risen from the dead? What would you think his next move should be, now that he had conquered death and had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the Messiah?
At least some part of my heart would want Jesus to display his full majesty, power, and glory right then and there to those that opposed him. The cruel religious leaders should be overturned, and the despised Roman oppressors vanquished. Mercy and justice would then flow down as Christ ruled here on earth. After all, no one could withstand the power of someone who had willingly laid down his life and then took it up again, rising from the dead. We get a hint that the disciples are also thinking along these lines when they ask, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (v. 6). It’s a reasonable question. After all that they had been through, they want to know if now was the time when King Jesus would take over and bring about everything that God had promised to his people.
In response to their question, Jesus reminds us that God’s kingdom rarely works the way we think it will. Instead of a rousing “Now is the time. Let’s get to work and make all things new!” Jesus offers a gentle rebuke and a stunning set of instructions. He reminds his followers that the specifics of God’s kingdom are under the sole discretion and authority of God the Father (v. 7). He goes on to tell them to keep waiting for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. He knows that the Spirit would enable this small, ragged band of followers to carry out Jesus’s audacious plan to bring about his kingdom (v. 8a). Through them, Jesus is going to spread the life-changing message of the gospel first locally in Jerusalem, then regionally in Judea and Samaria, and ultimately globally even to the ends of the earth (v. 8b). And then Jesus leaves. He ascends into heaven, leaving his followers staring into the sky (v. 9). Whatever the disciples had been anticipating, I don’t think Jesus leaving without first establishing his physical kingdom on earth was on anyone’s radar.
Instead, God does what he has always done—he uses broken people to accomplish his purposes through the power of the Holy Spirit. Frankly, it’s not what my human wisdom would have chosen. After all, wouldn’t some angel armies and Christ triumphant have been a better way to ensure the spread of God’s kingdom? At the very least, shouldn’t Jesus have stayed on earth to be physically present and direct our efforts?
God’s Plan is for the Best, Even if We Don’t Understand It
Yet God chooses to work through weak and needy people to spread the message of the gospel. Jesus doesn’t offer any backups or alternatives. Having won salvation for his people, he entrusts the disciples to be his witnesses throughout the entire known world to bring his life-changing message to all people.
In fact, his plan hasn’t changed in two thousand years. God still uses weak and needy people to accomplish his purposes. I don’t always believe that though. Once on a mission trip, I was asked to be a driver to help get the team where we needed to go. The catch? The country used right-hand drive cars and drove on the left side of the road—the exact opposite of everything I was used to! I really wanted to be helpful. But I was also terrified of making a mistake, damaging the car, or putting my passengers in danger. In fact, in my heart I was resentful that I was being put in such a stressful position.
But that is exactly where God most wants to meet us. Throughout the course of the week, every time we needed to go up a tight mountain road or drive through the exceedingly narrow lanes in the village, I was desperately praying that Jesus would show up and help me. Part of the paradoxical nature of God’s kingdom is that it grows inside of us as we learn to trust him, while it grows outside of us as we step out in faith to love and serve others. Jesus wanted more from me than simply getting the team from point A to point B. He also wanted to use my anxiety and fear to show me just how deeply I needed him and how capable he was of meeting my needs.
There are no superheroes in the missionary world. The missionaries you will serve alongside, as well as you and your team, are no different than the disciples on that day when they stood looking up at the clouds wondering where Jesus had just gone. Like the disciples, we don’t always understand what God is up to. And we know that our own strength is never equal to the task at hand. But God’s is.
So as you start your trip, begin looking for those places where you are utterly dependent on the Holy Spirit to get you through the day. Learn to let those places of fear, grumbling, or frustration serve as divine reminders to turn and run back to Christ. He doesn’t need you to be perfect. He invites you to be dependent on him. Why? That’s the place where he has the greatest freedom to work through you. And as he does, we too receive the type of power that only the Holy Spirit can provide.
Excerpted from Life-Changing Mission: Devotions for Your Short-Term Trip © 2024 by Patric Knaak, Serge. Used with permission of New Growth Press. May not be reproduced without prior written permission.
Life-Changing Mission
Life Changing Mission offers ten impactful devotions from Acts for short-term mission teams that will help them prepare spiritually for their trip, stay connected to Jesus while they serve, and continue to expand God’s kingdom when they return home. Includes a pre-trip exercise, ten guided devotions, and space for journaling about the unique memories, people, and experiences encountered along the way.
