Bible Study Series: Acts 1:4-8. What is it? Are we called to study the times and seasons of the end times? What does Jesus say about it?
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At the link to the original post, next, I write more commentary and dig a little deeper into the Greek. I also offer a section titled Observations for Discipleship at the end. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided in the commentary section for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Acts 1:4-8
4 While taking meals with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but instead to wait for the promise of the Father, “which you heard from me, 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit, not many days from now.” 6 Those who were gathered asked him, saying, “Lord, is this the time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 But he said to them, “It is not for you to know the times and seasons that the Father set by his own authority. 8 Instead, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8)
Comments:
4:
Here we have the Trinity in that passage: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can have a relationship with all three, but in different facets. We need the Father to oversee all of creation and the times and the seasons. He is love, and he is authoritative. We need a Savior and mediator in Jesus. And we need the Spirit to immerse-baptize us to empower us for service and to reveal and glorify Jesus.
Jesus is the Baptizer in the Spirit; that is, he’s the one who sends the Spirit in his fullness into your heart.
Baptized, Filled, and Full of the Spirit: What Does It All Mean?
For systematic theology:
The Spirit’s Deity and Divine Attributes
The Spirit in the Life of Christ
The Spirit in the Church and Believers
Jesus met and ate personally with the disciples—face to face. How wonderful it would have been to sit down with the resurrected Jesus and eat meals with him!
“promise”: The noun is used 52 times in the NT. Let’s study this word more closely.
It primarily means that promises made to the patriarchs recorded in the OT are now fulfilled in Yeshua ha-Meshiach or Jesus the Messiah (here and Acts 7:17). Abraham would have many descendants (Gal. 3:14-29). David received the promise of a special descendant fulfilled in Jesus (Acts 13:22-23). Paul goes on to say the Jesus’s resurrection is proof of the good news that he preaches (Acts 13:32-33). John proclaims that the promise is connected to eternal life—which is begun to be lived down here and then never ending in heaven (1 John 2:25). All the promises in the OT are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20).
Another use of promise is the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Luke 24:49, Jesus tells the disciples that he is sending the “promise of the Father” to them (Acts 1:4). And it is fulfilled in Acts 2:1-4, where the Holy Spirit descends on the 120 in the upper room. Peter tells his audience that this is the promise of the Father (Acts 2:33). Paul links the promise of the Holy Spirit to the blessing of Abraham (Gal. 3:14). And believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit of the promise (Eph. 1:13).
Still another use of the word promise is that it forms the foundation of righteous living. Paul appeals for purity on God’s promises (2 Cor. 7:1). Children are told to honor their parents because the Fifth Commandment has a promise in it (Eph. 6:2; Exod. 20:12). Paul writes to Timothy that godliness is profitable both in this life and the next because of the promise of life (1 Tim. 4:8). The author of Hebrews encourages believers to persevere (hang in there) because of God’s promises (Heb. 4:1; 10:36). Don’t doubt, Peter says, that God will keep his promise of the second coming, even though some mock (2 Pet. 3:4, 9) (Mounce, pp. 541-42).
5:
Baptism means “total immersion.” John the Baptist was John the Dipper or Immerser. He had a limited ministry and outreach when stacked up against Jesus’s ministry: water baptism / immersion. On the other hand, Jesus was about to baptize them with the Holy Spirit, which means immersion in the Spirit every bit as much as John’s baptism was immersion in water. The Holy Spirit drenches your spirit and your soul. It is not just your spirit that is touched.
Some teachers (wrongly) say that when the Spirit fills you, your spirit is perfect, and your soul is not. It is true that your soul is not perfect, but neither is your spirit. You are on a journey to be like Christ (Rom. 8:29). You will never perfectly achieve that goal down here on earth, while you are in your body, and neither does your spirit achieve it. The Spirit immerses you inside out, even your mind and body (Rom. 8:11). It is a package deal, because you are a whole person.
Is the promise of the Father the Holy Spirit or the baptism in the Holy Spirit? Is the promise Spirit-conversion or Spirit-baptism?
Renewalists believe that the promise is the baptism in the Spirit, and this is distinct—or can be distinct—from conversion. Sometimes conversion and Spirit-baptism happens at the same time (Acts 10:44-45). And some sign of this baptism must be visible, like prayer languages. From here some Renewalists teach that prayer languages is the necessary and inseparable sign of Spirit-baptism, while other Renewalists believe that prayer languages is one of many optional signs of Spirit-baptism.
On the other side, some Evangelicals who downplay the baptism in the Spirit with power and prayer languages say that the promise is just to receive the Spirit at conversion. Or they say that Spirit-baptism is conversion or happens at conversion. Prayer languages might happen (but rarely if ever does), or they no longer take place today.
However, the promise is the baptism in the Spirit are connected. It is incomplete to separate them. Yes, Spirit-baptism can be separate and distinct from conversion, but it’s a deficient idea to separate the immersion (baptism) in power and the Spirit and all the gifts—including prayer languages—from the promise. Now let’s not quarrel about what signals that the baptism in the Spirit has taken place, but it seems like Acts 2:1-4 is a strong place to start for the evidence of Spirit-baptism—prayer languages. The other verses that mention being filled with the Spirit will be covered when we get to them.
6–7:
“times and seasons”: The first noun is chronos (pronounced kroh-nohs) is where we get our words chronology and chronic. It speaks of a timeline, one event or moment after another. The noun kairos (pronounced ky-rohs) means “season” and has a nuance of “quality time.” In this context, it is combined with chronos, so both words together probably mean “end times” (Dan. 2:21; 7:12). The main point that Jesus drives home is not to obsess over the end times.
Think of it this way. Draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper. Now you have two columns. In column A, write Bible verses that predict the end times. In column B, write out current events. Try to match them up. It is difficult and nearly impossible to nail them down, because as the decades roll on, the events change. Some events, like false Christs and prophets (Matt. 24:24), will be clear and perennial, but others are not so clear.
In vv. 6-8, Jesus submits watching the times and seasons to the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20).
Do vv. 6-7 imply that God will restore the kingdom to geopolitical Israel? Or did he rebuke them and tell them it is none of their business, without explicitly promising the kingdom will be restored to geopolitical Israel? Can the kingdom of God be confined to the tiny nation of Israel? In the larger perspective, the kingdom will not be confined to geopolitical Israel.
Basic Definition of Kingdom of God
Bible Basics about the Kingdom of God
Questions and Answers about Kingdom of God
1 Introducing the Kingdom of God (begin a ten-part series)
Replacement Theology: True or False?
In any case, any teaching that says we are indeed called to understand the times and seasons is wrongheaded, as I heard a radio teacher say recently. He desperately wants the kingdom restored to geopolitical Israel, so he overturned Jesus’ exhortation not to focus on those things.
“authority”: it is the noun exousia (pronounced ex-oo-see-ah), and it means, depending on the context: “right to act,” “freedom of choice,” “power, capability, might, power, authority, absolute power”; “power or authority exercised by rulers by virtue of their offices; official power; domain or jurisdiction, spiritual powers.” God has everything under his control, even though Satan has his own authority and jurisdiction over the kingdoms of humanity (Acts 26:18).
The difference between authority and power is parallel to a policeman’s badge and his gun. The badge symbolizes his right to exercise his power through his gun, if necessary. The gun backs up his authority with power. But the distinction should not be pressed too hard, because exousia can also mean “power.” In any case, God through Jesus can distribute authority to his followers (Matt. 10:1; Luke 10:19; John 1:12). Jesus will give us authority even over the nations, if we overcome trials and persecution (Rev. 2:26). And he is about to distribute his power in Acts 2.
Never forget that you have his authority and power to live a victorious life over your personal flaws and sins and Satan. They no longer have power and authority over you; you have power and authority over them.
8:
“but instead”: It stands in strong contrast to obsessing over times and the seasons just before the second coming.
“power”: it occurs ten times in Acts (go to biblehub to see the references). It means miraculous power to complete the mission. Jesus wants to fill you with the Spirit and power to be his witnesses. Power is the noun dunamis (or dynamis) (pronounced doo-nah-mis) and it is not absolute, because only God is all-powerful. But it creates such a change in you that it feels explosive. However, it is never out of control, as dynamite is. Your power depends on Jesus through the Spirit. Then you can do the works and signs and wonders that the apostles and even Jesus did (John 14:12), by the power of the Spirit!
What Are Signs and Wonders and Miracles?
Commentator Keener (p. 104) produces a table to show the continuity between Luke and Acts and the fulness of the Spirit:
1.. The Spirit descends on Jesus at his baptism (Luke 3:22), and Jesus baptizes in the Spirit (Luke 3:16).
2.. Both Jesus and his followers are praying when the Spirit comes (Luke 3:21; Acts 1:14).
3.. The Spirit descends (Luke 3:22; Acts 2:33)
4.. There is a visible manifestation with the Spirit (a dove in Luke 3:22; tongues of fire in Acts 2:3).
5.. The ensuing public ministries open with sermon that introduce these for the rest of the book (Luke 4:18-27; Acts 2:14-40).
6.. Hardship and opposition follow Spirit-empowerment (Luke 4:1, 14; Acts 4:7-8).
“witnesses”: it means one who witnesses something with his own eyes, like a crime or an execution (Acts 7:58). In our case, since we did not live 2000 years ago and witness the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in real time, we have to be witnesses or testifiers about the evidence for the resurrection and what he has done in our lives. Renewalists should not be afraid to study the evidence for the resurrection. Go to youtube and look for Gary Habermas for the evidence.
This clause comes from Is. 43:10, which also says, “You will be my witnesses.” Ancient Israel failed under the old and now obsolete Sinai Covenant. Now the new people of God will succeed, by God’s permanent indwelling power of being immersed by the Spirit.
“ends of the earth”: Jesus intended those words to conclude Gentiles (non-Jews). But it is guaranteed that these disciples at this time thought they were going to reach only the Jewish communities in the Diaspora (the great Dispersal) who had settled at the ends of the earth (Acts 11:18), even though Jesus said they would go to all nations (Luke 24:47). But the disciples must not have grasped the “all nations” meant Gentiles too. Or they might have, because of Is. 49:6, which says of the Servant of the LORD, “I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (v. 6b, ESV). Yet Acts 10 and Peter’s vision prove that these Messianic Jews need to be woken up to the universal mission of God and his Son and the gospel.
The Ethiopian eunuch was either a convert to Judaism or his parents were Jewish because a colony of Jews settled there (Acts 8:26-39). Even when Peter went down to Lydda and Joppa, he reached out only to his fellow-Jews (Acts 9:32-43). It will take an angelic appearance and a vision and the Spirit falling on Cornelius that jars everyone loose from the Jewish community and reach everyone (Acts 10). However, if takes time for word to get around in those days. So when the Jews who were scattered after the persecution that arose in Jerusalem after Stephen’s martyrdom went abroad, they spoke only to Jewish communities (Acts 11:28). But all was not exclusive. Men from Cyprus and Cyrene—not Jerusalem and Judea—spoke to Gentile Greeks (Acts 11:20). So it is clear that things take time to change.
However, Schnabel (comment on v. 8) and Keener (p. 108) say that the ends of the earth goes beyond representative Ethiopia and Rome and Spain and includes the nation-states that the Romans annexed and even the trade routes. Then Schnabel lists some regions: west: Gaul and Germania on the Atlantic; north: Scythia and even the Arctic; south: Ethiopia (mod. Sudan); east: beyond India and the Seres (silk) people, that is, China. (See Paul mentioning Scythia in Col. 3:11 and Spain in Rom. 15:24, 28). The pseudepigrapha Acts of Thomas says Thomas went to India. Bock says Rome is at the hub and culminates Acts, so it is important, but he too says that nations go beyond it. Keener also lists the nations (p. 108).
God’s plan is global. Jesus was the beginning source, but we now need to go to the whole world. To continually obsess over Jerusalem and Israel, as many TV preachers do, to the neglect of the ends of the earth, is out-of-balance.
To conclude ….
Also, you have authority and power over demons, your bad thoughts, and habitual sins. The fulness of the Spirit and Spirit-inspired languages (archaically and formerly called ‘tongues’) can empower you to overcome them. If you do not have this gift, but want it, then seek God for it. If you do not want it, then study the Scriptures about it. Then see what the word says.
GrowApp for Acts 1:4-8
1.. Jesus was about to baptize those who repent with the Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16). How has the Spirit touched your life and Jesus’s fire purified it?
2.. Read 1 John 3:3. What is the right balance between your waiting for the Lord to come back and your going out to spread the word?
RELATED
The Historical Reliability of the Book of Acts
Book of Acts and Paul’s Epistles: Match Made in Heaven?
SOURCES
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