Acts 1:6-14: Not Me, But You

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 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.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “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.”

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 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. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. - Acts 1:6-14

What next? This was the twist ending within the twist ending of the movie. First, the hero died in full view of a lot of witnesses, but (plot twist) he comes back to life and apparently it was foreshadowed all along. Second, the hero comes back but he doesn't try to "win" the way that we were expecting him to win. After Jesus came back from the dead, the disciples saw it as a major triumph, putting the kingdom plan back on track again. Yes, the hero died, but God's Messiah came back to life in triumph over the devil and all other enemies. They thought they would stop God's kingdom, but they couldn't and Jesus has returned to prove that they still can't.

But that's not what happened. In fact, Jesus rides off into the clouds and disappears. So the disciples need to regroup and have a deep think. They go to the upper room and ask themselves, "Did Jesus also foreshadow any of this plot twist as well?" Could this be what he meant when Jesus said, earlier this week, "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12)

The disciples need to rethink two big questions: What does the kingdom look like? and How do we get to the kingdom from today? For the first question, Jesus has put a big stopper on the idea that the kingdom is going to pop down and replace all of the bad guys with good guys and everyone lives happily ever after. So we need to have our eyes opened to a kingdom where the primary activity is not in the acquisition and deployment of power to achieve God's goals. He decided 2000 years ago against that plan of action. In fact, he demonstrated it by giving up power.

For the second question, Jesus firmly says that he's not going to be the one to do it, but rather the Spirit-enabled followers of Jesus are going to do it. That is: not me, says Jesus, but you. Now the disciples all knew what a bad idea that was, since they knew what fools they'd been as far as understanding how to act over the last three years. But God seemed to be using this bad idea and foolish disciples to bring his kingdom into effect. 

Am I willing to be the weak and foolish one that he teaches and leads in the kingdom path?

AWANA: Week 1 (Acts 1:1-10)

Thought I'd post up the scripts that Brahms and I are using for AWANA. Here's week 1. MOE is a horse puppet and JOE and JIM are twin iguana puppets.

Acts 1:1-10

(basket, pulley, carabineer)

JOE is in the basket hanging from the ceiling, JIM is holding the rope. MOE is watching.

MOE: What are you doing, JIM?

JIM: I just can’t figure out how he did it.

MOE: (ignoring JIM, hallooing): JOE, you’re really high up. Aren’t you afraid of heights?

JOE: (nervous), Yes

JIM: I just can’t figure out how he did it.

JOE: (faintly) Help.

MOE: JIM, maybe you want to bring him down now?

JIM: (more emphatically) But, I just can’t figure out how he did it! I’ve got to keep trying until I figure out how he did it.

MOE: What are you talking about? Who did it? What are we talking about?

JIM: Well, it says in the Bible that after Jesus died, he came back to life

MOE: Yes, well, what does that have to do with the basket?

JOE: Yes. Basket. Why?

JIM: It says he was with his disciples for 40 days, and they talked with him and ate with him.

MOE: Yes, well, what does that have to do with the basket?

JOE: Yes. Basket. Why?

JIM: Well, it says in the book Acts, chapter 1, verse 9: “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” So somehow, Jesus left them by going up into heaven. I wondered how Jesus did it. So I rigged up this pulley, and hooked it up.

MOE: And I suppose this pillow is the pretend…

JIM: Clouds! You got it.

TIM: I think you’re kind of missing the point, though.

JOE: Yeah, yeah, you’re missing the point! I’m way up here.

JIM: No, no. You see, the disciples could have pulled on this string, and it pulls up Jesus in the basket. And then, if he was high enough, the clouds block them from seeing him.

TIM: But you are having some problems with your theory?

JIM: Two problems: #1: What did they hook the pulley on to? Did Jesus have an airplane?

TIM: That is a problem. What is the second problem?

JIM: What happened when the disciples let go of the rope. Like this (let’s go, JOE falls, TIM catches)

MOE: Whoa! JIM, you almost hurt JOE. Are you ok?

JOE: (moaning) Yeah, I am ok.

TIM: I think JOE needs to rest and I think JIM needs to put that all away.

TIM: You know, sparkies, it says in the Bible, that right after Jesus went into heaven, all of Jesus’ friends, including the disciples, were standing there, looking into the sky. It was pretty incredible. Where did he go? Is he going to come back? Some of them were probably trying to figure out just how he did it, just like JIM.

BRAHMS: Just then, two men—two angels—appeared from heaven and said to them “why do you stand here looking in 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 back into heaven” (Acts 1:11b)

TIM: They were so busy trying to figure out “how” Jesus did that, that they were already forgetting the directions he gave them. Have you ever had that happen to you? You are looking at something really cool, maybe a toy or a present or a TV show, and you forget what your Mom or Dad told you to do?

BRAHMS: Jesus had spent over one month with his friends, teaching them about something new: the church. The church is the people who trust in Jesus to help them and who do what he wants, right now. How many of you go to church? … Good. Church helps us to (1) grow up the way God wants us to grow up, (2) help other people the way God wants us to help other people, and (3) tell other people about God the way that Jesus did.

TIM: Jesus told his friends two things, just before he left: (1) He told them to wait. They didn’t want to wait. They didn’t want Jesus to leave. They wanted everything to happen now. But when you grow up, you have to learn how to wait. Jesus said (Acts 1:4b), “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.”

BRAHMS: We’ll learn more about that next week.

TIM: But the people were in a hurry. “So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) They wanted to know. Is it now? Are you going to be a king now?

BRAHMS: But Jesus told them they had to wait. And they weren’t going to know how long. Sometimes when someone tells us to wait, we think they really mean “No.” Dad, can I drive the car? Wait til your older. And maybe you think he means “Never”

Jesus knew that some things had to happen first, before he would become the king over the whole world. First, everyone in the whole world was going to have to hear about Jesus.

TIM: Now Jesus was God, but he could only talk a few people at a time. There was no TV, there were no cell phones.

BRAHMS: But God had a different idea. What would happen if he told his friends, and then his friends told their friends and then their friends told their friends about Jesus. That would be a lot faster way for people to learn about Jesus. That’s why he said: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses (people who tell people) in Jersualem, in Judea (that’s like in the next state), and Samaria (that’s like the next country, like Mexico or Canada), and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

TIM: Jesus doesn’t want to be your secret. Tell your friends. Bring them to AWANA. Bring them to church. If you keep Jesus a secret; if you don’t tell them that Jesus cares for them and paid for everything so that they can know about God the way you do; maybe they’ll never find out. Don’t be like Jesus’ friends, staring up at the sky, when you already know what he wants you to do.