(ACTS 1:6-14) – THE EXALTED AND ASCENDED KING

In the power and authority of Christ, we are called to use His authority to witness for Him and see lives changed… etc. To help, think of the power and authority entrusted into us, God's children, think of the following. (Acts 1:6-14)

A. THINK OF ALL THE VARIOUS SOURCES OF POWER THAT WE KNOW OF.

B. WHAT POWER SOURCE DO YOU USE THE MOST? WHY?

READ (Acts 1:1-3)

(Acts 1:1–3) Luke says that the disciples were eyewitnesses to all that had happened to Jesus Christ—His life before His crucifixion, and the 40 days after His resurrection as He taught them more about the Kingdom of God. Today people still doubt Jesus’ resurrection. But Jesus appeared to the disciples on many occasions after His resurrection, proving that He was alive. Consider the change the Resurrection made in the disciples’ lives. At Jesus’ death, they had scattered, disillusioned, and fearing for their lives. After seeing the resurrected Christ, they became fearless and risked everything to spread the Good News about Him around the world. They faced imprisonment, beatings, rejection, and martyrdom, yet they never compromised their mission. These men would not have risked—and in some cases, given—their lives for something they knew was a fraud. They knew Jesus was alive, and the early church was fired with their enthusiasm to tell others. We need to know this so we can have confidence in their testimony. Twenty centuries later we can still be confident that our faith is based on fact.

Based on "ALL" of your understanding of what Christ accomplished for us, what POWER do we not use enough? Why? Is it because we do not see that power enough, meaning work in the lives of others or in ourselves? Or, do we doubt that power is capable of doing all that we need?

READ (Acts 1:3-9)

WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THE RESURRECTION AND THE ASCENSION?

To whom is the power of the Holy Spirit available?

What does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit?

What did Jesus promise that the Holy Spirit would do in and through his followers?

During the years of Jesus’ ministry on earth, the disciples continually wondered about his Kingdom. When would it come? What would be their role? In the traditional view, the Messiah would be an earthly conqueror who would free Israel from Rome. But the Kingdom Jesus spoke about was, first of all, a spiritual Kingdom established in the hearts and lives of believers (Luke 17:21). God’s presence and power dwell in believers in the person of the Holy Spirit.

(Acts 1:6) says, "Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

The question of asking Jesus if He would restore the KINGDOM to ISRAEL at this time was based on what? Meaning the lives they were living at the time under the thumb of the Roman Empire made the Jews feel what?

It is said "Absolute power corrupts, but Power corrupts absolutely!" Why, and how does that apply to the time of Jesus and to our time today?

(Acts 1:8) says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Dave mentioned in his sermon that God entrusts into us His children all the power of God the Holy Spirit for a purpose. What are some of those purposes?

If you were God, would you entrust your power into us, knowing yourself? God does entrust His power into us, for the purpose of seeing the lost come to faith exactly like we did when we heard the Gospel and responded.

What are some of the characteristics of God's power that we receive?

How does a person become empowered and led by the Spirit?

The “power” believers receive from the Holy Spirit includes courage, boldness, confidence, insight, ability, and authority. The disciples would need all these gifts to fulfill their mission. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can experience the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Jesus said that he would establish and build his church and that “all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matthew 16:18). In the book of Acts, Luke records the story of the beginning and early years of the church. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, these courageous men and women turned the world upside down. The secret to the early church’s growth was not clever strategies or attractive programs or personal enthusiasm—it was the power of the Holy Spirit. God still wants the church to grow, and the Holy Spirit is still available for believers.

What keeps Christians from experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit today?

Where are you resisting the prompting and guidance of the Holy Spirit?

What can you do to be more open to the Spirit’s work in your life?

Questions and Notes taken from the Life Application Study Bible. Veerman, D. R. (2011-08-25).

THE EXALTED AND ASCENDED KING

(Acts 1:9-14)

(Acts 1:12–14).—Power & The Grain of a Mustard Seed.

Let us contrast for a moment the account here given with the present condition of Christianity in the world. Christianity has taken possession of the whole civilized world. The thrones, the laws, the institutions of those nations which hold away in the earth are all based upon the gospel. The arts, the sciences, the literature of civilized men are more or less impregnated with the doctrine of the New Testament. Take the cathedrals of Europe; what an expenditure of thought and skill and wealth they represent! They are among the most imposing monuments of human thought and human labour. Look at the mass of Christian literature—in poetry, in philosophy, in science, in theology, in sacred oratory, in general literature. What countless Christian writers have elevated the human intellect, enlarged the borders of knowledge, added dignity to man, and happiness to mankind! What vast influences, of all sorts, permeating the civilized world, we can now trace up to the gospel! What multitudes of individual men and women in all ages since Christ, and all over the world, have learnt what the true view of human life is, and have found their whole end of living, and their chief enjoyment of life, and their only consolation and support, in the truths which the gospel teaches! How has the world been filled with fruits of righteousness, altering the whole aspect of human society, of which the gospel alone was the first seed! Now turn to the beginnings of the gospel as here exhibited. One upper chamber at Jerusalem, a city in the last days of its troubled existence, contained the whole number of those who acknowledged Christ as their Master. Measured by any worldly standard, anything feebler or more absolutely insignificant than that company cannot be imagined. But the grain of mustard seed was to become a tree in which the birds of the air should make their nests; the little leaven was to leaven the whole lump; the stone was to become a great mountain which should fill the whole earth. And so it has come to pass that the upper chamber at Jerusalem has grown into the Church Catholic, the mother of all the saints that are, or have been, or are to be hereafter. What an infinite encouragement to our faith is this! What a ground for adoration of Him whose grace and power and faithfulness work such marvellous effects! What a ground of sure and certain hope that He who has carried His work thus far will finish it, to His own glory, and the exceeding joy of the Church which He has redeemed with His precious blood!

(Acts 1:9-14).—Wisdom in bereavement. We learn from these verses—

Wisdom in bereavement. We learn from these verses—

I. THAT THE CULMINATION OF HOPE IN ONE MAY PROVE THE DEPTH OF DEPRIVATION TO ANOTHER.

For the joy that was set before Him Jesus “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2). Into that joy He now entered. As the “cloud received Him out of their sight” (ver. 9), and He returned unto the Father, He took possession of the glorious inheritance for which He had paid so costly a price. But the time of His exaltation was the hour of his disciples’ sorrow. By His departure they lost sight of their dearest Friend, their wise Counsellor, their great Teacher, their honored Lord. So must it be with us. The upright Christian statesman passes to a still larger sphere of usefulness and honour, and the nation mourns; the gifted and devoted pastor is called to a celestial ministry, and the Church is bereaved; the beloved parent is translated to the skies, and the family hearth is desolate.

Wisdom in bereavement. We learn from these verses—

II. THAT THE ATTITUDE OF HELPLESSNESS IS ONE FROM WHICH WE MUST SOON BE AROUSED. (Acts 1:10-11).

It was natural and right enough that, when the Saviour was taken up and disappeared from sight, the disciples should continue to “look steadfastly toward heaven;” their eyes may well have been riveted to the spot in inexpressible awe and wonder. Doubtless all thought was swallowed up in simple surprise and consternation; they stood in helpless, bewildering astonishment. This might last for some minutes, but it could not continue longer. The angels broke in upon it, not with the language of reproach, but with the voice of arousing. A kindly voice is this. When disposed to give way to helpless awe, or fruitless grief, or inanimate prostration of soul, we may thank the minister of God, in whatever form he may come, who says to us, “Why stand ye gazing? Arouse ye! All is not lost. The past is past, but the future is in front of you”.

Wisdom in bereavement. We learn from these verses—

III. THAT TIME, WITH PATIENCE, WILL BRING HEAVENLY COMPENSATIONS. (Ver. 11, latter part.)

Though the Master was taken, He would come again; and when He returned it would, indeed, be “in like manner,” etc., but in more glorious form and with more splendid surroundings (1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Thess. 1:7; Jude 14; Rev. 1:7). Moreover, He would come again in unlike manner, but in a way as gracious and, perhaps, even more needful, viz. in the enlightening influences of the Holy Spirit (ver. 5). Heaven was taking away their Strength and their Joy; but let them wait in holy trustfulness, and Heaven would soon give them ample and blessed compensation. God takes from us—from the community and from the individual heart—those that are very dear, things that are very precious to us; then we faint and are grievously distressed; we may be almost paralyzed with our sense of loss and desolation. But there is blessing on its way—Divine comfort, solace, strength. The Hand that takes our treasures has large compensations in reserve.

Wisdom in bereavement. We learn from these verses—

IV. THAT BEREAVEMENT FINDS A PURE AND WISE RELIEF IN COMMUNION WITH GOD AND IN FELLOWSHIP WITH MAN. (Acts 1:12–14).

The apostles, roused by the angels’ speech, “returned unto Jerusalem” and went into the upper room, where they would meet their best friends—those who had the deepest sympathy with them—that they might commune with them and that they might “continue in prayer and supplication”. In the time of bereavement and woe we may be tempted to shut ourselves in to our own chamber and nurse our grief. Nothing can be more unwise. Let sorrow, indeed, have its own chosen loneliness in its first dark hours; leave it alone with God, with the pitiful, patient Saviour. Then let it come forth; let it go into the “upper room,” where it can hold fellowship with human friends; let it go into the sanctuary, where, with the people of God, it can pour out its heart in prayer and supplication: it will not be long before it finds itself joining with them in the accents of praise.—C.

Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. 1909. Acts of the Apostles. Vol. 1. The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.