1. I’m not sure why we have so little recorded about the forty days Jesus had with the disciples between his resurrection and the beginning of Acts.  I cannot imagine what the questions must have been or what it meant to have time with a man who had been dead but was now alive again.  It looks like he would come and go periodically and while he was with them he would speak about the kingdom of God.  I wonder if he continued to use parables or if he was more direct like he was with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus?  Whatever the case, it was clear from their first question at the end of the forty days that they did not understand the nature of the kingdom.

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom of Israel?”  Once an idea gets into your head it is hard to change your mind about it.

Why is it the first question of the earliest Church even after years of being taught the Kingdom of God is like a pearl hidden, a coin lost, and a mustard seed?  And it is still the question for so many of us now.  We want the Gospel to be the means by which we restore kingdoms.  We want Jesus to restore the past and assure the future.  We want revival and return to God to put prayer back in schools, reduce crime, cut taxes, bring back two-parent families, good schools, growing churches and make things the way they were.  Is that too much to ask?

In fact, they were being reasonable to ask.  Restoring the kingdom would complete his mission.  Look at Isaiah 61:1-9:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
And you will be called priests of the Lord,
you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast.
Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours.
“For I, the Lord, love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”

Restoring the kingdom would only complete his mission.

Thirty years later they have the answer to their question.  The Gospel has moved from a small town in an insignificant corner of the world to the center of the Empire.  The Gospel moves out – not back.  Our vision is always smaller than God’s.  We want restoration of our kingdom and He is after the recreation of the whole world.

2. First questions are important and in some ways define our whole life.  The question of restoring kingdoms and who would have what place seems to have been on the minds of the disciples from the very beginning.  “Who will sit on your right hand?  Who will have the first position?  Who will be the greatest?” What was Paul’s first question?  “Who are you?” Paul’s whole life was spent answering that question.  The answer to that question became his mission.  “To know him and make him known.”  In fact, what is God’s first question?  “Where are you?”  The answer to that question became the mission of Jesus.  “To seek and to save that which was lost.”

I think we spend our lives on that first question and it is different for each of us.

Who can I trust?
Who can I blame?
Am I good enough?
How much is enough?
Is there a God and does He love me?
How can I be in control?
What is next?
Will my life have mattered?

It’s important to figure that one out and to realize how much of life is spent finding the answer to that.  It’s even more important to find the right question whose answer becomes the mission of your life.

3. The Lord’s answer is, “Yes, you will receive power but it will be the power to be a witness.  It will not be a position in the restored kingdom of Israel but the power to be a witness to the ends of the earth.”  That was probably a surprise.  They had no interest in the ends of the earth – only the kingdom of Israel.  They never expected to go anywhere.  They did expect power but not the kind they received.  They received the power to be – in Greek – martyrs.  They received the power merely to report what they had seen.  They were not witnesses of what God had done in their lives to change them.  They were not witnesses about their feelings about Jesus. They were not witnesses of a better theology, better economics, better political theory or even better way of life.  They were witnesses of what God had done through Jesus.  They were witnesses of an extraordinary fact.

Acts 2:32: “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.”

1 Peter 1:1-3:  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..”  They were witnesses of the resurrection.

What does Paul say in Romans 4:25?  “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

They were not witnesses to his teaching or they would have written down more.

It is the death and resurrection of Jesus that is the supernatural power of the Gospel.  That is what distinguishes it from philosophy and religion.  It is the core of the Gospel.  Unfortunately, the core has become a set of beliefs, traditions, customs and interpretations that define us.  Jesus said we would be witnesses long before there was an Apostle’s Creed, or the grand doctrines of the Church, or even a Church.  In some ways, we have made the Church a witness to the beliefs of the Church instead of the simple but profound fact of the resurrection.  Just like the early Church, we are going to disagree and argue about many things but there is one central fact in all of this:  God raised Jesus from the dead.  That is our distinctive and in some ways we have forgotten the sheer lunacy of it.  We have been focused on making the Christian message reasonable and sensible – easier to accept.  More relevant.  We’ve allowed others to define what it means and who we are.

Fred Craddock, the best preacher and story teller I knew died this week.  He preached a sermon on this passage and pointed out that had the early church waited until they had their own lives in order to witness they would have never done it.  “Do you mean to say that a church that was made up of grumbling widows, claiming they didn’t get their share of the blankets and the food, a church that had several of its leaders in jail most of the time, a church that had members like Ananias and Sapphira who lied about their offering, do you mean to say that church is going to witness?  Yes, because witnessing is not talking about one’s self.” You sit there to tell what you know – not what you feel.  It sounds like we are hypocrites to be witnesses when our own house is not in order but it has always been that way.  We are not witnesses to our own perfection but to the fact of the resurrection.

And, in a way, we have taken 1 Peter 3:15 “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” and encouraged people to think they need to have all the answers before they can be a witness.  In fact, what is the reason for the hope we have?  It is “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” and not a mastery of having answers to all their questions.

4. I think that is why we need supernatural power to be witnesses.  The meaning of witness is not ours to make but the circumstances God creates for us.  There are “martyrs” in good times.  Acts 2:46 says, “They enjoyed the favor of the people and the Lord added daily to their number.”

There are martyrs in bad times.  Those good times of the Church end quickly and become persecution.  Acts 8:1 says, “On that day (when Stephen was stoned) a great persecution broke out against the church…and Saul began to destroy the church.”

The point is the power to be a witness in both good and bad circumstances is supernatural.  We cannot even be a witness to the fact of the resurrection without supernatural power.  We cannot be witnesses on our own in good times – we get corrupted by the favor of the people and the growth of the church.  The temptation is to create a Christian ethic or Christian culture that when followed makes good people but does not require supernatural power.  It’s better than a bad ethic but it does not need the power of the cross or the resurrection.

We cannot be martyrs on our own in the bad times.  We become victims instead of martyrs.  We complain and long for the good times.

5. Finally, the angels who appear ask them, “Why are you standing there?”

The passage begins with a question about power and ends with a question about purpose.

Why are you still here?
Why are you doing what you are doing?
Why are you not on your way?

It’s a valid question for our lives.  Where are we on hold or circling the field and not on our way?

Walker Percy in his novel The Moviegoer has a description of people who have stopped moving and searching.  “What is the nature of the search? you ask. The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.”

Where in our lives are we still gazing on what used to be?  Where are we anxious about what is next?

Angels don’t always ask questions in sensitive ways, do they?  What did they say to the men who came out of the tomb grieving and confused?  “Who are you looking for?”  What did they say to the women who were distraught and afraid?  “Woman, why are you crying?”  They seem to ask the question that only upsets us more instead of what will comfort us.

I’ve even wondered what it means when it says the angels came and attended to Jesus in the wilderness after the temptation.  Did they act the same way there?  I’ve thought they may have brought some food and water but maybe, instead, they asked him the same kinds of questions.  Or when they strengthened him in Gethsemane.  Were they kind and compassionate or was it a different kind of strengthening?

Angels always asked the obvious because they saw just one step ahead instead of the present.  They saw Jesus when Mary did not.  They saw Pentecost when the disciples did not.

Sometimes we need those angels in our lives.  We need people who see the obvious and ask us the questions that seem harsh, insensitive and even stupid.  We need that kind of strengthening that does not seem compassionate at the time.  We need people who can see beyond our current circumstances and ask us questions that make us stop gazing and be on our way.

So, where are you this morning?

What is the question that has been defining your life?

Are you looking for the restoration of the kingdom?

Are you trying to be a witness to something other than the fact of the resurrection?

Are you discouraged by the imperfections of the Church and the shortcomings in your own life?

Are you waiting until you have mastered the answers?

Are you standing and gazing and need to be on your way?