WAIT

Jesus commanded His disciples “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promised “Gift of My Father, which,” he said, “you have heard from Me…you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me…” (Acts 1:4-5, 8)

The word of the Lord to the disciples was to first return to Jerusalem and wait. Waiting is difficult for some, but it would have been a monumental mistake for them to have rushed out into the streets of Jerusalem and beyond without first waiting as they had been commanded to do. Their waiting was not a waste of precious time but rather their first act of obedience to their Lord. Waiting in Jerusalem was an act of obedience no less important than anything they would later do in response to Jesus’ command. In fact, what they would later accomplish in Jesus’ name was totally dependant upon events that took place during this time of waiting.

The disciples were not idle as they waited; far from it. While they waited they were more alert and vigilant than watchmen in the night waiting for the sunrise, as the Psalmist says,
“I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.” (Psalm 130:5-6)

They waited with alert expectation. They trusted the word of their Lord and waited for the fulfillment of His promise – the Gift of the Father, the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:14 tells us that they met together and were constantly praying; hardly a waste of time for a group facing the assignment that was ahead of them. They also took care of an organizational matter and selected Matthias to fill the vacancy in The Twelve left by Judas Iscariot. Otherwise they waited. But on the day God had selected, the Day of Pentecost, their waiting ended. On that day the Holy Spirit came upon them with Power. Now, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, they were able to do what would have been impossible for them to do alone – “to be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

The history of all the events that happened after the Day of Pentecost we know as the Acts of The Apostles. (Actually the acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles) It was later said of them that they “have turned the world upside-down.” (Acts 17:6) But first they had to go to Jerusalem and wait.

(See blog for 3 June 2006 for the rest of the story)