Jesus promises the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Click here for an online Bible. Acts 1:4-8
Luke is providing a slight overlap with his gospel. Notice the similarity between Acts 1:4-5 and Luke 25:49. He told them to stay in Jerusalem until they received the power of the Holy Spirit.
They understood the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in terms of Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:28-32). Joel described the Day of the Lord. They understood this to be the restoration of Israel to the way it was in the days of David and Solomon. So, when Jesus told them they would receive the Holy Spirit in just a few days, they asked about the restoration of the kingdom.
Jesus told them that the issue of schedule was not a concern. In fact, their understanding of the kingdom was way off base. The kingdom of God is a spiritual reality. It is spread by the proclaiming of the gospel. It will not be spread by a political event orchestrated by God, but by the people of God acting as witnesses of Jesus.
A witness tells the truth as he or she understands it. All you can do as a witness is tell what you know to be the truth. As witnesses for Christ we tell how we were saved and how another can also be saved. We tell about Christ. The miraculous part is that we do so in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus promised that by the power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel would spread from the city of Jerusalem to the surrounding region of Judea to the neighboring region of Samaria to the rest of the world. That is the story of the book of Acts – the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church.
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To me, this shows how much the Spirit wills for us to witness to those without Christ. Not only in our own country, but all over the world, "to the ends of the world." I remember a few months ago we had a sermon regarding missionary work and how there are still many parts of the world that don't believe in Christ or are not widely reached, such as Japan (I think that was the one) with hardly any of the population being Christian. God Bless our missionaries who were called to spread the word of Christ and salvation ... their witness is most needed. Thank God for giving all believers the power and His Spirit to witness. There are many opportunities to witness, so I pray we will all take those and trust in the Spirit to fill our mouths with the words of truth as we know it and believe.
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