Are We There Yet?

 Are we there yet?

It's the kid's constant question on any road trip.  And the parent's nagging nightmare.  How many times have these words been uttered from the backseat of the family SUV or minivan?  

And now Jesus' disciples were asking about the coming of God's promised Kingdom (v6).  Are we there yet?  "Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel"?  

He had taught them a lot about the Kingdom of God over the past three years.  They had argued over their place in His Kingdom.  Now that He had clearly conquered death, now had to be the time to crank up God's Kingdom.

In other words, "Are we there yet?"

Jesus tells them that the coming of the Kingdom is important, but not something they should worry about (v7).  "It is not for you to know..."  Jesus doesn't even know when it's going to happen (Mk 13:32).  Only His Dad.  

Don't waste time worrying about when.  It will happen.  When it comes to God's Kingdom, we're on a "need to know" basis only.  And when it comes to "when," we don't need to know.

Jesus' response indicates not only that His followers expected the Kingdom but that they were right in doing so.  If there was to be no coming Kingdom, this would have been the perfect time to make that announcement.  

But He didn't.  Jesus simply said its  timing wasn't something for them to get wrapped in.  It's coming, all right.  Yeah, it's coming.

Christ changes the subject back to what they really needed to be concerned about: the coming of the Holy Spirit (v8).  "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you."  

When God's Spirit shows up, He will not come quietly.  He'll show up powerfully.  

A lot of folks have spilled a lot of ink and filled a lot of pages over the centuries discussing the Spirit's power.  The Greek word for "power" here is dunamis.  It is the same root where we get such words as dynamic, dynamo and even dynamite.  

Now Jesus was certainly NOT equating the Spirit to dynamite (it had not even been invented yet!).  But He is telling us that God's Spirit is loaded more more energy than we can wrap our minds around.  

The Spirit's power makes atom splitting look playground stuff.  When God's Spirit falls and fills, we can expect spectacular stuff.

And there's a very important reason they (and we) receive the power of this supernatural dynamo.  God has a mission.  A very important mission.  

We are to be witnesses.  There are a couple of important shades of meaning to the Greek word marturos.  It most certainly means to be a witness and tell others about what you have seen and experienced.  Yes, that much is true.  

But the word means so much more.  It's the root of our word "martyr."  A witness is someone who is willing to die for their faith.  Certainly there are those that God calls for such an important mission.  

But most of us are not (at least not yet).  For us (especially those of us in 21st Century America), this is about dying to self (Mk 8:35).  It's about giving up of myself for the sake of the Gospel.  

This is a kamikaze mission.  As the Coast Guard says, "We have to go out.  Nothing says we have to come back."

Jesus then gives very important instructions about where they are to go.  In many ways, He gives us the outline of not only the Book of Acts but the rest of the NT with these words.  

First, Jerusalem.  That's good because that's where they are.  And we'll see that they eventually have a problem leaving city and God has to (shall we say) "encourage" them to get on their merry way.

Then they are to head on to Judea.  This is the equivalent to the entire state or region surrounding the city.  Get out into the countryside with the message of Christ.  The disciples were probably good with that.  

After that it's on to Samaria.  Samaria?  Really, Samaria?!?!  Come on, Jesus.  These folks aren't Jews.  Those half breeds are our enemies!  But Christ has called us to be ambassadors of reconciliation (2Cor 5:20).  And that includes our enemies.

Finally, "to the end of the earth."  Hmm.  Now He calls them to take the Good News to Gentiles everywhere.  In other words, Jesus' message of salvation is for everyone.  The entire world.  Every people group.  

It's mission impossible.  But there's one Person that makes it VERY possible.  The Holy Spirit.  That's why we need His awesome power.  For this awesome mission.

I have one question when it comes to our mission:  Are we there yet?

©2011

Jay Jennings