Acts 1:7,8 - You will receive power

1:7

In response to the apostles’ question Jesus told them “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority”. This is a little like Jesus’ response in the Olivet discourse (Matt 24:36). The disciples needed to focus on something much more important, as will become clear in the next verse. We do have a tendency to become obsessed with things that we do not need to be obsessed by. Such matters serve only as a distraction from the important things that we should be doing. Also note that it says “the Father has set by His own authority”. When we become obsessed by certain things we can easily end up effectively thinking we have the authority to decide how things should be done.

1:8

We now come to the matters that the apostles should be concerned about. They had no authority nor power to decide then the end would come. However, they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. When we obsess about things that should be no concern of ours we end up being powerless. When we walk in step with the Spirit we find that we do actually have power because we are doing what God has commanded us to do. They were to be Christ’s witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”. It has often been pointed out that this is a template for the book of Acts. The action begins in Jerusalem, then moves out to Samaria, and then to the rest of the world.