Acts 1:4-8 :
Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me. For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Therefore when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Here we have some insight into the timing of God. It isn’t uncommon for us as humans to get out-of-sync with God’s clock. As we read in the Gospels, the Jews were expecting that the Christ would restore the kingdom to Israel right away. Jesus makes it very clear here that the timing was not something that God has made known. This is an important principle that we need to remember about prophesy. Sometimes, God does not give us a date.
The next big thing that was about to happen was something entirely different. God was about to send the Holy Spirit to live inside of humans. This had never happened before! The idea that God would live inside a person is absolutely amazing and was clearly the next wonderful thing that was about to happen to the apostles.
Notice that Jesus didn’t tell the apostles that He wasn’t going to restore the kingdom to Israel. Some people today don’t believe that God is going to do anything for Israel anymore, but Jesus didn’t say that it wasn’t ever going to happen. All He said was that it wasn’t for us to know when. This actually tells me that it will happen someday.
Now is the time to “be witnesses to” Jesus. Now is the time for us to share the truth about our salvation with others so that they have a chance to come to God before it is too late for them. One of the great things about this book of Acts is that we can learn about how to share our faith with others by observing the examples contained in it.