By Adam Winn, Ph. D.
Chair and Professor, Department of Biblical and Religious Studies at Samford University
WHEN A TIME OF INACTIVITY SLOWS YOU DOWN
Acts 1:4–8,12–14; 2:1–4
Sometimes God places us in a season of waiting. (1:4–8)
After Jesus’ resurrection, He instructs His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they receive the promised gift from the Father.
The disciples ask Jesus if this is the time when He will restore the Kingdom to Israel. The restoration they refer to is the long-awaited final age — what Jesus refers to as the Kingdom of God. It is the age spoken of by the prophets in which God will not only restore the fortunes of Israel, but He will restore His entire creation, bringing a new or renewed heavens and earth.
The disciples do not yet understand that God is working in a way radically different from what was expected. Instead of God’s Messiah fully bringing about the final age now, He will only inaugurate or begin the final age. Additionally, He will not fully eradicate the present evil age. Thus, these disciples (along with us) live in the reality of both the inaugurated final age and the still-ongoing evil age.
It is only at Jesus’ second coming that the evil age will completely end and the future age of restoration will be completely established. Jesus’ disciples (along with us) will be witnesses of this final age in the present world, and they will invite people to come live as God’s future-age new creations now! This will happen when the Holy Spirit comes upon them.
A time of seeming inactivity can be a time for prayer and drawing close to God. (12–14)
After Jesus’ ascension, His disciples return from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. The group included the remaining 11 apostles; Jesus’ mother, Mary; other women and Jesus’ brothers. During this time of waiting, this group of people devoted themselves to prayer, which offers us a good example of what we should devote ourselves to when God has us in a season of waiting.
God will do His work through us in His timing. (2:1–4)
These disciples pray together until the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. This was a Jewish feast that Israel was commanded to celebrate seven weeks after the Passover. The feast commemorates God giving the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, and the firstfruits of Israel’s harvest are given to God. On this day, God gives His Holy Spirit to the Church.
The gift of the Spirit comes with the sound of a violent wind filling the house and divided tongues of fire resting on each believer. The Holy Spirit fills them, and they are able to speak in different languages. The details of this event bear striking parallels to extrabiblical Jewish traditions regarding the giving of the law to Moses, including the sound of a roaring wind, the presence of flames and the law being spoken in languages familiar to multiple groups of people.
The parallels between the two events is significant, as the two gifts represent two covenants. On the day Israel remembers the establishment of the first covenant through the law, God establishes His new covenant through the giving of the Spirit.
This new covenant is not established by the blood of animals but by blood of the Messiah Jesus. It is not facilitated by obedience to the law but rather through life as new creations empowered by God’s very Spirit. This new covenant is the covenant of the newly inaugurated final age, and these first believers are the firstfruits of the covenant.
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