6So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
The disciples wanted details about the kingdom of Israel, for after all, Jesus had just been teaching them about the kingdom—albeit, of God. In their earthbound perspective they were perplexed that Jesus’ kingdom was “not of this world” (John 18:36). They were expecting the political fulfillment, ushering in Israel’s world prominence. The book of Acts will record their movement toward a spiritual understanding of the kingdom Jesus came to establish. The timing of its arrival was not part of their “need-to-know” instructions.
As a nation, the Jews under their representative leaders had rejected Jesus as the Messiah King of Israel by crucifying Him. On the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) Peter would invite Israel to accept its king and many would turn to Christ, but the Jewish people as a whole would continue to reject their king. While the disciples never abandoned the idea of an earthly kingdom, they never lost the desire for Israel to repent. At the very end of Acts, we find Paul imprisoned and still “testifying about the kingdom of God” to the Jews.
So we see Jesus’ marching orders in verse 8 to the first leaders of the church. Verse 8 forms the book’s preview and outline. Chapters 2–7 largely cover the ministry of Peter (and John) in Jerusalem. Chapter 8 brings the Jews’ persecution of Christians, which drives many of them out of Jerusalem and into other parts of Judea and into Samaria. Chapters 10–11 show the church wrestling to transition to a mission beyond Judaism into the Gentile world. The significance of this transition cannot be overstated; two entire chapters of the book are given to the record of the Holy Spirit moving Peter to the fateful interaction with the Gentile centurion, Cornelius, and the complete retelling of the story to the other apostles and believers in Jerusalem. The young Christian movement was to fully include Gentiles in the church.
After the persecution of Acts 12, the story turns from Peter’s ministry to the Jews, to that of Paul and the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles. The disciples would be God’s witnesses to the whole world, the intention and the desire of God’s heart first articulated to Abraham. His people were to be a blessing to all nations (Gen. 12:3).
Lord, help me be a blessing to those in my “Jerusalem,” where I live—and beyond.
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