Luke 24:49 NASB
And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
When we think of this verse we usually think of Pentecost because that’s when this promise of the Father was fulfilled, and they were clothed with supernatural ability from on high. In this scene in Luke 24, it was the resurrected Jesus who promised them that they would receive supernatural ability from heaven to live the Christian life on earth. It is interesting to me that Jesus told them to stay in the city until this heavenly ability was released in their lives. He didn’t tell them in Luke 24 to go out to the world and preach the gospel, even though he had told them that was their assignment, at least two times when they were gathered together after his resurrection. It was important to Jesus that they made no attempt to go forth and to confront the culture with the message of the gospel until this promise of the filling of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. It’s a sad thing to watch Christians sincerely go forth trying to do for him what only he can do through them in the power of the Holy Spirit. Their assignment was to go forth into the world proclaiming the gospel, as they bore witness of the resurrection of Jesus, not by talking about the fact that they had personally spent time with the risen Christ, but by manifesting the risen Christ and the power of His resurrection through their lives. Acts chapter 1:1 has always been one of the most fascinating verses in all the Bible to me, because it reveals so clearly the true nature of the Christian life. The gospel of Luke was really Paul’s gospel, and it was written to a secular governor named Theophilus as a narrative of the life of Jesus and his finished work. The book of Acts was part 2 of Luke’s biography of Christianity written for Theophilus. Look at what it says, and see if you catch it concerning what the Holy Spirit reveals about the heart of the Christian life; “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach,”
Do you see it? The gospel of Luke was Luke’s account, of all that Jesus BEGAN to do and teach, and by implication, the book of Acts will be a CONTINUATION of all that Jesus would continue to do and teach, but this time through his new body, Them; Us; The Church. The title for the book of Acts should not be the Acts of the Apostles, or even the Acts of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit has come to glorify Jesus. The title of the book of Acts should be “The continual Acts of Jesus.”
In Luke 24 when Jesus told them to wait in the city until the promise of the Father, which was the filling of the Holy Spirit, was given to them, He was telling them, though they did not know it yet, that Jesus in his resurrection power was going to take up residence in their lives, and that the risen Jesus would continue to teach and perform signs and wonders, but now through them. In Christ, clothed with, and indwelt by the life and power of Heaven, would be their, as it is our, greatest encounter with the resurrected Jesus. Only by manifesting the indwelling risen Christ, and bringing heaven to earth as a result, will we ever be able to fulfill our assignment, which is to take the gospel into all the world, making disciples.