Empowered for the Mission

After the risen Christ ascended into Heaven, He empowered His church by the Holy Spirit, not to indulge in useless speculation about the timing and circumstances of His return, but to be His witnesses to the entire world. Their obedience spawned a Gospel movement that we live in and advance by developing and deploying fully devoted followers of Christ to make disciples.

Notes:

- For our good and for his divine purposes, there are things that God chooses to conceal from us.

- Holy Spirit power is granted for and evidenced by boldness, utterance, effectiveness, and authority of Gospel witness.

- While there is a healthy longing for the return of Christ, our time as believers is best spent, not gazing into the clouds, but zealously pursuing the call to witness for Him, near and far.

Questions:

1. There are many things that God reveals to us. Why do you suppose he chooses to conceal the timeline of the last days?

2. Who is eligible to receive power from the Holy Spirit?

3. Thinking back over Jesus’s teaching from the Gospels, why should the apostles have known that His Kingdom agenda wasn’t primarily about restoration of political Israel?

4. How would you answer somebody who argues that Jesus’s final instructions in Acts 1:8 apply only to the apostles and not to us today?

5. At Covenant, we support mission efforts all over the world. Why not focus on our own backyard and leave the rest of the world to others?