Acts 1:7-8 KJV
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
There is a play on words that happens in verses 7 and 8 that caught my eye this morning.
In verse seven Jesus told the disciples that the Father had put the knowledge of times and seasons (referring to His kingdom) in His own power. But in verse eight, just five words later, Jesus offers those same disciples a power they could possess. Though they could not possess the power to know when God's kingdom will come, they would possess the power to be witnesses for the sake of Jesus Christ.
The two Greek words translated power are different. The first is a word meaning privilege. The Father's position as the Almighty and omniscient One gives Him the privilege of being the only One to know when the kingdom of heaven will come. The second is the word from which we get our word dynamite. It means a force or even a miraculous power.
It is not for us to know the time when our Lord will return, call the Christians to glory and establish His kingdom upon this earth. That is something that belongs only to the Potentate of the universe. But God has given to us a power, more remarkable than anything we could have ever really imagined; the power to be witnesses and to see souls converted from children of darkness to children of the light.
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
There is a play on words that happens in verses 7 and 8 that caught my eye this morning.
In verse seven Jesus told the disciples that the Father had put the knowledge of times and seasons (referring to His kingdom) in His own power. But in verse eight, just five words later, Jesus offers those same disciples a power they could possess. Though they could not possess the power to know when God's kingdom will come, they would possess the power to be witnesses for the sake of Jesus Christ.
The two Greek words translated power are different. The first is a word meaning privilege. The Father's position as the Almighty and omniscient One gives Him the privilege of being the only One to know when the kingdom of heaven will come. The second is the word from which we get our word dynamite. It means a force or even a miraculous power.
It is not for us to know the time when our Lord will return, call the Christians to glory and establish His kingdom upon this earth. That is something that belongs only to the Potentate of the universe. But God has given to us a power, more remarkable than anything we could have ever really imagined; the power to be witnesses and to see souls converted from children of darkness to children of the light.
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