In Acts 1, Jesus stood as the fulfillment of the protoevangelium, the first glimpse of the gospel, in Genesis 3:15. Except for God's pronouncement of One coming who would defeat Satan in Genesis 3:15, all the nobility of the calling in Genesis 1 and 2 seemed lost. ![]() They were sent out, but not in the perfection in which God had created. They could not create ex nihilo, out of nothing as God did, but they could create based on what he had already done.Īdam and Eve sinned and were banished from the Garden before we could see this noble mission play out. It was a noble calling, to go as his image bearers out into the newly formed world and replicate what he had done, like self-similar, smaller fractal images reflecting the creativity and character of the One True God throughout creation. In Genesis 1, God essentially tasked Adam and Eve to go do what he had just done at Creation. ![]() Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Jesus’ commission to his disciples before he ascended harkens back to the first commission or mandate God gave to mankind. Though we call Jesus’ sending in Matthew 28, reinforced in Acts 1:8, the Great Commission, it is not God's first commission to his children. Yet, he left this misfit band of tax collectors and fishermen, who scattered when fearful and seemed unable to discern for themselves the most basic aspects of the good news of Jesus, to evangelize the other 99.97 percent of the inhabitable world. His ministry encompassed a very tiny region of a very large world. By the time of his ascension, he had brought the good news of himself to only roughly 0.03 percent of the Earth's inhabitable land. This commission is noteworthy because Jesus’ own earthly ministry was incredibly centralized. And we claim it as our mission still today. Their mission was to take the good news of Jesus to the very ends of the earth. He repeated a version of this in Acts 1:8 with his very last words face to face with his disciples before he ascended into heaven. Go and make disciples everywhere, Jesus instructed them with this pivotal commission. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Instead, in the next verses, he promised once again the coming of the Holy Spirit, who would equip them to be his witnesses to “Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Instead of explaining the details of what happened next, Jesus used language that reminded them (and us) of his instructions a few days before on a mountain in Galilee, recorded in Matthew 28. It makes sense that at times we still do as well.īut Jesus didn't explain the details to them in Acts 1. It makes sense then that these same disciples wanted a little more clarity about the next steps after his resurrection. ![]() Along the Emmaus road after his resurrection, he connected for them the dots between the Old Testament and his death (Luke 24:13–27). They asked him a crucial question in Acts 1:6, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” It’s a question we ask still today as we work to reconcile our current experiences with what we believe God has done in the past and will be doing in the future.īefore the crucifixion, these same disciples had not understood Jesus’ coming death and resurrection. The first chapter of Acts records the last face-to-face conversation the disciples had with Jesus. But though Pentecost puts an exclamation point on the preceding 50 days in the Christian calendar, Ascension Sunday provides us needed reflection without which Pentecost doesn't make much sense.Īcts 2 loses a lot of its meaning without Acts 1. The commotion drew the attention of locals, and in one day, three thousand people came to believe in Jesus. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit came with stunning fanfare on the little band of believers huddled down praying in that Upper Room. For those following a liturgical church calendar, Pentecost is generally viewed as the climactic moment of Eastertide.
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