But wait...there's more!

"Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

Acts 1:4-5

In the verses before the one's I've highlighted here Luke was clear that Jesus had given orders for His people. These orders where to make disciples as we read in Matthew 28:19. It's our call as believers to make disciples as the Church. While Jesus was clear in what He wanted done He says to his disciples "but wait".

Wait? That didn't make much sense to me the first time I read it. Jesus has risen from the grave and gives them a mission and now is about to leave so they can get busy doing the work of God and instead He says to wait? I, being a man, am not a professional at waiting. I hate it. The microwave takes much too long for me. Why in the world is Jesus giving me an order and then telling me to wait??  

Well I think it's important for us to understand that Jesus knew who the people He was working with.

In verse 2 of chapter 1 Luke talks about the disciples and refers to them as those " ...whom He had chosen." Jesus knew these men. He spent time with them and He loved them. That should be so comforting to us as believers to know that the Lord really knows His people because as believers we are His people too!

It's because He knew His disciples that knew that they could not change the world by themselves.

Jesus had walked through life with His disciples and taught them what it was to be a true follower of the Lord. A crash course from the Creator of the universe on how to live life but now He was leaving. He had finished His mission and now it was time for His disciples to be His hands and feet but Jesus never planned from them to do it on their own. Jesus was sending them the Holy Spirit and through Him they would continue to reach the world and leave His fingerprints behind them. Jesus viewed the Holy Spirit very highly and even said in John 16 that it was better for Him to leave for the Holy Spirit to come for the disciples! 

We as believers have the this same Holy Spirit and are not expected to do the work of the Lord by ourselves! We are called to rely on the Holy Spirit and through it, give the world a picture with our lives what it is to be a believer.