[Click here to listen to the sermon.]

“You are witnesses of these things.” Jesus said. “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

This is how The Gospel According to Luke ends -- the first of a two-volume account of the launch of the Jesus movement. Volume two begins with The Acts of the Apostles.

The Book of Acts begins in a pensive mood. The disciples of Jesus had expected Jesus to “restore the kingdom to Israel.” They thought that as the Messiah, the Christ, he would restore the national pride of Judah who had lived under the subjugation of the Romans for too long.

But God at work in Jesus has bigger plans.

Many of us reduce the power of God to what God can do for me. If God does not jump to address my own challenge of the day in a way the serves my convenience, well, maybe this God is not a God worth believing in.

The covenant making God who is revealed in the story of Israel and in the life of Jesus might (just might) be bigger than me and my understanding.

What if God is not interested in petty, ethnic nationalism? What if God is not interested in restoring the national dignity to Israel? What if God’s purpose is larger than any one moment in history, or any one moment in an individual life?

What if God’s purpose is to restore human dignity to the whole human race?

The Book of Acts picks up where the Gospel of Luke left off: with Jesus addressing the disciples, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,” Jesus said. “And you shall be my witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”

The disciples are more than just a little confused. What does this challenge mean? What will it require of us? How shall we, a small band of frightened, discouraged, men and women accomplish such a mission?

They have no idea. They have no resources. They have no plan. They have no confidence. All they have is a promise: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” And they do not even know what that means.

Then came the Day of Pentecost.

The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were filled with power “from on high” in order to fulfill a purpose “from on high.”

In their experience of the power of God, they found themselves caught up in the purposes of God as well. Suddenly their world changed. Their world changed not because they were materially different in any way. They were the same fi sherman as before. Their world changed because their perspective changed.

Suddenly they realized: Maybe it’s not all about me? Maybe the power of God is at work in me to fulfi ll a divine purpose that I can never hope for or imagine?

They discovered in this change of perspective that the power of God is at work in us to fulfi ll a purpose the pursuit of which fi lls us with all the blessings of the heavenly places.