A Vintage Faith Part 4 - God's Triumph

Grace Church, Tulsa, OK April 13 2nd service
Pastor Rob Yandian

God's Triumph
Acts 1:6-11 ESV

(Notes in blue provided by pastor through You Version.

So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."


God's Triumph
When Jesus left this earth, He left with a command and a promise. The command is to spread His gospel by the power of His Holy Spirit. The promise is that He is returning soon. This great hope is what we, the Church, eagerly await.


One of the things that separates us from other religions. we are expecting the return of the one that our faith returned from.

The tomb of ours is empty.

Verse 6. They ask if the kingdom will be restored.  This had been promised all the way back to Adam and Eve when they sinned and God talked about seed of man crushing Satan's head.    From their perspective in what they knew from what we call the Old Testament, the first coming of Jesus and His return were all together at one time.

We are not to know the time that Jesus is coming back. All we are told is soon. We need to live our lives like that soon is in our lifetime.

Verse 8. We are to receive power.  Our assignment is to preach the Gospel by power of Holy Spirit. It is disobedient to focus on when, we are to focus on the assignment.  We lose our witness when we mark dates and they do not happen.

Verse 9.  At this point, Jesus is gone. The previous verse is His last word on this earth. We treasure people's last words. Jesus told us what to do with His last words on earth, go and be witnesses.

Verse 10 & 11.  The promise from the angels is that Jesus will return.