Acts 1:6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel
If you were around back in the 1900s, you may recall Paul Harvey. He had a radio broadcast that was nationally syndicated. His program, for which he later was introduced into the Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame, was entitled The Rest of the Story in which he would tell the parts of familiar stories that no one knew. He would tell a story about someone, but you didn’t know who the character was until the punchline at the very end of the broadcast where he would introduce the person in question. Then he would say, “Now you know the rest of the story.”
All of us would like to know the rest of the story. If I could talk to certain people, I would have a lot of questions. If I could talk to Amelia Earhart or Jimmy Hoffa, I would ask, “What happened and where are you?” We all have questions that we would like to have answered. We like to fill in the rest of the story.
Well, the gospels give us the wonderful story of Jesus Christ. Just as you think you have read the whole story of Christ on the earthly side of His ministry, you get to Acts 1:1 where Luke says, “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.” God instructed the penman to explain in Luke what Jesus did and taught. That was done. Then, He wanted to show what happened following that, what happened after the resurrection, what happened with His disciples, and what happened with the coming of the power of the Holy Spirit. What is the rest of the story?
Imagine what you would ask God if you could ask Him anything you wanted to ask. Wouldn’t you be curious and don’t you think He could give you some good answers? Verse 6 says, “When they were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” This is a good question. It is a question they had been grappling with the entirety of Jesus’ earthly ministry. They had gotten it wrong and misunderstood. Now that Jesus is risen from the dead they asked, “Lord, is this the time You will restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Sometimes we have good questions, but we are not going to get an answer or we don’t get the answer we seek. In verse 7 Jesus said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” In other words, He says, “I’m not going to tell you. It is not for you to know.” Just because Jesus doesn’t give you an answer though, doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t give you anything. Oftentimes what He gives is greater than what you asked. In verse 8 He says, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses.” So, what’s next? Is the Lord obliged to answer every question about your future, even about your life?
The important point to be made here is that you don’t need an answer to every question when you have the power for every need. You have the power for every day. Jesus did not give the disciples an answer; He gave them power. He says, “Ye shall be witnesses.” A witness is a person who tells what he knows, something he heard, saw, or has information about. There were a lot of things the disciples did not know, but there was something they did know. They knew about the life of Christ, His death on the cross for the sins of all. They did know about His resurrection from the dead. So, they didn’t get an answer to the question they had, but they received power to be a witness of what they did know.
Today, you know everything you need to know to do what you need to do. Maybe you don’t have the answer to every question, but that is okay because God does know. More importantly, you don’t have the power for every need, but God does. When God does not give an answer to every question you have, God does give the power you need for everything you may face. Verse 4 says, “And, [Jesus] being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.” They were to wait for the giving of power from God Himself, God the Holy Spirit.
There are a lot of things I may be curious about, and that is fine. I can ask God for answers. But I need to know that when I do not have an answer, I do have God’s power. I don’t need an answer to every question when God has given the power for every need.