The Bible's Biggest Buts - Not knowledge but power and purpose

Not Knowledge But Power and Purpose Then they gathered round him and asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ Acts 1:6‭-‬8 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/act.1.6-8.NIVUK In 2001 I visited the Philippines twice. Yeah, I know. Tough job but someone has to visit one of the most beautiful countries in the world twice in a year. I met my future wife on 6th April and then returned in November to get engaged. I visited her village for the first time. Now, there are many cultural differences between the Philippines and Europe, but there was one that stood out more than any other. There are no timetables for public transport from my wife's village to the nearby city, Ormoc. Forty minutes drive and no timetables. I had been to villages in Czech Republic and Romania. I had even travelled in a bus from Brasov to Pitesti that only travelled three times a day. Transport there had a timetable. You knew when it would arrive. You knew when it would leave. But opposite my wife's house, near the school gates, was a concrete bus shelter, but no timetable. The jeepneys, buses and minibuses came and went however they felt like doing from 6am to 6pm. You just had to stand at the shelter and wait to see if something would come and take you to the city. And from the city you went to the bus station and kind-of hoped you would get home on time. That was just the way it was. And still is today. These verses need to be understood correctly. In this case there is a timetable. There is a plan. But we will not know the dates and times. Why? Because Jesus effectively said it's none of our business. What the disciples are talking about here is the restoration of Israel by the Messiah. Now I don't think we can underestimate how much the Jews longed for this, and still do. They had endured round after round of humiliation. At that time they were living in their homes, but were under the direct, and often brutal, control of Rome. And the Gospels aren't afraid to mention these humiliations. For example: Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Luke 13:1 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/luk.13.1.NIVUK Or taxation, where the Jews were forced to pay money to maintain the army that was subjugating them (Mark 12:13‭-‬17). Or the humiliations they endured at the hands of their subjugators (Matthew 5:41). The Jews were just about as beaten down as they could be. Yet Jesus did not tell them when this humiliation would end (Acts 1:7). Why? Because it wasn't for them to know! No matter how great their pain, their subjugation, their humiliation were, they had no right at all to know when God would finally resolve it! So how should we react when some so-called eminent theologian publishes papers on Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation, trying to figure out when Jesus will come again? Or when someone claims special knowledge and awareness of how Coronavirus fits into the plan for the Second Coming and when it will happen? Tell them to read their Bible (Matthew 24:42‭-‬44; Luke 12:40; 1 Thessalonians 5:1‭-‬3)! So are there any loopholes in these verses where we might find out when the Lord is coming? No. So can we know? No. So what should we do then? We should be ready (1 Thessalonians 5:4). And how should we be ready? By doing what our Lord has told us to do, using the power He gave us to do it. It's not hard. It really is that simple. So why do people bother spinning their elaborate theories about the Second Coming if none of them will ever be correct? Human nature. Since the very beginning of the Gospel, right back in the days of the Early Church, there have been those who claimed to have 'secret knowledge' to pass on to those who followed them. It was nothing more than a massive ego trip, designed to attract people from Jesus to them. And that's the rather shocking reality: these people are trying to distract us from doing what Jesus told us to do. And it gets worse. It's actually blasphemous (Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32‭-‬33). Jesus is saying here that no-one but the Father knows when He will come again. Now we can either allow our heads to spin with confusion about the nature of the Godhead or simply accept that this is the case. Whatever we believe about these verses, it leaves someone who predicts the date of the Second Coming on very uncertain ground. You see, they are claiming to know something which Jesus said He did not. They are claiming to have insider knowledge from the Father which Jesus did not have. That cannot be anything but blasphemous. We are not to know these things. We should not even research them or inquire about them. To do so is a fruitless, useless endeavour. Even if it leads to a calculation of a date and time, the Bible teaches that it will be wrong. After all, if Jesus Himself taught that He will come at a time when He is not expected, and our human calculations lead us to expect Him to come, then He will not come. But why would God keep this from us? There is a lake in the High Tatras mountains between Poland and Slovakia that my wife really wanted to see. There was just one problem: no transport. The only way to get there was a nine mile hike uphill and round countless bends until we reached it. So we set off. The path was asphalted and was smooth, but the relentless uphill climb soon took its toll. We were soon asking, "When will we get there? When will this end?" Our legs ached a lot when we finally reached the lake. And it was glorious. The picnic there and the photos we took are among the best travel experiences we've ever had. We left a little early and began our descent. Why did we leave early? Because journey to the lake had been difficult, and we had been concentrating on our sore legs and feet. There were some very attractive spots we had missed on the way up because we had been too concerned with arriving at the lake. You see, for us, arriving is the thing. We want to 'be there'. We want everything to end now so that we reach our destination. But God has a different perspective. His perspective is that the journey will provide us with opportunities to learn and grow and become more like Him. This is what discipleship is all about. As Paul explained to the church in Rome: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:1‭-‬5 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rom.5.1-5.NIVUK God will not tell us when events that are important to us will happen because He wants us to trust Him, to grow in Him and to become better people as we live in the gap between what is and what will be. If He told us when things would happen then we would not endure as much or grow as fast. We would simply wait patiently for things to happen. Or worse, we would live carelessly and only get our lives back on track at the last minute. This principle definitely applies to the Second Coming. I believe it also applies to our current situation. We have no idea when life will return to any semblance of normality. No-one knows. This is the time when the best approach is to not become impatient and constantly pray for it to end, but to allow God to take us through the journey and ask Him what He has to teach us. Useless speculations about times and dates are nothing but a sideshow and a distraction from our God-given mission. God does not give us knowledge of His secret things. Instead, He gives power and a purpose. The purpose is to be His witnesses across the globe. The power is the power of the Holy Spirit to bear witness boldly and intelligibly to all men. When my wife and I got married, we had a high number of witnesses listed on our marriage certificate. If memory serves me right, I think it was around sixteen. For those of you who don't know, it takes two witnesses for a marriage to be legal. It was good we hired a live band. The signing of the registry took longer than it does for most weddings. But why did we have so many? It wasn't a bizarre way to collect the autographs of good friends. You see, following the wedding we would be applying for a British spouse visa for my wife. Spouse visas are difficult and stressful to get - and more so now. So we thought we'd do all we could to improve our possibilities of getting it. My wife was working as a Certified Public Accountant in an accounting firm before we got married. So we hatched a plan. She approached as many people she knew of high standing in her company and they became our witnesses. There were accountants and lawyers there. The owner of the company was also the Honorary Consul of Denmark, so he was a witness too. These are people whose word is important. They could lose their job and their standing in the community if they lie. So having them testify on our marriage certificate that the marriage was genuine could only be good for us. We can't be sure if it helped. However, we got the visa in two weeks without having to go to Manila for an interview, so it's not impossible. If you consider a court case, there are many different types of witnesses: expert witnesses like forensic scientists, psychologists, doctors, and so on. They look at data, interpret it and present their findings to the court. However, there are also eyewitness. Their job is to do what Peter did: As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’ Acts 4:20 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/act.4.20.NIVUK An eyewitnesses simply states what they have seen and heard. They may not be experts. They may not have spent half their lives in academia. They might not be super-intelligent. But their witness statement is just as valid as any other piece of evidence. Why am I saying this? We have gone off track with our evangelism. We have been so focused on training and knowledge and techniques. We have over-complicated it. In fact, people have become so hung up on what they do or do not know that they have been put off from doing it. But at its essence, evangelism is simply a witness telling other people what they have seen, heard and experienced. Expertise is not required. There are those who have it and their testimony is valuable. However, it cannot ever be more valuable than the testimony of a changed life. In fact, Revelation goes even further: Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Revelation 12:10‭-‬11 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rev.12.10-11.NIVUK It is the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of the saints - their witness statement, if you will - thay defeated the devil! Never underestimate what you say when you are a witness for Jesus. Your witness has power: devil-defeating power. This 'but' teaches us that God will not tell us when His plan will work out. But instead of knowledge we have power from the Holy Spirit and the purpose of being His witnesses to the end of the earth. The upshot of this is that it's time to stop obsessing about the former and to concentrate on doing what we should be doing. That is God's will for us. So we have seen four 'buts'. The fifth and final 'but' is that HE HAS GONE, BUT HE WILL RETURN.