"It Is Not For You To Know" Sermon: Acts 1:6-11

“It Is Not For You To Know”
[Acts 1:6-11]
May 24, 2009 Second Reformed Church

Forty days after the Resurrection, Jesus ascended back to the Father. Today is Ascension Sunday.

Jesus gathered the disciples, and when they had all gathered around Him, they asked Jesus if now was the time when He would restore the kingdom to Israel. Was this the moment when Jesus would overthrow the Roman government and restore an independent Israeli state?

We can become impatient with the disciples, because we now have information that they did not have. We know that that was not the time that Jesus would restore Israel – and we might even disagree with them about what it means for Jesus to restore Israel. Because the Scripture does tells us that there will be a restoration of the Creation – we’ve looked at that before – there will come a day when Jesus restores the earth – and it will be perfected and sinless, and we will be raised to inhabit it in our perfected and glorious bodies. But that will come when Jesus returns; it was not to happen on the day of the Ascension.

However, the disciples were not completely out of line in wondering if then was to be the time. After all, Jesus had spent the prior forty days teaching them about the Kingdom of God. He promised that they would be indwelt with power, by the Holy Spirit. And He told them to wait in Jerusalem – the capital of the country. Still, that was not the day of the restoration.

Jesus told them that it was not for them to know “times or seasons” – with rare exception, God has not seen fit to give us particular information about the future and when things will happen. The times and seasons have been set or fixed or predestined by the Father – God has a plan and everything that will happen is planned out by God and will happen exactly as God has planned it without fail. We don’t understand how everything is going to work out. We don’t always understand why certain things happen. But we have been told that everything that happens is according to the Plan of God. Ours is to trust in the God Who so loved us that He gave His Only Son for our salvation. And notice that Jesus calls Him, “the Father,” not “My Father.” Jesus is telling the disciples that all those who are His – all those who believe in Jesus Alone for their salvation have God as their Father. We are the children of God, and He is bringing us through the history that He has planned and is in total control of.

Daniel confessed: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him” (Daniel 2:20b-22, ESV).

And King Nebuchadnezzar confessed: “I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all of the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:34b-35, ESV).

It is one thing to understand that God the Father has fixed what will occur by His Power, but it is a blessed assurance to know that this God is our Father – we are His children – and He loves us. The Almighty God Who has planned out exactly will happen from the moment He spoke all things into existence to the day when He restores the Creation and forevermore – He is the Father Who loves us and saves us from our sin. That is wonderful news indeed. It is news that gives us assurance that no matter what happens – everything will work out in the end – and for our good. Remember the promise: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV).

We don’t need to know the details of God’s Plan, because we know that He loves us and is bringing all things together for our good, no matter how things may look to us at any given moment. So we ought not to worry about the future, but trust in our Father.

Jesus said, “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:24, ESV).

In a similar manner, Jesus told the disciples that God has revealed some things, and those are the things that they – and we – should focus on. Jesus told them that God would give them power through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit had come upon them, they would be called to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Moses wisely said, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of the law” (Deuteronomy 29:29, ESV).

In other words, we do not need to know the things that God has not revealed to us. That does not mean that we should abandon all science and research: God has given us dominion over the Creation and gives us the ability to try to understand. But, there comes a point where we can know no further, and we must accept that God did not see it fit for us to know more. God has revealed to humanity that He is One, and we understand from the Scripture that the One God exists in the Persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Persons are distinct, but they are the One God. How that is, we don’t know. What we know is that God has revealed the Truth of the Trinity – that God is a Triune God – but He has not given us any further understanding, so it is not necessary for us to know more than that.

Jesus told the disciples that God was going to give them the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit and power with Him. We know that that occurred and we know that now all believers receive the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. As Paul wrote, “our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (I Thessalonians 1:5a, ESV). If we are Christians – if we believe in Jesus Alone for our salvation – then God the Holy Spirit indwells us and has given us power – power to believe and understand the Word of God and power to be witness to the Gospel.

Jesus told the disciples that once God the Holy Spirit indwelt them, they would be given power, and once they had that power, they would also have the call on them to be witnesses to the Gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. They were to live out and proclaim the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness in Jerusalem – in the capital city. They were to live out and proclaim the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness in Judea – throughout the nation. They were to live out and proclaim the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness in Samaria – in the nation to the north, which was composed of half-breeds – those Israelites who had married pagans, and were thus unclean. They were to live out and proclaim the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness to the ends of the earth – everywhere – to the pagans and Gentiles – to every tribe and nation on the planet.

Every Christian has received that same call. We are to live out and proclaim the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness in our home towns – in Irvington, in Maplewood, in South Orange, in Union, in Livingston, in Edison – wherever we live. We are to live out and proclaim the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness in the State of New Jersey – and the whole United States. We are live out and proclaim the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness in Canada and Mexico. We are to live out and proclaim the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness to every person, everywhere on the planet.

Some of us may be deflated by that call – don’t be. As we have seen recently, God has given each of us gifts and abilities. Not all of us will go to the ends of the earth, but all of us have been given the power by God the Holy Spirit Who indwells us to live out and proclaim the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness. Each of us will do that differently in different places. But whenever there is a chance to tell someone Who Jesus is or to invite them to worship to hear about Jesus, we are to do it.

This week, I went to a political meeting which concerned taxes in Maplewood, and I got talking with one of the women there and invited her to worship with us sometime. She told me that she is a Roman Catholic and asked me what made us Reformed. I told her that we believe, with all Christians, that there is Only Salvation in Jesus Alone, and generally, our distinctive is our focus on the Sovereignty of God.

Telling others – inviting others – is not just the call of the pastor – every Christian is to use what God has given him or her to draw people to Jesus. Each of us has been gifted and empowered by God to be a witness to the Gospel. That is really the theme of the book of Acts: all Christians have been empowered to be witnesses to the Gospel, that the whole world would hear of Jesus and His Salvation. God has saved us by Himself and God has made us able to live as Christians and tells others about His Salvation. We don’t need to be scholars to live and invite people to worship. If we believe that I am preaching the Scripture alone and accurately, we can ask others to come to worship sometime, because what our pastor preaches is important to hear.

After Jesus explained that the Father has predestined everything that will occur and that there are things that they didn’t need to know, and after He told them that they would receive power through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit and were then called to proclaim the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness throughout the world, Jesus ascended back to the Throne of the Son, at the Right Hand of the Father, where He reigns, having completed the cycle of salvation.

Jesus, in full view of all of the disciples, rose up into the sky, in His Glorified Body, which they had touched and examined and eaten with. Just like Elijah and Enoch had been taken up into the air in their bodies, Jesus was taken up into the air in His Body. Since that is true, we have confidence that our bodies will be raised and perfected – made like Jesus’ Body – since Jesus finished His Work of Salvation by returning to His Throne, which He left in the Incarnation.

Jesus had known that this was the way that He would leave the earth: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1, ESV). And the disciples wouldn’t have been entirely shocked, since they knew that Elijah had been taken up in the whirlwind and Enoch had walked with God and was not. Still, they watched Jesus ascend upon a cloud and disappear from sight.

The disciples stood there – they were waiting for Jesus to come right back. They didn’t imagine that Jesus would be gone for thousands of years. They thought He would return quickly – in human terms – and restore the Creation. So, they stood, looking up into the sky.

Then two men appeared – and most commentators believe that they were angels – and they asked, “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.” “Men of Galilee, what are you doing? Why are you staring into heaven? You know that Jesus will return the same way He left – He told you that. Don’t you have anything to do in the meantime?”

The men reminded the disciples that Jesus had given them work to do. They didn’t need to know when Jesus would return. They certainly shouldn’t stand there waiting for Him. Jesus had told them what they should do, so they should go do it.

I use to work in a Christian bookstore, and I can tell you there are many books on how to discern God’s Will. I can also tell you that most of them are somewhere between useless and dangerous. God has told us everything we need to know for faith and life in this book – the Bible. There are plenty of things that God decided we don’t need to know, but there is much that He has told us. We ought to spend our time in the Scripture, not in other books which purport to tell us how to figure out what God wants. God has already told us – believe in Jesus Alone for salvation. Live according to God’s Law. Proclaim the Gospel to the whole world. That is enough to keep us busy, brothers and sisters!

We don’t need to wait for a new revelation from God. We don’t need to look to Ouija boards and tarot cards, or the daily horoscope. God has told us enough and God has given us the power to do what He has called us to do. Let us learn what God has revealed and live that out – tell others about Him. And let’s not worry about those things that God has said, “It is not for us to know.” We have plenty to do – let us be about the work of the Lord and worship Him.

Jesus and the men told the disciples that Jesus would return the same way that He left the earth – on a cloud. Paul put it this way: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words” (I Thessalonians 4: 16-18, ESV).

Jesus ascended back to His Throne at the Right Hand of the Father where He now reigns. He told the disciples and us that God has revealed some things to us, but others are not for us to know. Therefore, we ought not worry about what God does not see fit to tell us, but, instead, let us know and live out what He has revealed. God the Holy Spirit has indwelt us and given us the power to follow Jesus, especially in His charge to us to let the whole world know about Him and His Salvation.

We live in hope and expectation that the day will come when Jesus returns on the clouds, as John put it: “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen” (Revelation 1:7, ESV).

Until that day, let us follow His Call on us to tell the world: there is Only Salvation in Jesus Alone.

Let us pray:
Almighty God and Savior, we thank You for revealing Yourself and Your Salvation to us. We thank You for saving us and making us Your children. We ask that we would accept the fact that we do not need to know everything, but instead, may we work to understand what You have revealed. And may we, by the power of God the Holy Spirit Who lives in us, be pleasing children, as we let the whole world know that Jesus Only is Salvation. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.