Propelled

In 1827, Czech-Austrian inventor Josef Ressel invented a device that, in conjunction with a steam-powered engine, would help move ships through the water at a faster pace. Now almost 200 years later, the propeller is stilled used for ships, motorboats, airplanes, and even drones today.

Propellants are often necessary to move objects. Whether it is fuel for a jet engine or a parent’s warning to their child about possible punishment, we need some force to get things moving in the right direction.

Today we will see what propelled the viral message of God’s redemptive story. We start with that final moment that the disciples had together with the Incarnation of God.

While He was together with them, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “This,” He said, “is what you heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 

So when they had come together, they asked Him, “Lord, are You restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?” 

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8, HCSB)

Jesus asks them to wait for God’s promise. What was this promise? That they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Remember that baptism was common understanding from their religious backgrounds. They could relate to that word. Jesus reminds them that John baptized with water, but that a new baptism was coming: one directly from God in the form of the spirit of God that would dwell with them, on them, and in them.

What was this baptism of the Holy Spirit to do? Jesus said it would give them power to be His witnesses. When we read stories of the miracles of the Apostles we can know that the power behind these came from the Holy Spirit, not from the Apostles. It was the same power that Jesus used to do miraculous things. It was the same power that allowed the prophets to do miraculous things. It was the power of God Almighty.

After He had said this, He was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. While He was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen Him going into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11, HCSB)

After Jesus gave them the plans for what they were to do—stay in Jerusalem, wait for the Holy Spirit, then go throughout the world and tell others about Me—the next thing Luke describes was what we call the ascension of Jesus. The Gospel accounts about this ascension show that Jesus rose into the air and a cloud carried Him out of their sight. This wasn’t the first time that someone had simply been caught up into the sky as they were taken up to God. Remember Elijah? He was caught up into the sky by a whirlwind of fire.

Angels appeared as the Apostles stood there gazing into the sky, probably with their mouths wide open astonished at what they saw. They told them that Jesus would return someday in the same way that He left. The Apostles may have wondered when this would happen, but Jesus had just told them before He ascended that it was not for them “to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority.”

Jesus wasn’t the first to ascend into heaven and He won’t be the last. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul describes what will happen on the day that Jesus returns.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by a revelation from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive 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. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, HCSB)

In summary, Jesus promised that they would receive the Holy Spirit of God so that they could do miraculous things for the purpose of spreading the message of the transforming power of Jesus Christ throughout the world. After this, Jesus left and the angels promised that He would return again one day. The Apostles then returned to Jerusalem to wait for that propellant: the Holy Spirit.

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem—a Sabbath day’s journey away [about one mile]. When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: 

Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 

All these were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brothers. (Acts 1:12-14, HCSB)

If the Holy Spirit is the propellant that helped to move the Gospel of Jesus throughout the world, then pray is the vehicle that was used to receive that power.

Every single time that we see a great work of God, whether in the Bible or throughout history, it was preceded by prayer. The beginning of the church as recorded in Acts started with prayer. The missionary movement by the Apostles started with prayer. The Reformation of the church with Martin Luther started with prayer. The First Great Awakening in Europe in the 18th Century that spread to British colonies through the modern missionary movement led by William Carey started with prayer. The Second Great Awakening in America in the 19th Century started with prayer. The Evangelistic endeavors of Billy Graham and Luis Palau started with prayer.

Prayer allows us to prepare ourselves to receive the propellant that is needed to move us forward in the name of Jesus. It is through our time with God that we receive the Holy Spirit’s power. It is through our communion with God that we are shaped to serve. It is through our meeting time with God that we are given our orders for where and when we are to go.

If we don’t see God working in our life or in the life of the church, it is because we have not spent enough time in prayer. Many people jump to the Great Commission by Jesus that we are to go, tell, and baptize, but they miss the first command that Jesus gave to the Apostles that they were to wait on the Holy Spirit.

We must be a people that pray. We must pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to propel us forward each and every day. When we are propelled, the message of Jesus will go forward in a viral manner once again.