Acts (1)

Be sure to view the video introducing our study of Acts by clicking here.

Read and meditate on Acts 1.12-14.
“OK, guys, let’s head back to Jerusalem and wait.” Is that what Peter said? Maybe. But this is no ordinary waiting – like at the DMV, for your number to be called, sitting around, everybody reading this or that or checking their watches or twiddling their thumbs, waiting for someone to do something. This waiting is a form of serving the Lord and His purposes, to be precise.

For reflection
1.  The verb actually means something like linger around. The apostles were lingering around together, all of one accord, thinking about the promise of the Father, the coming of the Spirit, and whatever might follow from that. And they’re doing this, with the other members of their small community, in prayer. Meditate on Psalm 27.13, 14. What can we learn about waiting from this psalm?

2.  The apostles and the others took up the exhortation of Psalm 27 to wait on the Lord and not to despair, but to keep on waiting until the goodness of the Lord appeared in the land of the living. In your experience, do we wait on the Lord like this in our churches? How about your own life?

3. We note that they waited like this for ten straight days (Christ taught them for 40 days, then ascended; Pentecost came 50 days after Passover). Try to put yourself into that upper room. How did they do this? What did this season of waiting look like? Is there anything prescriptive in this for us?

4.  We grossly underestimate the importance of prayer in the ongoing work of Christ. If Christ exalted in glory is the continuo of our Kingdom cantata, prayer is the composition in which we all join, taking our separate parts in a single thematic motif, following the notes provided, until the composition reaches its end. Do you see your prayers like this, as part of a Kingdom cantata, organized by the risen Christ and operating according to His themes and motifs? Explain.

5.  How important is prayer in your own walk with the Lord? How much does “waiting” like this feature in your faith? Can we expect to know the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom if we refuse to wait for it like the apostles did?

Summary
Waiting in prayer is an act of faith and obedience. The Lord commands us to wait. The saints of both the Old and New Testament practiced waiting on the Lord. If we want to know the full benefits of what the Father has promised for us in Jesus, we need to become better at waiting on Him. How might you improve your own practice of waiting on the Lord, beginning today?

Closing Prayer
Teach me Your way, O LORD,
And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.
Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Psalm 27.11-14

T. M. Moore

Each week’s studies in Acts are bound together into a free PDF that you can download for personal or group use (click here). Each week also features a video related to the studies of the week, which you may find helpful as you work through our studies Acts.

Acts is the record of Christ’s ongoing work as King and Lord. For more insight to His work in our here and now, order the book, The Kingship of Jesus, from our online store by clicking here.

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