I love the comment Jesus makes to His disciples in Acts 1:5. He is with the apostles just as He is about to ascend. When I read Acts 1 I imagine that this group of followers of Jesus are a bit antsy. Jesus reminds them that “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” But for now – He wants them to not depart from Jerusalem. It is the turmoil of Jerusalem, at least in part, that has them so antsy. Jesus wants them to remain there, turmoil and all.
But the part of verse 5 that I did not include in the quote above is at the very end. It is often translated into English with “in not many days.” Some translations will say something like “in a few days,” or “soon.” (New Living Translation, Good News Translation, New International Version as examples.) No doubt those different translations are saying what Luke means, but not saying it how Luke says it.
Not to be overly egg-headish, the figure of speech Luke is using is called litotes. Litotes is when a negative statement is used for a positive truth. But it does so with understatement, irony, and emphasis. For example, if you go to the beach this summer and a hurricane comes blowing in from the Gulf of Mexico, you might say, “It’s not the best weather today.” That is much more dramatic than to simply say “the wind is really blowing hard today.”
Luke has Jesus saying, “you will be baptized with the Spirit, in not many days.” Back in verse 3 of Acts 1, we are told that Jesus was on earth 40 days after his resurrection. Since Pentecost – when the Spirit came – is 50 days after Passover, then perhaps what Jesus is emphasizing is something like “Go and wait – ten days from now you will be stunned by what you see and experience.” But, if Jesus has in mind how long it has been since humans needed what was about to happen on Pentecost, then one would need to have a date for Genesis 3 – and young earth people and old earth people would have vastly different answers, but either answer, compared to “ten days,” would be rather dramatic. Or maybe Jesus is thinking about the promise God made to Abraham and Sarah – after all, Jesus is the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise. That would be something like 2000 years’ worth of days – as compared to “not many days,” or “ten days.”
The apostles will ask Him about “restoring the kingdom at this time” and Jesus quickly makes it clear they are asking above their pay grade. But He does tell them. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.” (1:6-8) To their credit, they obey Jesus and go back into town and wait. While waiting, they select a man named Mathias to replace Judas. And they wait. Perhaps still antsy about what could happen to them while hanging out in Jerusalem.
Out of nowhere, it seems, ten days later they were all together in one place. (Acts 2:1) I’m guessing they were worried about what could happen on such a big Jewish holiday as Pentecost. They certainly remember what happened at Passover fifty days earlier. Suddenly – maybe something like “out of nowhere” – they heard a “sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” (2:2) Something that appeared to be divided tongues of fire rested on each of them (2:3) and next thing you know Peter and his colleagues are out in the streets of Jerusalem. Everyone is hearing the Jesus story in their own tongues (dialect). (2:6) Antsy has given way to courage and obedience.
I frequently read this “tale of two apostolic groups” story, and it seems that the group of Acts 1 is still confused about Jesus – they ask Him their worst question ever (1:6-8). The group of Acts 2 has finally caught the point of the Jesus story. Rather than hiding in a room out of fear (Acts 1), they are on the street corners declaring that “this Jesus whom you crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ.” (2:36)
The only observable difference in what we see in Acts 1 and Acts 2 is the coming of the Holy Spirit. This “power” Jesus told them they would receive when the Spirit came has been made real. The church, the called-out ones, the body of Christ, the Way, etc. – has been born on earth and now, in Christ and through His body, the church, God has made a way for humans to come back in fellowship with God as sinners, cleansed by the blood of Christ and filled with the Spirit of God.
I’ve spent a lot of my life engaged with ministries that stand alongside the church. I’m finishing up fifty years of ministry at Point University this month. I have long since lost count of how many weeks I’ve spent in Christian camps, especially Woodland Christian Camp, or how long I served on the Woodland board. But none of those ministries can replace the church, the very thing that Pentecost Sunday will celebrate “in not many days.” (May 24, to be exact!)
It is in this community of believers gathered around Jesus that God has chosen to offer to a sinful world a message of redemption. Howard Snyder, in his book Community of the King, first published in 1976, said it this way:
The Church is the only divinely-appointed means for spreading the gospel. . . The Church is God’s agent in the earth – the medium through which He expresses Himself to the world. God has no other redeeming agency in the earth.
May we not only celebrate that reality on Pentecost Sunday, but actually live it out as though we truly believe it.
Wye Huxford 