---

I. THE PREPARATION FOR POWER (vers. 1-3).

1. The training which they had received. They were with Jesus when He "began both to do and to teach."

2. The facts that made their faith in Him unwavering, courageous, conquering — "He also showed Himself alive after His passion by many proofs," etc. Faith in a risen Christ gave to their preaching a tremendous power.

3. Special instruction "speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God." Samples of this speaking may be found in Luke 24:25-28, 45-49.

II. THE BAPTISM OF POWER (vers. 4,5).

1. This was the baptism that long had been promised. It was "the promise of the Father" (Isaiah 44:5; Joel 2:28, etc.)

2. This was that which had been promised by Christ, when He said it was "expedient that He should go away" (John 14:16, 26; John 15:26; John 16:7-15).

3. This was to be unlike the baptism of John. Water was the symbol — this the reality.

4. For this baptism the apostles were to wait. The ship can afford to wait for its sails, the army for its general, the traveller for his compass. Why at Jerusalem? (Isaiah 2:1-4; Micah 4:1-3).

III. THE SOURCE OF POWER (vers. 6-8).

1. The false idea. "Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" The old thought of a temporal kingdom still uppermost!

2. The true idea. "But ye shall receive power," not temporal such as they had coveted, but spiritual and supernatural. That power is worth coveting and waiting for.

IV. THE RESULT OF POWER (ver. 8). "Ye shall be My witnesses." There is no successful witnessing for Christ without this power. Christ's disciples are all-powerful with it.

V. ASCENDING TO POWER (vers. 9-11).

1. The ascension. The reception of power by the disciples depended upon His ascension (Luke 24:49; see also Acts 2:33; John 16:7).

2. The return. "Shall so come," etc. No need, however, to stand idly gazing into heaven. Before He went, Christ gave "to each one his work" (Mark 13:34). Three watchwords He has given — watch, pray, work. The harvest is hastened by cultivation — not by counting the days from the time the seed was sown.

VI. PRAYING FOR POWER (vers. 12-14). The disciples had the promise of power, "not many days hence," but they did not wait in idleness for it to be fulfilled. The promise is ours to-day as much as then it was the disciples'. Praying, as they did, a Pentecost may come to us as certainly and as bounteously as it came to them.

(S. S. Times.)

---

---

KJV: But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

WEB: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth."