Jan. 29 Acts 1

Kilobytes!

I am always amazed at the amount of information that is available at the click of the GO button on the internet. Maybe you use the enter key. Either way, as soon as you go to the desired topic hundreds of thousands; even millions of entries, bits of info, words are made available. That is amazing to me. Personally I have never ventured past entry number 867 so I don’t know what the last entry would consist of and hope I never have the kind of time on my hands that would allow me to find out, but it is there. However, what is really more amazing to me than the amount of information that is accessible at a keystroke is the speed at which that information can be sorted, presented and accessed. Have you ever taken time to notice the little number listed after the really big number which lets you know how much info is available. If not then please do so as soon as you can or at least during your next session on the internet. After the computer tells you how many entries are listed it almost boastfully announces that it only took 2.349 seconds to find it sort it and present it on your screen. It’s almost like the computers have this on going competition deep in the Ethernet world and they are competing to see which one can present the most info in the least amount of time. Why else would we need to know that it only took 2.349 seconds to access 1,493,066 entries for the word “Know?” Is someone keeping track of this statistic? Or is it just that we want to know and we want to know now what we want to know and we want to know how fast we know. I don’t know. And is it a coincidence that that when you add the letter “k” to the word “now” it forms the word “know” and that bits of information are measured in kilobytes which is abbreviated with a “K” It could be an information conspiracy. Then there is the microwave. Have you ever found yourself talking to the microwave about how long it seems to taking to heat up that croissant in the morning? “Can somebody please engineer a microwave that will heat a croissant in 10 seconds instead of the 15 seconds it presently takes?” Do you remember the first time you used or saw a microwave in use? I do. It was back before popcorn already came in the little microwavable bags. A high school girl friend of mine from an upper class family had one in her home. At the time a microwave was considered a luxury. One day when I was spending time with her I watched with amazement and amusement as she put popcorn kernels in a paper bag, placed the bag in this very odd looking metallic container, turned it on and in minutes we were sharing popcorn at her kitchen table. I remember thinking that our relationship had taken on new meaning. She liked fast. And I liked popcorn. What was then a novelty has now become a necessity; an expectation of ultimate priority. We not only expect fast, we want immediate. Like the computers keeping track of bits of information processed at the speed of light in an Ethernet competition we are subconsciously plagued by a competitive notion that if we don’t get what we want ASAP then we are loosing out somehow.

Don’t feel badly. Human nature has not changed that much down through the centuries. Even though the early followers of Jesus didn’t have to deal with kilobytes and microwaves they were still interested in immediacy to some degree. In today’s reading in Acts 1 they used the “n” word. After Jesus had been raised from the dead and during the 40 days he spent with them convincing them of his resurrected reality they had one thing on their minds. Look at what they asked him after all the dialogue.
“So when they met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time (NOW) going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
They wanted to know and they wanted to know now. Before we talk about the answer Jesus gave them to the question, I want to ask this question. What would you have asked Jesus during those 40 days of dialogue? If you could have asked him anything, what would it have been? The question recorded here by Luke under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit reveals the underlying problem with human nature from the beginning. Ambition. That is why out of all the possible dialogue that took place this one interchange is recorded. It is critical to our relationship with Jesus. Without a lot of explanation here I want you to recall what got us into this mess. Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan with this same issue in the beginning. Satan turned their attention from the tree of Life (obedience) to the tree of Knowledge (ambition). He said to them, “You can know and you can know now what God is trying to hide from you. You can be like God himself; all knowing.”

Jesus’ answer recorded here is short but foundational to the rest of New Testament and Christian history. He said in essence, “You don’t need to know what God has set under his own authority; you need to wait for the Holy Spirit to come and teach you how to live in obedience to Him.” He said when the Holy Spirit would come He would teach them how to do something that is counter intuitive to human nature. He would teach them how to lose; to let go of their need to know; to obey from the heart the will of God; to live for a different kingdom or cause than the Kingdom of Now. He said when the Holy Spirit comes they would; not only do something different, but become something different; something new. They would become witnesses. Because the disciples heard and understood what Jesus was saying they waited for the Holy Spirit and did become the world changing group of people God envisioned. But they heard Jesus in the original language which made it possible for them to understand the implication of the word “witnesses”. In the original language the word witness is Martyr. This word really slowed them down. None of them were in a hurry to loose their life, but they were willing.

I love a quote from the book, Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper. “The world is not impressed when Christians become rich and give God thanks. The people of this world are impressed when God is so satisfying that we give away our riches for Christ’s sake and count it gain.”

Just a thought.

What do you think?

Gotta go. My popcorn is done.