Acts 1.1-11; Psalm 46; Ephesians 1.17-23; Matthew 28.16-20
“You will receive power” and “You will be my witnesses.” In a sense these two assertions summarise the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, and, dare we say it, the subsequent history of the Church.
God knows we need power. Our impotence is manifest constantly and to everyone. God’s power may well have been at work in Christ, but a dispassionate analysis reveals how it is dissipated, frittered away, in our own lives.
Yet the promise remains, and remains true. “You are not lacking in any gifts”
[I Corinthians 1.7] St Paul declared to the fractious and confused Corinthian church. The Christ who filled those who met him with stupefied wonder [Mark 4.41; 7.37] is present with us, alongside us, yes, but present within us. His Spirit has been bequeathed to us. And through that Spirit we witness to his triumph over Satan and sin and death in works surpassing even his on earth. [John 14.12]