Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority.And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within his own authority.
11 sermons cite this verse
… With invitation. Revelation, think about Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 8. Jesus has resurrected. He's hanging out with his disciples, and then his disciples, they go up to the Mount of Olives, which is where he took off and where he's coming back, by the way. And they go up to the Mount of Olives, and Jesus gives them this commission, and they say, hey, right now, is this when you're going to build the kingdom? No, that's Revelation chapter 20, but that's not for you to know the times or the seasons. What you need to do is be my witnesses. Just tell everyone that you know about me in Jerusalem and also in Judea and then up north in Samaria and then, oh, by the way, to the ends of the whole world. Like the whole earth should hear about the salvation that I provide. So how should you and I live our lives? With invitation. Let the gospel ever be on our lips. Praise first towards God, and then the gospel towards others. Third, live with absolution. What does that mean? It means to live with forgiveness in your heart towards those who have wronged you. The beauty of the fact that Jesus is just and going to deal with sin means that we don't have to. Vengeance is mine. …
… No. Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. I want to preach a message today. Write down the title. It's called I Got the Power. And we are concluding today. We've been talking for the last four Sundays about freedom. We've been in this theme, this thought that there's a lot of people that know God but are not free. And we've been studying this. If you missed out, I want you to go back and listen to these messages because it is the heart and the will of God for you to be free. Somebody say amen. And so this is the climactic conclusion. And at the end of this service today, anybody that would like to receive prayer, our prayer team is going to come up front. …
… going to be great. When is that? And Jesus responds in this way, Acts 1-7, and he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the father has put in his own notice authority. We know this from the words of Jesus that the times and seasons are under the authority of almighty God. That is that he has the power of choice. The idea of authority is jurisdiction. It's his power of rule and governing the liberty to do what he pleases. The Bible's clear that God does what he wants when he wants to. That his counsel, the Bible says, will stand. And nothing and no one will ultimately thwart his purposes. And so with all that said, we come to a poem here on the events that take place within time and seasons that are under God's authority. I want you to notice that though it's a long list, it's not an exhaustive one. It is supposed to be more of a poem than a list of every single thing that happens. However, it does really point to the totality of life. The reason and the type of poetical nature that this is written in points to us that he is talking about life from beginning to end every time, every season. Now a couple things for those of you that might be some Bible nerds out there. There are seven verses here. Seven verses. Starting in verse two all the way to verse eight. Seven verse poem. We looked at the introduction and in these seven verses there are …
… here it is. The church had a job to do. And so do we. The church had a job to do. And so do we. Let's go to Acts chapter 1 verse 7. And we see Jesus saying, the Father alone is the authority to set the times and the dates. And they're not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you'll be witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. They had a job to do and so do we. We're still called to tell people about Jesus everywhere. It starts with a question. In Acts chapter one verse six, the apostles came and said, Lord, has the time come for you to now free Israel and restore your kingdom? Now here's the problem. They couldn't get over this notion they had as to why Jesus came. They thought he was coming to establish his kingdom then and there. …
He said to them, It is not for you to know times or the season that the Father has fixed by his own authority. It's as though they are saying, Okay, we finally get it. We marched in on Palm Sunday with the crowds expecting you to finally be the king. And we didn't get it. You spoke to us the night before they crucified you. And we didn't get it. But now you've risen from the dead. You have defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil. You have proved without a shadow of a doubt that you are the promised king, the son of David, the Messiah. Now, now it must be time for you to start reigning, right? Now it must be time to kick out all the evil of this world and bring in justice, mercy, and your righteousness, right? And in response, it's a little like Jesus is saying, yeah, you still don't get it. And then he leaves. And the disciples, they do as they're told. …
… verse 6, when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father is fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. And then while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. So he went from one place, earth, to another place, heaven, and the announcement is given that as you saw him visibly ascend there, you will see him at the end come down from there, which means he's there and not here. …
… And remember, Jesus said, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons. Same language, that the Father has put in his own authority. But you'll be given power and you will preach the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Don't worry about the when. Worry about in the meantime, what? Do this in the meantime. But he used that phrase. Jesus used that phrase. The times and the seasons. we have an indication that the end is near, but the precise moment that triggers all the events that lead up to the kingdom age, we don't know. Now we are looking for it, we are anticipating it, but Paul is making the point that the world will be taken completely off guard. It's going to come upon them like pains come upon a woman in labor. Suddenly and unexpectedly, it'll be a surprise to the people. It seems as I read through 1 Thessalonians, and I've read through it several times, one after another, just to get the flow of it, Paul seems to indicate that he had taught them already things about the end of days, especially the coming judgment and then the Lord after the judgment setting up his kingdom. But he had not explained the rapture to them in detail, hence they were worried about their loved ones who had died. So he writes the letter and explains that gathering together, the rapture. But he says, concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, …
… He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the dates the father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even the Ratchel Cucamonga. Thank you. what did Jesus say? He's right before he goes to the Father. He said, you're gonna receive power. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. When the power of the Holy Spirit comes over your life, you're gonna wanna be a witness everywhere you go. It's not about Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, or the other, it's about everywhere you go. I wanna tell others, there's a God in heaven that loves you. There's a God in heaven that's obsessed with you. There's somebody that made you and it's got a plan for your life. The good news of Jesus is not just for me. Come on, clap, everybody. the good news of Jesus is for you as well. I like that word power. I like that word power because the Bible says in Romans chapter one, verse 16, for it is the power of God unto salvation. …
The first thing is kind of mysterious and a little sassy. He says, I'm not going to tell. It's not for you to know the times or seasons. The second thing he says is so intimidating. Because he says, it's not for you to know the times or seasons, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And then you will be my witnesses here in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. So think about this. In response to them asking the question, Jesus, when are you going to bring your hope to the world? He's like, I'm not, you are. Jesus, when are you going to bring grace to the world? You've won this whole thing for us. When are you going to bring it to the whole world? He says, I'm not, you are. You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and then you will be my witnesses here in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. …
… do what you were going to do before, but you didn't do, but now you're back. And so maybe you could do it now. Acts 1-7, Jesus said to them, it is not for you to know. it is not for you to know times or seasons which the lord has put in his own authority but because that was kind of harsh you know it's like well that's not for you to know but you shall receive power that's good news when the holy spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. You're not gonna know the time. You're not gonna know the day. You're not gonna know the times and seasons that you don't need to know because that's just for God to know his authority. But here's what you can know. You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses and you will be faithful with what I give you because that's what I've called you to do. …
… She redirects the question. Verse 7, he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. Verse 8, but this is what you should be thinking about, disciples. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my, everybody say this word together. you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The last identity that Jesus emphasized before he ascended back up to heaven was witness. Many people feel like this is the one identity of the discipleship identities I gave to you. This is the one identity they feel like doesn't apply to them. Like I said, they're like, JD, I'm not an extrovert. I'm not like you. I don't like to talk to people. Recently, somebody was telling me about a person in their life. And based just on the stories they were telling me, it was obvious that God had put that person in their life for them to share Christ with. …