Waiting for the Holy Spirit | Dylan Drumm | 6.28.26

Acts 1 places the apostles in a waiting room between resurrection and Pentecost. Luke shows that Jesus’ earthly ministry did not stop with the cross, the empty tomb, or even the ascension. Acts becomes Jesus’ heavenly ministry, accomplishing his purposes through his people by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The language of wind matters. The Hebrew word for wind is also the word for spirit, and the spiritual weather of the world is not dead air. The wind of God is blowing in fresh ways, and the desire is not for the Holy Spirit to arrive as though he were absent. The desire is for the Spirit to become overwhelmingly, supernaturally, unmistakably evident.

Jesus appears for forty days because the apostles must be absolutely convinced that he is alive. The resurrection becomes the thrust behind their witness in Acts. Repentance begins right there, because the question is not only whether believers believe Jesus rose from the dead, but whether life actually looks like Jesus reigns. An uncut, unedited video feed of the last seven days should be able to say, “Jesus Christ is alive,” not because a Christian is perfect, but because something real has changed.

Acts 1 also forces reprioritizing. The apostles ask about the kingdom of Israel, but Jesus answers with the kingdom of God. The kingdom is not spread by soldiers, force, political intrigue, or revolutionary violence. The kingdom is the rule and reign of Jesus in human hearts, carried forward by witnesses through the power of the Spirit. The church is not called to be kindergarten soccer players picking flowers while a field stands ripe for harvest. The church is called to move like Navy Seals, with one mission and one objective.

Jesus tells the apostles to wait because the Spirit is that good. The same Spirit who empowered the apostles is available today, and the Christian life should be marked by power that cannot be explained by personality, talent, or effort. Churches can abuse the Spirit, but churches can also quench the Spirit, and both ditches are sinful. The prayer becomes simple: everything biblical in relation to the Holy Spirit, nothing more, and certainly nothing less.

Acts 1 ends with prayer as the agenda. The apostles devote themselves to prayer with one accord for ten days. Prayer is not filler, transition, or religious habit. Prayer is the place where desperate people seek the face of God and raise their sails for the wind from heaven.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Repent where life still looks dead Repentance is not just saying sorry after a bad moment. Repentance names the places where a life still looks untouched by resurrection power and asks the Spirit to invade that exact room of the soul. Grace does not create shame, but it does create honesty about whatever would confuse an unbelieving world about whether Jesus actually reigns. [17:10]
• 2. Jesus builds kingdoms through witnesses The kingdom of God is not advanced by force, image management, or religious noise. Jesus places his rule in human hearts and spreads that rule through Spirit-empowered witnesses. A life spent building a private kingdom while hoping someday to help build Christ’s kingdom is still just picking flowers in a harvest field. [21:01]
• 3. Desire everything biblical from the Spirit The Holy Spirit is not absent from believers, but he can be ignored, quenched, and grieved. Fear of spiritual abuse must not become an excuse for spiritual emptiness. The mature prayer is not for spectacle, but for everything Scripture actually promises from the Spirit, with nothing added and nothing withheld. [32:17]
• 4. Prayer must become the agenda Acts 1 shows prayer not as a warmup, but as the whole agenda. The apostles had ten days between ascension and Pentecost, and they filled those days by seeking God together. Greatness in the kingdom belongs not to people who merely explain prayer, but to people who actually take time from something else because prayer is more pressing.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:37] - Weather and Spiritual Weather
• [03:37] - The Wind of God Is Blowing
• [05:23] - Waiting for the Spirit Rightly
• [08:12] - Numbness or Desperation
• [10:03] - Acts as Jesus’ Ongoing Work
• [11:50] - Repent as the Spirit Blows
• [18:20] - Reprioritize Around the Kingdom
• [22:51] - Navy Seals or Flower Pickers
• [28:27] - Enjoy the Spirit’s Power
• [31:41] - Abuse and Quenching the Spirit
• [33:37] - Prayer With One Accord
• [41:00] - Responding in Prayer

Bible Reading

Acts 1:1-14
“In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ So 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 has 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 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.’ Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” [11:56] [18:23] [28:30] [33:37]

Acts 1:8
“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.” [19:48] [29:35]

Acts 1:14
“All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” [34:08]

Observation questions

1. In Acts 1, what are the main things Jesus does during the forty days before his ascension, and what does he tell the apostles to do next? [12:25]
2. In verses 6-8, what do the apostles ask Jesus about the kingdom, and how does Jesus redirect their attention? [19:48]
3. According to Acts 1:8, what two things are tied together in Jesus’ words to the apostles? [29:35]
4. In Acts 1:14, how is the group described as they wait, and what are they doing together? [34:08]

Interpretation questions

1. Jesus gives “many proofs” and spends forty days with the apostles after the resurrection. Why might they have needed that kind of certainty before becoming his witnesses? [13:35]
2. The apostles are looking for the kingdom of Israel, but Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God. What does that difference reveal about the kind of kingdom Jesus is building? [21:01]
3. Jesus says the apostles will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. What kind of power seems to be in view here, and how is it different from natural ability, personality, or human strength? [30:32]
4. Acts 1 ends with believers praying with one accord for days. What does that suggest about prayer’s place in the life and mission of the church? [35:06]

Application questions

1. If an uncut, unedited video of the last seven days were placed in front of an unbelieving friend, what parts of life would clearly say, “Jesus is alive,” and what parts might still cause confusion? Where does repentance need to become specific right now? [15:22]
2. Jesus’ kingdom is meant to become the ruling priority of life. What is most likely to pull a person away from that priority right now—career, comfort, family goals, image, distractions, or something else? How has that shown up recently? [25:30]
3. A person can spend a lot of energy building a private kingdom while telling himself that one day he will get serious about Christ’s kingdom. Does that temptation feel familiar? What would it look like to stop “picking flowers” and take one concrete step toward kingdom-minded living this week? [26:29]
4. The Holy Spirit is not absent, but he can be ignored, quenched, and grieved. Where might life be running mostly on habit, effort, or control instead of dependence on the Spirit? [32:17]
5. The prayer for the Spirit is simple: everything biblical, nothing more, and certainly nothing less. Is there any fear, confusion, or past experience that has made a person hesitant to ask for the Spirit’s full work? [32:34]
6. Acts 1 shows prayer as the agenda, not as filler. What would have to be rearranged this week for prayer to become more than a quick transition in the day? What may need to be taken from something else so that real time can be given to prayer? [38:19]
7. The apostles prayed with one accord. What would it look like for this group to seek God together more intentionally, not just talk about prayer but actually pray? What simple, realistic change could begin that? [35:41]