25 Facts from Acts 1:8

Could you come up with 25 facts from Acts 1:8?  Here’s the list:

1. Acts 1:8 explains what the listeners will receive—power.
2. Acts 1:8 shows when they will receive power—when the Holy Spirit comes on them.
3. Acts 1:8 shows that the power has something to do with being witnesses.
4. Acts 1:8 tells the listeners where to witness.
5. Acts 1:8 shows that the witness should start near and reach out.
6. Acts 1:8 shows whose witness they will be—“My witness.”
7. Acts 1:8 will happen sometime in the listener’s future—“will receive” is in the future.
8. Acts 1:8 shows that the witness could involve Gentiles, because it extends to the remotest part of the earth.
9. Acts 1:8 begins with the conjuction “but,” which shows that Jesus is connecting this thought with His previous, but that they are not necessarily speaking of the same thing.
10. Acts 1:8 explains that they will be witnesses sometime in the future.
11. Acts 1:8 shows who will give the power—the Holy Spirit.
12. Acts 1:8 explains that the Holy Spirit plays a part in being a witness.
13. Acts 1:8 shows that power plays a part in being a witness.
14. Acts 1:8 show that Judea and Samaria were somehow connected in the Jesus’ mind because of the grammatical construction and the use of the conjunction “and.”
15. Acts 1:8 shows how they will receive the power—the Holy Spirit will come upon them, not from within them.
16. In Acts 1:8, Jesus emphasizes the power they will receive, because it is spoken of first. He did not say, “You shall receive the Holy Spirit and will then be empowered.”
17. Jesus seems to expect his hearers in v. 8 to travel to all the places He lists, even to the remotest part of the earth.
18. The hearers will travel throughout all of Judea and Samaria.
19. The hearers will not necessarily travel throughout all of the world.
20. The word “come upon” implies that the disciples would receive power after the Spirit was come upon them.
21. The word “power” is not simply “authority,” but the power of demonstration.
22. “The remotest part of the earth,” might also be translated to the end of the earth.
23. The construction of the “both…and”shows two locations: Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria.
24. The pronoun “you” is plural, meaning that Jesus was speaking to everyone in the group.
25. Acts 1:8 shows power, the Holy Spirit, and witnessing are all connected.

So why is this important?  In Acts 1:8, Jesus’ answers the disciples’ last question by telling them his plan for how the Church will fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28) and how He will restore the kingdom.  If we are to do our part in obeying Jesus’ command to be witnesses and to make disciples, we need to understand what He has told us to do and how He intends for us to do it.  We need the same power from the Holy Spirit that the disciples needed.