They therefore, being come together, asked him saying, Lord, is it at this time that thou restorest the kingdom to Israel?
Forty days after the resurrection, the disciples put one last question to the risen Christ. It was about the future of their nation, and He never gave them the answer they asked for.
These men were not confused newcomers. They had a settled hope, and a source for it.
They were Jews, with minds full of earthly hopes and prospects, founded upon the prophecies of the Old Testament. They firmly believed Jesus to be Israel's Messiah, and they counted on Him to remove all difficulties out of the way and set up His throne in Zion. This was more or less in their minds all through their companionship with Him, even beyond death into resurrection.
They had seen Him defeat death. Then came forty days of waiting.
They were happy men, of this we can have no doubt, and triumphant men, eager to tell the glad news of God's public vindication of His well-beloved Son. I have thought, and I pass it on, that they were also impatient men. This comes out in their question, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" There was not a doubt in their minds that He was the King, and no question about His taking the throne. He had conquered death and surely no other enemy could stand in His way. Yet, why did He not do it? Why the delay?
The Lord does not call their hope a mistake. He takes the date out of their hands and gives them something to do in the meantime.
What our risen Lord corrected was not the expectation of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, but the expectation of it "at this time." Instead He confirms the apostles in it, while letting them know that the times and seasons were not theirs to know: the Father put those in His own power… Another work was about to go forward — not Israel's supremacy yet, but a witness to the dead and risen Jesus in the power of the Spirit, in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth… Their error was not so much in the thing itself as in the time.
If the hope itself were empty, this was the moment to say so.
Suppose the disciples were still holding on to an empty dream. Suppose the kingdom was never to be restored to Israel, and Israel's portion was to be explained away as nothing but the Church's blessing. Then Jesus would surely have avoided an answer that encouraged their false hopes. Instead of hinting that these expectations were unfounded, He replies in a way clearly designed to confirm them.
The Lord withholds the far future and hands them the near one instead.
Their question He did not answer. "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority." This answer was in keeping with His words before the cross: "Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32). The distant future was not laid open to them. Of the near future, however, He did speak, and told them about the work to which they were called.
Notice how the Lord treats a question that misses the point.
This provides, as our foolish questions often do, the opening for divine instruction and guidance. We need not always hold back these enquiries from the Lord: it is good to let what is in the mind come out, especially if it comes out to Him. His servants must not lose patience either, even with the odd questions of those who understand least. What matters is not so much the question as the answer.
The disciples' hope was real, but it was too small.
Their hopes had not yet taken a heavenly character… Earthly blessing, with the Messiah among them and Israel head of the nations, was about all they looked for. The Holy Spirit had to be given to them before they could take in the truth of the heavenly calling… They were not wrong to look for the kingdom, for it will yet be set up, and when it comes it will be theirs.
There was more He could have told them, and He did not:
He did not yet tell them that a completely new order of things was coming in. He wisely led them one step at a time.
- Right hope. They looked for Messiah's throne set up in Zion, drawn straight from the prophets — and the Lord never calls that hope a delusion.
- Wrong clock. The words He corrects are "at this time"; He moves the date out of their hands and into the Father's.
- Loud silence. Had the kingdom never been meant for Israel, this was the moment to say so; instead His reply leaves the expectation standing.
- Better question. A poor question brought to the Lord becomes the doorway to His teaching — the value lies in the answer, not the asking.
- Bigger horizon. Their sights were set on one nation's throne; the Spirit would come and stretch them to witness to the ends of the earth.
And he said to them, It is not yours to know times or seasons, which the Father has placed in his own authority;
The disciples had just asked whether the Lord would now restore the kingdom to Israel. His answer moves the question into the Father's hands, and raises two of its own: what "times and seasons" means, and why God keeps it to Himself.
The Lord does not tell them they hoped for the wrong thing. He tells them they asked at the wrong moment.
The Lord corrects the hasty expectations of the disciples: the kingdom was not to appear at once. Their question was about restoring it to Israel at that time. Now the Lord does not at all contradict such a restoration in its season. The salvation of Israel and the restoration of the kingdom to the chosen people clearly belonged to the ways of God that prophecy speaks of. And He lets them know that the Father placed times and seasons in His own authority.
Read the answer as a denial and it becomes strange. A reply about when only makes sense if there is a when.
His reply was not that they were wrong to expect such an event ever to take place. He said, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority." Who would imagine, from such a reply, that their question was about something that would never take place, at any time or in any season?
The phrase is not a general term for the future. It covers God's public dealings with the earth. That is why the Lord withholds it here, while the Thessalonians already knew it well.
"Times and seasons" as relating to the earth are first mentioned in Genesis 1:14, and the same words appear again in Acts 1:7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:1. This expression clearly refers to God's dispensations and dealings on the earth. In Acts 1, the disciples were not to know the time of God's dealings. Yet the Thessalonians did know the manner of God's predicted dealings, and the order in which they would happen. They knew this perfectly, though they did not know about the coming of the Lord for His saints, shown in the previous chapter. But then, that coming has to do with a heavenly calling, while "times and seasons" relate to the earth.
The verse names the Father, not simply "God." Scripture keeps that distinction everywhere.
Scripture always credits the purposes, counsels and plans of the Godhead, including the fixing of times and seasons, to the Father. Note Acts 1:7: "times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority." It just as consistently credits the action, the carrying out of those purposes in creation, redemption, or judgment, to the Son.
If the Father holds the calendar, any effort to work out the date runs into this sentence.
Any effort to calculate and predict the date of the Lord's coming, from Daniel's prophecies or other Scriptures, will be futile, and worse than that. It tries to find out what the Lord plainly says is not for us to know.
Notice who the Lord refused: the men who would later write much of the New Testament.
The apostles gave us the Word of God by the Holy Spirit's inspiration. Yet the Lord said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority" (Acts 1). If the Father in His wisdom withheld this knowledge from them, where is there any sign in the Word that He would reveal it to us?
A poor question can open the door to real teaching. The Lord shows no impatience with it, and His answer puts earth's timing under one control.
Our foolish questions often do this: they open the way for divine instruction and guidance. We need not always hold back such questions from the Lord. It is good to let what is in the mind come out, above all to Him. His servants must not be impatient either, even at the curious questions of those who understand least. What matters is not so much the question as the answer... The measures and the right moments that had to do with earthly changes were under the sole control of Him to whom everything belonged.
Paul later tells the Thessalonians they already know about times and seasons, which looks like a clash with this verse.
There appears to be a contradiction between verse 7 and what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:1 and 2. But there the point is that they knew well what was going to happen in God's dealing with the earth. Here the point is that we may not know when, since the Father has reserved that for Himself alone. Our business is to give true and diligent witness to Christ.
- Postponed, not cancelled. The Lord corrects their timing, not their hope. His answer leaves the restoration of the kingdom to Israel in place.
- Reserved. "Times and seasons" means God's public dealings with the earth. Their timing rests with the Father alone.
- Withheld. The Lord kept this from the apostles who wrote Scripture. Nothing since suggests He tells anyone else, so date-setting chases what He shut off.
- Redirected. In place of the date He gives a commission: our business is faithful witness to Christ.
- Answered better than asked. A curious question drew out divine instruction. That is how the Lord teaches, and how His servants should bear with questioners.