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.
Christ spoke these words to answer His disciples when they asked if He was about to restore the kingdom to Israel, making clear He had not come to set up an earthly kingdom or reign as a temporal king on David's throne. The times and seasons for that restoration and for the future belong to the Father's own authority and power, and are not given for His followers to know or to pry into beyond what He has revealed. Instead of satisfying their curiosity about when, He turned them to their appointed work of waiting in Jerusalem for the promise of the Holy Spirit, who would give them power to understand and to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth. For this reason no one is to fix the hour, day, or year of Christ's coming, for God has never entrusted that message to any man and no prophetic period reaches to the second advent. Believers are to walk by faith without that hidden knowledge, doing their daily duties and proclaiming the gospel while they watch in constant expectancy.
Setting and Occasion
The saying was given as Christ's direct answer to the disciples when they asked Him whether He would at that time, or was about to, restore the kingdom to Israel. Their question concerned when the Father would bring about that restoration, and His reply placed the times and seasons of it under the Father's authority as something not for them to know.
It was spoken before His ascension as part of His commission and instruction to the disciples. It belongs with His promise that they would receive the Holy Spirit and then be His witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, and with the message of the angels to the waiting disciples. In that setting they were to wait in Jerusalem for the promised power from on high rather than hurry away, trusting God and relying on His word while awaiting the Spirit.
In answering He made clear that His purpose was not to establish a temporal kingdom or to reign as an earthly monarch on David's throne. The answer left the timing uncertain to them and turned them away from their revived hope of His taking the throne in Jerusalem. The event surrounding this instruction provides a key to understanding the history that follows and the future.
What Times and Seasons Mean
The times and the seasons are what the Father has put in His own power and reserved within His own authority, and it is not for the disciples to know them, including when He would restore the kingdom to Israel. The disciples were not to know more about the future than God had revealed nor to seek knowledge beyond what Christ had revealed. Jesus did not disclose the time or give a timetable but left the timing uncertain to them, and their curiosity about when Israel's kingdom would be restored is rebuked.
Speculation about the future would benefit neither them nor those they served, since their task was to proclaim the gospel. Some things people greatly desire to know are not given to them to know, and being too inquisitive about hidden times and seasons weakens reliance on living faith and on the promises of Scripture. Believers must therefore walk by faith and take God at His word, with the privilege of trusting Him without knowing what He has kept in His own power.
What believers are to know instead is that they are branches of the true vine, molded and fashioned after Christ's likeness to meet Him in peace. When they promise fruit they are pruned so they bring forth more fruit, and by trials they are taught to live in connection with God rather than counting trials as abuse. They are taught to resist the devil and cling to Christ, to put away old hereditary tendencies and passionate disposition, and to learn meekness and lowliness because heaven is to be won and hell shunned. They are to seek victories with the Holy Spirit to fight the battles of the Lord victoriously, and to bind up with Christ and share His sufferings borne in winning souls to Himself and to His Father.
Mission Given Instead
Instead of revealing when the kingdom would be restored, the answer turned the disciples away from the timetable to waiting for the Holy Spirit, whose coming would give them power to bear witness to Christ. The times and seasons for that restoration were set within the Father's own authority and were not theirs to know, so their responsibility was to receive that power and witness throughout the world. The time was left undisclosed, and the Spirit's coming would illuminate their minds to understand the work lying before them.
They were given special direction not to stop over the question but to receive power after the Holy Ghost would come upon them. As witnesses they were to begin in Jerusalem, then go into all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth. Their work was to proclaim the gospel and take up the work before them, which the Holy Spirit would help them understand and carry forward.
Neglecting to do as instructed here brings great loss, while doing it with the assurance that Jesus will be with them always fills believers with holy boldness for the work. They were to wait in Jerusalem for the promised power from on high rather than hurry away, trusting God and relying on His Word while awaiting the Holy Spirit. That stay in Jerusalem belonged to a temporary period of waiting for a specific work, not a command to settle there permanently, for God intended them to carry the gospel to other parts of the world.
Their work was not to begin through preaching alone, for without the Spirit's influence preaching cannot bring the success promised. Men called to preach must tarry until imbued with wisdom from on high, receiving their qualifications and endowment from God rather than looking to any living man to furnish their discourses. Trusting the promise of power, the disciples sought the Spirit's endowment to carry the gospel to the whole world, and at Pentecost the Spirit was poured out and thousands were converted.
No Date for Coming
People are not to set a time for Christ's coming or for the fulfillment of another significant promise, because the times and seasons are under the Father's authority and are not for them to know. The time of His coming is not for people to set or announce, and to set its hour, day, or year repeats an evil work that has harmed souls in the past. God has never given any man a message to announce the hour, day, or year of Christ's appearing. Anyone who starts up to proclaim such a date has taken up a yoke and is proclaiming a message the Lord never gave him, while those who wear Christ's yoke and lift His burden find plenty to do preaching Christ and Him crucified in the same lines wherein God's servants are laboring. The exact time of Christ's second coming is not foretold and is not for people to know but belongs to God's authority, and no prophetic period extends to the second advent. Christ could not make that time known to the disciples, they are to remain constantly expectant, and claims to know the precise date or hour go beyond what God has disclosed. Repeatedly setting dates for His return therefore goes beyond what prophecy reveals and leads to disappointment. The timing of the Lord's appearing has not been revealed for people to know or speculate about. Instead each person is to do the daily duties God has placed in their hands and continue the work entrusted to them while there is opportunity.
Applying the Instruction
The times and seasons the Father has reserved within His own authority are not for the disciples to know, and this directs workers to recognize personal responsibility before God and to seek His guidance rather than submit to arbitrary human direction. Standing in the account of Christ's commission to His disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit and the message of the angels to the waiting disciples, and joined with the word Let not your heart be troubled, it teaches the necessity of being educated to believe the Word of God and to show faith by works in practical godliness. This lesson given by Christ to His disciples just before His ascension is needed by the people now.
The gathering of the disciples after the ascension shows the need for earnest prayer and seeking the Holy Spirit before making decisions on grave matters. Their coming to God before the day of Pentecost shows seeking God in simple faith with true humility, firmer dependence, and full surrender, asking for the things needed, and believers must come in the same way now. Heaven waits to open opportunities before those who walk before God in true simplicity, and God will cooperate fully and work as the case requires and embrace all needs in His promise to give when they yield themselves fully as the disciples did. Those whose influence and doings, words and acts, outweigh all the good they might do must obey the charge to tarry in Jerusalem until endued with power from on high and hold back from sacred work until they receive that power, for God will not accept their labors without it, but He will accept those who are thorough. A mighty power is at work in the world and heaven will cooperate with those who do the Lord's work, and in the last days that power opens the understanding of all who come into right relation to God, search the Scriptures, and walk humbly with Him, giving intelligent knowledge of the Word and of the truths of the third angel's message and power to do intelligent work for God among people of every country and speech.
Christ spoke these words to answer His disciples when they asked if He was about to restore the kingdom to Israel, making clear He had not come to set up an earthly kingdom or reign as a temporal king on David's throne. The times and seasons for that restoration and for the future belong to the Father's own authority and power, and are not given for His followers to know or to pry into beyond what He has revealed. Instead of satisfying their curiosity about when, He turned them to their appointed work of waiting in Jerusalem for the promise of the Holy Spirit, who would give them power to understand and to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth. For this reason no one is to fix the hour, day, or year of Christ's coming, for God has never entrusted that message to any man and no prophetic period reaches to the second advent. Believers are to walk by faith without that hidden knowledge, doing their daily duties and proclaiming the gospel while they watch in constant expectancy.
Setting and Occasion
The saying was given as Christ's direct answer to the disciples when they asked Him whether He would at that time, or was about to, restore the kingdom to Israel. Their question concerned when the Father would bring about that restoration, and His reply placed the times and seasons of it under the Father's authority as something not for them to know.
It was spoken before His ascension as part of His commission and instruction to the disciples. It belongs with His promise that they would receive the Holy Spirit and then be His witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, and with the message of the angels to the waiting disciples. In that setting they were to wait in Jerusalem for the promised power from on high rather than hurry away, trusting God and relying on His word while awaiting the Spirit.
In answering He made clear that His purpose was not to establish a temporal kingdom or to reign as an earthly monarch on David's throne. The answer left the timing uncertain to them and turned them away from their revived hope of His taking the throne in Jerusalem. The event surrounding this instruction provides a key to understanding the history that follows and the future.
What Times and Seasons Mean
The times and the seasons are what the Father has put in His own power and reserved within His own authority, and it is not for the disciples to know them, including when He would restore the kingdom to Israel. The disciples were not to know more about the future than God had revealed nor to seek knowledge beyond what Christ had revealed. Jesus did not disclose the time or give a timetable but left the timing uncertain to them, and their curiosity about when Israel's kingdom would be restored is rebuked.
Speculation about the future would benefit neither them nor those they served, since their task was to proclaim the gospel. Some things people greatly desire to know are not given to them to know, and being too inquisitive about hidden times and seasons weakens reliance on living faith and on the promises of Scripture. Believers must therefore walk by faith and take God at His word, with the privilege of trusting Him without knowing what He has kept in His own power.
What believers are to know instead is that they are branches of the true vine, molded and fashioned after Christ's likeness to meet Him in peace. When they promise fruit they are pruned so they bring forth more fruit, and by trials they are taught to live in connection with God rather than counting trials as abuse. They are taught to resist the devil and cling to Christ, to put away old hereditary tendencies and passionate disposition, and to learn meekness and lowliness because heaven is to be won and hell shunned. They are to seek victories with the Holy Spirit to fight the battles of the Lord victoriously, and to bind up with Christ and share His sufferings borne in winning souls to Himself and to His Father.
Mission Given Instead
Instead of revealing when the kingdom would be restored, the answer turned the disciples away from the timetable to waiting for the Holy Spirit, whose coming would give them power to bear witness to Christ. The times and seasons for that restoration were set within the Father's own authority and were not theirs to know, so their responsibility was to receive that power and witness throughout the world. The time was left undisclosed, and the Spirit's coming would illuminate their minds to understand the work lying before them.
They were given special direction not to stop over the question but to receive power after the Holy Ghost would come upon them. As witnesses they were to begin in Jerusalem, then go into all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth. Their work was to proclaim the gospel and take up the work before them, which the Holy Spirit would help them understand and carry forward.
Neglecting to do as instructed here brings great loss, while doing it with the assurance that Jesus will be with them always fills believers with holy boldness for the work. They were to wait in Jerusalem for the promised power from on high rather than hurry away, trusting God and relying on His Word while awaiting the Holy Spirit. That stay in Jerusalem belonged to a temporary period of waiting for a specific work, not a command to settle there permanently, for God intended them to carry the gospel to other parts of the world.
Their work was not to begin through preaching alone, for without the Spirit's influence preaching cannot bring the success promised. Men called to preach must tarry until imbued with wisdom from on high, receiving their qualifications and endowment from God rather than looking to any living man to furnish their discourses. Trusting the promise of power, the disciples sought the Spirit's endowment to carry the gospel to the whole world, and at Pentecost the Spirit was poured out and thousands were converted.
No Date for Coming
People are not to set a time for Christ's coming or for the fulfillment of another significant promise, because the times and seasons are under the Father's authority and are not for them to know. The time of His coming is not for people to set or announce, and to set its hour, day, or year repeats an evil work that has harmed souls in the past.
God has never given any man a message to announce the hour, day, or year of Christ's appearing. Anyone who starts up to proclaim such a date has taken up a yoke and is proclaiming a message the Lord never gave him, while those who wear Christ's yoke and lift His burden find plenty to do preaching Christ and Him crucified in the same lines wherein God's servants are laboring.
The exact time of Christ's second coming is not foretold and is not for people to know but belongs to God's authority, and no prophetic period extends to the second advent. Christ could not make that time known to the disciples, they are to remain constantly expectant, and claims to know the precise date or hour go beyond what God has disclosed. Repeatedly setting dates for His return therefore goes beyond what prophecy reveals and leads to disappointment.
The timing of the Lord's appearing has not been revealed for people to know or speculate about. Instead each person is to do the daily duties God has placed in their hands and continue the work entrusted to them while there is opportunity.
Applying the Instruction
The times and seasons the Father has reserved within His own authority are not for the disciples to know, and this directs workers to recognize personal responsibility before God and to seek His guidance rather than submit to arbitrary human direction. Standing in the account of Christ's commission to His disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit and the message of the angels to the waiting disciples, and joined with the word Let not your heart be troubled, it teaches the necessity of being educated to believe the Word of God and to show faith by works in practical godliness. This lesson given by Christ to His disciples just before His ascension is needed by the people now.
The gathering of the disciples after the ascension shows the need for earnest prayer and seeking the Holy Spirit before making decisions on grave matters. Their coming to God before the day of Pentecost shows seeking God in simple faith with true humility, firmer dependence, and full surrender, asking for the things needed, and believers must come in the same way now. Heaven waits to open opportunities before those who walk before God in true simplicity, and God will cooperate fully and work as the case requires and embrace all needs in His promise to give when they yield themselves fully as the disciples did. Those whose influence and doings, words and acts, outweigh all the good they might do must obey the charge to tarry in Jerusalem until endued with power from on high and hold back from sacred work until they receive that power, for God will not accept their labors without it, but He will accept those who are thorough. A mighty power is at work in the world and heaven will cooperate with those who do the Lord's work, and in the last days that power opens the understanding of all who come into right relation to God, search the Scriptures, and walk humbly with Him, giving intelligent knowledge of the Word and of the truths of the third angel's message and power to do intelligent work for God among people of every country and speech.