Its universality and its philanthropy embraces the world. He appeared to them over a period of forty … and thus is not the world indebted for much of its progress, for many improvements in science and art, to man's ignorance of the future? History is a Divine poem, and God does not permit us to guess at the denouement or catastrophe of events. Let the future alone; that is to reveal itself in history, and is not to be ascertained by human inquiry. 3. What negative or what positive is it that our individual life makes clear in the scheme of things? He does not say that there shall be no restoration; He leaves that with the enlightening Spirit about to descend. 3. The times and seasons of the world in general. He points you to the builder's plans. Consider —(1) How far it is proper for us to know the times and seasons. Hudson.I. THE ANSWER OF THE MASTER suggests —1. 2. And He orders all its affairs (Acts 17:24, 26, 31). Behind us, behind each one of us, lie six thousand years of human effort, human conquest: before us is the boundless Time, with its as yet uncreated and unconquered continents and Eldorados, which even we have to conquer, to create; and from the bosom of Eternity shine for us celestial guiding stars.(T. Man's ignorance of the future aids the spirit of piety. There are many who trouble both their own and other men's heads with such questions. Beecher. (b) Take it in a civil sense — the times for buying and selling, war and peace (Ecclesiastes 3:8). The error of the apostles has been repeated down to the present day. We now encounter our toils and anxieties one by one; we conquer them in detail, and sweet hope lives through all the efforts. But the storm has come, and has left desolations which the predicter himself did not anticipate. Yet every age has had those who profess to be in the secret. The question indicated the working of several wrong elements. Spurgeon. The Ascension. Goal-oriented prayer and preaching-- Acts 1:6-14, 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11, John 17:1-11-- Seventh Sunday of Easter - A-- 1999 People have been known to listen to profound preaching of the biblical message and come out of churc That we find in our own experience, that the times and seasons of human life God has put in His own power. His theme was the same, but the tense was different. John Piper Oct 7, 1990 14 Shares Sermon. Only on condition that we are given up to God's will can we work for God's ends, or enjoy the power thereto. Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven - In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. (2) As Christians, by supernatural illumination. (b) Take it in a civil sense — the times for buying and selling, war and peace (Ecclesiastes 3:8). The meaning of this is plain now, to a degree impossible then. He was then to them what He has been to Christians in all ages, ὁ ἔρχομενος. It is not within your reach. It is not for you, that is, for you —(1) As men, by the strength and power of reason (Ecclesiastes 7:27). And the ways of witness are manifold as the glory of the stars, the colors and forms of the flowers. Nay, if some one, confident in the sway of general law, assured that the Divine government will have its way, ventures to predict in vague terms a coming disaster, the men of his time laugh at him. N. The change of affairs in States, the end and consummation of the world, etc. Disease, misfortune, prosperity, and joy are as much hid from us as if the lot determined them. As the people are being restored as a nation, Isaiah reminds them God is personally involved with creation, numbering and naming the stars, and tirelessly goes about the business of being God. Man's ignorance of the future aids the spirit of piety. This age with its revivals, scientific spirit, and scepticism is also a "season." (2) The sense in which it is impertinent. There are vast revolutions which alter the course of the world, and must have had deep foundations in the past; yet the statesmen and philosophers of the time are slumbering without anxiety on the sides of the volcano. Of how many public and private efforts the same thing can be said. Speaking in tongues and exalting God. Then there was their last supper together, followed by Judas' betrayal and the arrest in … This is the department in which the agencies of God and man meet, where the plan of the great Ruler and the plans of countless finite beings run across one another. According to analogy, prophecy will never shed more than a dim, uncertain light upon the future before its fulfilment. Acts 1:6-11 Exposition of Acts Sunday - AM Texas Corners Bible Church. Robert Raikes had no vision of the millions studying in Sunday schools every Sunday; he only saw his present work and duty. Then there was their last supper together, followed by Judas' betrayal and the arrest in Gethsemane, their own narrow escape from the soldiers, and that most horrible crucifixion. The old prophets were inspired to make known coming events, but the day and hour were hidden; and the apostles, no more than the prophets, could know when the events predicted concerning Israel and the world would occur. and thus is not the world indebted for much of its progress, for many improvements in science and art, to man's ignorance of the future? (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)Ensnared by inquisitivenessScientific Illustrations.How actively inquisitive are some people: and into what strange predicaments does this their strong propensity land them! Interpreters of prophecy during the last few centuries have been most of them in the same position; one of them sees in the sublimities of the Revelation the form of Louis Napoleon, where two or three hundred years ago half Christendom saw the Pope, and the other half Martin Luther. (2) Before a victorious war, if we had foreseen its length, its costliness in money and life; if the soldiers could have foreseen their hardships, wounds, defeats, is it not more titan probable that the majority would have shrunk from the contest, although certain of ultimate success? WHAT IS IMPLIED in the text. And of it Jesus answers just as He did to the apostles (Matthew 24:36). And when He has once written vanity upon them they come to nothing.3. That faith was founded on the predictions of the Old Testament and of our Lord. C. A. 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