To Be Continued

by Skip Heitzig | June 13, 2025

My wife hates when she's watching a movie or TV show and just at the climax of the story, those three dreaded words appear on the screen: To be continued. She'll say, "Oh, great. I have to wait for them to put out the next part." Sometimes we even have to wait years.

We might get that feeling as we read through the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life. First, we are introduced to the Messiah of Israel. Then we see all the promises of the Old Testament being fulfilled before our eyes. We see the miracles. We read the teachings. We witness Jesus being betrayed and dying on a cross, but then rising from the dead.

The Gospels close with His ascension into heaven, so we ask, "Now what?" Well, we have the sequel in the book of Acts: "The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen" (1:1-2).

Note specifically "all that Jesus began both to do and teach." The word began suggests that the work of Christ is not over. What Jesus began to do is in the Gospels. What Jesus continues to do and teach is in the book of Acts. But how can He continue to do and teach anything if He's in heaven? Through the Holy Spirit He promised. Acts is not a closed book; it's still going on because Jesus is still working in the lives of His people.

The finished work of Jesus was on the cross. The unfinished work of Jesus continues through each new generation—all the way to our generation. The Holy Spirit is still present, indwelling and empowering us.

During the forty days after Jesus rose from the dead until the time He ascended into heaven, He continued teaching the disciples about the kingdom of God. So when He gave them the Great Commission, you can imagine they were ready to go and do the work, but in the power of their own flesh.

"And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, 'which,' He said, 'you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now'" (v. 4-5). Jesus said, "Go, but don't go yet." They were to wait for the Holy Spirit to baptize them, fill them with boldness, and give them the power to do the job.

So this is what Jesus began to do and teach, but then He would do it through the Holy Spirit in the lives of the apostles. He said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (v. 8).

The powerful message of the gospel goes out in ever-widening circles. We get saved, we tell our family and our friends, and then the Lord gives a little more influence, then a little more. For me, it started with getting saved in California. That was my Jerusalem. Then the Lord moved me to what was my Samaria: New Mexico. And now it's my Jerusalem.

The Holy Spirit works through ordinary men and women. We, too, can be filled with the Spirit. The Helper can work in and through us, and the gospel can go out from us into our communities (Jerusalem), then the regions around us (Judea and Samaria), and all the way to the ends of the earth. Let's go.

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