Don't let time throw you off the Spirit

After Jesus had been with the disciples for forty days post-resurrection, he was preparing to leave.  We read the following:

Acts 1:6–8 NAS95
6 ¶ So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Teilhard spoke of the "malady of space and time," by that meaning that we are bound up in both and cannot move or doing anything without the limitations of each.  It takes time to go somewhere and to go there one has to traverse distances.

We are time- and space-bound earthlings, and everything we do is wrapped up in time and space.  We cannot easily think other than in those terms.

Jesus said, "It is not for you to know...."  He was about to do something that transcended time and space.  He was about to release the Holy Spirit on the earth, in fulfillment of Joel's prophecy:

Joel 2:28–29 NAS95
28 ¶     “It will come about after this
    That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
    And your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    Your old men will dream dreams,
    Your young men will see visions.
29     “Even on the male and female servants
    I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

The disciples were thinking only in terms of time and space; Jesus was looking foward to the release of the Holy Spirit who transcends time and space and bring power to all who receive him.

Jesus said that it was not for the disciples to know the times and epochs - i.e., the historical situation.  You see, the disciples were waiting, along with all of Israel, for the coming of the Messiah when the Romans would be run out of Dodge and everything would be set right.

They were looking for the Kingdom of God to be established on earth.

Jesus was looking to establish the Kingdom of God in the hearts of all who would believe.  Disciples would be transformed into temples in which the Holy Spirit would dwell.

1 Corinthians 6:19 NAS95
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?