Acts 1:7

‘And he said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father has set within His own authority.” '

Jesus' reply is basically that they must leave the more distant future, and questioning how the Father will go about things, in the hands of God and not take a morbid interest in the matter. At this point in time that future was hidden. It had nothing to do with them. God alone had the right to decide such matters, and they were outside human speculation. We can compare here how Jesus used the same method in dealing with Peter's questions about John's death (John 21:22). It was simply a way of saying, ‘mind your own business'. But He, Jesus, was now issuing His orders and telling them what their present business was. What God would do in the future, and when He would do it, were matters to be left in His hands and not to be speculated on, but what they had to do now was quite clear.

We must not in fact assume that all the disciples had the same view as each other on such matters. Many theories were rife in Judaea and Galilee at the time, and many differing views were held about what Messiah would do and be when he came. Nathaniel may well have had very different views from James and John. But it was not Jesus' purpose to sort out those views at this time. They would simply have been a diversion. Rather they were to put them to one side. They had to forget their hopes of earthly glory and concentrate on the task in hand. There was a job to be done, and it was that that they must concentrate on.

‘Times or seasons.' The phrase includes both when those things will be and what will occur during them. They are not to be taken up with either. This was not a time for waiting and speculating it was a time for acting and doing. The same command comes to us today. ‘Leave your speculating about the more future to one side, and get out and witness both with lip and life (compare ‘to do and to teach' in Acts 1:1), until every person in every land has had fully presented to them the Gospel and has been given the opportunity to respond.' We repeat again, this does not mean that we must not seek to interpret all parts of the word of God, but it does mean that that should not become a hindrance to our full and complete service for Jesus Christ, or cause our different interpretations to hinder our working together.

If Jesus were to say the same today He might well declare, ‘Beware lest you let doctrine about the Second Coming, and especially speculation about its details, take up too much of your time, or divide you and prevent you from fulfilling your responsibility to be a combined witness to Jesus Christ, for in the end what God will do can safely be left in His hands. What matters most for you is that you concentrate on the task in hand and present to people the truth about Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection and present Lordship.' (He could also have safely added, ‘because in the end you will all have got it partly right and partly wrong').

For ‘the times' see especially Acts 3:19; Acts 3:21 which refer to ‘the times of refreshing' and the ‘times of restitution of all things'. Those are the times that they are permitted to know about, the former preparatory for it and signifying the blessing that was coming on the church though the life-giving activity of the Spirit as they went forward to prepare for His return in the new age that had come, and the latter referring to the final introduction of the everlasting Kingdom when all would be restored. But Acts also refers to ‘times past' (Acts 14:13) when nations were allowed to walk in their own ways, the ‘times' of man's ignorance (Acts 17:30), referring to the past and present time of man's darkness, and ‘the times before appointed' (Acts 17:26) when nations settled in their various places. All these times, says Jesus, are in God's hands. ‘Seasons' usually refers to the various ‘seasons' which occur within those ‘times' (see Acts 14:17; Acts 20:18). Basically Jesus is saying that it is futile for men to try to work out God's timetable, for only He knows it and He does not reveal it (not even to His Son - while he was on earth - Mark 13:32). What we are to recognise of those times and seasons is that they will come suddenly and unexpectedly (1 Thessalonians 5:1).