Acts 1: The Three Essentials Jesus Left With Us
Reflecting on the words that matter most when we’re about to leave
There’s something about moments of departure that crystallize what is truly important.
As I began reading Acts chapter 1, I found myself remembering the days when my children were young, and I had to leave them at home while heading to a meeting or traveling for work. Before I stepped out the door, I always gathered them for those last-minute reminders: “Remember to lock the door… turn off the lights… let each other know where you’re going.” Looking back, those instructions were simple, maybe even ordinary, but in my mind, they were essential.
That memory brought me straight into Acts 1. I suddenly wondered: What did Jesus consider essential as He prepared to leave His disciples? What words did He choose in those final moments before ascending to the Father? What did He want us, His followers, to never forget?
As I returned to the passage, three themes Jesus emphasized stood out with surprising clarity. And the more I reflected, the more I realized that Luke didn’t just record them as history. These three essentials become the heartbeat of the entire book of Acts, and the foundation of a life formed in Christ, rooted in community, and aligned with the Kingdom of God.
1. Jesus Is Alive
Luke begins by telling Theophilus that Jesus presented Himself alive after His suffering. Not metaphorically alive. Not symbolically alive. Alive. Eating, speaking, walking, appearing to many over forty days.
This is the center of spiritual formation:
We are formed not by an idea, but by a Living Presence.
We follow a God who knows rejection, suffering, betrayal, broken relationships, and oppression. A God who has walked the human story from the inside. When Jesus says, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father,” He reminds us that God is not distant but deeply personal.
Every invitation Jesus gives, to follow, to go, to love, to serve, is grounded in this truth: Resurrection is not only an event; it is the atmosphere of Christian life.
2. The Kingdom of God
During those forty days, Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God. This wasn’t new. He had been teaching about it all along, but now, after the resurrection, it comes with renewed weight.
For years, I’ve understood the Kingdom through the lens of Shalom. Not a shallow peace, but a deep, communal flourishing. A wholeness that looks like:
Justice
Jubilee
Reconciliation
Restoration
Inclusion
Freedom
These six words are not the full definition of Shalom, but they are markers of what life under God’s reign looks like. Jesus wasn’t simply giving the disciples information. He was inviting them into a community where Shalom becomes a lived reality.
And the book of Acts shows us what happens when ordinary people take that invitation seriously.
3. Wait for the Holy Spirit
Finally, Jesus tells them to wait.
Not to act.
Not to organize.
Not to strategize.
Not to “get to work.”
But to wait.
Because the life Jesus calls us to cannot be lived by sheer effort. The disciples were told to wait for the promised Spirit, the Comforter who would guide, remind, instruct, empower, and reshape them from within.
Waiting isn’t passive. It is a posture of holy readiness. An openness to God’s timing, God’s equipping, and God’s leading.
And in this way, entering Acts becomes an act of formation itself. We wait with the disciples. We listen with them. We let the Spirit guide us into the text and into our own lives.
Entering Acts: An Invitation
As I sit with Acts 1, I hear Jesus speaking these same three essentials into my own journey:
Remember, I am alive.
Remember the Kingdom you are invited to embody.
Remember to wait for the Spirit who empowers everything.
These are not just the last words of Jesus. They are the first steps of discipleship.
Acts is more than a historical account; it is an invitation to adventure. A life of deeper union with God, life shared in authentic community, and life lived in the rhythms and values of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
And it all begins with what Jesus found essential in His final moments.
