The Word This Week
Acts 1:9…
We can only imagine what Jesus’ departure would have meant to His disciples.
He had evidently been preparing them for His departure by basically leaving them alone for stretches of time following His resurrection, and then suddenly showing up.
We do not know much about this 40-day period of time except what Luke relates to us here.
Jesus provided them final instruction and then He was taken up. Of course, Jesus had promised them He would return, but there was no way of knowing when that would be. In fact, Jesus had told them no one would know the day or the hour when He would return, except His Father.
Instead, the known promise was He would come to them in the person of the Holy Spirit, “not many days from now.”
But how many days – and how would that work? That was left completely unknown.
And just like that, Jesus was gone.
Again, we can only imagine how spectacular Jesus’ ascension must have been. Of all the supernatural events in God’s Word, this may rank at the top of events witnessed by human eyes.
Luke’s description of this amazing event is very spare, as if to emphasize the point it was time to move on.
Two angels were present to encourage them to do exactly that. In effect, they said, “This is not the time to be gazing with eyes transfixed into the sky. It is time to get busy and do what Jesus told you to do.”
Additionally, there was a promise: “He will come again in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
This is the promise we are all anxiously waiting for today. It remains in effect.
Pastor Bill
We can only imagine what Jesus’ departure would have meant to His disciples.
He had evidently been preparing them for His departure by basically leaving them alone for stretches of time following His resurrection, and then suddenly showing up.
We do not know much about this 40-day period of time except what Luke relates to us here.
Jesus provided them final instruction and then He was taken up. Of course, Jesus had promised them He would return, but there was no way of knowing when that would be. In fact, Jesus had told them no one would know the day or the hour when He would return, except His Father.
Instead, the known promise was He would come to them in the person of the Holy Spirit, “not many days from now.”
But how many days – and how would that work? That was left completely unknown.
And just like that, Jesus was gone.
Again, we can only imagine how spectacular Jesus’ ascension must have been. Of all the supernatural events in God’s Word, this may rank at the top of events witnessed by human eyes.
Luke’s description of this amazing event is very spare, as if to emphasize the point it was time to move on.
Two angels were present to encourage them to do exactly that. In effect, they said, “This is not the time to be gazing with eyes transfixed into the sky. It is time to get busy and do what Jesus told you to do.”
Additionally, there was a promise: “He will come again in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
This is the promise we are all anxiously waiting for today. It remains in effect.
Pastor Bill