Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Wednesday,
When do you realize a ‘goodbye’ is really definitive? It’s really the last time you’ll see that person for a while, maybe a long while? Is it the words spoken, the hugs given or watching the person actually leave, boarding the airplane or driving down the road?
For the past several days we’ve been looking closely at each of the encounters, recorded in the Bible, which resurrected Jesus had with His friends. I notice that each time there was evidently no plan for the next encounter but also no final goodbye.
Therefore, it seems to me that during those nearly 6 weeks, the disciples were always on the watch, knowing that at any moment resurrected Jesus might show up! Now think about that for a moment. What would it be like to live with that sense of anticipation of an encounter with resurrected Jesus?
Today, let’s look at the final encounter, the one which really became a final goodbye. Luke records it for us in Acts 1:6-11. The disciples were all in Jerusalem in anticipation of the Shavuot festival which took place 50 days after Passover.
Because the last time Jesus had met with them, He had told them, ‘Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift My Father promised you…in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4,5) No matter where that encounter happened, it appears the disciples fairly quickly made their way to Jerusalem to be ready for whatever this Jesus promised experience was going to be.
It appears their next encounter with Jesus was on the Mount of Olives on the east side of Jerusalem. You may recall the Garden of Gethsemane is at the base of this ridge of hills, so they may have actually had some time there and then strolled up the hillside to the ridge of the Olives hills.
Do you remember it was on this hillside where the ‘spontaneous parade’ of Palm Sunday took place as Jesus rode a donkey to Jerusalem? This gathering recorded in Acts 1:6-11 would have been 47 days after that parade and 40 days after resurrection Sunday.
Dr. Luke tells us that among other things the disciples and resurrected Jesus talked about that day was this question: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) I’m glad Luke recorded that because it was the burning question in everyone’s mind, especially now since Jesus’ resurrection!
If Jesus was in fact the Christ, the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, then all Jews expected He would rise up to fulfill the prophecies that He would “…reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.” As the prophet Isaiah had predicted! (Is. 9:7) For 700 years Jews had held on to Isaiah’s promise that “The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this!”
No one had spoken more about the kingdom of God than Jesus. Jesus had repeatedly declared that Almighty God had sent Him to accomplish God’s purposes on earth. With His miracles Jesus had proved He had all power, all authority and nothing was outside the realm of possibility with Jesus. Oh my, Jesus even raised dead people to life and He Himself, had defeated death is His own resurrection, so it should not be difficult for us to understand the disciples’ question, right?
We can understand their anticipation that very soon Jesus would be an invincible King, leading a short-lived rebellion against Rome, and Israel would once again be returned to regional and maybe even global dominance as God’s kingdom on earth, with resurrected Jesus as King!
But Jesus’ response was not what they expected, nor did they fully understand at that moment: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7,8) Pause. Put yourself in that conversation, my friends. What do you think the disciples understood Jesus was telling them?
It sounds like Jesus is confirming that God the Father does plan to establish His kingdom here on earth and HE alone has the timetable established for that. Do you see that? Also, that God will be sending His Spirit to EMPOWER these disciples with God power. Several times Jesus had said it was by the power of God in Him that He was doing the miraculous things He did, so I can see the disciples may have assumed they would be receiving similar power to what Jesus had when the Holy Spirit will come upon them!
And this matter of being witnesses of Jesus even to the ends of the world. In that first century Kings sent various people out to represent them and communicate their messages, their declarations. Sometimes they were called Ambassadors, other times Heralds, and other times they were military commanders.
So, it would not surprise me that the disciples began thinking that King Jesus would be sending them out to Judea, Samaria and the world, as His official representatives, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God! Oh my, can you imagine their excitement as they contemplated such a future life for them? Perhaps they were slapping each other on the back and with more and more excitement congratulating each other imagining a renewed Kingdom of Israel and their official positions in it!?
But Dr. Luke tells us suddenly something shocking happened: “After Jesus said this He was TAKEN UP before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.” (Acts 1:9) Now what do you imagine the disciples were seeing; and how do you explain what was happening to Jesus?
This is called the ASCENSION of Jesus Christ. Yes, the word that I think best describes it is ELEVATION. Jesus simply elevated, probably fairly slowly, up off the ground, standing upright, then higher into the air, then higher disappearing into a cloud in the sky! Where did He go? Dr. Luke tells us: “The disciples were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:10,11)
There is the answer! Jesus elevated back to heaven, back to His heavenly Father. Several times Jesus had predicted this was going to happen (John 16:28) and now it really did, right in full view of many people. In fact, did you hear how those angels explained it? “Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven…” Do we understand what it means? It means just as God the Father SENT Jesus to earth on His redemption mission (John 3:16) so God the Father called Jesus back to heaven after His mission here was accomplished!! (John 17:4,5)
Oh my, we have so much to think about, don’t we? Yes, we’ll come right back here to this hilltop tomorrow to see what happened next. but for now, I urge you to work through the “lessons learned” at the “Grand Narrative” link below and worship with the song I’ve selected. Then pray, thanking Jesus for all we’ve looked at today, and let’s meet here again tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Acts 1:6-11.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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