GOSPEL MEDITATION #3
The Ascension
Acts 1:6-11
- Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
- Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
- The disciples want to know when Jesus will restore the kingdom to Israel. These men were people of their time having the general concept that the time of King David would return.
- Jesus ignores the question saying that the time of the arrival of the kingdom is not their concern. The focus must be elsewhere.
- “But”—is the key word. Jesus diverts the conversation with this word.
- Now we have what is perhaps the most important verse in Acts.
- Jesus first gives us a promise: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” The work ahead requires the working of the Spirit of God. (We are reminded of Matthew 3:11 now.)
- Then secondly Jesus gives us the command to be His witnesses to the entire world, beginning at Jerusalem.
- The witness must be empowered by the Holy Spirit. The content of that witness is what we call the “person and work of Jesus Christ.” This means the setting forth of who Jesus is and what Jesus did.
- And it is this preaching and teaching that marks the presence of the Holy Spirit.
- Jesus is now lifted up to heaven—the ascension—to the right hand of God, that place of power and authority.
- A cloud took Jesus out of their sight, a statement that is difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend. “Cloud” however does point to the glory of God.
- Two men, angels, as in Luke 24:4, appeared to the disciples with the assuring statement that Jesus would in fact return.