Going Home

“And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up: and a cloud received Him out of their sight.”  Acts 1:9

Jesus had just finished instructing His disciples to begin their evangelical ministry in Jerusalem, to spread out to Judaea, Samaria, and then to the “uttermost part of the earth”.  Their mission would begin right after they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) for without God’s Spirit guiding them, they would experience very little success in their mission.  After giving His final words to them, Jesus began to ascend upward through the air into a cloud, and the disciples saw Him no more.  They understood that He was returning to His Father in heaven, but that likely didn’t soften the blow to them to no longer have Him with them.  When we have believing loved ones who pass into heaven, we are glad that they are in the arms of Jesus after their long illness or troubled life, but that doesn’t mitigate our sorrow.  We still miss them, and I would guess that the disciples must have felt the same way.

The disciples had given Him up one time at His crucifixion but received Him back when He arose from the dead, and now He was gone again.  They had hopes that He was going to set up His earthly kingdom and rid Israel of Roman dominion (Acts 1:6), but that was never Jesus’ mission.  He came to provide the way of salvation for all those who would repent and believe in Him.  His role as conquering King has yet to be fulfilled.  The disciples, after being filled with the Holy Spirit, would finally understand what Jesus had been telling them all along about His mission, but until they were indwelled with the Holy Spirit, I suppose they wondered how they were going to survive without Christ as their earthly companion.  What they didn’t realize was that He would still be with them but just in a different form, a spiritual one.

The disciples were so captivated by the sight of their best Friend ascending into heaven that they likely didn’t notice two men in white clothing standing by them.  I would speculate that these two men were the same two who were at the tomb when the women came to anoint Jesus’ body with spices (Luke 24:4).  They asked the disciples, calling them, “you men of Galilee”, why they were staring up into heaven.  These two men knew why the disciples were looking up, but it was now time for them to look ahead to the future and the mission of which Jesus had left for them to accomplish.  The disciples were sad, of course, but likely also very worried about the work of spreading the gospel to people of whom some were very opposed to Jesus and the gospel.  Jesus had warned them about those who would reject them.  He had said to them in Matthew 10:16: “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves”.

I must admit that many of us believers also worry about witnessing to others of Christ and His gospel.  Many folks today are just like these “wolves” that Jesus warned about who were filled with pride and self-centeredness, refusing to admit that they are sinners in need of a Savior.  However, the disciples did not let their fear keep them from doing the will of God.  We know that the Holy Spirit is always with us.  It is our job to tell others about Jesus and what He has done for us, and it is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict them of their sins.

The disciples trusted in Jesus’ promise that they would have Him in Spirit to help them, and the two men had some more good news for them: Jesus would return one day in bodily form.  They had watched Him leave from Mt. Olivet in a cloud, which symbolizes God’s glory, and He will return the same way.  As the disciples began their ministries, I am sure they watched for Jesus to return at any time.  It’s been about 2,000 years since that time, and believers are still waiting for His return.  Peter wrote in II Peter 3:3-4 that there would always be skeptics who would ask, “Where is the promise of His coming?”  They would declare that things have not changed.  They will not be looking for Him, and it’s difficult to find something that one is not looking for.  However, I am looking for Him to come any day now, and so are many others.

Next time:  Returning Again