Acts 1: 6-14
So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “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 on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he had said this, he was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “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.”
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
A Thought
After appearing to the apostles over a forty day period, Jesus gives them his final teachings before he ascended into heaven. God the Father sets the timeline by his own authority, we do not need to know the times or dates. The apostles were told they would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on them and they were to tell the things they had witnessed about Christ in his life, death, and resurrection to all people even to the ends of the earth. Today we need to submit ourselves to trust, to obey God and to be constant in prayer. The Holy Spirit will come upon us with power to be witnesses of who God is and what things He has done through his son, Jesus Christ in our own lives so the world may believe and be saved because Christ will return to earth in the same manner that he was taken away.
Our Prayer
Father thank you that you have inspired men by your own Spirit, to write the truth of your son, Jesus the Christ so that we might believe, trust and obey you, our loving Father. Fill us with your Holy Spirit daily that we might be your witness of love and mercy. Awaken us to the power of your word, to pray, to trust and obey you. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
