Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. – Acts 1:11
One of the great challenges with death is that a person, while here one day, is literally gone the next. However, after Jesus died, He returned bodily to His friends, talking, eating, walking, and planning with them, just as He did before, but this time in an immortal body.
During His life, Jesus’s disciples were occasionally slow to understand His words and actions, and it was the same after His death and resurrection. About forty days after His return to them, Christ was teaching, preparing them for a coming gift of God, the Holy Spirit. But, again, His followers displayed their misunderstanding of His mission and their part in it!
Jesus taught, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). The disciples assumed He meant that He would soon be taking over leadership in Israel. You can sense Christ’s clarity as He replied, “You will receive power… and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the Earth“ (Acts 1:8). As the disciples began to grasp that THEY were to go and tell the WHOLE WORLD about the Savior, “a cloud took Him out of their sight “(Acts 1:9).
Similar to those disciples standing, mouths agape, you may have little idea what God would have you do next! Like them, you can keep your heart open and eyes to the sky looking for Christ’s return, while making ready to proclaim the gospel of Christ.
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