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9 After he said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 As he was going, they were looking into the sky. Suddenly, two men wearing white clothes stood beside them. 11 They said, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking into the sky? Jesus, whom you saw taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you saw him go." ~ Acts 1:9-11
Today, we return to our study of Acts 1 where the plan of God for the gospel of Jesus Christ to spread throughout the known world through the yielded lives of believers is becoming more evident to the disciples. In today's passage the Lord Jesus has been meeting with His disciples on the Mount of Olives for the final time before His ascension back to His Father in Heaven. Overall, He appeared to them forty times since His resurrection some forty days earlier. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most documented event in the history of this world. There has never been any reputable accounts of any witnesses disputing the appearances of the Lord Jesus to His disciples. Not a single one.
In v.9 of today's passage we read, "After he said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud hid him from their sight."
Having just reminded His disciples that they would be equipped to be His witnesses with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus went up into the clouds and traveled back to heaven. It is important to point out His ascension was bodily and visible because that will be the way He will return at His Second Coming. This will not be the case when He raptures the Church. In fact, only the raptured will see Him and He will not set His feet on the earth as He will at His Second Coming. The Lord Jesus Christ ascension into heaven was yet another confirmation that He was God incarnate.
In v.10-11 of today's passage we read, "10 As he was going, they were looking into the sky. Suddenly, two men wearing white clothes stood beside them. 11 They said, 'Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking into the sky? Jesus, whom you saw taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you saw him go.'"
While the disciples stood there looking up into the sky, there appeared two angels who were wearing white clothes. It was at His tomb after His resurrection that two angels sat, one at the place where His feet were and the other where His head had been. This was reminiscent of the Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle and in the Temple in the Old Testament. The angels asked the disciples why they looked into the sky as if the ascension of the Lord Jesus was an everyday occurrence. The disciples were like those two disciples on the road to Emmaus who wanted the Lord to stay with them physically.
In John 16 the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "It is expedient for you that I go away." It was to the disciples advantage that the Lord Jesus return to heaven because without His ascension He would not have been able to send His Spirit to live within them. The coming of the indwelling Holy Spirit happened on the day of Pentecost. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are believers in Christ able to live the Christian life.
In Colossians 3:2 we read, "So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, pursue the things over which Christ presides." God is always quick to remind us that our hopes and our dreams are not to be fulfilled here on this earth. No, our hopes and our dreams must pass through the sieve of God's will for our lives. Our lives are in Christ and our home is in heaven not here on this earth. While most people in this world find their home on this earth, believers in Christ know our home to be where Christ is in heaven.
In the last chapter of Zechariah, chapter 14, God will use the greed and blood-thirstiness of a world under the complete control of Satan to bring all of history to this final end. The end will take place in the valley of Armageddon. There, the armies of the world will gather against Jerusalem. And, that battle will produce incredible bloodshed and devastation. The enemies of Israel will seem to have accomplished their goal, but, as we are informed, God will miraculously intervene.
At that moment, Israel's enemies will have such a great sense of confidence that they will become most vulnerable as they begin to divvying up the wealth of the Jews right there on the spot. And, just at the moment when all will seem lost for the Jews, the Lord Jesus Christ will break through the clouds. This will be the long-awaited arrival of the Day of the Lord which is mentioned in the Bible over twenty times. It will be a day of redemption for those humble enough to cry out to God for His salvation and it will be a day of judgment for those who refused to receive the free gift of forgiveness of sin through the Lord Jesus Christ.
When the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven He ascended from the Mount of Olives. And, at His Second Coming, according to Zechariah 14, He will return to the very same spot upon the Mount of Olives. He left this world from the Mount of Olives, visibly and bodily and to the Mount of Olives He will return visibly and bodily. The disciples didn't understand that the Lord Jesus left this world to subtly reveal that in the same way He left this world, He would return to it at the end. Seismologists have reported that there is a fault line running under and through the Mount of Olives. It is waiting for a very strategic set of footprints that will break that fault and cause an earthquake this world has never seen before nor shall ever see again.
