Join us as we read the scriptures and a daily devotion written by Don Crisp. We pray these messages will bless us all at this time.
Tues 25th August – Acts chapter 1:6-11:
Categories: Don’s Daily Devotions
Tues 25th August – Read Acts chapter 1:6-11:
V6: Luke now reverts to the day of the Ascension, the disciples asking Jesus if He will now ” restore the kingdom to Israel?”. Clearly at this stage they still think of the kingdom of God in terms of the nation of Israel and interpret all OT prophecies and promises this way. They have yet to learn from the Holy Spirit of the world-wide kingdom of God, and the inclusion of the Gentiles, which the gospel age will see.
V7: The times and details of God’s final dealings with Israel and indeed all that the end of the age will bring are in God’s own hands and will – not everything is revealed even to the apostles- for God is Sovereign, working out His own purposes. ( See Deuteronomy 29:29.)
V8: But their task is to be the first ” gospel ambassadors”, the first witnesses to Christ, once they have received the Holy Spirit and His power is at work in and through them.That witness will begin at Jerusalem, then spread to all Judea, to Samaria ( ” beyond the pale” for these 1st century Jews, remember ) and then into all the world. So Jesus speaks of ever-widening circles of gospel witness and fruit, of the growth of God’s kingdom “to the ends of the earth”. The book of Acts shows the beginning of that growth, but it is still going on and is the task of the church still today – and till Jesus comes again.
V9: After this, the Lord is taken up into heaven in a cloud. What it must have been to witness that mystery, a visible sign to show that He was indeed ascending to the Father’s glory, through the physical heavens to the spiritual realm of heaven beyond our comprehension, but where He has gone to prepare a place for all His people. ( John 14:2-3.)
V10: The disciples still gaze up where He has disappeared from their sight, when ” 2 men in white robes” appear to them – clearly, angels, who in some resurrection appearances are also described in this way ( Mark 16:5: Luke 24:4-5.) But if their physical form was human, there was clearly also something awesome about them, as these gospel references indicate.
V11: They ask the disciples why they are gazing after Him ( as if expecting His immediate return?) but declare that one day He WILL come again from heaven in a similar visible way. ( See 1 Thessalonians 5:16; Revelation 1:7.) This is a great and only partly revealed mystery. We still wait for that day, but never let us doubt it’s reality. Christ will come again!