TIME TO GET TO WORK

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

After He said this, He was taken up before their very 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.”

Acts 1:9-11

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Go to Jerusalem and wait to be baptized by the Holy Spirit then go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all I have commanded. Do this first in Jerusalem, and then in Judea and Samaria, and then to all ends of the earth.

This was the tasking Jesus gave to His specially appointed disciples, a tasking they were to carry out as soon as He ascended to the heavens to sit at the right hand of God, His Father, who had given His Son all authority over what was in heaven and on earth.

As we continue our look at the first chapter of the Book of Acts, we see in our passage today that the time had come for Jesus to leave the earth and ascend. Right after He finished providing final guidance for His disciples, He was taken up into the heavens right before their very eyes but as they looked skyward, a cloud got in the way and hid their Master’s rise to His Father.

The disciples, no doubt frustrated by the ill timed cloud, continued to look with intent, straining to get another look at Jesus as He ascended but their sky gazing was abruptly interrupted by two men who were dressed in white beside them, yet another supernatural appearance and as we saw in the Gospels, there were quite a few of them, interestingly enough bookending Jesus’ life, right? Think about the appearance of the angels and they came at Jesus’ birth and after His resurrection, from first life to second life.

Well, we read where these divine beings were there for two reasons, to address the present and the future.

In regard to the present, we can see the angels as holy motivators because we find them essentially telling the disciples that it was time to get to work. Look again at their words here:

“Men of Galilee, 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.”

Jesus had gone just as He said would happen. There was really no need to continue looking into the heavens for Him because He could not be seen. And while the disciples may have felt disconnected from their Lord at that point, soon they would receive the Holy Spirit which would provide the heavenly spiritual tether needed to be in tune with their Master’s wishes as they carried out the work He told them to do. After all, Jesus had promised that He would be with them until the end of the age.

And this leads to the second aspect of the angel’s proclamation. For Jesus, freshly in place in heaven with His Father, would come back to earth again, returning the same way He went up.

Indeed, we read more about this in the scriptures to get an idea of what that second coming will look like when Jesus returns to judge the world. It will involve a sorting of people into two categories:

1. Those who believed in Jesus as Savior and therefore were destined for eternal life with Jesus and God forever. This group will dwell under the covering of the new heaven and within the new earth and its new city of Jerusalem. They would be made new and free from any suffering, hardship, or sin. Every tear will be wiped from their eyes.

and

2. Those who chose to reject Jesus and the salvation He offered. At Jesus’ return, this group of people would be ticketed for eternal damnation and torment. Think about your worse day ever and it will be far worse than that and on loop.

The disciples were to head to Jerusalem, receive the Holy Spirit, and then get to work carrying on the work of their Master with the hope that people would believe in Him and find themselves in the first group, the ones marked for eternal life.

Friends, this continues to be our call today because Jesus has not yet returned. No one knows when that will happen so our work will continue on until that day when He comes back. So just like the disciples in our passage today who encounter the angels, it’s time for us to get to work and do all that we can to prevent people from having to suffer the eternal damnation and torment reserved for those who have not gained salvation.

It’s time to seek the lost and help them be found by Jesus.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com