Acts 1:1-11 | God's Power at WorkSample

Acts is about the ongoing deeds and teachings of King Jesus. Jesus is king, and in Acts 1 we see him take his throne.

Growing up, there was a rarely celebrated and little mentioned holiday in our church called Ascension Day. It commemorates what we read in Acts 1 about how 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. It’s still a part of church calendars, but it’s never gotten much traction in today’s culture. Growing up, I never knew why it was a big deal. Okay, Jesus went up into heaven. The whole scene is kind of cool, but it just seemed like a cool piece of Jesus-trivia without greater significance.

That is until I realized that Jesus’s ascension into heaven is the act of him taking his seat on the throne of the universe. Like a king or queen walking up to take their seat on a throne in a coronation ceremony, or Simba climbing Pride Rock, Jesus is taking his rightful place as king. And it’s not just to sit there. It’s to go about the business of ruling the cosmos.

I imagine that if I witnessed Jesus’s ascension, I’d be just like the disciples gaping into the sky trying to make sense of the whole thing. Which is why the angels’ message to the disciples still resonates: “Why do you stand here looking into the sky?” In other words, get on with it! Jesus is coming back. There’s work to do. There’s no time to delay.

It’s easy to yearn heavenward, pining and waiting for Jesus to return. Acts reminds us to get about Jesus’s work of bringing the message of his reign to people on earth today.

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