Ascension Day预览

The Final Prayer and the Final Assignment

What is someone’s last wish? Many times, a lot is done to fulfil that last wish. What were someone’s last words before he left for good? Or the last words of someone who is dying.

Final prayer

Jesus also had a last wish and that was prayer during the last evening being together with his friends, the evening of the Last Supper. This is what He prayed: "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me." (John 17:21) Unity among the believers. It is the final prayer of Jesus.

Final assignment and great promise

And what about His last assignment? That one has been passed on as well. At the end of the book of Matthew, you see what often is called "the big assignment" and the "great promise". What is the assignment? "Go!". The assignment follows the assurance that "He is given all authority in heaven and on earth" and straight after that, He promises "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." What again was the assignment? "Go!".

Now you may get the feeling that this is an enormous doing Gospel. Such as: now we all have to get very active, make plans, and evangelize.... Well, partly it may be like that, but there is also a quite different tension beneath it. In Acts 1:8, the assignment is phrased like this: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."  Is it an assignment (such as: do this, or else you are in trouble!) or is it something that is just going to happen? It feels more like the latter one. The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. The Spirit of God gives people a totally different perspective. And then just try not to speak!