Ruthe's Secret Rosesl
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After Jesus' Ascension
Here were this bunch of grown men, standing on a hillside, gazing up into the clouds. They had
just seen a miracle. They must have wondered if it was finished, or if there was to be an act two in
just a matter of moments.
Only 43 days before their beloved teacher and friend, Jesus, had died on a cruel Roman cross
as their Messiah. But He rose up from the grave just three days later! Then He spent 40 days meeting
with them in miraculous ways in various places, often materializing out of thin air or through
locked doors. He had shown them many convincing proofs that He was really alive, and had eaten with
them.
When they asked Jesus if now at last, He was going to establish His kingdom in Israel, He
answered, "Only God knows that. You don't need to know the exact dates."
But then He broke some other news to them. The very Spirit of God was going to come upon
them, giving them great power and boldness to talk about Him not only in their city, Jerusalem, but
also their province or state, Samaria, and on throughout the world. When He left for Heaven, they
should stick together and wait in prayer until that happened.
Right there on the Mount of Olives, immediately after Jesus told them that, He began to lift
up and rise into the clouds until He was out of sight.
You and I would have had our mouths hanging open in astonishment too, had we stood there.
I'm sure of it!
While they were taking in this very new, original miracle, one they had never seen before,
two strangers, dressed in white, suddenly were standing with them. They said, "Hey, you men of
Galilee, - why do you keep looking up in the sky?" At that their heads swung around. "This same
Jesus who has gone up into Heaven, will come back in the same way."
That explanation will have helped, but we can only imagine the disciples pounced on these
two angels with questions - if they had the nerve, for they had been rather shy since Christ's
passion on the cross. Or the angels may have vanished as quickly as they appeared.
The account of this event in Acts chapter 1, only says the men returned to Jerusalem from
the Mount of Olives, and they began an earnest prayer meeting. They were joined by Jesus' mother and
brothers, and still more believers. They kept on praying until the Holy Spirit came upon them and
gave them a marvelous boldness to preach or tell what they knew - in many languages.
The coming of the Holy Spirit appears to have cut down on the number of angel encounters in
the New Testament. But God doesn't hesitate to use angels, as in this instance, to swing our stunned
minds and gawking faces to what we are suppose to do next. If a stranger reminds us of what Jesus
has told us, it's safe to believe that stranger. Get to work.
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