Encounter Jesus – Post-Resurrection Luke Week 3

Jesus Returns to Heaven

Acts 1: 6-11

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Luke – Post Easter – Week 3 – Jesus Returns to Heaven Handout

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Lesson Notes

Last week we talked about an encounter between the disciples and the Risen Jesus on Easter night. However, there were other appearances by Jesus that played out over 40 days. Luke explains in the introduction to Acts, picking up where the gospel left off.

The Introduction to Acts (Acts 1: 1-5)

  • Luke-Acts is a two volume set
  • Verse 1 – Luke’s gospel dealt with “all that Jesus began to do and teach” until the day He was taken up – the end of Luke’s gospel
    • Interesting – that was what Jesus “began to do and teach”
    • Acts details the ongoing work of Jesus, particularly through His body the church and His sending of the Holy Spirit
    • Acts is very much about the work of the Spirit
  • Verse 3 – emphasis on the many proofs of the resurrection, as we saw last week
  • Jesus appears to the disciples during a period of 40 days
  • According to Luke, the primary topic of conversation was the kingdom of God
  • Verses 4-5 – Jesus wants them in Jerusalem for the long promised baptism by the Holy Spirit

The Ascension of Jesus (Acts 1: 6-11)

  • Verse 6 – Remember – topic was “kingdom of God” – the disciples are still focused on earthly kingdoms
    • Still focused on Israel, when God is seeking to redeem the world
    • Genesis 3:15, 12: 1-3 and 22: 15-18
    • Isaiah 49: 5-7
  • Verses 6-7 – They want to know when and Jesus says it’s not for them to know times or seasons
    • Why you shouldn’t trust anyone who’s got it all figured out with regard to end times, including dates
  • Verse 8 – Here’s what YOU need to know
    • You will receive power!
    • Holy Spirit will come upon you
    • You will be my witnesses – Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth
    • Contrast with Matthew 10: 5-7, where Jesus sent out his trainee disciples without the Holy Spirit and said not to interact with Gentiles and Samaritans
    • This is God’s plan for spreading the gospel – through them (filled with the Holy Spirit’s power), progressively outward from the center – Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, and the  Ends of the Earth
      • Jesus had interacted with people from each group – locals, the Samaritan woman, the Samaritan leper, the centurion, the Syro-Phoenician widow
    • Represents increasing cultural differences from those original disciples
      • Jerusalem and Judea, same culture, no barriers
      • Samaria, some cultural commonality – an awareness of Yahweh as God and expectation of a Messiah, though substantial misunderstanding. Reasonably monotheistic.
      • Ends of the Earth – Gentiles, with little to no familiarity with God, polytheistic, completely different moral values
    • Also the literary structure of the book of Acts!
      • Jerusalem – Acts 2-7 – the people there start to believe, the Holy Spirit comes
      • Judea & Samaria when the church scatters after martyrdom of Stephen, Acts 8-12 – the people there start to believe, the Holy Spirit comes
      • Then Acts 13+ focuses on the ends of the earth and the activities of the Holy Spirit and apostle
    • Their task is straightforward – it’s what we alluded to last week – be witnesses for Christ – tell what they saw, heard, and touched
  • Verse 9 – Jesus is taken up to heaven while they watch
    • A cloud takes Him up out of sight – a cloud usually indicates the presence of God in the Bible, shielding us from His glory
  • Verse 10 – Two men in white robes appear – we’re to understand they’re probably angels.
  • Verse 11 – They ask why the disciples are standing around and looking at heaven?
    • This Jesus (not some other one) will come in the same way you saw Him go into heaven
    • Christ will return again – in a cloud, from heaven – 1 Thessalonians 4: 16a

 

Next week: Acts 2: 1-21 (The Sending of the Holy Spirit)