Acts 1:6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Throughout His ministry, and especially during the last week of it, Jesus had made a lot of statements about the future. As we saw last week, when He died there were all sorts of questions in His followers' minds, not the least of which was "Is this the end of our hope?" That was answered promptly when He rose from the dead. In the days following He answered many more questions about how His coming had made the way for our salvation. But there were a few more questions which needed to be clarified, like all the statements He had made about going away and going away again, as well as when His kingdom would be fully established. Those were things He clarified at the ascension. He was going away and coming back again. He was going to send them the Holy Spirit He had talked about so much in the upper room. They would stay here and carry on the work He had begun - not just in Israel, but all over the world. In the verses that follow, God continued to guide them one step at a time, answering the question of who would replace Judas, and how. That's the way God leads: answering our questions at times in bunches, while at others handling one decision at a time. Let's listen at all times to His voice.
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