As we all know, the book of the Acts of the Apostles forms the second volume, as it were, of Luke's writing. In the Gospel, he has told the account of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection. Now he begins the account of the growth of the early church by the power of the Holy Spirit.

To begin his second volume, however, Luke repeats some of the things he has said at the end of the Gospel story. Once again, the command to the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they receive God's promised "power from on high" in the form of the Holy Spirit is given (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4). Once again the apostles are told that they are to be Christ's witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Luke 24:48; Acts 1:8). Once again Christ's resurrection appearances are told, although Acts, accounting for the passage of time, mentions many more appearances than does the Gospel. And once again, the fact that the risen Christ ascends into heaven is stated (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:10). It's as if the author wants to doubly impress all of these facts on our minds.

But then the writer includes some new content in this text for the morning. First of all, he tells about the apostles asking that question of Jesus before the Lord ascends into heaven: "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (v. 6). Israel's expectation throughout the Old Testament history was that God would finally come to establish his kingdom on earth. At that time, "in that day" as the Old Testament repeatedly puts it, all the enemies of God would be done away and the faithful in Israel would be exalted as inhabitants of the Kingdom of God. It was a question concerning when God would bring human history to an end and usher in his rule over all the earth.

Similarly, Acts 1:10 recounts the appearance of the two men in white, who are angels, to the apostles, after Jesus has ascended. "Men of Galilee," the angels ask the disciples, "why do you stand looking into heaven?" (v. 11). Then the angels give the promise of Christ's second coming. "This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

In adding these additions to his account, it is as if Luke knows all of our questioning and gives answers to it. For some persons spend a lot of time, standing around, trying to figure out the date of the Lord's second coming. There have been countless times in human history when some so-called prophet has decided that such and such a date will mark the time when the final cataclysm takes place and the Lord Christ will come again. I'm sure you all have read newspaper accounts of such people. They sell all their goods and go out and stand on a hill top, gazing into heaven, looking for Christ's appearance. Indeed, when the year 2000 drew near, many people believed that would mark God's final battle with his enemies, the end of human history, and the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.

But to such speculation, the risen Christ replies, "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority" (v. 7). We do not know when Christ will come again or when God will establish his kingdom on earth. Jesus said that repeatedly in the Gospel stories. "Of that day or that hour no one knows," Jesus taught, "not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32 and parallels). Jesus himself did not know the time, and if people claim that they do, they are saying that they know more than our Lord knows. Thus, Jesus' command to us is "Watch!" Be prepared in faith for his coming again.

That's not the only question we have, however. We wonder what does it mean when Luke says that Jesus ascended into heaven. Is heaven up in the sky somewhere? Such a conception doesn't fit our scientific age. How could Christ ascend to the Father? Where is the Father? Indeed, was Jesus really raised from the dead? Did the apostles actually see him, or was that just some kind of psychological experience that they had after they mourned his death? And so on and on go our questions. We become like those apostles, standing and gazing up into heaven and wondering what it all means. And the angels' question in our text becomes the question addressed to us. "Why are you standing around, gazing into heaven, wondering, doubting, when there is a job to do?"

The good news is very clear, and we recite that good news every time we confess the Apostles' Creed. "I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. On the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead."

Jesus Christ has ascended to the Father. And so he is no longer limited by geography, by flesh, by time, and by space. No. Now he enjoys a universal rule over all people from the right hand of God's power. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, he told us (Matthew 28:18). Now he has authority to rule over your sins and to forgive them and to do away with them. Now he has the power to defeat the forces of evil and death in your life and to give you eternal life. Now he has the love to send his Spirit into your hearts and to transform you and to make you a new person from the inside out. Now he can give you the fruits of his Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), so that you have true life and have it abundantly.

The main point of our text, therefore, is that we are witnesses of all these things. We have not been called into the Christian faith as disciples of our Lord to stand around and to engage in idle speculation. Rather, we have been called to tell about our new life in Christ to all the persons around us, and in fact, to the ends of the earth. We are called to go into all the world and to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us. We are called by the way we live our lives and by the way we speak to testify in our homes and in our society and in our world that Jesus Christ is ascended to the Father and now reigns as Lord over all. We are summoned to all of that, so that finally every knee will willingly bow and every tongue will joyfully confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And then when the end does come, good Christians, our Lord will be able to say to us, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the kingdom prepared for you."