The resurrected Jesus, according to Luke as he informs us in Acts, spent forty days with the disciples. During this time he gave irrefutable proofs that he was risen from the dead. Luke uses a particular phrase which the ancient historians used to describe the sort of proof which requires a conclusion. One cannot help but conclude that Jesus of Nazareth, crucified, placed in a tomb, is now the risen One, affirmed by God as the Christ. His encounters with his disciples, some of which Luke has preserved in his gospel, provide this proof.

Jesus also used that forty days to teach concerning the Kingdom of God, and the fulfilment of the promise that Jesus would baptise with the Spirit of God.  The disciples thought straight away of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. Jesus widens their vision, and advises them that the Kingdom of God will extend over the whole earth. God includes all and everything within this reign.

Then Jesus is taken into heaven. Both Jewish and Gentile listeners to the story as it was retold them, would recognise in this that Jesus was especially favoured by God. The Gentile listeners would think of deification, whilst the Jewish ones would recall some of their heroes, such as Baruch and Enoch. These men were believed to have been taken up into heaven. Especially they would recall the prophet Elijah, who was taken up into heaven and cast his mantle onto Elisha as his successor. He promised that Elisha would have double the portion of God’s spirit compared to how Elijah experienced that spirit.

This suggests that the disciples, and us, have inherited the Spirit of God in such a manner so that we might be enabled to work with God in the bringing in of the Kingdom.  It is this work Jesus wants us to focus on; not mere speculation as to when this work might be accomplished through the re-appearance of our Lord. 

                                                                                              Louis van Laar