"HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN."
Once more the Lord met His little company of followers and gave the
apostles authority to found the Kingdom of God among men. "All power
has been given to me," He said, "in heaven and on earth."
And this was the work that He gave them to do: "Go ye therefore and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you."
And this was His true word of promise to them: "Lo I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world. And, behold, I send the
promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem
until ye be endued with power from on high."
It was about six weeks after His death that the disciples were again in
Jerusalem where the Lord had told them to go and wait for the coming of
His Spirit. He led them out over the Mount of Olives as far as
Bethany, where the house of Martha had been a place of rest and
refreshment for the homeless Man of Sorrows while He was founding His
Kingdom of Heaven on the earth.
As they ascended a hill just above Bethany, the Lord could see spread
out before Him the Hebron hills toward Bethlehem where He was born: the
great city with its golden Temple where He had taught and had been
rejected; Gethsemane, where He had suffered, and had been betrayed; and
beyond the western walls the place where He had been crucified. Not
far from Golgotha was the garden and the tomb in which He had been
buried, and from which He had risen.
He was about to leave the little group that He had made the founders of
His Kingdom, and one of them ventured a question,
"Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?"
And the Lord replied,
"It is not for you to know the time and the seasons, which the Father
hath put in His own power. But ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost
parts of the earth."
Then He blessed them, and while they were looking at Him He was lifted
above them, and a cloud seemed to come between them and their Divine
Master.
[Illustration: The Ascension]
While they still gazed toward heaven hoping perhaps to see Him again,
two men in white garments stood by them and said,
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."
Then they worshipped their ascended Lord, and returned to Jerusalem
full of joy and praise, to meet the other disciples in the upper room,
to tell them of what they had seen, and to wait for the Promise of the
Father.