This is the way that those who saw the risen Savior greeted those who had not yet seen Him (Luke 24:34). In Acts 1:3, we read that Jesus “shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”

It is evident that Jesus showed Himself alive to His beloved disciples to prove that He was indeed risen. It is equally evident that He aimed to wean them from His physical presence so that they, and we, would live by faith and not by sight. “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

The other thing they needed to learn, even at Christ’s final appearance and when He was about to ascend into heaven, is that Christ’s kingdom is not of this world.

They asked Him, 'Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?'Acts1:6

They were so focused on ‘what meets the eye’ that they failed to hear what Jesus had just said and what He had taught them both before and after His resurrection, namely that “they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (v. 5). We also are in  danger of missing this important teaching when we look more at how many people join our church and participate in our ministries at the expense of praying for, seeing, and appre­ciating the power of the Holy Spirit in the conversion of sinners and their sanctification.

After His final promise to send the Holy Spirit to enable them to “be witnesses” unto Him (v. 8), He “was taken up” (v. 9). This time they were not sad as they were when He left them the first time to die on the cross. You know how utterly distraught and fearful they were, thinking it was all over.

This time, we read in Luke 24:52, 'they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.'

Jesus had told them before His death,

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Though it was clear that He spoke of His ascension, it is equally clear that His forthcoming death and resurrection were a very essential part of that preparation of a place for them in glory.

So, the third lesson they learned was that though Christ ascended and “a cloud received him out of their sight” (v. 9), He was not really gone. We too must remem­ber that when we go back to work after a wonderful Lord’s Day in fellowship with Him and other believers. He still is with us, as the Heidelberg Catechism so beautifully expresses; “with respect to His Godhead, majesty, grace and spirit, He is at no time absent from us” (Q. 47).

A final lesson we learn is that they prayerfully pre­pared for the coming of the Holy Spirit and for ministry. They did not run ahead of the Lord, nor did they sit back passively, saying, “Well, if the Holy Spirit will come He will.” No, we read, “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication” (v. 14), and they were still there on the day of Pentecost! They knew it would happen as the Lord Jesus had said. So it is today as we wait on Him while we wait for Him, knowing that He will answer our prayers, certainly those in which we express our desire to know and serve Him better. We wait not in unbelief but in faith with expectation.

As the psalmist says,

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.Ps. 130:5

It then is not a matter of if, but when it will happen.