Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Jesus is taken up

Acts 1v9 “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”

I find it interesting that in all three recordings of Jesus’ ascension (Mark, Luke, Acts), the term used is “he was taken up.” It is what is linguistically called a “passive” verb – it is not something that you do, but that is done to you. This ascension was not something Jesus did, but which the Father did. Jesus was simply there to allow it to happen. The Father considered Jesus’s work on earth totally completed – he had died for our sins, brought the first fruits of the resurrection and had sufficient time to make “many convincing proofs” of his rising to life again (Acts 1v3). Job done.

Now we enter a new phase. For when Jesus had gone to the right hand of the Father in heaven, then the Father could “pour out” the Holy Spirit on all people (Acts 2v17). Again, this was not a question of the Holy Spirit sending himself, but of the Father sending him – just as he sent Jesus a few years earlier.

God is a God of order and he does things right and in the right sequence. What are you needing to be passive about today and allow God to do?

With love and blessing,

Roland