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Acts 1:6-11 : The Promise to Return

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6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

11 Which also 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.

Commentary

 

The Promise to Return

By Junchol Lee


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The sun breaks through the clouds.

In Acts 1:6-11, we read of the ascension of Jesus along with the promise of his return, which has been a major source of hope and anticipation for Christians for the past two millennia. I still remember, as if it happened yesterday, the fever of the spiritually and emotionally charged people praying and crying for the return of Jesus Christ at a Pentecost Sunday evening service back in 1986, when I was a youth member of a Korean Presbyterian church in Korea. I would like to explore what the promise of return meant to the disciples and the first Christians and in what way this can still be significant to us living in the 21st century.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Scriptural Confirmations #6

  
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6. 4. If any one preacheth any other gospel than that which He preached let him be accursed (Galatians 1:8-9).

I live, no more I, but Christ liveth in me (Galatians 2:20). The power which God wrought in Christ, wherefore He set Him at His own right hand above the heavens, above all principalities, power, and might, etc., and hath put all things under His feet, and hath given Him to be the head over all things of the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all (Ephesians 1:20-23).

Through Christ we have access in one Spirit unto the Father. Christ is the corner stone, by whom the whole building framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, through whom ye also are builded together into an habitation of God in the spirit (Ephesians 2:18, 20-22).

God hath founded all things by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:9).

One body and one Spirit; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all; and unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Ephesians 4:4-7).

He that descended is also the same that ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things (Ephesians 4:10).

For the edifying of the body of Christ, and that the church is the body and Christ the head (Ephesians 4:12, 15-16).

We are members of His body; of His flesh, and of His bones (Ephesians 5:30).

By faith we have access to Christ in confidence (Ephesians 3:12).

Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body (Ephesians 5:23).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

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