The Ascension of the Lord is not the loss of a leader, nor the end of a promise when He said, “I will be with you until the end of time.” Rather, it is a step in the growth of His church. The disciples have to start from Jerusalem, the center of God’s people in the Old Testament. Our Church has its roots in the Jewish people, but it will leave Jerusalem to go to the end of the world and become a universal church.
They have to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit before starting their mission. The Church is not sitting out its time here on earth, waiting for the second coming of Jesus. We live in the time of the Spirit, and we have a mission to fulfill in this world. The kingdom of heaven is not setting in upon Jesus’ second coming. It is coming when we live here on earth in obedience to his Spirit.
