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Parting
May 3, 2026
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We have been going through the resurrection of Jesus. We think of it as the great day when he came out of the tomb and the angels talked to the women and this part that we've been going over is how he kept meeting with disciples and appearing to them over 40 days so they would see the proof that he is who he says he is and that he isn't a ghost and that he has taken on all the sins of the world. He has risen from the grave and he's working with them to get them to be ready and able to receive the Holy Spirit and when that time comes we have something called the ascension and that's where we're at in the book of Acts today which again as we talked about last week this is like part two of Luke.
Luke's gospel is the life of Jesus and here is resurrection rising and coming of the Holy Spirit and what the act what the Holy Spirit does in action through the Apostles. Will you stand as you are able? Acts 1, 6 through 11. So when they had come together they asked him Lord would you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel he said to them it is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the father is fixed by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judah and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth and when he had said these things as they were looking on he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight and while they were gazing into the head into heaven as he went behold two men stood by them in robes and said men of Galilee why do you stand looking into heaven this Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go to heaven the Word of God inspired by God for the people of God thanks be to God amen you may be seated so I don't know if you picked it up but when Dana's scripture that he read I call it Dana's scripture Luke's writing of the Lord's scripture that Dana read that's a lot of layers to get to you Dana and when he read those that is like this is like a condensed version that Luke said okay I need to end it with Jesus life on this earth so I'm going to give you a condensed version of the Ascension which is like birth 50 verse 50 is the Bethany blessing where he blessed them and verse 51 is he blessed them and he departed to heaven and verse 52 and 53 say they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem and do you remember why they returned to Jerusalem the promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus gave them he said stay in Jerusalem so they came back him and they worshiped him notice that what we just read in the book of Acts has a lot more detail to that so I say that from the standpoint of people may look may pick things out of the Gospels and say see they don't say exactly the same thing but here's Luke himself saying not exactly the same thing but it's the same thing does that make sense that they are whole and they are knit and they are knit as in KNIT and they they come and they weave together but they don't always have the exact same details so don't let anyone say you know because it says this here and it says this here for example some of the Gospels say there was one angel some of them say there were two angels there could have been one angel talking for both of them some of them just focus on Mary and some of them talk focus on all the women but Mary was the one whom Jesus came and saw in the garden so when you look at this you can see that Luke was a master he could summarize things he could pull narratives apart and weave them together in a way to give you the fullness of the gospel that you needed whether it was in summary form or whether it was with a little more detail now in Acts 1 as we look at this it starts off in verse 6 by saying so they came together when they had come together now the Greek word in there is Suneir Komahi Suneir Komahi which is very similar to the word Ecclesia Ecclesia is the word we use for church and church means the assembly of the people Suneir Komahi means that they were joined together assembled or they were a company of people so it's almost a similarity of Jesus saying when two or more gathered in my name I will be there that that was like a church service they worshiped they listened they they had Jesus there before Jesus departed that when they came together they came together for worship and it's it's almost like saying anytime Christians come together it should be a time for worship now you might always not always have Monica to play the piano but we can worship God together just by praying together just by being together and inviting the presence of Jesus with us and them knowing that Jesus was present with them was so important because soon he wasn't going to be physically present and they argued about this they didn't like this in the first thing they said was okay is it time to restore the kingdom back to Israel again and Jesus said do I have to repeat myself again they've asked him this before they asked him this throughout the Gospels and Jesus said that when they came together and it's easy for me sometimes to see that and go why can't get it through their thick skulls why do they keep saying this is all about Israel well traditionally Israel had when you're talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and you're talking about the kingdom talking about Israel being restored to its rightful place as the leaders of the world and Jesus has an interesting response to them he doesn't say that's never going to happen he says it's not for you to know the times or places that the father is fixed by his own authority which is which is kind of interesting to me that he is earlier in Luke in Luke he says only the father knows not the son not the angels no one else knows but here he said it's not for you to know so it doesn't say but because he's restored to the kingdom of heaven does that mean he knows now or does that mean he's trying to tell them be like me just accept that you don't know but you need to get the world ready for my coming again when the kingdom comes again in verse eight he tells them again that you will receive the gift of power and there are two promises in here you will receive the gift of power of the Holy Spirit you will receive power and the word power is important and it flows through this whole thing so just say that word out loud power we're going to come back to that in a little you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you promise again of power from the Holy Spirit and the second promise is you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all the Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth that you will be empowered to witness before me now it's important that Jesus the disciples witnessed the ascension the disciple disciples witnessed the living Jesus they witnessed the death and the resurrection and not just the resurrection but 40 days of witnessing what Jesus had to teach them and witnessing the resurrected Christ who came before thee and this witnesses witnessing was important in that that promises for us to in the sense that we are promised the Holy Spirit and we witness now we weren't there was anybody there when Jesus was ascended no we weren't there but we witnessed to what God has done in our lives that when Jesus has done it we have allowed Christ to come into our hearts in life how that works how that changes us how that draws us and connects us with God we are witnesses to that and that's what we are to witness to the world on how amazing God is in that sense now if we continue in verse 8 it says you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth that your testimony is going to spread throughout the whole earth and that is the connection with the restoration of the kingdom and when the kingdom is restored it is when the gospel spreads throughout the whole earth and with that part of it it's kind of cool because when I was when we first came out with the name I say we when they first came out with the name global Methodist church my first response to it was like really why not just Methodist why not Wesleyan Methodist what's this global because people are going okay they're coming to me going it's global so that means like you guys are ready for one global government you guys are the progressive ones and it was hard to explain and hard to put that together with the word global and the the deepest theological reason I heard on why they used it was because every other name they could think of was already trademarked hit me right here but when I read this in Luke it's so cool because we are the global Methodist church global means we take the gospel not just here in this room not just in Overland Park not just in Johnson County not just in the KC metro area but over the whole church if you kept up on global Methodism churches are growing all over the world and the global part is directly tied to what Luke is saying right here in the book of Acts is that the witness of Jesus Christ through the global Methodist church is becoming global and that's what it's supposed to be about to the ends of the earth and that's the goal that is the mission that is the purpose that is what drives someone who is a global Methodist is that everyone in the world can hear about Jesus Christ and lives can be transformed everywhere and our job is to take the witness of Jesus to any setting we are in now in first nine it goes on in here and it says we have said these things when and when he had said these things they were looking on now when it says they were looking on it means they saw this happen they were witnesses to it and he was lifted up and I've never seen a movie where they do a good job of this but he was lifted up and he rose up and then it says and a cloud took him out of their sight so like he's standing there he raised up then a cloud comes and he gets on his scooter cloud and it takes him on out of their sight into heaven and people look at that and they say well that can't be true because we know what is beyond the clouds now scientifically we know what's beyond the clouds right but it just says it took him out of his sight and we know he went to heaven whether we're talking dimensional whether we're talking light years away however that is Luke is just saying the cloud took him to heaven and it is such a big deal that Jesus went back to heaven why is ascension important why is the ascension of Jesus Christ important this series is called Jesus rising we already know Jesus rose from the tomb so why can't we just leave it at that why does it matter that he went back to heaven where he came from and what does that have to do with us essentially is important as Jesus tried to tell them throughout his ministry on earth at the Last Supper he's he was telling the disciples you know they've been hanging out with him they've given up everything in their lives for him and he's telling them oh by the way I'm going to die and I'm going to go away and then he says in verse 28 but you should rejoice about this and they're going oh my gosh what are you talking about and he said you should rejoice because I am going to the father and the father is greater than I that he will be restored with the power they had from the beginning of time when he goes back to the father and if you love me you would have rejoiced because I'm going the father because I'm going to a place and a person and a way that is greater than me that is more of what he was called to do he was called to here to be a limited human being to stand before us and share and take on all our sins and then be restored to the power of heaven in fact in Matthew 22 44 he quotes Psalm 110 1 in Hebrews quotes this too in a in a different example but in Matthew 22 4 4 he says when he is talking to the Pharisees and they are questioning him he said to them how is it then the David in spirit calls him Lord by saying the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet now in Psalm 110 that is what they knew is that's who the Messiah was going to be the Messiah would sit at the right hand of God and the important thing to know that in their tradition when you say the right hand what is he saying well let's go on to mark and mark kind of just spells it out for us in the book of Mark he says I he will sit at the right hand of the power of God meaning the right hand means power that is the power now it's not saying some of the power it's not saying part of the power it's saying the right hand of power meaning the power of God is going to come through the son the power of God is going to come through Jesus and when he ascends to heaven that he has that power and at the end of Matthew 28 we go to the part where it says go therefore make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit but before it says that it says and Jesus came to them and said all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me the authority that Jesus has been given is all every act of God comes through Jesus Christ so because he has authority the disciples when they receive the Holy Spirit will have the authority they are authorized to speak on behalf of the kingdom of God and that authority says you have the authority to go everywhere and tell people about me tell people about the kingdom of heaven tell people about the gospel of Jesus Christ that offers grace and mercy but the truth to help us grow into who God has called us to be from the beginning of time we are authorized as disciples of Jesus Christ to be his witnesses just like they were sometimes just so you know I write the article for the newsletter on something I can't I don't have time to expand on on Sunday morning so if you haven't read last week's newsletter yet and you want to read more about Jesus receiving all authority go check that out I'll just leave it at that right now finally in verse 10 it says he was gazing as the disciples were gazing in the heaven two men in white robes came and stood by them now can you imagine that when have you ever experienced the fourth of July and you look up in the sky and you go and then you're in the middle of the grand finale you know what it goes and you see it cover in the whole sky and you're just about ready to throw your last out and two guys in white robes come to you and say move along you got something to do why did they do this why didn't they just let them enjoy this moment and go on well there's something about it that says there's more to being a Christian than staring in the heaven waiting for Jesus to return that makes some people stare at heaven and wait for Jesus to return like okay Jesus come take care of this mess and Jesus said you go in the middle of that mess and pray for people and witness before them and share the love that I shared for you with them you go into the midst of that mess and you do what I have called you to do John Pohill says there's there's a parallel here that the angels at the tomb remember the two angels of the tomb the two men in white robes I should say came to the women and they said you know they knew what they were doing but they said why are you looking for the dead the living among the dead as in you don't need to anoint Jesus with those spices he's alive why are you at the grave why are you at a place of death when he's taking you when he has gone into a place of life and so it's similar that the two men in white robes the two angels are here with the disciples saying why are you staring up into heaven he's got a job for you go serve love give bring hope to a world that seems so hopeless bring light to a world that sees so much darkness you have a job to do go do that job now and then it's interesting what they say to him is hey he's gonna come in the same way it's not gonna be hidden it's not gonna be obscure it's not gonna be in a corner of the earth he's gonna come on that cloud like the Son of Man when he comes on the cloud it'll be the ends of the earth and it'll be when Jesus is restoring the power of the kingdom of God and Mark says sit he will sit at the right hand of power until he comes on the clouds on the cloud in authority and he has that authority now a few weeks ago I was spending my lunch like all of you spend it I was sitting around having lunch with a couple of Baptists and this is not it this is not leading to there was a Baptist pastor and a Methodist pastor but the Baptists were having a conversation about something they had heard and they said to each other they were talking about the rapture now I'm trying to think I can count on all my hands together how many Methodist pastors I've had who wait there's none who have ever mentioned the rapture and I eat there are even leaders in the method in the global Methodist Church who say there is no rapture now the Bible says in Colossians will be taken up and Jesus talks about how they'll be two in the field one disappeared so there's something to it there but let's just say when you're talking about the rapture and you're talking about tribulation I'm kind of out of my water with the with the education I have and they were talking about pre tribulation post mid tribulation and post tribulation and those three things mean that's when Jesus is going to return pre trip means Jesus comes before the tribulation comes before the end of days come and takes all his disciples to heaven pulls them out of the world mid trip says well it started but it's not all the way through and then Jesus takes him out post trip says it starts and then you have to endure all the junk everybody else does and then he'll take you out at the end and so they turn to the Methodist pastor when they're having their conversation on pre trip post trip or mid trip and they're going so what are the Methodist think about this which is a little bit like going I know what the Methodist think about this and I said here's my philosophy on it we live like it's post trip like we have to endure everything we have to endure hardship we have to endure the end days we have to endure when the seals are open and everything happens on the earth but we pray that it's pre trip that we don't have to endure it and I thought by their expressions they said oh that makes sense they liked that and then they they pushed me further and said well what a Methodist say about Jesus returning really and I said we believe that Jesus is coming Jesus is coming again you know just like the Apostles Creed says he's coming again so be ready for it that's all I said so be ready for it but I believe Lucan theology pours in the Methodist theology where Luke is saying that the angels said he was taken up to heaven but he's coming again so you go be ready is what he was telling the disciples and what happens in acts pours out to what we are called to do you go be ready you be ready for whatever God has you go be ready for this and the escalate eschatological fact that we have is that Jesus is coming again so be ready be ready don't wait don't wait drawing closer to God be ready now don't wait to be witnesses for God witness to God now don't wait till the perfect situation witness to God now don't wait till you see Jesus coming again on the clouds worship him praise him glorify him and share him with the world let's pray almighty God thank you so much for the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ help us to have the faith to know that the one whom we worship in Jesus Christ is the one who has all authority on heaven and earth and you will give us the power to testify and to witness everywhere in Jesus name amen
Luke's gospel is the life of Jesus and here is resurrection rising and coming of the Holy Spirit and what the act what the Holy Spirit does in action through the Apostles. Will you stand as you are able? Acts 1, 6 through 11. So when they had come together they asked him Lord would you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel he said to them it is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the father is fixed by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judah and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth and when he had said these things as they were looking on he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight and while they were gazing into the head into heaven as he went behold two men stood by them in robes and said men of Galilee why do you stand looking into heaven this Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go to heaven the Word of God inspired by God for the people of God thanks be to God amen you may be seated so I don't know if you picked it up but when Dana's scripture that he read I call it Dana's scripture Luke's writing of the Lord's scripture that Dana read that's a lot of layers to get to you Dana and when he read those that is like this is like a condensed version that Luke said okay I need to end it with Jesus life on this earth so I'm going to give you a condensed version of the Ascension which is like birth 50 verse 50 is the Bethany blessing where he blessed them and verse 51 is he blessed them and he departed to heaven and verse 52 and 53 say they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem and do you remember why they returned to Jerusalem the promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus gave them he said stay in Jerusalem so they came back him and they worshiped him notice that what we just read in the book of Acts has a lot more detail to that so I say that from the standpoint of people may look may pick things out of the Gospels and say see they don't say exactly the same thing but here's Luke himself saying not exactly the same thing but it's the same thing does that make sense that they are whole and they are knit and they are knit as in KNIT and they they come and they weave together but they don't always have the exact same details so don't let anyone say you know because it says this here and it says this here for example some of the Gospels say there was one angel some of them say there were two angels there could have been one angel talking for both of them some of them just focus on Mary and some of them talk focus on all the women but Mary was the one whom Jesus came and saw in the garden so when you look at this you can see that Luke was a master he could summarize things he could pull narratives apart and weave them together in a way to give you the fullness of the gospel that you needed whether it was in summary form or whether it was with a little more detail now in Acts 1 as we look at this it starts off in verse 6 by saying so they came together when they had come together now the Greek word in there is Suneir Komahi Suneir Komahi which is very similar to the word Ecclesia Ecclesia is the word we use for church and church means the assembly of the people Suneir Komahi means that they were joined together assembled or they were a company of people so it's almost a similarity of Jesus saying when two or more gathered in my name I will be there that that was like a church service they worshiped they listened they they had Jesus there before Jesus departed that when they came together they came together for worship and it's it's almost like saying anytime Christians come together it should be a time for worship now you might always not always have Monica to play the piano but we can worship God together just by praying together just by being together and inviting the presence of Jesus with us and them knowing that Jesus was present with them was so important because soon he wasn't going to be physically present and they argued about this they didn't like this in the first thing they said was okay is it time to restore the kingdom back to Israel again and Jesus said do I have to repeat myself again they've asked him this before they asked him this throughout the Gospels and Jesus said that when they came together and it's easy for me sometimes to see that and go why can't get it through their thick skulls why do they keep saying this is all about Israel well traditionally Israel had when you're talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and you're talking about the kingdom talking about Israel being restored to its rightful place as the leaders of the world and Jesus has an interesting response to them he doesn't say that's never going to happen he says it's not for you to know the times or places that the father is fixed by his own authority which is which is kind of interesting to me that he is earlier in Luke in Luke he says only the father knows not the son not the angels no one else knows but here he said it's not for you to know so it doesn't say but because he's restored to the kingdom of heaven does that mean he knows now or does that mean he's trying to tell them be like me just accept that you don't know but you need to get the world ready for my coming again when the kingdom comes again in verse eight he tells them again that you will receive the gift of power and there are two promises in here you will receive the gift of power of the Holy Spirit you will receive power and the word power is important and it flows through this whole thing so just say that word out loud power we're going to come back to that in a little you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you promise again of power from the Holy Spirit and the second promise is you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all the Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth that you will be empowered to witness before me now it's important that Jesus the disciples witnessed the ascension the disciple disciples witnessed the living Jesus they witnessed the death and the resurrection and not just the resurrection but 40 days of witnessing what Jesus had to teach them and witnessing the resurrected Christ who came before thee and this witnesses witnessing was important in that that promises for us to in the sense that we are promised the Holy Spirit and we witness now we weren't there was anybody there when Jesus was ascended no we weren't there but we witnessed to what God has done in our lives that when Jesus has done it we have allowed Christ to come into our hearts in life how that works how that changes us how that draws us and connects us with God we are witnesses to that and that's what we are to witness to the world on how amazing God is in that sense now if we continue in verse 8 it says you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth that your testimony is going to spread throughout the whole earth and that is the connection with the restoration of the kingdom and when the kingdom is restored it is when the gospel spreads throughout the whole earth and with that part of it it's kind of cool because when I was when we first came out with the name I say we when they first came out with the name global Methodist church my first response to it was like really why not just Methodist why not Wesleyan Methodist what's this global because people are going okay they're coming to me going it's global so that means like you guys are ready for one global government you guys are the progressive ones and it was hard to explain and hard to put that together with the word global and the the deepest theological reason I heard on why they used it was because every other name they could think of was already trademarked hit me right here but when I read this in Luke it's so cool because we are the global Methodist church global means we take the gospel not just here in this room not just in Overland Park not just in Johnson County not just in the KC metro area but over the whole church if you kept up on global Methodism churches are growing all over the world and the global part is directly tied to what Luke is saying right here in the book of Acts is that the witness of Jesus Christ through the global Methodist church is becoming global and that's what it's supposed to be about to the ends of the earth and that's the goal that is the mission that is the purpose that is what drives someone who is a global Methodist is that everyone in the world can hear about Jesus Christ and lives can be transformed everywhere and our job is to take the witness of Jesus to any setting we are in now in first nine it goes on in here and it says we have said these things when and when he had said these things they were looking on now when it says they were looking on it means they saw this happen they were witnesses to it and he was lifted up and I've never seen a movie where they do a good job of this but he was lifted up and he rose up and then it says and a cloud took him out of their sight so like he's standing there he raised up then a cloud comes and he gets on his scooter cloud and it takes him on out of their sight into heaven and people look at that and they say well that can't be true because we know what is beyond the clouds now scientifically we know what's beyond the clouds right but it just says it took him out of his sight and we know he went to heaven whether we're talking dimensional whether we're talking light years away however that is Luke is just saying the cloud took him to heaven and it is such a big deal that Jesus went back to heaven why is ascension important why is the ascension of Jesus Christ important this series is called Jesus rising we already know Jesus rose from the tomb so why can't we just leave it at that why does it matter that he went back to heaven where he came from and what does that have to do with us essentially is important as Jesus tried to tell them throughout his ministry on earth at the Last Supper he's he was telling the disciples you know they've been hanging out with him they've given up everything in their lives for him and he's telling them oh by the way I'm going to die and I'm going to go away and then he says in verse 28 but you should rejoice about this and they're going oh my gosh what are you talking about and he said you should rejoice because I am going to the father and the father is greater than I that he will be restored with the power they had from the beginning of time when he goes back to the father and if you love me you would have rejoiced because I'm going the father because I'm going to a place and a person and a way that is greater than me that is more of what he was called to do he was called to here to be a limited human being to stand before us and share and take on all our sins and then be restored to the power of heaven in fact in Matthew 22 44 he quotes Psalm 110 1 in Hebrews quotes this too in a in a different example but in Matthew 22 4 4 he says when he is talking to the Pharisees and they are questioning him he said to them how is it then the David in spirit calls him Lord by saying the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet now in Psalm 110 that is what they knew is that's who the Messiah was going to be the Messiah would sit at the right hand of God and the important thing to know that in their tradition when you say the right hand what is he saying well let's go on to mark and mark kind of just spells it out for us in the book of Mark he says I he will sit at the right hand of the power of God meaning the right hand means power that is the power now it's not saying some of the power it's not saying part of the power it's saying the right hand of power meaning the power of God is going to come through the son the power of God is going to come through Jesus and when he ascends to heaven that he has that power and at the end of Matthew 28 we go to the part where it says go therefore make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit but before it says that it says and Jesus came to them and said all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me the authority that Jesus has been given is all every act of God comes through Jesus Christ so because he has authority the disciples when they receive the Holy Spirit will have the authority they are authorized to speak on behalf of the kingdom of God and that authority says you have the authority to go everywhere and tell people about me tell people about the kingdom of heaven tell people about the gospel of Jesus Christ that offers grace and mercy but the truth to help us grow into who God has called us to be from the beginning of time we are authorized as disciples of Jesus Christ to be his witnesses just like they were sometimes just so you know I write the article for the newsletter on something I can't I don't have time to expand on on Sunday morning so if you haven't read last week's newsletter yet and you want to read more about Jesus receiving all authority go check that out I'll just leave it at that right now finally in verse 10 it says he was gazing as the disciples were gazing in the heaven two men in white robes came and stood by them now can you imagine that when have you ever experienced the fourth of July and you look up in the sky and you go and then you're in the middle of the grand finale you know what it goes and you see it cover in the whole sky and you're just about ready to throw your last out and two guys in white robes come to you and say move along you got something to do why did they do this why didn't they just let them enjoy this moment and go on well there's something about it that says there's more to being a Christian than staring in the heaven waiting for Jesus to return that makes some people stare at heaven and wait for Jesus to return like okay Jesus come take care of this mess and Jesus said you go in the middle of that mess and pray for people and witness before them and share the love that I shared for you with them you go into the midst of that mess and you do what I have called you to do John Pohill says there's there's a parallel here that the angels at the tomb remember the two angels of the tomb the two men in white robes I should say came to the women and they said you know they knew what they were doing but they said why are you looking for the dead the living among the dead as in you don't need to anoint Jesus with those spices he's alive why are you at the grave why are you at a place of death when he's taking you when he has gone into a place of life and so it's similar that the two men in white robes the two angels are here with the disciples saying why are you staring up into heaven he's got a job for you go serve love give bring hope to a world that seems so hopeless bring light to a world that sees so much darkness you have a job to do go do that job now and then it's interesting what they say to him is hey he's gonna come in the same way it's not gonna be hidden it's not gonna be obscure it's not gonna be in a corner of the earth he's gonna come on that cloud like the Son of Man when he comes on the cloud it'll be the ends of the earth and it'll be when Jesus is restoring the power of the kingdom of God and Mark says sit he will sit at the right hand of power until he comes on the clouds on the cloud in authority and he has that authority now a few weeks ago I was spending my lunch like all of you spend it I was sitting around having lunch with a couple of Baptists and this is not it this is not leading to there was a Baptist pastor and a Methodist pastor but the Baptists were having a conversation about something they had heard and they said to each other they were talking about the rapture now I'm trying to think I can count on all my hands together how many Methodist pastors I've had who wait there's none who have ever mentioned the rapture and I eat there are even leaders in the method in the global Methodist Church who say there is no rapture now the Bible says in Colossians will be taken up and Jesus talks about how they'll be two in the field one disappeared so there's something to it there but let's just say when you're talking about the rapture and you're talking about tribulation I'm kind of out of my water with the with the education I have and they were talking about pre tribulation post mid tribulation and post tribulation and those three things mean that's when Jesus is going to return pre trip means Jesus comes before the tribulation comes before the end of days come and takes all his disciples to heaven pulls them out of the world mid trip says well it started but it's not all the way through and then Jesus takes him out post trip says it starts and then you have to endure all the junk everybody else does and then he'll take you out at the end and so they turn to the Methodist pastor when they're having their conversation on pre trip post trip or mid trip and they're going so what are the Methodist think about this which is a little bit like going I know what the Methodist think about this and I said here's my philosophy on it we live like it's post trip like we have to endure everything we have to endure hardship we have to endure the end days we have to endure when the seals are open and everything happens on the earth but we pray that it's pre trip that we don't have to endure it and I thought by their expressions they said oh that makes sense they liked that and then they they pushed me further and said well what a Methodist say about Jesus returning really and I said we believe that Jesus is coming Jesus is coming again you know just like the Apostles Creed says he's coming again so be ready for it that's all I said so be ready for it but I believe Lucan theology pours in the Methodist theology where Luke is saying that the angels said he was taken up to heaven but he's coming again so you go be ready is what he was telling the disciples and what happens in acts pours out to what we are called to do you go be ready you be ready for whatever God has you go be ready for this and the escalate eschatological fact that we have is that Jesus is coming again so be ready be ready don't wait don't wait drawing closer to God be ready now don't wait to be witnesses for God witness to God now don't wait till the perfect situation witness to God now don't wait till you see Jesus coming again on the clouds worship him praise him glorify him and share him with the world let's pray almighty God thank you so much for the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ help us to have the faith to know that the one whom we worship in Jesus Christ is the one who has all authority on heaven and earth and you will give us the power to testify and to witness everywhere in Jesus name amen