Final Instructions for Recovered People

Ezekiel 37: 1-14       Acts 1: 1-11

The last minute instructions of a coach or a leader or a teacher are vital. These sum up what really matters

A key matter was that He told His chosen leaders to stay in Jerusalem until they have been clothed in power from above. He knows they can't do the job as required without the power from on high.

This power would arrive in the form of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit which would soon occur in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit would also ensure that they carried on where Jesus had physically finished on earth.

The Holy Spirit would provide a new power for them to witness to the world all that Jesus had begun to do and teach until the day He was taken up into glory. The Spirit's ministry within them would complete the task of spreading the kingdom of God, under Jesus Christ the King.

With these instructions ringing in their ears He was taken up before them as they stood looking to the heavens.

"Why do you stand looking?", asked two men dressed in white (Luke 24: 4), who were eager to ensure them that their separation from Jesus was not permanent.

It was clear that the task was now ahead to prepare the way for Christ's return. Everything that Jesus had started they would now carry through. thus, when the Spirit arrived would begin the new testament community of the church of Jesus Christ.

They were a new people shaped by the cross and the empty grave of Jesus, and filled with the expectation of a whole new beginning.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth". (Acts 1: 8 cf Luke 24: 48,49)

Nothing has changed. The missionary mandate has continued (Mathew 28: 18-20). We are left with those instructions ringing in our ears, with burning heartd and renewed minds. Jesus the Saviour has come and He will come back soon! Let us be ready and on duty!