For John was baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1: 5
First Reading - Pastor Mark Lund
Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up into heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. he appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the Kingdom of God. One one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 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.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Acts 1: 1-11
Epistle Reading - Pastor Mark Lund
Thanksgiving and Prayer
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and you love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlighten in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same sas the might strength he exerted when he raised Christ form the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far about all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things underlies feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
