Jesus gathers them together and they question him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?”
In some ways this seems a strange question, but not really, they still expected Him to become their earthly king. Don’t we all somehow want Christ to make us great. We want God to restore Israel to her former glory. We want to see God’s people rule the World. Jesus does not correct them, but simply says it is not for you to know, the time the father has set.
But he does tell them He is going to use them. They are going to be filled with power from God himself and they are going to tell the whole world about him.
I believe one of the points here is that they are still thinking, here in Jerusalem. Jesus has come not to make Israel the ruler of the World. Jesus has come to cleanse the World so that He can come and rule in His Grace. His intent was to give himself for the salvation of all mankind that all would worship and praise him for what he has done.
So He promises to equip them with His Word so that they might reveal His grace to all mankind. You see He wants us to join His mission. He wants us to make disciples (followers of Jesus ways) washing them clean by the power of His Word declared to them.
So He ascends to claim His heavenly throne where He rules as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and He delegates us proclaimers of His ministry of reconciliation. In doing so he demonstrates His complete authority as the one who makes all things new.
So we move forward filled with His Love and Grace. We are agents of His Word as we proclaim His forgiveness to our lost and dying world so that they may know His Grace, peace and resurrection.
Pastor Mark