Gateway to Faith

An Unexpected Outcome.

“Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Recently, my Pastor has been talking about the many paradoxes, not only in life, but the vast array of them found in Scripture. A paradox is an unexpected outcome or something that seems contradictory or absurd but may in fact be true.  When Jesus walked on earth the paradoxes or unexpected outcomes exploded!  

Here, in just a handful of verses in Acts, I see a number of paradoxes. First of all, Israel was under Roman rule at the time of Jesus and Judea, particularly, was under direct Roman rule.  A ruling that was often oppressive to the Jews. There are many prophesies that a conquering Messiah would come and save his people from this type of oppression and bring justice. (Isaiah 9:1-7 & 42:1,4, Daniel 7, Ps 2,  Zechariah 9:9-12, just to name a few). There are over 300 prophesies of the Messiah in the Old Testament. While many of them were a glorious King, some propheies were of a suffering, lowly servant. Contradictory? Paradoxical? Which one, if you were living in oppression, would you fantasize about or focus on?

As the disciples got to know Jesus, the unexpected or paradoxes came at them constantly. I can only imagine how many times their thinking was turned upside down. The questions and then unexpected answers. Run-ins with the religious elite. His co-mingle with the sinners, tax-collectors and lepers. And the ultimate paradox that, despite prophesies and Jesus warning them about it, was that their miracle-performing, Messianic King was put to death in the most hideous of ways! 

In verses 6-11 of Acts 1, we see more of the same. I can’t imagine how many times the disciples wondered where on earth was this all-conquering Messiah that crushes his enemies? What was in front of them was a humble, gentile, servant, homeless, impoverished commoner.

Then, he rose from the dead and performed powerful, convincing miracles, wow! They all had to be finally convinced he was the long-foretold Messiah. These men were well versed in the Scriptures so they had known the many prophecies. But they had never seen him in a kingly role that was ready to conquer the earth.  So, the long suppressed question finally comes out as you see in verse 6. “Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?” But they didn’t get the answer, I imagine, they were hoping for. Jesus’ answer was, “it’s not for you to know the times…” or, In layman’s terms, “non of your business.” Instead, Jesus tells them he has work for them to do, to be his witnesses across the whole known world of the time. Didn’t see that one coming, huh?

Next he is wisked away into heaven (didn’t see that one coming either) and Angles ask them, what I think is the most silly of questions. “Men, why do you stand gazing up at the sky?”  Are you kidding me? I mean why wouldn’t they be staring in amazement at what they had just seen. These poor guys had been stunned and dumbfounded time after time after time.  Their heads had to be spinning from the front row seat they had observed over the last 3 years, not to mention the last 43 days!!

Do you ever feel that way? Like your world has just been turned upside down?  What you expected was just the opposite. It’s overwhelming and frustrating at times. We don’t have the foreknowledge that the Lord has, so most of the time, we are really in the dark about what is ahead. A friend of mine describes it as walking with this constant curtain in front of you that doesn’t ever seem to part open.

Well, the future isn’t for us to know. Things won’t always make sense. We won’t always know what is going to happen in the next 5 minutes, let alone the next 5 years. Our worlds can be totally turned upside down with a simple phone call. Many of you have felt that sting.

Even the prophets of old yearned to understand the timing of the things they were predicting. (1 Peter 1:10-12 Daniel 12:4-13) It can be tough, in fact, sometimes quite painful to feel like you are in the dark for God’s plans and timing. Yet, the reason why the Angel’s question wasn’t as absurd or silly as it initially seemed to me, for they give the rational to what turns out to be a quite reasonable question. “This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go.” A clue. A sneak peak of what might be behind that curtain. He is coming back. The prophesies you all already know, are true! This odd, seemingly insurmountable circumstance you find yourself in, is not the end of the story. In fact, just when you think it’s the end, it may very well be a beginning. A paradox in the making. There is a bigger plan. More than you can imagine. Why are you staring at the sky? Why are you doubting? Why are you feeling like it’s the end?  This same Jesus will come. Will make all the wrongs, right. Will save. Will conquer. Will keep his promise. An unexpected (for us) outcome will be just as He expected and planned, paradoxically so…