“Go therefore and make Disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” –Matthew 28:19-20 (NRSVCE)
Image Courtesy: St. Paul Street Evangelization
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
In the first Book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when He was taken up to Heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom He had chosen. After His suffering He presented Himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the Kingdom of God. While staying with them, He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of The Father. “This” He said “is what you have heard from Me, for John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (See: Matthew 3:11)
The Ascension of Jesus
So when they had come together they asked Him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the Kingdom to Israel?’
Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be My witness in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
When He had said this as they were watching, He was lifted up and a cloud took Him out of their sight.
While He was going and they were gazing up toward Heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them, they said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward Heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you in Heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into Heaven.” –Acts 1:1-11
Paul an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the Will of God — Grace to you and peace from God, Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Blessings In Christ
Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places, just as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be Holy and blameless before Him in love, He destined us for adoption as His children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us.
With all wisdom and insight, He has made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure that He set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in Him, things in Heaven and things on earth.
In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of Him who accomplishes all things according to His counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of His glory.
In Him you also, when you had heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation and had believed in Him, were marked with the Seal of the promised Holy Spirit, this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of His glory.
Paul’s Prayer
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the Saint’s and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the Saint’s and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe, according to the working of His great power.
God put this power to work in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the Heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come and He has put all things under His feet and has made Him the head over all things for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. –Ephesians1:1; 2-23
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