Jesus ascends into heaven
1
📚O Theophilus✭, I produced the former account about all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 📚✭until the day in which he was taken up, after he had given commandments through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen✭. 3 📚To them also he showed himself alive✭ after his suffering✭ by many infallible proofs✭, being seen by them forty days✭ and speaking about the kingdom of God✭.4 📚✭And, having met with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise from the Father✭, “which, he said, “you have heard from me. 5 📚For John indeed baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit✭ not many days from now”.
6 📚✭So when they met together they questioned him, saying, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 📚✭And he said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or the dates which the Father has put under his own authority. 8 📚✭But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be witnesses for me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth”.
9 📚✭And when he had spoken these things, while they were looking, he was taken up and a cloud received him from their sight.
10 📚And while they looked steadily toward heaven as he went up, suddenly two men stood by them in white clothing. 11 📚✭And they said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same manner as you have seen him go into heaven”.
The disciples choose someone in place of Judas
12 📚✭Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is a Sabbath day’s walk from Jerusalem. 13 📚✭And when they arrived, they ascended to the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James, 14 📚✭these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
15 📚And in those days Peter stood up among the disciples✭ (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said, 16 📚✭“Men and brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke in the past through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who took Jesus. 17 📚For he was numbered with us, and was allotted a part in this ministry”.
18 📚✭Now this man purchased a field with the reward of his wickedness, and there, falling headlong, the middle of his body burst open and all his entrails spilled out. 19 📚And this became known to all who lived in Jerusalem, so that field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.
20 📚“For it is written in the book of Psalms,
Let his dwelling be deserted,
and let no one live in it.
And,
Let another take his position of overseer.
21 📚✭“Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 📚beginning with the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one must be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection”.
23 📚✭And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabas whose surname was Justus, and Matthias. 24 📚And they prayed, and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which of these two you have chosen 25 📚to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell by his transgression to go to his own place”. 26 📚And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles✭.