The opening scene in the Book of Acts occurs on the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem. For forty days the resurrected Jesus had spent time with His disciples, fellowshipping with them, comforting them, and teaching them. As the King of kings stood upon the mountain, He empowered and commissioned the disciples to carry the Good News beyond the limits of their imaginations: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
“After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). Imagine it! Wow!
“While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven’ ” (Acts 1:10-11).
The two angelic beings rightly referred to the disciples as “Men of Galilee.”
The disciples weren’t governmental authorities from Rome.
They weren’t religious leaders from Jerusalem.
They weren’t scholars educated in the best universities of Athens or Alexandria.
They weren’t rich and powerful businessmen from trade centers like Ephesus or Syrian Antioch.
The “Men of Galilee” were blue-collar folk, simple men from the unspectacular region of Galilee in northern Israel.
Like me and you, they weren’t extraordinary… they were ordinary. And like me and you, they were friends of God, chosen, gifted, blessed… not because they deserved it, but because God is gracious.
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).
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