Acts 1

I think that it's a good idea to go now back to Acts and look at what happened after John's story finished up through when Paul gets his start for the Lord. Acts is the only history book in the New Testament. Here's how it goes: http://www.esvbible.org/Acts+1/

Acts was written by Luke, who also wrote one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the Gospels). He starts with a brief introduction explaining the backstory of this book. He says that he wrote another book that detailed the life of Christ from birth to death to resurrection to ascension. Luke says that before He was taken back to Heaven, He left instructions with the disciples through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus stayed with the disciples for forty days after the resurrection and did amazing things to prove that He was still alive. Then, when Jesus knows that it is almost time for Him to leave the disciples permanently, He tells them that the time has come for Him to make good on the promis of the Holy Spirit. The disciples ask Him if that means that He will restore the Kingdom of Israel, but He tells them that they cannot predict the timing of God. He sets His own timetables, and humans have no control over them. People cannot predict when God will do things, and I think that He chooses not to do things when people predict just to show them that He has all of the authority in the universe, and no being with a finite mind can possibly predict His timing. With the Holy Spirit, the disciples receive power. This power should be used to carry the Good News all around the Earth. Then, He was taken to Heaven. A cloud surrounded Him so that they could not see Him. Jesus has to remain mysterious in His ways because we, as humans, simply do not have the ability to understand Him. After the ascension, all of the disciples just stand around looking at the sky. While they are doing so, two men in white (Angels of the Lord) appear out of nowhere and tell them to stop that foolishness. They say He will come back to Earth the way in which He went to Heaven. That means He will come back already as a man instead of as an infant as He did the first time, no one will be able to calculate the exact time of the second coming as none predicted when He would ascend, and no one will see Him coming as He was hidden from them by a cloud when He went to Heaven. It wouldn't really make sense for Christ to come flying down from the sky in front of everyone and expect them to believe He is the Son of God based purely on faith.

The disciples leave the Mount of Olives, which is the last place Jesus' human form touched the Earth, and they went back to where they were staying and gathered with about 120 people. They devoted themselves to prayer. The first thing they wanted to do, and their primary purpose was to pray about everything. The church was just beginning so think of all that they must of had to pray for. The list today hasn't gotten any shorter, it has just transformed a bit since the early days of the church. Peter says that much of what the earlier prophet predicted had come true throughout their time with Jesus. In addition, we the reader learn that Judas has died. He bought a large piece of land with the money he earned from betraying Jesus and fell to his death there while his insides spilled out. The scripture said that his land should be deserted, which happened after he died. There was no one to live there. And someone had to take his place in order to help the other disciples spread what they had witnessed in their time with Jesus all over the world. They narrow their selection down to two men, and they prayed about which one they should accept, and eventually determined it was to be a man named Matthias.