What Are You Looking At?

March 29, 2026

Forty days after the resurrection, the risen Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives with His closest followers. He had proven He was alive—eating fish, teaching Scripture, opening minds that had once been locked in confusion. He spoke plainly about the kingdom of God. Then He issued the final marching orders: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

A moment later He was taken up before their eyes. A cloud hid Him from sight.

The disciples did what any of us would do: they froze, necks craned, eyes glued to the sky, staring into empty blue as if sheer willpower could pull Him back down.

That is when two men in white appeared and asked the question that still cuts through every prophecy conference, every end-times podcast, and every late-night headline scroll:

**“Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky?”** (Acts 1:11)

They were not told to stop believing in the return of Christ. They were told to stop letting that belief paralyze them.

Fundamentalist brothers and sisters, this text is written for us. We who hold the Bible as inerrant, who refuse to soften a single verse to fit the culture, who still believe in the literal, bodily, visible return of Jesus—we are the ones most prone to becoming modern Galileans with our faces tilted heavenward and our feet stuck in place.

We have the charts. We have the timelines. We can map Daniel 9 against current Middle East headlines, distinguish pre-trib from post-trib in our sleep, and quote Ezekiel 38 faster than most people can quote John 3:16. We refresh prophecy updates the way others check sports scores. And while we are busy being right about tomorrow, Jesus is still asking the angels’ question today: *What are you looking at?*

Right here in the passage we claim to take literally, the apostles ask Jesus the very question that obsesses so many of us: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” His answer is gentle, firm, and final: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” Full stop.

Then He immediately pivots to what *is* for us to know: the power of the Holy Spirit and the mission of witness.

The same Lord who will split the clouds one day refuses to hand us a countdown clock today. The same Scriptures that promise His return command us to occupy until He comes. Yet how often do we turn eschatology into an excuse for inaction? We build bigger prophecy libraries while our neighborhoods go unevangelized. We argue about the identity of the Antichrist while the lonely widow three doors down has never heard the Gospel. We stockpile canned goods for a tribulation we cannot schedule while the single mom at church can barely afford groceries this month.

I speak as one of you. I still believe every word of Acts 1:11. I still believe Jesus is coming back literally, visibly, and soon. But the same Bible that describes the signs of the end also describes the mission of the Church—and the mission always comes first.

The early church believed the return of Christ could happen at any moment. That belief did not send them into bunkers or endless speculation. It sent them into the streets. They did not hoard resources; they sold land and laid the money at the apostles’ feet so no one among them was in need. They did not spend their days decoding current events; they spent their days preaching Christ crucified and risen. They looked at the fields white for harvest, not at the sky for signs.

So what does it look like, practically, for us to stop staring upward and start looking where Jesus is looking?

- It looks like trading your favorite end-times podcast for a genuine conversation with your Muslim coworker.

- It looks like mentoring the fatherless boy down the street instead of doom-scrolling the next headline about Israel.

- It looks like your church budget having more money for missions and mercy ministries than for new carpet or another video screen.

- It looks like teaching your children the Great Commission before you teach them the details of the Great Tribulation.

- It looks like loving the immigrant, the addict, the confused teenager, the struggling single parent—not because the culture demands it, but because Jesus commanded it and the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead now lives in us.

The angels did not rebuke the disciples for believing in the Ascension. They rebuked them for letting that belief become an excuse to stand still. The same warning lands on us. If your view of the end times makes you harsher, more fearful, more withdrawn, or more obsessed with being right than with being faithful, then you have missed the heartbeat of Acts 1.

Jesus is coming back. That is not speculation; that is settled Scripture. But until the sky splits and every eye sees Him, we are not called to be sky-watchers. We are called to be world-witnesses. The same Jesus who ascended is the same Jesus who promised, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” He is not waiting for us to finish our prophecy charts. He is waiting for us to obey the command.