⁶ So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ⁹ And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight (Acts 1:6–9).

I think we can all relate to the disciples. Here in Acts 1:6–9, we see that the disciples are wondering if Jesus will finally restore the kingdom now that he has risen from the dead. Who can blame them. They’ve witnessed the miraculous! They’ve been to the mountaintop with their king! Death has been defeated! Surely, now is the time to set all things right permanently. But Jesus says,

“It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Essentially, Jesus tells them, “It’s not yet time. But it is time for you to get to work as my witnesses.”

Our small group reflected on this reality briefly just this week. God richly ministered to us as a church family through our very full Easter weekend. From our Good Friday service to a delicious, shared meal on Holy Saturday with some members to a very early and beautiful Sunrise service on Resurrection Sunday—which was followed by a breakfast feast with our whole church family!—to a beautiful, gospel-rich and Holy Spirit filled Resurrection Sunday service, God truly met us and blessed us this past weekend. Many of us felt we had been up on a mountaintop with God. And now that it was over, some of us had the post-Easter blues, and wondered, “What now?” Well, Pastor Coty reminded us that this experience is not unique.

In Mark 9:2–13, we see three of the disciples have a literal mountaintop experience. While up on a high mountain with Jesus, Peter, James, and John suddenly find themselves subsumed by Jesus’ divine glory as he is transfigured before their very eyes. The experience is so overwhelmingly glorious and terrifyingly rich that Peter—not knowing what to say but nonetheless still managing to speak—acknowledges the goodness of the situation and suggests that they build a hut for Jesus in order to stay up on the mountain! The glory of the heavenly mountaintop experience in Peter’s mind warranted remaining on the mountaintop. Now this was not a wrong desire, wanting to remain in Jesus’ glory, but the timing was not right. There still remained much left to do in the broken, sinful world before the kingdom of God would come in all its fullness with Jesus reigning in all his glory. And the very next scene reveals this.

In Mark 9:14–29, we see Jesus, Peter, James, and John descend the mountain to join up with their comrades below. There, the exact opposite of the heavenly, glorious mountaintop, a valley marked by faithlessness and demonic oppression, immediately confronts them. A father with a demon possessed son, whom the disciples could not deliver, meets Jesus. Jesus’ response to the overall situation testifies to the work that remains to be done on earth, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me” (Mark 9:19). In Jesus we see the desire to depart and be in the Father’s heavenly glory. And in light of this desire, Jesus gets to work and delivers the boy. Jesus, while ever-desiring to return to his glory and see the fullness of the kingdom of God come to earth, continues to go about doing the hard and necessary work of serving and ministering to those in need. And he would do so all the way to the cross, for his cross is the only way his glory and his kingdom would come. And his cross is the only way those in need could enter that kingdom. Jesus’ gospel mission, his service, his ministry is the only way a faithless generation becomes a faithful generation.

So in Jesus we have our perfect example. In Jesus, we see what we should do after a glorious mountaintop experience. We should go to work advancing the kingdom. We go back down into the valley of the world marked by faithlessness and demonic oppression in order to be agents of gospel deliverance. We go into the valley of the world as his witnesses, clothed in the power of the Holy Spirit whom he sent to us. We go all-in on serving, hands to the plow, never looking back. And we serve with our hearts ever-desiring one thing—seeing the king, our God, in his beauty (Psalm 27:4; Isaiah 33:17). Yes, we serve with our eyes firmly fixed on one person and one place—the author and perfecter of our faith in the everlasting city of God in that far heavenly country that is to come (Hebrews 11:10, 16; 12:2, 22; 13:14).

Thank God for the moments of mountaintop glory in this life, and cherish them. They are a sweet reprieve and boost of spiritual vitality. They are like a father sweeping up his child into his arms for a big hug. Indeed, that is what they are—our heavenly Father, sweeping us up into his joy and glory. But when the mountaintop passes, and earthly reality sets back in, keep your heart and mind fixed on the heavenly, while working with your hands in the earthly. Remember the glory you’ve seen, look to the glory that is to come, and continue on your pilgrimage to that heavenly city that sits high atop God’s holy mountain. And along the way, serve. And, by God’s grace, help deliver your enslaved fellow men in this dark valley below. You may not know the time of restoration, but restoration is sure. And your king calls you to be his witnesses. So tell people of the glory you’ve seen and of the glory that is coming.