After Jesus rose from the dead, He walked and talked on earth for forty days. Then He gathered His disciples on a mountain near a town called Bethany. The time had come for Jesus to return to His Father in heaven.

Before Jesus left the earth, He told the disciples to preach the good news of God’s love to all people (Matthew 28:18–20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8). He also told the disciples to stay in the city until they “received that power from heaven” (Luke 24:49 ncv). By “power from heaven,” Jesus meant the arrival of the Holy Spirit. This would happen later in Jerusalem and is called “Pentecost” (Acts 2:1–4).

Then Jesus ascended. He was “taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19). The word ascension means “the act of going up.”

As Jesus went up to heaven, the Bible says that a cloud hid Jesus from the disciples’ sight (Acts 1:9).