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the students and Jesus were together, they were questioning him, saying, “Master, is it time for you to set up Israel’s kingdom again?”He told them,
“The Father sets times and moments by his own power, and it’s not for you to know them. Instead, you’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You’ll be my witnesses in both Jerusalem and all Judea, and Samaria, and the far side of the world.” As they watched him say this,
Jesus was lifted up. A cloud concealed him from their eyes. As they were intently staring into the sky where he went, look: Two men, in white robes, had been there with them.They said, “Men, Galileans: Why have you been standing here staring into the sky? This Jesus, this one who was taken from you into the sky: He will come back this way, in the same way you saw him go into the sky.”
—Luke,
The Greek (and Hebrew) word for “sky” can also be translated “heaven.” Not that heaven, the plane of existence of God, is in the sky—or anywhere in our universe. They don’t become the same place until the End. But Jesus needed them to see him leave this plane, in a way they could relate to; in a way impossible, at the time, for them to follow.
The reason this is an Advent scripture is ’cause of the message the men in white gave the students: Jesus is coming back. He went up. And later, he’s coming back down.