This coming Thursday is the day that some churches celebrate as Ascension Day because we know that Jesus appeared among His disciples for forty days after His resurrection and then He ascended into heaven.
Normally we would celebrate the ascension of Jesus into heaven on the Sunday after Ascension Day but because next Sunday is Mother’s Day we will take a look at that wonderful event today instead.
Acts 1:1-11
As we look up Acts 1 we need to remember what’s been going on during this past 45 days or so.
The Triumphal Entry
Jesus clearing the temple
Many discussions with the Jewish leaders
The Last Supper
The garden of Gethsemane
The betrayal
The trials
The crowd changes from Hallelujah! To Crucify Him!
The torture
The crucifixion (mockery/casting lots for clothing/darkness/earthquake/veil in the temple)
The burial
Hiding in locked rooms
The Third Day
The road to Emmaus
The fish fry
Jesus gathers with disciples multiple times
Now the eleven remaining disciples are on the Mt. of Olives with Jesus
Let’s read verses 1-11
Let’s take a look at Acts 4:6 NIV
“Then [the disciples] gathered around [Jesus] and asked Him, ‘Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’”
OK, so here is Jesus. The disciples have been with Jesus. They have seen Him perform miracles of healing the deaf, blind, lame, crippled, demon possessed; feeding thousands with a small amount of food, calming storms with a verbal command, walking on the water and even raising the dead. They have seen Him tortured within an inch of His life. They have seen Him crucified, dead and buried. They have seen His physical resurrected body. They have seen Him eat. They have heard this once-dead Son of God teach. They have seen Him appear in a room even though all of the windows and doors were locked.
In all of this time, through all of these miracles, He has never once mentioned that He was going to restore the kingdom to Israel at that time. And yet, here they are, insistently asking the same old question.
Last week the sermon was about Spiritual Discernment and I used an example of how spiritual discernment could be used in considering how to vote in an election based upon what we know from Scriptures and from the personal relationship with God which we should develop from walking through life with Him for years and years.
I only used that as an example that we should use spiritual discernment in every area of our lives and not to promote any particular political party or any candidate and yet it seems that that was how some folks interpreted the message.
In this verse we see the disciples asking their very last question that they would ever get to ask Jesus while standing on this earth and they are still in the same old rut. Wouldn’t it have been great if Jesus had said, “OK. You’ve only got one more question before I go so you’d better make it a good one …”
Would they have asked the same question?
Anyway, Jesus is about to ascend into heaven. Jesus is about to return to the Father. Why?
Jesus didn’t just come for a visit. He came to make us ready to be invited to His place.
He wants us to spend eternity with Him!
John 14:2-3 LEB
“In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places; but if not, I would have told you, because I am going away to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, so that where I Am, you may be also.”
Jesus is going to prepare a place for you and for me so that we can spend eternity with Him!!! PTL!!
We don’t know what that place will be like.
1 Corinthians 2:9 ISV
“As it is written, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.’”
Can I take just a little sidetrack into song lyrics once again? Just listen to the differences in these two songs.
So build my mansion next door to Jesus
And tell the angels I’m coming home
It doesn’t matter who lives around me
Just so my mansion sits near the throne
Is that really what heaven will be like? Will real born again, humble followers of Jesus Christ be contending for the mansion next to Jesus? Will it be like a huge Black Friday where everyone is sprinting for the best deals and brawls are breaking out over the best mansion? Really???
Now, listen to these lyrics:
I bowed on my knees and cried Holy … Holy … Holy
I clapped my hands and sang glory.
Glory to the Son of God … Glory to the Son of God.
Yes, if you have found salvation in Jesus, He has gone to prepare a place for you. But, if your idea of heaven is palaces or streets of gold or even being reunited with loved ones your idea of heaven is woefully lacking.
Heaven is for those who love the Lord with all of their heart and all of their soul and all of their mind and all of their strength! He will be the center of our attention, forever!
OK, so why else did Jesus return to heaven?
To be our advocate and mediator!
1 Timothy 2:5-6
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people - this has now been witnessed to at the proper time.”
1 John 2:1 NIV
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”
There is no mention of anyone else in the Bible who is in heaven who is our Mediator and Advocate; only Jesus!
In some of the newer translations the Holy Spirit is translated as being an Advocate where the name of Counselor is used in some older translations.
Do you know what the name satan means in the Bible? It means “the accuser.”
He’s like the little boy who taunts others into doing bad things and then points his finger and says, “Look what you did! You are bad, bad, bad! Did you see that Jesus. He is bad, bad, bad!”
Yes, on earth we have an accuser but in heaven we have an Advocate! Jesus Christ the Son of God! Praise His name forever!
If you are born again you have Jesus as an Advocate, but, He is only the Advocate and Mediator for His children.
When we realize that we are sinners, that is, we are living in rebellion to God, and we realize that that sin is keeping us from God we can come to God is sorrowful repentance and ask His forgiveness. Repentance means not only to ask forgiveness but to turn away from rebellion against God, to have a change of mind and heart. Then we need to trust God to save us. That means we need to place our faith, our trust, our entire lives in His hands and to come to have a relationship of love with Him forever!
Then He will be our Advocate. Then He will be our Mediator and then He will be preparing a place for us in the Father’s house.
Finally, Jesus went back to heaven by ascending from the earth and being covered by the clouds just so He could see the look on the faces of the disciples.
OK, that’s not really what happened but can you imagine the looks on their faces as they are staring up into the sky?
Acts 1:9 NIV “He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.”
Now, we know from the testimony of the angel at the scene that Jesus will return in the very same way as He went into heaven.
The last words of Jesus weren’t just to the eleven disciples who were standing there, they were to all of us!
Acts 1:8b NIV “You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
We need to stop staring into the sky! We need to stop making the things of this world the center of our lives and attention. We need to stop thinking about the decorations of heaven and start thinking about whose throne room heaven is.
As children of God we have joy in this world that the people of the world cannot fathom.
We are released from the bondage to sin. We are released from the guilt of sin.
We are released from the wages of sin and the wages of sin is spiritual, eternal death.
Why is that even possible?
Isaiah 53:1-6 (read from the Bible and use it as an introduction to communion - commenting as you read)
Communion
