The Ascension - April 25, 2021
As I was preparing this message, I was doing so with a heavy heart. We know that much of life includes suffering, but it's when it hits so close to home, when it hits you or people you love, that we really become aware of it. Unavoidably attuned to the reality of it.
On top of many difficult months and weeks, this has been a particularly difficult week. Many of us or all of us have heard that Pastor Arleen and Paulo now have Covid. Pastor Arleen is at Sunnybrook hospital. Paulo, her husband is at East General/Michael Garron. Arleen has recently received word that she may be able to go home in a few days, depending on how her oxygen is. Let us continue to be in prayer for both of them. The pandemic is very real.
The truth is that suffering can drive us closer to God, or further from him. We can allow suffering to raise doubts or reinforce doubts we generally carry. Or we can press into God. We can run away from who we are as people of God when we face bad news or hardship, or we can run into who we are.
We can run in to God.That is our choice. Today I choose to run into God, and together we choose to draw near to God, and to gather and listen to his word. And I pray that I would faithfully convey his heart through his word. Pause.
I encourage you to have your Bible open at our passage today. That’s just a good practice.
In the book of Acts we have a tremendous sequel to the gospels. It is the sequel, or follow up to the book of Luke. Same writer, same basic perspective, although talking about what really happens next.
And of course the book of Acts is about what happens next, after Jesus was here on this planet, after he taught us and showed us the ways of God, the heart and the mind of God, and then he went to the cross to suffer for us, and then was resurrected.
Acts is about what happens next, about what the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus to the disciples, does in the early church. And the Holy Spirit was to do much in and through the disciples, who were shortly to become know as the Apostles.
Jesus prepares us for this when he says, near the end of His earthly ministry says: John 14:12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
Which is kind of mind-boggling, given who Jesus was and is and all he did is. But God‘s greater kingdom work, that would reach throughout the ages since Jesus to this very moment, would be accomplished through followers of Jesus. You’re here watching this today because some follower of Jesus pointed you to Jesus. In a sense we are all beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.
And so we have this book of Acts, this wonderful, exciting adventure of the pioneers of our faith, in a sense they were the early versions of us, the first Christians.
I’ve always been impressed how the humble, stumbling disciples in the gospel narratives became the bold, courageous, well-spoken apostles of the early church, as recorded in the book of Acts.
Have you ever wondered about that? Well, the reason is hinted at in this passage, although Robert Gin will be exploring that in much greater depth next Sunday. It’s to do with the transforming power of God working through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit empowers us to deal with suffering, to navigate its impact on our lives, our bodies, our emotions. The sending of the Holy Spirit is an extraordinary gift that we need to be aware of at all times, and we also need to treasure the presence of the Holy Spirit in this earthen vessel.
Today we are looking at Jesus' final words on earth to the disciples, after the resurrection, after his appearances to many. The appearances of Jesus were not limited to a few Disciples. The book of Corinthians tells us that Jesus appeared to upwards of 500 people.
“...He was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas (Peter), and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, 1 Corinthians 15:4-6
In vs1-5 of Acts chapter 1, Luke talks about his reason for writing this book. Let's quickly look at that:
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach. 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.
3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Then verse 6:
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Right up to this moment in time, even after Jesus had resurrected, The disciples were confused. Remember, at Jesus crucifixion, They had all been shocked, and they Were all deeply disappointed. Each of the male disciples, except for John, Had abandoned Jesus. Only the woman remained at the cross. Women generally had a better grasp of what was going on overall throughout the gospel narrative.
So the disciples had been confused. But then, only quite recently, they had discovered that Jesus was alive. He had resurrected from the dead. He had triumphed over death. As familiar as we are with the story, this was mind - boggling News for the disciples.
And so we see here and verse 6, That the disciples still aren't getting it. Or perhaps we could say that they are getting it as well as any human could without the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit had not yet been given at this point. Minus the Holy Spirit The disciples are thinking about temporal, earthly things. They are focussed on politics actually. They are looking for the restoration of the kingdom - political and religious power. Their hopes are still misplaced.
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But 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.”
Here Jesus disregards the question of the restoration of the kingdom, largely because the disciples need to understand that Jesus did not come to be Lord of an earthly kingdom in the way they were thinking.
And the Father alone knows when things are going to happen, and more importantly, much is about to happen. That earthly kingdom - that’s not happening for a very long time, not til the new heaven and the new earth spoken about in the book of Revelation. But the closer, more important kingdom - that kingdom where God Himself reigns IN his people is closer than the disciples imagine.
So Jesus basically says: Here’s what matters: you will be changed, you will be transformed, you will receive a new power that you’ve never known before; and that transformation you will receive from the hand of God will lead to you being witnesses to everyone everywhere. That will be your reason for being disciples, soon to be called apostles, ‘sent ones’.
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
And here we have the ascension itself, portrayed in many different ways by many different artists over the years. In dramatic fashion Jesus departs, and then He who had been so plainly visible to them became obscured by a cloud.
But this obscurity would not last as the disciples would be given eyes to see through the Holy Spirit and hearts to believe, and power to proclaim the truth of the gospel.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
The disciples were impressed, they were stunned by the spectacle. The angels bring them back to earth.
11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
That’s a word for us, and for the whole church. The Ascension was an important part of Jesus’ journey, as it marks the moment that, His work on this earth having been completed, He returned to where He had always dwelt before the Incarnation - at the right hand of the Father. Father, Son and Holy Spirit united.
But as much as we DO want to cast our eyes and our hearts to heaven, as we worship the living God, we need to spend actually MORE of our time NOT looking into the sky. Rather, now that the Holy Spirit has been sent, establishing His church, which you as a follower of Jesus Christ are a part of, we need to have our mind and hearts sent on BEING HIS CHURCH.
WE, TOO, are called to be witnesses - through our actions and our words, or the glory of the resurrected Jesus. I want to circle back to something I mentioned earlier in John 14:12. Jesus said:
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Those who believe and obey are a part of the doing of the work of the kingdom here on earth. Jesus’ public ministry lasted 3 years. The church has been here, the better and greater part of which has mostly been working in the background.
Humble people of God, never seeking or obtaining recognition, simply doing the work of the kingdom, fulfilling their destinies as each has loved their neighbour, struggled to love their enemy, and been an active witness to the reality of God, the love of Christ and the glory of the gospel.
In V11 the angels say that Jesus is returning, the same way he left. Elsewhere in the NT, the return of Jesus is mentioned often enough, always to encourage believers to continue in the faith and to be faithful lovers of God and witnesses to Jesus.
Jesus is returning. There is a great harvest of souls yet to enter His kingdom. You and I are the harvesters he has called to bring in the wheat, bring in the lost and the broken, the blind and the lame.
If that seems too big, it should seem too big. The way God’s will gets done is through folks coming together to worship and love God and then to go out and serve our neighbours. Everything you do when you’re by yourself, with your family, and out in the community matters.
You are either being shaped to be more and more like Jesus, or you are being activated and mobilized by Jesus to do His Kingdom work of seeking the lost, pursuing His justice and love. Often He both shapes us and mobiles us at the same time.
We’re never ‘ready’ in one sense. Perhaps we shouldn’t ever really FEEL ready. I know I haven’t. When you don’t feel ready, you don’t feel prepared, you cleave to Jesus, you cling to Him for dear life as you go about doing good. That’s how you stay healthy and thrive as you fulfill the call of Jesus on your life.
May we each say yes to this call, this call that Jesus prepared us to fulfill when He gave this very sober message:
Matthew 16:24 “...Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[f] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
Jesus is coming, with a reward for what each of us had done with our lives toward loving and worshipping and honouring God. May we be ready. May we become ready if we feel like we’re not.
And if the whole thing just seems too much, then do what I do: pray for God to give you His heart and passion for people. Pray for God to give you courage to step outside of your comfort and into that interaction with another person, that opportunity to be a light, to be salt. Become addicted to spending time in God’s presence - in worship, in reading His Word, in confession, in praying for the blessing of God on the lives of others.
Pray for the Holy Spirit’s power to be the person God needs you to be to do those things that accomplish His will in your life. When you pray that sincerely, because of the Power of the Holy Spirit, you’ll be surprised at how everything inside you comes alive.
