Sermon Tone Analysis

The Ascension

Have you ever made assumptions about your faith only to find that you are sometimes missing the point?

Have you ever had to be re-directed by scripture to focus on what is truly important rather than what is trending in the news?

Do you ever find that you need a solid reminder that what we believe is so fantastic it is almost unbelievable?

Have you ever settled in to just believing what you believe about Christ, and forgot that there is still more to come?

Have you ever thought, “I wish I was alive when jesus was physically walking this earth, so that I could have access to him physically”?

Or how about this… Have you ever felt like I just don’t know HOW TO BE REAL WITNESS FOR JESUS?

All of these are common thoughts for believers and all of these will be addressed by this small passage.

Here is how...

We will see the those closest to Jesus miss the point y getting too involved in their ideas of what they want in their world.

This will remind us that our focus needs to be on what we see in scripture rather than what we see on the news.

This passage will tell us of an event that was amazing no doubt, yet it reminds us that we haven’t seen nothing yet.

There is powerful hope in what is to come that should shake the apathy off of us and remind us of what powerful savior we have.

And there is a primary function of the Holy Spirit and a profound truth in knowing Christ has ascended and the Spirit he come to us.

As we look at this passage today we are shown a scene that we should try hard to understand what it looked like.

Watching Christ Ascend into heaven… This was an amazing moment that Jesus talked about with his disciples many times and we see it here.

I almost called this sermon”Don’t lose your Awe” because of how this passage ends, with the Apostles looking up at the heavens in Awe.

Have you ever witnessed an amazing event in the heavens that was breath taking?

How many remember the Solar eclipse that happened here recently?

You guys close to Totality or 100% coverage, right?

Who remembers where they were when this happened?

Who traveled somewhere nearby to be in totality?

I heard stories of people who fight traffic and even went to remote areas to view this epic event.

I heard that during totality, when the sun was 100% blocked the moon, animals who are nocturnal started to come out, the temp dropped 10 degrees, and many people had sore necks from staring into the skies.

As amazing as that was, what we see here in scripture speak of an event that will cause that day to pale in comparison to what is coming.

let’s look at this passage and dive into the story Luke is telling his friend Theophilus.

Remember last week, Luke starts his story and Jesus was speaking… lets look at it again.

So we are at the end of a 40 day period where Jesus has been showing himself to his followers after his resurrection.

He is giving them a reminder; to stay in the city and wait, and he is giving them a promise; they will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

A quick point here, it is interesting to me that Jesus Jesus did not say you will be baptized by the Spirit in 10 days from now, rather he just said “not many days from now”.

Isn’t it interesting that the Lord never seems to tells us exacts about these epic events, rather he just gives some basic instruction and allows us to feel the tension in our obedience.

Don’t get me wrong, much of what we could consider as Biblical prophesy about the times when Christ will return we can see as fulfilled, so I am not saying God doesn’t tell us anything… But I am saying that God who knows everything and is sovereign over everything, could tell us exact times and dates and yet he never does.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why that is?

I would submit to you that even though we like to think of these things like tests from God about our Faith, God doesn’t need to test us in those ways because he knows all about our faith and lack thereof.

In fact, we may get a tangible experience in these times of waiting and being obedient and that can be building to our faith, but that is simply a by product of something bigger...

God’s plans have perfect timing

Jesus could have sent the Spirit immediately once he went back up to the Father but he commanded them to wait, because the Father has a plan that needs not only their obedience but their patience… People were coming to Jerusalem to worship during pentecost and they were not there yet, so they needed to wait.

we will see this more in a couple weeks...

And if Jesus says you need to be here in 10 days, how tempted would they be, to go do something else and try to make it back in time?

Their obedience kept them from being distracted.

Why would they be distracted?

Well for starters they needed to be told to wait in the city because they would not have wanted to stay in the town that had just crucified Jesus… but next we see that they are easily distracted because of what we see in our text today… they often miss the point.

Jesus is preparing to go back to the Father, he has told them this in other places we see in scripture, they know their time with the resurrected savior is drawing to an end, and when they are all together this is the question they have for him.

What are they really asking him?

Are they asking him about an event, or the timing of an event?

While we cannot construct their exact thoughts, (Luke doesn’t report that in this story), we can see that it does seem clear that they are expecting a political shift, based on this new Kingdom that has come and the tensions they all have with Israel being under roman occupation.

So at his Ascension his followers express a desire to be liberated from foreign oppression and urge Jesus to restore the Kingdom to Israel.

They expect Jesus to make good on an OT promises that Israel would become the eternal kingdom of the Messiah who reigns on the throne of David.

In we see the Prophet spoke of a day when Israel would reign over the nations and people would stream to Zion to hear the Word of the Lord.

Prophecies like this one speak of the end of all things and God’s kingdom and rule beginning for all time.

It is almost as if the Apostles are asking if it is now time for the end.

But Jesus responds in an odd way.

He does not really comment on this event, or at least that isn’t his focus...

acts1.

Jesus rebuffs their question by indicating that it is not their job to know the time of God’s plan to be fulfilled.

their job is to be Faithful as they wait.

It is almost as if Jesus is saying to them, “Guys Do not miss the point...” Do not get all wrapped up in wondering when the end is coming, It is not for you to know the times and seasons...

So the Apostles question is about an event more than timing, and Jesus answers them with timing more than the event.

Stop getting sidetracked by trying to figure out when everything is going to happen, just know that it will happen and trust God as you are faithful to him until the days comes that he knows the timing of.

The future belongs to God not to us

We really do not need to know the timing of events and we really do not need to worry about if the things God has revealed will actually happen.

His word is full of encouragements to his people that he will do what he said he will do, and he is faithful even and especially when we are faithless.

He who began a good work will surely bring to completion that which he began in us and this world… You can trust God because the Future belongs to him.

They should’ve remembered what Moses taught them...

deut29.

There are many Secret things that God has knowledge of, but we have everything revealed to us that we may be able to follow his statues!

When the apostles ask him if it is now time… Jesus replies with a mild rebuke… It is not for you to know!

Jesus isn’t mad at them here but he does have to redirect them to what is important.

It isn’t important for them to know when God’s calendar of world events and the destined end will come… they do not have to be a witness to that… But they need a reminder of what they have been a witness to… They are redirected to what is most important about their obedience.

Look at what he says next...

What Jesus redirects their misconceived thoughts towards is one of the most important verses in the entire book of Acts.

There are 2 major thing I need you to see here.

The Power of the Spirit and Plan of God...

The Power of the Holy Spirit is Power to be witnesses to the Gospel

This is one of the primary functions of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer to this day.

Let’s be straight here… You cannot receive the Gospel and be saved unless the Holy Spirit softens your heart and makes you new on the inside.

You cannot read the Word of God unless the Holy Spirit gives illumination to our darkened minds to see the truth of the Gospel.

The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin.

The Holy Spirit reminds us of the truth and points us to Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is God’s indwelling presence in us and it sanctifies us from this world.

The Holy Spirit gives us special gifting’s that help us care for others in the family of God… and the list goes on and on… the Holy Spirit does so many things for God people, and yet there is a more primary function, and this is one of them.

Empowerment to be a witness is exactly what they needed.

think about it.

Even though they had walked with Jesus for 3 and 1/2 yrs, and now for 40 more days after he was resurrected, they were still being called to wait in a hostile city full of people who hated Jesus and were looking to squash anyone who would identify with him.

They wanted it to just be all over, they wanted God’s kingdom to finally put an end to the religious leaders and the Roman government, they wanted the Messiah to take his place on a physical throne to rule Israel… But what they needed was power to stand up and witness to the world that Jesus is alive and he is the promised Messiah.

And like them, Empowerment to be witnesses to Jesus power and the Gospel is what we need.

It isn’t enough to just receive the Gospel and be saved because we all have the great commission found in … We are not to receive Christ and remain quite, we are to be witnesses to the Gospel at work in our lives to others that they may hear and be saved too.

We need the Holy Spirit to give us power to overcome our fears and for many overcome persecution

We must go into all the world and make Disciples… and yet this brings me to my next point we see here, what some call the second great commission.

How God’s plan to move his message of the Gospel out from Jerusalem to whole world will actually happen.

The Plan of God is to move the Gospel to the whole world

In this verse we not only see the empowerment to witness for the sake of the Gospel, but Jesus describes the plan of God in moving the Gospel message out in concentric circles from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.

This will be the theme of the rest of the entire book of Acts.

We will come back to this verse over and over in the next few years.

God had a plan of when all this would happen and How all this would happen.

They had to wait for the Holy Spirit to come, because God knew that the city was about to be full of people from all over the world who would need to hear the Gospel on the day of Pentecost and God knew that unless he made them go they most likely wouldn’t want to leave the city and take the message to other people who were not like them.

And while they did not know how the Gospel would move from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth, all they needed to know is that it would and they needed to stay put un til it did and not be consumed with thoughts of when the end would come.

Their job was to be faithful, as is our job to this day.

Faithfully preach and proclaim the Gospel and make Disciples of all nations until he returns.

And for those of us who have read the book of Acts many times we know how God moves the Gospel, by allowing persecution of his Church scatter his people into other regions where they can preach the Gospel to all kinds of people.