The Ascension
Notes
Transcript
In my life, there have been life-changing and mountaintop experiencing in my faith. Each of these times have been vitally important to the development of my faith. In fact, without one of these experiences I may not even be a pastor today. At that point in my life, I had been a band director in Vandalia, IL for a couple years. I had become involved in helping lead the youth group at Bethel Baptist Church and was leading the choir. God had called me into the ministry when I was in high school, but I had plans of my own. I believed I could just serve in my local church, continue to teach band, and that would be enough for God. However, He had different ideas. One summer, I had the opportunity to lead a group of teenagers on a church camp trip. It was on this trip that I saw God work in mighty, mighty ways. That week my prayer life was powerful, the devotions engaging, worship tranformational. It was during this week that God reconfirmed my calling into ministry. Over the next several weeks with the help of Pastors Dan Rush, Andy Whitten, and Dave Jones, I surrendered to God’s vocational calling in my life.
There were other weeks like that in my life, but that week was a week God truly moved mountains and worked in my life. When I think about that week, I remember thinking “I would love if we could just stay at camp, God was working and I desired to keep that experience going.” Perhaps the disciples would have been thinking the same thing. Jesus had returned, He was teaching them about the kingdom. They probably longed for Christ to stay with them and return to ministry right alongside of them, but Jesus had different plans.
He says in John 16:7
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
How could anyone provide better than Jesus? Why was Jesus going away? All these things were probably going through their head. In Acts 1:6-11, we read about Jesus has he ascends to heaven. He gives the disciples final instructions and challenges them to a great mission. So if you have your Bible turn to Acts 1:6-11 and follow along as I read.
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
What a great priviledge it must have been to be one of Christ’s disciples. They had been had picked to follow Him, had seen Jesus heal the sick, bring people back from the dead, seen the miracles, heard the teaching. They had seen Jesus be crucified, seen Him raised from the dead, and now they watched as he ascended into heaven. These men had seen everything from the life of Jesus. One thing for us to take notice of is how these men respond to the person of Jesus and through their response we can see what the believers response should be.
Believers Response
Even when have trusted in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, surrendering to His direction, and bringing our life in line with His plans, there are going to continue to be correct and incorrect responses. I wish I could tell you this morning that once you begin your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you will continue to struggle with obedience. Christian life is a process. Some days will be better and easier, while others we will be more difficult. Our life with Christ is a process of learning to become more life Jesus each and everyday. But praise God that our salvation is secure by faith by the blood of Jesus Christ and not our abilities. That doesn’t mean you can just go out and do whatever you want, but our relationship with Christ should inspire our daily actions, not out of obligation, but our of relationship. Part of that daily walk is that we should desire what God desires. Believers in Jesus Christ should have a desire and burden for Christ’s Kingdom.
Desire Christ’s Kingdom
When Jesus in teaching about prayer, God’s kingdom is one of the aspect of the Lord’s prayer. In Matthew 6:10 Jesus includes these words.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Believers need to yearn for God’s Kingdom. For many years, I was misinformed about what this type of prayer or yearning meant. I thought I would just simply pray that God would lead things according to His will. There was no thought about how this verse would apply to my life or that it would require action on my part. I could simply pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will be done. If that didn’t happen, well that was God’s fault, not mine. My faith at that time was very shallow and perhaps even selfish. As I matured in my faith, I began to learn what this verse really meant. Each of us must start with ourselves. It is not just words to say or a phrase to state. Matthew 6:10 should be used to challenge us to self-reflection. In my own life is Christ Kingdom ruling, are there things in his will that I have not complied with. I can’t expect God to use me to change the world, if I have not allowed Him to transform me first. Then I can begin to ask. God how do you want me to be used to see your kingdom come and for your will to be done. Then as God reveals His will and direction we respond obediently. I see this verse of the Lord’s prayer as a call to self-reflection and to action.
In Acts 1:6, we see the disciples excitedly asking if this is the time God’s kingdom will be restored. They anticipated the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. Now they probably were mistaken on what that was going to look like, but they were excited for the kingdom of God. I wonder if we live with that same excitement. Throughout my life, I have actually heard Christian people say they hope Christ’s return isn’t close. These people will say they have to much they want to accomplish in their life for God to return now. I’m not looking to condemn these people, but these are extremely dangerous attitudes and statements. We live in a world filled with amazing things. God’s wonders are all around us, but there is a point when we can begin to worship the creation, rather than the creator. Our plans must never trump God’s plans and as Christian people we need to passionately pray for God’s kingdom and His will. God does reveal His will to us and He desires to use us. These encounters with God should inspire life transformation.
Encounters with God, Inspire Life Transformation
While I applaud the disciples question about the kingdom of God and their desire to see that Kingdom come to earth, the response of just staring into heaven at the end of our verses is probably not the right reaction. What I see during this reaction is a normal human response. They have just seen Jesus ascend in a cloud, what was their reaction going to be. The response from the two robed men gives some insight. “Why do you stand looking into heaven?” Like I mentioned in my story at the beginning of my sermon, there is a temptation for us to chance mountaintop experiences. Seeking to stay in places of blessing or striving to replicate ways God has worked before is not what we are called to do. In fact, encounters with God are always meant to change and transform us. God does not desire for us to stay the same or stay were we are, but to grow and be used by him. In fact, prior to his ascension, Jesus assigned them a mission.
2. Assigned Mission
Jesus has promised that the Holy Spirit would come and that we as believers we do things even greater than He. As Jesus ascends, he is trusting the spread of the Gospels to His disciples. The mission to for the Gospel message to spread across the world was not a just a mission for the actual disciples, but for every person who has a personal relationship with Him. We just discussed how we should desire and strive for the Kingdom of Gold. A large portion of desire is being faithful to the mission of the Gospel. Each and every believe is a missionary tasks with carry the Gospel message to the lost. This starts first locally.
a. Locally
We should desire to share the love of Christ with those closest to us. So who is your local mission field? Your family, friends, work, physical neighbors. Unfortunately our society has changed over the years. I remember my grandmother always have snacks, drinks, or candy available for people who just happened to stop by. We used to live in what I call a front porch society. Neighbors would spend time talking with one another. People engaged so differently with others during those years. Now we live in more of a garage door society. Many people park in the garage, leave for the day, and then pull back into the garage. Encounters with neighbors become limited. I believe people still yearn for relationship. God has created us to need God and other people. We are not meant to live isolated from other people. As Christians, we need to use our relationships, family, friends, co-workers for the sake of the Kingdom. Be praying for those around you who don’t know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Seek ways for how you can minster to those people, show them the love of Christ, and be ready to share the message of Christ when the opportunity presents itself. But Jesus’ commissioning goes far beyond just our local community the church is called to spread the Gospel both nationally and globally
b. Nationally and Globally
So how are we supposed to do this. How can you or our church reach people around the world? While this mission is to large for a single person or a single church, the mission is not impossible for God and His church. So how are we supposing this mission? Our church sends funding to many different organizations, Missionaries, church planters, children’s homes. Through faithful given our church has the opportunity to financially support the mission of the Gospel globally. We also look for opportunities to serve not just our local community but other areas as well. Spend time praying about how you can support global missional efforts, how can you serve, be praying for those missionaries who are on the mission field. When we are faithful, God will use us far beyond our earthly abilities and giving capacity.
The final thing I notice in this passage is Christ’s guarenteed return.
3. Guarenteed Return
There are a lot of things that are unsure in this world. Think about you own life. Have you ever made a promise you didn’t keep? Was there a job you were assigned, but yet failed to complete? As humans, we struggle with these ideas. Our thoughts and intentions may be correct, but yet we fail to accomplish what we promise or desire. This is not true with God. Christ’s return is going to happen. It is not an if, but a when.
Not an if, but when
The disciples wanted to know when Jesus was going to establish His kingdom. Throughout history, people have sought to discover the exact time of His return. Numerous people have given their personal thoughts and guesses, but up to this point they have been wrong. In fact, there have been people so consumed with discovering when Jesus would return, they have probably failed in being obedient to what He desired for their life in that moment. Yes, we should desire to see God’s Kingdom come and see His Kingdom physically rule on the earth. But the time and date are fixed by God’s authority
Fixed by God’s authority
God and God alone knows the date and time of His return. He will return will the timing in correct in His will and not a moment before. Since we do not know the time of His return, we should work with urgency. In fact, I believe we are not to know the time of His return for this very reason.
I don’t know about you, but I can be a procrastenator. My wife often complains about how I pack for trips. I will usually put off packing or getting things together until the very last chance. This drive her absolutely nuts, usually to the point of her just packing for me. I know there are a lot of people who act just like me. Just think about this, if we knew exactly when Jesus was going to return, would we procratenate the mission of the Gospel. We could just say, well we have this much time, I’ll get more serious about sharing the Gospel when the time gets closer.
We don’t know when Jesus is going to return and that fact should spur us to urgency. Tomorrow is not guarenteed. I don’t know when Jesus is going to return, but I can tell you that the time is closer today then yesterday. The Bible does give us numerous signs to look for that the time may be drawing near and we faithfully look for His return and for those signs. Believers must passionately and urgently share the Gospel. If Jesus returned tomorrow, could we say that each of us did everything we could to spread the Gospel. I know personally interactions are a challenge during this time, but we can find new ways to share Jesus with others. The fact of the matter is that all believers are missionaries. Be praying for the lost around you, be praying for opportunities to share the Gospel, seek to create those opporunties and then for the strength and courage to share the Gospel. God will be faithful to use us for His kingdom and for His glory, we just have to be obedient has he leads us.