... ascended on High
Notes
Transcript
Welcome
Welcome
Setting the scene:
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
10 While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them.
11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.”
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem—a Sabbath day’s journey away.
13 When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
14 They all were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Let’s pray together
Lord we have come, looking up, expectantly, Father, even as we wait ...
See us together now
Let us look up in prayer, and say, our Father in Heaven
Hallowed be they name
Let your Kingdom come
let it be one earth, as it already is in heaven...
Give us today our daily bread
and deliver us from the Evil One
Until your return, o God almighty
In the name of Jesus we pray - amen!
///////////////////////
The people are together … just like we are now ...
14 Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words.
15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it’s only nine in the morning.
16 On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all people; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.
18 I will even pour out my Spirit on my servants in those days, both men and women and they will prophesy.
19 I will display wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below: blood and fire and a cloud of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know.
23 Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.
24 God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death.
25 For David says of him: I saw the Lord ever before me; because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. Moreover, my flesh will rest in hope,
27 because you will not abandon me in Hades or allow your holy one to see decay.
28 You have revealed the paths of life to me; you will fill me with gladness in your presence.
29 “Brothers and sisters, I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David: He is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30 Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants on his throne.
31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah: He was not abandoned in Hades, and his flesh did not experience decay.
32 “God has raised this Jesus; we are all witnesses of this.
33 Therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear.
34 For it was not David who ascended into the heavens, but he himself says: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.’
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
The facts of the Ascension - the Past ...
The facts of the Ascension - the Past ...
Jesus was taken up into heaven!
He ascended on High, just as the Psalms said He would!
18 You ascended to the heights, taking away captives; you received gifts from people, even from the rebellious, so that the Lord God might dwell there.
As sure as the crucifixion; the resurrection ...
As sure as the miracles of Jesus, which even the Jews saw and acknowledged!
As sure as the mode of reporting the things that took place!
Luke (the intros to Luke and Acts)
The eye witness reports, including the women; the Roman Soldier
The testimony of the Evil Spirits (Authority of Jesus)
The authority of Jesus over the Elements
There was a time, that people found it very hard not to believe!
Then came a time, when people started believing it was possible not to believe ...
And now we have arrived at a time when people find it very hard to believe!
As mankind drifts into cleverness, they drift from the truth.
The orchestrations of the Evil One!
The Lie: Gen 3!
1 The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.
2 As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.)
4 And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”
5 Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building.
6 The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
7 Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
8 So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 Therefore it is called Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.
But, there would be a restoration of the confusion in history:
5 Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven.
6 When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
7 They were astounded and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language?
9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites; those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts),
11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues.”
But some doubted! Even then! For though Satan had been conquered, he was roaming the earth, restless, and continuing a battle in a world that was still fallen, even though a new age had already been announced!
So, again, a lie! “These people are drunk!
For these people are not drunk
For these people are not drunk
A miracle of the Spirit:
Not a cacophony, but “the magnificent acts of God” The Gospel!)
“They are drunk on new wine”
Indeed:
22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.”
18 You ascended to the heights, taking away captives; you received gifts from people, even from the rebellious, so that the Lord God might dwell there.
As Jesus ascended,
He took captives
The imagery:
A King on His victory march into a city!
Declaring victory over the World
(40 days among them // as in the desert // into the promised land // the New Jerusalem!
overcame temptations
even the underworld
Declaring victory over death
24 People have seen your procession, God, the procession of my God, my King, in the sanctuary.
25 Singers lead the way, with musicians following; among them are young women playing tambourines.
26 Bless God in the assemblies; bless the Lord from the fountain of Israel.
27 There is Benjamin, the youngest, leading them, the rulers of Judah in their assembly, the rulers of Zebulun, the rulers of Naphtali.
As the Lord ascends, all of creation sings His Victory over Sin
Our ability to resist Sin, in the power of Jesus!
We may know what is wrong!
We may oppose the evil one
we may hope, even as the world seems without hope and are without hope outside of Jesus!
The Present (the gifts of God)
The Present (the gifts of God)
1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
7 Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
8 For it says: When he ascended on high, he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people.
9 But what does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth?
10 The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, to fill all things.
11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ,
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.
14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.
15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ.
16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.
vv 7, 11, etc.
The Future
The Future
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
5 Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”
6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life.
7 The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.
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