Ephesians 1:15-23; Acts 1:1-11
This coming Thursday is a significant event in the Christian calendar, a day we often overlook. In fact, out of curiosity can anyone tell me without looking what we celebrate this Thursday? We will celebrate the ascension of Jesus into heaven. When was the last time you celebrated the ascension of Jesus into heaven? We usually remember Good Friday when Jesus was crucified and buried, and we usually celebrate Easter when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, but the ascension of Jesus is not usually on our list. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard even a sermon on Jesus’ ascension. And yet the Bible teaches us this is a very important event in understanding who Jesus is, and who we are as his followers.
After Jesus was resurrected from the dead, the Scriptures tell us Jesus appeared to his disciples (Acts 1) and many others (1 Cor. 15) over a forty day period proving he was alive and teaching them about God’s kingdom. After forty days Jesus gave his disciples some last minute instructions about waiting for the Holy Spirit and being witnesses for Jesus, and immediately he was taken up to heaven. We often overlook the ascension of Jesus as a somewhat trivial importance. But that’s not the way his disciples and the early Christians saw it. It was essential for their understanding of Jesus. Why is it important that Jesus went back to heaven, and what difference does it make for you and me?
Why it is important that Jesus returned to heaven?
1) He could gain authority and control over all things
The our passage from Ephesians it tells us that Jesus ascended to heaven so that God the Father could exalt his Son to his right hand and give him authority and control over everything.
19 I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. 21 Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else in this world or in the world to come. 22 And God has put all things under the authority of Christ, and he gave him this authority for the benefit of the church.
God the Father has given his Son Jesus authority over everything. He gave the steering wheel to the universe over to Jesus. He is the King of kings, Lord of lords, CEO of CEO’s, President of presidents. God the Father honored him because he was obedient to his Father and completed his Father’s work and suffered for our sake (Phil. 2:6-11).
This means Jesus is in control. I have to be honest, because when I was studying this, the thought occurred to me, ‘what difference does it make if Jesus is in control or God the Father is in control?’ But the more I thought about this the more I found it significant that Jesus is in charge because he is able to rule as one who knows what it is like to be one of us.
God’s Son became a human being just like you, experienced all the same things you and I experience, he is able to rule as one who knows what it is like to have a mom and dad, to have friends, to love, to be tempted, to suffer, to know and experience pain, betrayal, abandonment, even death. By handing control over to the Son, Jesus is able to rule with first hand knowledge of what real people are like because he became one. I am not saying God the Father is not loving or compassionate, obviously he is, but the Father is not able to identify with us as God the Son is. The greatest King in the OT of the Bible was King David who began life not as a prince in court, but as a shepherd, the youngest of seven sons of a nobody named Jesse from Bethlehem. The Scriptures tell us Jesus will reign until everything on earth is under his control, and then he will hand the steering wheel back over to God the Father.
Because of Jesus’ authority in heaven the NT writers gave Jesus the title Lord. The earliest declaration of faith was, “Jesus is Lord”. By declaring ‘Jesus is Lord,’ you were confessing that Jesus resurrected from the dead, and is now exalted to the right hand of God the Father, and that he has authority over everything.
By declaring this it also means you are allowing Jesus to take the steering wheel of your life and give him control over the direction of your life. Most of us accept the ascension of Jesus as a historical fact, we accept the reality that Jesus is at the Father’s right hand and that he has control over everything but have you given him the keys and asked him to take control of your life? God the Father has given control over to the Son but have you? Are you allowing Jesus to choose your path, to guide your everyday decisions, or are you still making all the decisions? Jesus is Lord of the universe but is he Lord of your life?
2) We might Experience the Presence and Power of Christ through the Holy Spirit
The second reason Jesus ascended to heaven was that we might experience his presence and power with us and through us (or in us). When Jesus was on earth he was limited in time and space, and in what he could accomplish here. He could only be in one place at a time. He could only teach and preach in Galilee, and then travel to another place and heal but he couldn’t do it all at the same time. Even after Jesus was resurrected he had a new body which could appear out of no where, but he still couldn’t be in more than one place at a time. Jesus could only reach a limited number of people on his own. Also the disciples were powerless to do the same ministry Jesus did. But by returning to heaven, the scriptures tell us, Jesus was able to send his Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, so he could be with us and in us everywhere at the same time, empowering us to do his work.
The evening before Jesus’ death, he said to his disciples:
John 16:5 "Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ’Where are you going?’ 7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor [Holy Spirit] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
It is for our benefit that Jesus ascended to heaven, so he could send his Spirit also called the Holy Spirit to be with his followers. No matter where we go, Jesus is there.
Just before Jesus returned to heaven he told his disciples to wait for the baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit, and that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them so that they could tell others about him in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And sure enough 10 days later on Pentecost the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and with power as they did miraculous things like speak in foreign languages and heal, and many came to faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus promised the Spirit and upon his returning to heaven he delivered. He extends that same promise to any person who believes in him. After receiving the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ disciple Peter preached his first sermon on that day, he said to the crowd, “repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Bible promises we too can be filled with the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit if we turn from our sin (repent) and believe in Jesus and are baptized in his name. In the letter to the Ephesians Paul tells us the Spirit is a down payment or a deposit until we can be directly in his presence in heaven (1:13-14).
Paul tells us in v. 19 that he prayed that the church might know God’s incomparably great power, the same power which raised Jesus from the dead, and place him at his right hand, he wants us to know and experience that power. We’ve just finished a series talking about how we can experience God’s power to transform our life, to experience true freedom from sin and evil. The power of his Spirit is real and he wants us to experience it.
But according to Jesus, the power of His Spirit is given for another reason as well, to help us continue the work which he began here on earth. The Spirit equips us with power to do His work. To share the Good News about Jesus, that through him we find peace with God. After telling his disciples they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them his next words were to be his witnesses. The Bible says that since Jesus is in heaven, we, the church, are his body. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. He fills us with his Spirit because he has work for us to do here on earth. The work of sharing him with others, and of building his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. He chooses to work through us by the power of his Spirit.
I was recently asked a very good penetrating question. Why don’t we see the power of the Holy Spirit more often today? Why don’t we see miraculous healings? Why don’t we see more changed lives and people coming to know Jesus? Why don’t we see more signs and wonders? I know some Christians might say, it is because the age for wondrous signs of the Holy Spirit are over. But I disagree. The Holy Spirit who filled believers on Pentecost Sunday 2000 years ago is the same Holy Spirit who fills us today. The same promise Jesus gave to his disciples, is for us today, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”
But what was the purpose of receiving the power? The reason for the power was not to be wowed by God, but to be a witness for Jesus, and to help usher in God’s kingdom. They received the power in order that they might share Jesus with others. We have been going through the book of Acts in our Bible study and it’s very interesting to discover the almost every time the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested it is followed by people coming to faith in Christ. Is it possible that the reason we don’t see the power of the Spirit is because we have largely ignored the Great Commission of making disciples of Jesus?
According to these passage I believer there is another reason we fail to experience the power and presence of God is because of the lack of unity and love shared by the church.
NLT Ephesians 1:23 And the church is his body; it is filled by Christ, who fills everything everywhere with his presence.
What does Christ fill? The church because it is his body, it is an extension of himself and he is the head. While the Holy Spirit is given to each individual believer, the full power of Christ’s presence, or the Spirit’s presence, is only experienced in the church, or in the community of believers. In other words the power of Christ’s presence is not experienced by lone ranger Christians or lone ranger churches.
In v. 19 Paul tells us he wants us to know God’s incomparably great power.
Why don’t we experience more of God’s power? Because believers try to do everything on their own rather than in Christian community, or worse yet they live in conflict with other believers. This is true with individual believers who feel they don’t need the church, or churches who feel they don’t need other churches. Whether it is because of theological differences or a proud sense of individualism, or the desire to build our church to make our church bigger, the divisions among the churches only serve to minimize the power of God’s Spirit.
How committed are people to other believers in the church? How committed are churches in the community to working together for the common purpose of making disciples of Jesus?
A sure fire recipe for a spiritually impotent church, is to have people who lack a commitment to each other, to love each other, to pray for each other, to worship together. A sure fire recipe for a spiritually impotent community is one where the churches lack a commitment to work together.
In order to see the power of God more at work in our church and community, we need to be united with each other and other believers for the common goal of sharing Christ. When we worship together, when we pray together, when we demonstrate love for each other in Christian community, this is when the power of Christ is evident over sin and evil.
Why hasn’t our community experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Because believers in the community have largely been isolated from one another, and the churches haven’t worked together either? The Baptists are doing their thing, the Catholics, their thing, and the Methodists their thing. No wonder nothing changes.
But I’ve seen glimmers of hope. I think back to the recent Seven Project youth event here in Pellston, the team we brought in to reach our youth for Christ, and what happened? People were praying, individuals were stepping out in faith trusting in God, churches were working together, and the Good News of Jesus was proclaimed to the youth in a way they understood, and let me tell you folks the power of the Holy Spirit was there. Over 112 kids came forward that night because they saw a need for Jesus Christ in their life.
In order to see God’s work in the community, the church needs to act as one body because there is only one body, one church. I am becoming increasingly convinced that the reason we do not see the power of the living God manifest in the community is because we don’t work together. It seems the more we work together listening to Christ as our head, the more God moves in a powerful way.
I believe God wants his church to experience his incomparably great power, the power to change lives, to resurrect lost and hopeless people, but in order to experience this we have to choose to keep the priority of helping people to become disciples of Jesus, and work together to accomplish that goal.
Closing Prayer
Ephesians 3:14-21
