Thursday was a big day in the life of the Church. I was in Wellington on Thursday learning more about Natural Church development which is a Church Health Survey that’s been put together by a bloke by the name of Christian A Swartz who will incidentally be in Christchurch in a couple of weeks to conduct a seminar on the subject. You may have also heard about a book he wrote called The 3 Colours of Ministry. But that’s not the reason that the day was important; the reason the day was important was due to something Jesus did.
That’s right it was the commemoration of Jesus ascension into Heaven. There are a few accounts of this happening forty days after the resurrection of Jesus. The following account is from Luke’s gospel Chapter 24:50-53.
Now that would be BIG DAY stuff!
Remember these blokes had seen a bit in the time they were with Jesus. People healed, the dead raised, fish producing the temple tax, Jesus walk on water and raised from the dead. But remember Sci-Fi was an unknown commodity, no Star Trek’s Scotty beaming anyone up, no Star Gate SG1 worm holes to other worlds, our for those of you who remember the “Tomorrow People” no jaunting. What is it the gospel writer says? “While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.” The thing to remember here is that at this time the closest anyone had got to a human ascending was a rapid decent jumping off something, though there was the legend of Icarus, the Greek bloke who flew to close to the sun and the wax holding is wings together melted with tragic consequences. We also have an account of Jesus ascending in the book of Acts and a later account of Jesus on His feet in Heaven while Stephen was being killed by an angry crowd.
When I spoke on this topic last year I said; we don’t know what Jesus was thinking, but on his feet out of concern, feeling the pain that Stephen is to go through, yelling stop to those who about to stone Stephen, ready to welcome Stephen to heaven? We don’t know exactly why he’s standing, but Jesus is seen to be out of his seat.
Here’s a thought, where do The Canterbury Crusaders find you at the Big Game or in front of the tele and will Dan Carter be kicking? Are scores tied; Too right you’ll be out of your seat!
Remember Jesus is truly and properly God and truly and properly man. He feels the emotions you feel he knows suffering, joy, hunger, happiness, the taste of bread dipped in olive oil, he understands where you are at.
That day he understood what Stephen was going through. Like you are there for your team, The Lord was there for Stephen. Just as The Lord was there as witness to those events, he is with us!
How is he there for us?
Well I want now to take a bit of a diversion and head back to something Jesus said pre-ascending something that he made a reasonable sort of a deal about with His disciples. Matthew in his gospel tells us “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Chapter 11:28-30.
Now I’ve been walking the Christian walk since I was sixteen when God impacted me with His Holy Spirit and there are some times when I’ve tried doing the whole “Christian thing on my lonesome” and it just doesn’t work, but I’m a fairly simple soul. There are times when I’ve tried to overcome sin on my own, when I’ve tried to encounter spiritual growth on my own, when I’ve known best and done it like Frank Sinatra, “My Way”. Now I’ve learnt from the experience and it just doesn’t work. Jesus teaching is about community and firstly relationship with God. That’s why we are commanded to “love the Lord our God, with?” and to “Love our neighbour as or selves” Hence the Corps Vision of “Living for God, serving all people.”
The thing about Jesus yolk is that he gave it to lighten burdens, but it’s about learning from Him, if you are still getting the same results in your Christian journey struggling in the same life battles you may not have His yolk on you. You may be caught in the yolk of the Law, that heavy “an eye for an eye” type stuff rather than the lightness of turning the other check. What was it Jesus actually said about this yolk, firstly do we know what a yolk is other than the yellow bit of an egg. The wooden thing that people used to carry a load, or to harness animals for ploughing, now with that in mind think again about Jesus words; “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” I think I’ve mentioned before that horrible saying that goes “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’re always going to get what you’ve always got.” The Jewish people back in the day were caught in that kind of a rut and Jesus was showing them a new way.
What Jesus was saying here had something to do with the burden of the law back in the day, the yoke of the Torah, Jesus is calling people to Him, to work with His teaching, and yes I said work, but to learn from Him. So back to the life battle stuff how is that going and are you winning those battles or losing them. Are habits winning, burdens loading or being cast off and aside as you learn from Jesus?
We in the Church continue to declare Jesus as Lord and Saviour as God in flesh, as “undivided in essence and coequal I power and glory” with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Yet?
Yet what? Well I’m going to speak from personal experience because I don’t believe that anyone else is quite as silly as I’ve been.
I have found that in times of struggle in life I have a default mode where I don’t rely on Jesus teaching but go back to this default mode, where I have upset, anger, where I hear others opinions – you know the sort of things – other people’s views of myself worth, maybe the voice of a primary school teacher, other peoples words about what I will amount to or who I am, a work mate or a sports team members view of me. That sort to degrading stuff that would drive a sane person around the twist. Now as I said I can only mention that this is about me as I’m sure no one else here has these sort of things happening in their heads. I’m sure that no one else here would be carrying any burdens of any sort. Am I right?
What is it that Jesus says about this, about the law judging you, what is it he says about others opinions, what is it he says, Jesus says “come to me take on my yoke and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Can I get a show of hands, who knows this to be true?
The promises of Jesus run true. Working with Him is about spiritual stuff it’s about finding rest for your souls. Not some new age – cult / occult spiritual burden, nothing goes bump in the night with Jesus teaching - it’s about spiritual freedom. From Jesus place beside the Father in heaven He asks the Father to give His Counsellor to be with us forever how long will the Counsellor be with us? Forever! Check out John 14:15 to catch up with this.
The promise of Jesus to his disciples, those who love him; is the Holy Spirit working with them, but not only that, in them as they are obedient to his commands. If you have not experienced the work of the Holy Spirit in your life you don’t know what you’re missing!
This is of great interest for a number of reasons. So much still had to occur before these events could occur, Jesus was making it clear that after his resurrection and ascension that he would not be leaving the disciples as orphans, or without his guidance.
If you are encountering life battles if your burdens are not easy, if there is no spiritual rest – are you learning from Jesus - fully engaged in His word, with The Holy Spirit, That Wonderful Counsellor the Very Person of God who wants to be involved in every aspect of your life?
Maybe you are living in that light load place, how is that going are you able to help someone with their burdens, introduce them to the Risen Saviour, are you telling others about Him so that they too can learn from Him? So that they too can come to Him and know his yoke is easy and His burdens are light.
Please note now that Sermon Central has spell check installed that we don't all spell in American English. New Zealand English is closer to the Queens English :)
