We’re on our own now, until help arrives!
Acts 1:1-11
Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Series: We’re on our own now! (Until The Helper arrives)
Acts 1:1-11
Thursday 21st May, this Thursday past, was Ascension Day. Exactly 40 days since Easter Sunday, Resurrection Day.
The Christian Calendar moves on inexorably, despite The CoronaVirus, and despite the lockdown that we find ourselves in.
We declare that our church is closed but we proclaim that it is not locked down.
I’m writing about Ascension Day as if it has already happened when in fact I’m actually starting this sermon just an hour after I preached to you on the 17th May.
Sermons are a living breathing thing in my house. I am always gathering materials and ideas for them. I have several little notebooks on the go, each gradually filling with scripture, with phrases, with quotes and with ideas.
But, as is often the case, when I am preaching to you God is also speaking to me.
Ideas pop into my head and a new sermon is born.
That's exactly what happened this week, I got the germ of the idea for this sermon whilst I was preaching to you last Sunday.
Last week we talked about grief and how Christ is both the comforter and the solution to grief.
He is also the Conqueror of grief, and His conquest is both swift and complete.
There is no going back to the dark place when Christ has opened your spiritual eyes and ears to the truth of His deliverance.
Once He has lifted the veil from your mind and your eyes there is no going back because the future is just too exciting.
Suddenly eternity with God becomes real.
The disciples in our scripture today have seen The Risen Lord Jesus. They have even walked with Him and spoken with Him. Some may even have been able to touch Him, and they have had the truth revealed to them by the lifting of the veil of grief that pervaded their lives whilst they thought He was dead, and that His death was somehow final.
In The Book of The Acts Of The Apostles, chapter 1 verses 3 to 5, Luke, who is thought to be the author of Acts, records the following; ‘After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
I am attracted to the idea that the disciples spent a lot of time hiding away in the house which they had first occupied when they had celebrated the Passover with Jesus about 44 days previously.
His crucifixion, the following day, after The Passover Meal, and the attitude of the authorities and the crowds towards Him would have probably caused them to stay in, behind locked doors, fearing for their lives.
The parallels with our situation today are just too close not to make observation of. We too are locked in, in fear of our lives, or for fear of getting sick or at the very least being responsible for infecting someone else who might then die.
You might say that both their lockdown and our lockdown are matters of life and death.
The difference for them was that periodically during their time of lockdown Jesus appeared to them, and that must have been a great comfort for them.
I said last week, and the week before, that each encounter with their Risen Lord changed their grief instantly into hope.
But here they are locked down in the upper room hoping! But hoping for what?
Luke tells us that, ‘On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”’
Now they know why they had to wait in Jerusalem, but they don’t know the when. When this Holy Spirit, this promise from The Father will arrive.
They know what they are waiting for and they even know why they are all waiting in the one place, but they don’t know the ‘When!’
My mother used to say that, “patience is a virtue, possess it if you can. Seldom in a woman and never in a man.”
And that’s probably true for the things of the secular world. But I don’t think it’s true for the things of the spiritual world.
I long for Jesus to come again, I really do. But ‘the still small voice’ inside my head tells me that even though I am not a patient man, as far as the things of the world are concerned, I must be patient as far as the things of God are concerned.
Unlike my own timing, His timing is always perfect.
Once, when the Metropolitan Police Service was undergoing one of it’s never ending reorganisations, we undertook team building exercises, and in one of them we were asked to plan our response to surviving a plane crash, in the middle of a desert, miles from civilisation and rescue.
In the exercise briefing we were told that our pilot had been unable to radio our position before the plane crashed. We had a certain amount of equipment and a certain amount of supplies, and the question was, “Should we try to walk to civilisation or should we stay put and await rescue?
In our team, we first considered the various skills and experience of those sitting around the table and because I was an ex soldier, and leader of men, I was elected as our team leader for the exercise. From then on it was downhill.
We were doomed because everyone on the team automatically assumed that I knew what I was doing and what I was talking about, which of course I didn’t. I had never been in a plane crash and I had only ever once been in a desert, and that was only for 24 hours. But because my experiences best fitted their idea of a secular leader they blindly followed me, to what ultimately became their own destruction, and mine.
Obviously the best way to deal with the plane crash situation would have been to stay put at or near the crash site and devise ways and means to attract the attention of passing aircraft which may or may not have been searching for survivors.
Of course we didn’t know when rescue would come but we knew it would come. The wise survivor would have stayed put at or near the plane wreck.
My impatiences got my team killed, figuratively speaking of course.
It’s not like that with God. The disciples knew that The Holy Spirit would come because God, through Jesus, had promised it, but they didn’t know when. But His instructions were perfectly clear, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority”.
To paraphrase my mother again, “Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can. Seldom in a Christian and never in a non Christian!” No, that doesn’t really work because I have met plenty of non christians who are very patient people. But you get my meaning.
We are to wait on God not the other way around.
I suspect that Luke has edited down his account for brevity and simplicity and Jesus did not ascend into heaven immediately after He instructed them to wait in Jerusalem for The Holy Spirit to come.
Luke says, “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”
I think that's literally what happened.
In my mind’s eye I see the Hollywood version of The Ascension.
Jesus dressed in white robes with long flowing hair, walking away from the disciples begins to rise off the ground. He extends His arms and His robes flow out behind Him as He rises up quicker and quicker, higher and higher, until He is higher than the clouds which obscure Him from their sight.
And they continue to stare at the last place they saw Him until;
“Suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
They might just as well have said, “Come on now, nothing to see here. Off you go and do as you have been told.”
And so they make their way back to the house where they have been staying and, and we will discover what they did and why they did it next week.
In the meantime it’s worth remembering that the Coronavirus infects us if we go out but the holy spirit of God infects us if we stay in and wait for him. All in God's good time because this is the promise of God, Jesus said so.
In Jesus name, amen.
