Acts 1:1-11
“Is Our Guest Room Prepared?”
By: Rev. Kenneth E. Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
One of the top priorities for people
who are shopping for a home is to be sure that there is an extra bedroom…
…a place where they can put an extra bed, nightstand, table lamp, and so forth so that they will be prepared if and when a guest should stop by and wish to stay the night.
Quite often this guest room is a place that we take great care to make sure it is as neat, clean, and welcoming as possible.
We want our guests to feel comfortable, we want our guests to feel ‘at home’, we want our guests to feel as if they are welcome.
For some, the guest room is used quite often.
For others, it is used maybe two or three times a year…
…but it is always clean, always ready, the bed is always made in anticipation that a guest will someday arrive.
At the same time, most of us do not spend every hour of every waking day looking into that guest room…and waiting for that guest to suddenly appear.
We have too many other things to do…
…we work…
…we live in the present reality of what is going on in the here and now…
…our lives continue…
…we go to school…
…we come to church…
…we enjoy the great out doors…
…but in the back of our minds, we know that our guest room is always prepared in the case that a friend, relative, or loved-one should come pay us a visit.
The guest room is a place that is always ready…
…it is—in a sense—in the business of the in-between.
Aunt Mary was here two months ago and it served her well…
…Uncle Pete will be here some time this summer and it is there…prepared to serve him.
…in any case, we know that we will have another guest, and the guest room waits in the ‘in-between’ as we continue with the other business of our lives.
In a similar sense, the Church is also in the business of the ‘in-between’.
We are called to be the stewards of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…preparing the world…until Christ returns.
Our Scripture Lesson for this morning deals with the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, God made Flesh, came into our world some 2,000 years ago.
He came out of love for a lost people… “a people without a Shepherd.”
He came into a world which is ruled by the Prince of the Power of the Air—The Prince of Darkness…
…And the Light shone in the darkness…
He came from His world…to reclaim God’s creation…
…He came as a guest.
In John chapter 16 Jesus says: “I came from the Father and entered the world, now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
Jesus came into this world as an uninvited guest in order to “preach good news to the poor…to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Some accepted Him, and many rejected Him…and continue to reject Him…
As most of you all know…this is not a world that takes real kindly to Christ.
I was talking with a friend last week who told me that most of the people he works with are not Christian…there are a few…but most are not.
He told me about one fellow who told him plainly, “I know I’m going to hell, and I don’t care!”
The world can be a very hostile place for those who have believed in God’s One and Only Son…and have come to the Light and walk in the Light.
Many of us must put up with the jeers of co-workers…the unrepentant attitude of classmates and colleagues day in and day out…while at the same time…in our hearts dwells God’s Holy Spirit Who calls us to a different way of life…to a different attitude…to a different world!
Let’s face it!
As Christians, we do not belong to this world!
Before Christ was sentenced to be crucified He told His disciples this: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world.”
Just like Christ, we are in the world…but we are not of the world.
And as the Church of Jesus Christ, we must always keep this in mind.
When a loved one comes to visit us from a far away place…
…they stay in our guest room…
…we enjoy each other’s company…
…then the time comes for them to pack up their things and return to where they came from.
And these times of goodbyes can often be difficult…for we will miss them, and we know that we won’t be seeing them again for…perhaps a good while…
…but after they are gone, we take the dirty sheets off the bed in the guest room where they slept, and replace them with clean ones…
…in preparation for the time when they will be with us again.
As our visitors drive off in their cars, we often wave to them as we watch them leave our sight…
…then we return to our daily routines…but the guest room is always ready.
After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, He appeared to His followers over a period of forty days and “and spoke about the kingdom of God.”
Then, one day, when they were all gathered together, “he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when 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.’”
Jesus Christ came from heaven into the guest room of this world, but it was not a very welcoming guest room…to say the least!
We were not well-prepared for the Son of God to pay us a visit.
Instead of being accommodating, we challenged Him, we thought of every way under the sun to get Him to leave…
…We cried out:
Leave us alone, “What do you want with” us “Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”
…and eventually we put Him to death.
But the world was and is no match for the One who created it…and by His resurrection Jesus has rightly declared, “I have overcome the world.”
And we too, are called to overcome the world through the power of the Holy Spirit Who Christ has put into the hearts of those of us who believe!
“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.”
What a promise!!!!
What a wonderful and amazing promise!!!
…a promise that has come true!
We are in the business of the ‘in-between’, but business is business and business is good!
By the power that we have received from the Holy Spirit…
…the Christian Church has not only survived…we have overcome!!!…
…and we continue to overcome!
What was a small band of believers…
…people with little or no ‘worldly power’, people with little or no ‘worldly rights and privileges’…
…watching the Son of Man being taken up into heaven…
…by the power received from the Holy Spirit…
…has become a multitude of millions and millions of faithful believers.
Christians have and continue to heed Christ’s call to be His witnesses throughout this entire earth…
…and as a result…
…we would be hard pressed to find a place on this planet where there is not at least some semblance of the Christian Church.
Sure, in some nations there are only a few…but a few is still the church…
…over the past 2,000 years Christians have overcome the world—with it’s persecution and hatred…
…We have flourished!
And it has only been possible because the power of the Holy Spirit has been upon us!
The Church is the kingdom of God on earth…we are no more ‘of this world’ than the man in the moon.
What miracle of miracles it is that we have brothers and sisters with whom we can share a common identity, a common love for God and for each other, a common story of salvation from the world…
…what a miracle of miracles that we have a place where we can come together, and not be persecuted…
…that we have a place where we can be refreshed and reinvigorated as study the Bible together, eat together, sing together, worship together, take Communion together…
…before we have to return to the—often—hostile world.
We are Christ’s guest room.
We await His return.
But in the mean-time, we are not to simply sequester ourselves…or stare up into the sky…
…there is still much work to be done!
It is our responsibility to continue the ministry of Jesus Christ until He returns.
He has made us stewards of His Holy Word, He has made us stewards of the mystery of the Gospel.
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” Christ says to us!
This is our job!!!
The guest room was very unprepared when Christ entered this world for the first time…
…how prepared will it be when He returns?
“Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.
Two woman will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”
Let’s think…but we don’t have to think too hard…
…we all have friends and neighbors, husbands and wives, family members and co-workers, classmates, and acquaintances who do not know the Lord.
They are not prepared for the return of the Lord…
…they are not part of Christ’s Holy Church…
…and how can they be unless someone…
…and that someone is you and me…
…uses the power of the Holy Sprit to tell them the Good News of Jesus Christ?
How many people could we have invited to church this morning…
…that we did not?
How well are we doing our job?
We are to have such a love for others that our greatest desire for them is that they will be saved by grace through faith in God’s One and Only Son!
Jesus spoke to His disciples: “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me… I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.”
My friends, our time has come!!!
We will forget our anguish when the Day of Christ’s return comes…
…in the meantime…or the in-between time…the guest room must always be prepared…
…We are Christ’s witnesses in Newport News, in all of Hampton Roads and the Peninsula, and to the ends of the earth!
