I. After the Ladies' Retreat 00:01
So it’s always fun to begin service after the ladies’ retreat, and I’ll tell you why: because I just get so pumped up when I hear how God moves when I’m not around. What I mean by that is that it’s so helpful to remember that the things you’ve been praying for, the things you’ve been hoping for, God is doing, even without your help. He is actually working on those things.
And I’m just so blessed by the wonderful women of our church. I don’t think there’s a church that has better women than ours. I look around and I see people like my mom, Katie, Kristen, Debbie, my wife, all these people who helped put on these events, and I’m just in awe of their humility. I’m in awe of how much work they put into these things. And from Haley’s reports and other people I’ve talked to, it was just an awesome retreat. So welcome back.
I know you talked about “abide” at this retreat. Well, we’re talking about when Jesus left, so things are a little weird here. But I hope by the end of this sermon you’ll realize that actually the Ascension, when Jesus left, was the secret and the key to our abiding with him and his abiding with us. So keep that in mind as we go through this message.
II. The Acts of the Apostles 01:12
We’re going to talk about this series we’re launching into. It’s called The Acts of the Apostles. Really original name; I came up with it myself, right out of the Bible. We’re going to be talking over the next few weeks about what God did after Holy Week. If you remember, a few weeks ago and during Lent we were walking through what Jesus did when he was equipping his followers and challenging the world powers of his time, the religious leaders and the rulers. He was establishing his kingdom on earth. So what did that look like after he left? What did that look like when he handed the kingdom of God to a bunch of men, eleven men, flawed, broken men, and said, “Okay, now you go and do it”?
Well, I’ll give you a hint: there’s a reason we’re here today, and it’s because of those eleven men. We’ll see in the Acts of the Apostles, as they gather the church and shape the church, that they were guided by Jesus to build the organization to beat all organizations. The church has outlasted every country, every political group, every society in the history of the world. They come and go. So what did they do differently? That’s what we’re going to be talking about.
Because although you can trace our ancestry, and we’ve done it many times (we came from a Pentecostal Holiness movement, we came from charismatic nondenominational circles, we were influenced by the evangelicals, we were influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Orthodox Church; you can talk about all that), ultimately the Christian church is found in the Acts of the Apostles. And so as we talk through this thing, I hope you hear not just a history lesson about what happened two thousand years ago. I hope every time we talk about the Acts of the Apostles, we say, “How can we be the church that conquered the world?” Because they truly did. They’ve seen the fall of empires. There are billions of Christians around the world, and throughout history the ideas of Christianity have shaped every major movement in the history of the world since that time. And so we’re going to talk about how we can get back to being… I love when we “get back to being” something. But we’re going to talk about how we can be the church of Acts in the modern day.
So my analogy here is: imagine you have the best sports team in all of history. Now, everybody’s going to have a different answer. Think of it. A lot of you are going to be like, “I really don’t care.” But if you care about sports, you probably have an answer to who the best sports team in history was. Maybe it was the 1993 Dallas Cowboys. Maybe it was the 1995 Dallas Cowboys. Maybe it was the 1977 Dallas Cowboys. Who knows what you might be thinking of when you think of the best sports team in history.
But you can imagine this: we’re building a team based on the best sports team in history. When we look at the Acts of the Apostles, we’re building a church based on what the church did to transform the world. And not only that, but they were up against some heavy hitters. That’s one of the things you do when you’re comparing sports teams: who did they play? Who did they beat? How were they good? Well, these people beat the Roman Empire, which would literally burn them at the stake, feed them to lions and crucify them. What was different about them? And it all starts with Jesus’ Ascension. So we’re going to start there. We’re going to jump into Acts chapter 1, beginning in verse 6.
III. Will You Restore the Kingdom? 05:36
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1.6–8
So I’ll start here. They still didn’t get what Jesus’ picture of the church was. This question, “Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”: they’re still wrestling with this idea they’ve had that the goal was to make Israel the superpower of the world. And God is still going to work that stuff out. I just want you to know they’re just as flawed today as they were a couple of months ago, when they abandoned Jesus on the cross. He’s been healing them, he’s been equipping them, but they aren’t super geniuses who just know everything that’s happening. They actually have to follow Jesus.
And I think that’s a trap we can all fall into as well. When you’re talking about the kingdom of God, and you’re talking about God’s purposes in your life, remember not to fall into the trap of thinking you know what God needs to do to bring his kingdom to earth in your life: “What he needs to do is get me that job I’ve been working for. He needs to get me that car. Or he needs to heal that person. Or he needs to reveal himself in my finances.” God, reveal yourself in my finances, please. We have all these things that we put on God’s plan. Let’s put aside our plan and remember that we are following his plan.
And so when we see Jesus’ response here, he just says, “Okay, great. I love your passion.” I can almost hear these thoughts. He doesn’t actually say this, but he’s like, “I love your passion for the purposes of God, the restoration of Israel.” And he just very gently says, “Well, okay, God knows when that’s happening. It’s not for you to know.” And then he tells them what the real mission is. He completely redirects them. He doesn’t say, “You idiots, why don’t you understand this?” He says, “Look, that’s in God’s hands. You can trust him with it. But let me show you what our real goal is going to be. Our real goal is that you will receive power from the Holy Spirit, number one. And number two, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the end of the earth.”
And to this day that is our mission as the church: to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, to be witnesses of Jesus to the ends of the earth. And so when we talk about this, Acts is actually documenting it. Luke is a great historian. He lays it out very clearly for you: “I’m going to show you how the gospel spread from Jerusalem to Samaria, Judea and to the ends of the earth.” That’s the whole book of Acts summarized. And how did it spread? By the power of the Holy Spirit. So how’s our church going to grow? How’s the kingdom of God going to spread today? By the power of the Holy Spirit.
IV. Lifted Up in a Cloud 08:44
Verse 9:
9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. Acts 1.9
I just have to pause here. I hope you can see this picture of Jesus skating into heaven. It’s such a beautiful painting, but his pose is like, “I’m skating now, into the ether.” I hope that’s what it looked like. It’s so great; I couldn’t help but use it. There’s this idea, though, that we have about Jesus that puts him in this weird, super-powered place where he’s like this angelic creature skating into the future, into paradise. That is not what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about the Ascension of God. It is different. So let’s get to the end of this, and I’ll tell you what it’s more like.
10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Acts 1.10–11
V. More Jesus, Not Less 09:47
Let me talk about the Ascension real quick. There’s the skating into paradise, disappearing in the clouds. Or there’s an idea of Jesus that makes him more present: he has entered into the heavenly reality in a way that makes him now eternally present everywhere.
So what does this mean? Well, one illustration is this idea of a two-dimensional circle on a page. If you were to take that two-dimensional circle and turn it into a sphere, it would disappear from the two-dimensional plane, but it wouldn’t be less of a circle. It would be far more. In the same way, as Jesus entered into heaven, he didn’t become less of who he was. He didn’t become less present. He actually became far more present, and realized. It’s just an analogy, but the idea of Jesus going into heaven is that he is now present in each of us.
In fact, we practice that every service. When I walk around with the thurible and I bow to everyone, I’m bowing not just to you (you guys are great, love you), but I’m bowing to Christ in you. And so when Jesus ascended into heaven, that is a metaphor (it’s also a reality, but it’s also a metaphor) for the fact that he has now reached the highest place. He is in the highest place of authority. But it’s not like he actually physically went to space. It’s not like that. He has now transcended space and time. That’s why, when you pray to Jesus, he hears you.
When he was on earth, if somebody hundreds of miles away said, “Jesus, help me,” God heard him, but Jesus didn’t. Jesus was in a place, in a body. He took on the limitations of our physical existence. And do you know what’s even cooler about the Ascension? He took those limitations into that transcendent reality with him. You may have heard that Jesus bears the scars on his body even as he reigns with God over the entirety of creation, in this existence we can’t even conceptualize. He bears the scars, the wounds. What does that mean? That means even your woundedness can be transfigured and transformed and transcended as it’s embraced by the loving, healing Creator God who made you. There is nothing you bear that God cannot embrace and heal and resurrect and transform.
VI. Seated in Heavenly Places 12:24
And so the Ascension is about Jesus being present with us. Now that he’s in this spiritual reality, he can be present; he’s transcended space and time. But it’s also about us being present with him. We sing that in our song today: we are seated in heavenly places with the one who has conquered it all. That’s Scripture (Ephes 2.6).
You may not feel like it when you’re changing a baby’s diaper in the middle of the night, a baby who peed all over his bed. You don’t feel like it (not talking from experience last night), you don’t feel like it in those moments sometimes. But I’m seated in heavenly places. What does that mean in those moments? That means that I am secure. Though the wind may blow, what can man do to me?
Now, it doesn’t mean some Platonic idea that you are already perfected in the heavens and nothing in this world matters. That’s not what it means. He bore his physical body into the transcendent realm, and he maintains that, because this world matters. Matter matters. And he left us the mission, as the church, of being the body of Christ in the world.
You know, he could just have said, “Your sins are forgiven. Let’s all go to heaven.” He could have just raptured everybody out of existence. He paid the price already. Why are we not in heaven today? Because there’s work to be done. But thank God for the work, because the work is the salvation of the whole world. Don’t you want to be a part of that? That’s the invitation of the church. Yes, it’s for your healing. It’s for your goodness. It’s for your abundance. But it’s also because the world needs Christ on earth, represented by us. And so when we talk about the Ascension, it’s not Jesus leaving. It’s actually Jesus making himself present, and bringing us with him into those heavenly places. So when we talk about this, what then is the mission of the church?
VII. The High Priestly Prayer 15:01
How do we do this witnessing of Christ? I think we get a hint today in our Gospel reading, in Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, as it’s called. It’s in John 17, beginning at verse 1, and Jesus says:
1 “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” John 17.1–2
That’s a really cool-sounding prayer, Jesus. That’s great: “Glorify me. It’s my time. I have all the authority.” Do you know when he prayed this prayer? Hours before he got arrested, betrayed, beaten and killed. “What? I have authority over all flesh”? Well, the Roman government sure had authority over his flesh as they crucified him. What is the point?
Jesus, like all of us, was trusting in the reality that transcends our earthly reality. He was operating from the perspective we’re invited into by his Ascension. If you’re seated in heavenly places, then you should look at your life from a heavenly perspective. That doesn’t mean you ignore bad things. It means they’re transfigured by your hope in Christ, just like Jesus, who went to the cross knowing, “My Father has a plan,” knowing, as the lashes beat him to a pulp, knowing, as the nails were driven in, that all of this was actually his coronation as the King of the world. That’s faith.
I have difficulty when I stub my toe. It’s really hard to keep my tongue under control in that moment. But if I know that the sufferings of this present world… What did it say in our New Testament reading? One of the best lines in all the New Testament says: don’t be shocked when you experience suffering, as if it’s unexpected (1 Pet 4.12). People join the church and they say, “My life is hard. I joined the church.” And it’s like, yes, you entered into the way of the cross, the ways of crucifixion and death, but also the ways of resurrection, of life transformed, transfigured.
So when we look at the mission of the church, we have to remember that we serve a God who, even as he hung on the cross, had declared, “I have authority over all flesh.” So that means he held himself to the cross. Those nails didn’t keep him back. He had authority over all flesh. The religious leaders are like, “Why don’t you save yourself?” And Jesus goes, “Because I’m saving you. I’m too busy saving you to save myself from this cross.”
VIII. That They May Know You 17:44
So Christ is eternally present with you because of his Ascension. And what is the point of this whole program? We get another hint as we continue in this priestly prayer:
3 “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17.3
We’re going to stop right there. What is the point of witnessing to Jesus? It’s that everyone on earth who is willing can have eternal life. What is eternal life? That they may know God and know Jesus. Now, if you’re me, maybe you hear that and think, “What? I know Jesus. What does that do for me?”
And as I was writing this, I just had this thought about what my wife was sharing at the ladies’ retreat. She had an opportunity to share, and she talked a lot about how not knowing her earthly father really warped her vision of herself. Because her biological father had abandoned her and her family, she had felt this identity crisis of epic proportions in her heart and mind. What was the point? She didn’t know her father.
And when it says “that they know you, the only true God,” and know Jesus, the point is that you need to know your capital-F Father, your heavenly Father. If you look at the world, you can explain all of the problems (I’m going to say all, even though it’s probably 99.99 percent) with fatherlessness. If you look down the list, if somebody gave you, “Okay, these are the problems we have to solve in America today”: incarceration rates, children going hungry, abuse, anxiety, depression, bankruptcy. Literally, you name a condition, and it can be statistically linked to fatherlessness in the home. Every one of them. Because we are hardwired, not just physically but in our spirit and in our soul, to understand ourselves in light of where we came from, who we came from. And so if you grew up with an imperfect father, and every one of you did, you actually have to learn who you are over the course of your life by getting to know God and Christ Jesus.
IX. The System Works 20:42
Let me talk about it this way, and let me just make this point: there are not a lot of motherless homes, but they are equally as wrecked when a mother abandons her children. Now, the epidemic today is fatherlessness, because mothers often don’t abandon their kids. What’s going on here? God created the family as the revelation of his love for us. In fact, we’re told that the love the husband and the wife have is a picture of how Christ loves the church (Ephes 5.32).
And the whole system God set up… What’s Bishop Kessler’s favorite line? “The system works.” The whole system God set up is that a man would leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and they would be one flesh (Gen 2.24), picturing the love of God to the world. That’s the job of a husband and wife. And then they raise their kids so that they may know the love of their Father, know the love of Jesus in their life. And then their kids grow up, and the man leaves his mother and father, and he marries a woman, and they become one flesh, and they image the love of Christ to their kids and to the world. That’s the ideal system God has set up.
But we’re broken and we’re fallen. And so even if you did have a father, you may be thinking to yourself, “Well, he didn’t seem a lot like God.” Go figure. But that’s why we get this Jesus guy. Because the journey, as it’s built in the church, is that you raise your kids in the way they should go, and when you fail (because you will), you trust God to teach them, to heal them, to bring them through.
Now, the kind of picture I have is that you raise them, and then they become teenagers and they rebel. And this is not because God has destined them to rebel, but because there’s a God-given need in their life to start to understand their relationship to God and Jesus, so that when it’s time for them to leave their father and mother and be married, they can live not under the authority and the revelation of their parents, but under the authority and revelation of God.
Now, there’s one piece in this image that’s missing here. The church is the steward of God’s authority and identity on earth. And so even if you are fatherless, or you have a broken household, what are we called to do as the church? We’re called to image the love of Christ to the world.
All of this to say, it’s no surprise that we have the LGBTQIU-ABC identity crisis. It’s no surprise that we have the rise of more people than ever in the history of the world identifying as a “none.” Okay, not N-U-N; N-O-N-E. What does that mean? “What’s your religious affiliation?” “None.” If you think fatherlessness in the physical causes an identity crisis, imagine an entire generation of people saying, “I have no understanding of God whatsoever in my life.”
X. He Is with You 23:10
What am I getting at here? When we look at the church, and we look at the structure God has given us to understand our identity, to understand how to image Christ’s love to the church, to understand how to witness to eternal life, it’s all about knowing God and knowing Jesus. Everything I’ve said here is about the fact that we are hardwired to live our identity out based on what we know about who we come from, where we come from. And if you come from apes, and your dad abandoned you when you were a baby, and your mom had to struggle that entire time trying to raise you, well, it’s no wonder you’re angry at the world and you don’t know who you are. It’s no wonder.
Or if you were raised in a great Christian household and your parents are perfect, like Ed and Mia… no, I’m just kidding, not perfect, but you have these great Christian parents, and then you enter into that phase where you have to start making decisions for yourself, and you don’t know what to do: maybe it’s because you need to run to God as well. The whole point of your parents is that they are stewards of their kids. Did you know that as a parent, your kids don’t belong to you? They belong to God. What a humbling revelation. I have to remind myself of that frequently, because if they belong to me…
The point I’m trying to make here is that there’s a process in each of our hearts and lives where we have to know God and know Jesus. And I’m taking all this time because Jesus said that to know God and to know him is eternal life. I want to live a long time, but more than that, I want to be a part of the eternal life. God set up his kingdom on earth with this image. Christ came, he established his church, he paid the price, he won the victory, and then he handed the ball to us. And he said, “I’m going to ascend, but I will never leave you (Heb 13.5). And not only that, I’m going to send my Holy Spirit to guide you. And what you’re going to do is invite people into this relationship, that they may know me and know my Father. That will set them free. That will establish their identity. And that will change the world.”
And that simple idea, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the knowledge of God and his love, has changed the world. We are all here because of that simple idea. And as we go through this series on the Acts of the Apostles, we’re going to flesh out what that looks like. If you are a person who knows God, who knows your heavenly Father, how do you live? Who are you? What do you look like? Because that’s what we see in the Acts of the Apostles. How they respond is born out of relationship with God and Jesus, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
As we end today, I just want everyone to take a moment to realize that this Jesus, who died on the cross, who healed the sick, who raised the dead, is with you; that Ascension Sunday is not about him leaving but about his being eternally present in every situation. And so as you struggle through your life and you encounter these things, as you struggle with your identity, “Who am I? How am I going to respond to this?”, look to Jesus. Look to your Father. And live life from that identity: not from all the things the world tries to put on you, not from all the things you have in your head, not from the things the enemy tries to convince you of, but from a knowledge that you are so loved that he died, rose, and has welcomed you into his family. Amen.