The Certainty of the Ascension and Future Return of Jesus

“Now what do we do?”

(Acts 1:9-11, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 28, 2010)

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.

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.”

And when He had said these things ... (9)

The time had come for Jesus to ascend into heaven. He had completed all the work that he came to do. Obeying the law, following the call of His Father to the cross, dying, being buried, rising, teaching and commissioning His disciples... all of this was done. Yet there was much more to be done, not from the vantage point of God with us on earth, but from the Father's throne in heaven.

The time had come to leave. But He had promised in another place, “I will be with you always; even to the end of the age.” See the end of Matthew's gospel. Jesus' continuing presence with the church as “Immanuel” or “God with us” would be through the Holy Spirit.

God has an order in the way that He does His great works of salvation. Jesus would ascend on high as the Resurrection God-Man, entering the heavenly sanctuary, cleansing the way for us through His blood, the way into the presence of the Lord. From that place of all authority in heaven and on earth, He would, together with the Father, send forth the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, inaugurating the new life of the church.

Everything in its time... not before the atoning death of the Lamb of God, or before the display of victory in His resurrection life, and not before the teaching and resurrection appearances during the forty days prior to this moment... but after all these monumental achievements, and after His arrival in heaven, and His vindication and enthronement on high as the King of heaven and earth... only then would the Holy Spirit be given, the essential gift of God with us, that the church might be the Lord's witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth. Jesus had to go to God in heaven, so that God from heaven might be sent to be with us.

He went on clouds of glory, because He went in the presence of God. The Lord often appeared in the Old Testament connected to some heavenly cloud that became a manifestation of God Himself, like that glory cloud that filled the temple in the days of Solomon. Off Jesus went on a cloud like that. He was out of their sight. Now what? What would they do? What are we to do?

One of the most challenging facts about the current division between heaven and earth is that heaven is out of our sight. We know that Jesus is our ladder to heaven, but we cannot see the view from the top of the ladder at present. When someone goes to heaven, we respectfully place his body in the grave, and then what? We are left dealing with the fact that the one we love is out of our sight. But now Jesus is out of their sight. He was lifted up to heaven.

And while they were gazing into heaven ... (10)

Angels were suddenly there that day, just as in Jacob's dream so many years before. An event is transpiring between the world of heaven and the world of earth. Angels, we are told in Hebrews 1, are servants to people who will one day inherit all the blessings of salvation. We experience many blessings right now, but there is so much that God has in reserve for us above. Heaven is the safest place for us to keep our treasures, since everything that we leave here on earth eventually is lost. Where your treasure is, there your heart shall be.

Angels were present when shepherds near Bethlehem were told about the birth of Jesus. Angels ministered to Jesus after His time of temptation in the wilderness. Angels brought the word of resurrection to the first eyewitnesses of the empty tomb. They are heavenly messengers, assuring us that heaven is real, and that Jesus has gone there ahead of us. Their appearance to the disciples is for our benefit, assuring us that Jesus is still alive in a realm of life that exists forever, though He has now been removed from our sight. All is well. Jesus has ascended into heaven.

Men of Galilee … (11)

The question still remains. What now? These blessed companions of Jesus are in shock. They are all looking up into the sky? But they are not going to be able to see anything in the skies. Luke 16, the story that Jesus tells about the rich man and Lazarus, suggests that people in heaven are aware of what is going on down here on earth. Hebrews 12 tells us that we are being seen by them. But we could look up at the sky forever, and we will not see them.

They are on the seeing side of the heaven/earth mirror. We are on the side of momentary opportunities that must be seized. We are in the place where we ought to be today. This is the place where Jesus came to do what was essential for our salvation. We live in the part of existence where the cross happens. We are in the world where the trial and triumph of faith happens. Why do you stand looking into heaven? You do not get to see anything that is happening there under normal circumstances. When that door closes there is no way for you to open it up to take a peak. God wants you to do some things here now. If you are gazing into the skies, you can see the stars and be amazed at the vast expanse of the universe, but you will not be able to see heaven.

This Jesus ... (11)

You need to live here today, through the power of the Spirit of heaven at work within you. Where is Jesus? He is at the right hand of the Father, where He reigns over everything. He, and all of heaven are watching you. They all want you to live on earth with this confident expectation: This Jesus, who was taken up into heaven, will come back in the same way as His friends saw him go away into heaven so long ago. You need to follow this Jesus. He is the One who has established the power of lowliness during His time here below. He is ordering your life every day. He is the one who will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Jacob had a glimpse of this Jesus in a dream almost 4000 years ago. In that dream Jesus was the ladder that went from earth into heaven. Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on that ladder. When Jesus spoke to one of His friends in John 1, He said to Him, “You will see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” The way that we see heaven and experience heaven now comes to us through the ladder that is Jesus. Up and down that ladder come angels doing the bidding of the heirs of salvation. Somehow there is manifold protection and blessing for us coming down that ladder. There is also an offering of praise and obedience going up to God by way of that same Jesus ladder. But the day is coming when heaven and earth will be one. Let the certainty of the return of Christ and the new heavens and earth be the seed of the best Holy Spirit gifts of God in your life, assuring you that your labors in the Lord are not in vain.

1. What happened to Jesus?

2. What is the significance of the appearance of angels at this moment?

3. What does this passage teach us about heaven and earth?

4. How does the certainty of the return of Jesus impact our lives here and now?

OT Passage: Genesis 28:10-22

The right gift for the job...

“The Kingdom and the Holy Spirit”

(Acts 1:6-8, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 21, 2010)

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.”

So when they had come together ... (6)

Jesus will soon take His place at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He has spent the last forty days after His resurrection demonstrating to His disciples the truth of His resurrection and speaking to them about the kingdom of God. This topic of the kingdom was not a new thing that he began to talk about only after His resurrection. All of His teaching ministry prior to His death was about the kingdom. Many of His parables were about the kingdom that He was bringing. Yet during the years prior to the cross and the resurrection, and even now at this moment after speaking to them during these forty days about the kingdom, they still are having trouble understanding what He is talking about.

It would not be surprising, then, if we, even after many years of exposure to the Bible, and after even decades of life in the Christian church, might find ourselves wondering this: What is the kingdom of God? The disciples found it hard to separate the question of the kingdom from their own time and place. They were Jews. They were Israelites. They knew about the glory days of the kingdom under David and Solomon. They ask Jesus about kingdom timing, and they assume that kingdom must have everything to do with their nation Israel.

Recently I had a conversation with our Korean missionary who was staying in my “basement,” the Rev. Hong Key Chung. He seemed to feel that it was necessary to tell me that the United States of America was not in the Bible. I am not sure that he is entirely right about that, but I do think it is interesting that he felt he had to say that. I don't think that well on my feet, but about a week later I got to feeling defensive and wanted to shoot him an e-mail that went something like this: “Dear Chung, Hope all is well. Korea is not in the Bible either. With deep respect, Steve.” I would have done it, except I am not so sure that Korea is not in the Bible.

In any case, Israel is in the Bible, and so is the worldwide heavenly/earthly entity known as the church. It is easier for us to understand our own nation, or Israel, than it is for us to understand the eternal purpose of God spoken of as His kingdom. I know that the kingdom is big, bigger than what the disciples expected might immediately happen to Israel. It must have something to do with the 120 people who will soon be touched by the New Testament pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and it must have something to do with what life will be like when we see all things everywhere united together in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. The kingdom starts as the mustard seed of the former, and God will not be finished until it is the full glory of the latter. In general, it seems fair to say that whether we are American, Korean, or residents of the land that these men were calling “Israel,” that we all have a tendency to underestimate the kingdom and to mold it into the image of our too small and too parochial interests.

He said to them ... (7)

Jesus is not about to explain all of that to the disciples before He is taken up. In a few days they will have the help of Spirit-inspired New Testament preaching. In a few decades they will have most of the New Testament documents available for their Spirit-blessed study, and by the end of a few centuries the church will have many, many copies of a completed Bible, by which we should be able to understand what the Kingdom of God is. Why are we still confused?

For one thing we are preoccupied with the question of timing, which He tells us is not for us to know. For another thing, we keep on forgetting how great God is, and that the fullness of the Kingdom is worthy of Him, and not merely a pleasant end to our post-retirement story. There is something about the greatness of God, that we are not allowed to miss. Anyone or anything who stands in the way of the people of God discovering God and His kingdom must be put out of the way. This Jesus will do according to the authority of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

But you will receive power … (8)

If they were trying to ask when the Roman Empire would end its governance of Palestine, that question was off limits. If they were trying to understand the details of the progress of the message of Christ in their nation, they would not get any details from Jesus. He had something else very important to communicate to them. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” They ask a question about timing, about their land, and about the Kingdom of God. He answers them by speaking about the Holy Spirit coming upon them.

The timing will be very soon for that event. He had already said to them, “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” They were to wait for that gift before they did anything else. The critically important reason for that waiting is given to them in verse 8, since it is only when the Holy Spirit has come upon you that “you will receive power,” the power that you need for the work of the kingdom. This power must be heavenly power, since the pouring out of this gift awaited the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father. It must be a different kind of power than that of earthly kingdoms. They had already messed up more than once on this, just as Israel did when she insisted on a king like the nations, and just as the church has so many times over the centuries. Jesus had been very explicit about this in other places. See Luke 22:24-30, and remember that Jesus said, “I am among you as the one who serves.” Even when the church raises the dead, her power is not of this world. Church power is lowly power.

And you will be my witnesses ... (8)

Yet the King of the Kingdom is able to move this cross and resurrection power forward into the world through that lowly power of heaven working through the church to the glory of God. If there is something that God has given to you to be or to do, however quietly and peaceably you exercise His gift in all godliness and honesty, He is able to change the world through that lowly exercise of His gift, and He does intend to change the world through His church, even us.

Even though the church was prepared for a worldwide mission by the Old Testament Scriptures, they did not believe it. Even when Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth,” the church had to be forced out of Jerusalem through persecution. The church does not normally have the eyes to see what the next thing is or how we will do it. We understand that we start where we are today. Jesus said, “Each day has enough trouble of its own.” It is also true that each town has enough trouble of its own. You do not know how you are going to change your Jerusalem, and how you or others you support will reach Judea to the south, Samaria to the north, and even the end of the earth. (This is where we find Korea and America in the Bible if we are willing to see them. We are the ends of the earth.) Jesus will do all this by His Spirit through the church. Without the Holy Spirit, we simply do not have the power to do the work of heavenly lowliness that changes the world.

1. What does the question of the disciples suggest concerning their interests?

2. What are the limitations of our knowledge and authority concerning the future?

3. What is the nature of the power that Christ will give to the church?

4. How is this power related to the task that He has given us?

OT Passage: Psalm 139

On your way to heaven, don't minimize the resurrection of Jesus and His gift to the church of the Holy Spirit...

“The Promise of the Father”

(Acts 1:1-5, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 14, 2010)

1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Introduction: The gift of the Holy Spirit is a major move toward heaven (Isaiah 35:10).

In the first book ... (1-2)

Luke, the missionary companion of the Apostle Paul, and the author of the Book of Acts, wrote this important book as a sequel to his first book, the Gospel according to Luke. Luke was not an eyewitness of the events of Jesus' ministry or of the tumultuous and exciting early years of the church in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. We know this because the word “we” begins to show up in the narrative in Acts 16:10 when Paul's small band of missionaries have been directed through a vision to enter the Roman province of Macedonia. The words of Luke:

“And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

In the first book that Luke wrote to the man Theophilus, whose name means “friend of God,” he revealed his method for finding out so many things that he did not see with his own eyes:

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

Eyewitnesses and ministers of the word filled out the knowledge that Luke did not have. God used Luke to hear all this information, and to write a beautiful and orderly account, first in his gospel, and then in Acts. Luke reveals his purpose at the beginning of his gospel: “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” He presents his own efforts as something that has been well-researched, and that is certain. As a travel companion of the Apostle Paul, both books surely come from Luke's deep acquaintance with Paul's understanding of the historical events that have taken place.

That first book, Luke's gospel, takes us through the critical events from just before the conception of the Messiah in the womb of Mary through the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus into heaven. Luke calls all of that, “all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up.” Before he was “taken up,” as Luke puts it, he tells us that Jesus “had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.” This refers to his instruction of his apostles after his resurrection. Remember that it is in Luke 24 that we have the account of Jesus' teaching two men on the road to Emmaus. It was there where Jesus said, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And then Luke adds these words: “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he was helping his disciples to see the richness of the Old Testament Scriptures as an inspired source of understanding concerning the Messiah.

What then is this second book of Luke? If the first book is all that Jesus began to do and teach during his years on earth, the second book is all that Jesus began to do and teach from heaven through His disciples and the rest of the New Testament church. We may call it the Acts of the Apostles, but it is certain that the Jesus who ascended into heaven is the prime mover of everything here. These are the acts of the ascended Lord through His chosen body, the church. The agent of His divine activity is the Holy Spirit. Even before the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven, He gave His church commands through the Holy Spirit.

He presented himself alive ... (3)

This ruling and reigning Jesus who is on high at the right hand of the Father in heaven most certainly rose from the dead. In the months ahead we will be feasting on the accounts of the present heavenly Jesus in His activities in establishing His body throughout the world. This Jesus, who is the King of heaven and earth, certainly rose from the dead.

Many people suffered and even died testifying to the fact that they were witnesses of the risen Lord. They could not deny this, because “He presented Himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” This is especially significant to us, because now we are giving our lives to Him, and we need to know that we are not merely following cleverly designed myths that are supposed to be good for our outlook on life, even though they are not true. We want the truth about Jesus, and as we go through Acts, we want to come to a better understanding of what believing in Jesus looked like for the first community of faith. If we understand how they lived out faith in the Christ of the cross and the resurrection in their day, maybe we will see something about how to live now.

And while staying with them he ordered them ... (4-5)

We follow a Lord who faced death and then triumphed over it. We want to continue following Him, because we want to live in that kind of resurrection hope. When your hopes die, it is hard to have joy. When you don't have the joy of the resurrected Lord as your strength, you can quickly run out of all the energy that you need to follow the Lord's commandments. Your job can be just a way to make money, rather than something that God led you to for your good and for others as an avenue of service to Christ, to His church, and to others in a hurting world. Your marriage can seem like a mistake, rather than the provision of Jesus for you within which you would live out the joys of the Song of Solomon and be faithful until death parts the two who God has made one. Your children can just seem tiring, rather than the next generation, each child a special gift of the Lord designed specifically to be your son or daughter, just as you were made to be that young one's father or mother.

To look at life this Jesus way, you need a Jesus mind and a heavenly heart in you. That new heart and mind is the Holy Spirit, who can help us with hope when we are tired, and can give us faith in God's promises when we are loaded down with every rational and irrational fear. This Spirit comes upon the church as the gift of God, the promised washing that birthed the New Testament church in a world that is in desperate need of a bath. It is Jesus who acted here on earth to live and die for you. It is Jesus who is acting in heaven now to give you the promise of the Father. This promise is a taste of heavenly life that reminds us that we have souls, and that those souls are alive. This comes as the gift of Christ's blood-bought love. He is as real as Jesus' resurrection. He leads us to the heavenly Zion where the ransomed of the Lord will have everlasting joy.

1. What is the message of Luke's first book?

2. What is the meaning of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ?

3. What is the promise of the Father?

4. What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus spoke about?

OT Passage: Isaiah 35