The
Next Chapter
Luke 24:50-53 and Acts 1:1-11
©Copyright August 28, 2011 by Rev Bruce Goettsche SERIES:Walking with Jesus
Our
lives are made up of a series of transition points. Think about it, there is a transition
from being a toddler to being a student and then the transition from Grade
School to the increasing freedoms of High School. Heading away to college is a
transition. Marriage is a transition. Having children is a transition. When your
children move out of the home you face another transition. Retirement is a
transition. At each of these points, you begin a new chapter in your life.
As we
finish up the book of Luke we reach a time of transition for the early
believers. The earthly life of Jesus is completed and the baton is now passed
to the disciples to testify to the truth and to build the church. Luke reflects
this transition by ending his gospel and starting a new book, the book of Acts.
Acts is a record of what happened through the work of the disciples. Luke
begins the book of Acts by summarizing the conclusions of his gospel,
3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men
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 water, but in a few days
you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 So when they met
together, they 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.” (Acts 1:3-8)
Luke
tells us Jesus was with the disciples over a period of 40 days. During this
time he taught the disciples and they had the chance to ask questions. Jesus told
them that His departure would open the door for the Holy Spirit to take up
residence in them. Through the Holy Spirit Jesus would now be able to be with
them every moment. If any of them had asked “How will we know the Spirit has
come?” I’m sure Jesus said, “Don’t worry . . . you’ll know.” As you read Acts 2
you see that the coming of the Holy Spirit was obvious.
Following
this summary of the forty days Luke recounts the same event that we read about
at the very end of his gospel,
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.”
(Acts 1:9-11)
The Ascension of
Jesus was an Ending
This
event is called the Ascension of Jesus. In this act Jesus identified a clear
transition. He would no longer be with them on earth; He would be in Heaven.
Luke writes,
50 When he had led them out to the vicinity of
Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51 While he was
blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52 Then
they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And
they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.
Jesus blessed them. The word for
blessing is the Greek word “eulogy”. This doesn’t mean that Jesus told nice
stories about the disciples; it means that His blessing was designed to uplift
and build up the disciples. When you receive a blessing from the Son of God,
that blessing has real power.
They rejoiced. This may seem like
an odd response for someone who has just seen their Lord, Savior and friend
leave them. You might expect them to be a little depressed. Luke tells us that the
dominant emotion was joy. There were several reasons for joy.
1.
First,
they had loved being with Jesus when He was in their midst. Now they understood
that Jesus would leave the earth physically but would return and be with them always through the Holy Spirit. They
were actually going to be closer to the Lord.
2.
They
knew they had a great and wonderful job to do. This is like a promotion for
these guys. No more second string. They were now the starters!
3.
They
were told that Jesus was going to return. Though He was leaving, He would
someday return.
4.
They
also surely rejoiced on behalf of Christ. We tend to think of the Ascension as
the time when Jesus rose up in the air. However, to ascend also describes one who
ascends to the throne or rise to a position of influence or authority. Jesus ascended
to the right hand of God! He took His position as Lord of all! The disciples
would have rejoiced over this fact.
They worshipped. If you understand
who Jesus really is, worship is a natural result. Of course you would praise
Him and bow before Him. The disciples knew that any future impact of their ministry
would be anchored to their worship. They needed to be in tune with the Lord
before they could effectively reach out to others. They recognized that God is
the One who brings change. He is the One who changes hearts and circumstances.
He is the One who delivers people from life’s bondage. We must wait on the
Lord!
The Ascension of
Jesus was a Beginning
The
Bible tells us that the Ascension of Jesus begins a new ministry for our
Lord. Jesus is now involved in some new things. First, He prepares a place for us. Think about these great words of
Jesus,
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2
In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told
you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you
also may be where I am. [John 14:1-3]
Our
Lord assures us that He is making preparation for our arrival into His Kingdom.
Think about the comfort in these words: He is preparing a place for us. He is
also preparing us as we live this life. Someone has said, “Heaven is a prepared
place for a prepared people”. Even now Jesus works on our behalf.
Second, He intercedes for us. In Hebrews 7 we are
told,
Therefore he is able
to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives
to intercede for them. [Heb 7:25]
We long for the prayer support of our friends because we know that prayer makes
a difference. It taps into the power of God. The problem is that we are
inconsistent in prayer and sometimes we don’t know how to pray. We don’t see
the big picture. We pray for discomfort to go away rather than for the trials
of life to do their work in us. The intercession of Jesus is different. He
prays for us constantly. He is always
interceding for us (even as the Holy Spirit is also praying for us in groans too
deep for words). Our Lord prays for us lovingly. He knows what we most need and
prays with the wisdom of perspective. He sees the “big picture” we do not.
Third, He equips us for service. Paul writes in Ephesians 4
It was he who gave
some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to
be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of
service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all
reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become
mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Jesus
gives us the tools we need to serve Him faithfully! Isn’t it frustrating to be given
a job to do for which you don’t have the tools? The Lord not only gives us a job
to do, He gives us the resources we need to do that job. He gives us the gifts and
abilities which we need to play our unique role in the work of His Kingdom. He enables
us to play a part in His divine work.
Notice
also that The Ascension also brings about something new in us. Most college students
enjoy their years at school. However as the college work nears its completion
there is a new excitement and a new anxiety. Everything is changing. The life
that they have known will be gone. That creates a measure of apprehension. But
it is also exciting to be a “grown up” and get a job, and begin the process of
doing what you have spent all this time training to do.
That’s
where the disciples are. They have followed Jesus. They have listened to Him
teach. They have had their periods of internship under His supervision. Now
they were “going live”.
The
disciples are commissioned to do several things. First, as we have already seen, they were
told to “wait”. Many of us are not particularly patient. Waiting is a
discipline to cultivate. It is learning to wait for God’s leading and God’s direction.
Second,
they were told to witness. Their job was to pass on what they had seen and heard.
It was their job to pass on the truth of God’s plan and heart. When we talk about “witnessing” today it is
the same thing. It is not about learning a technique or a sales pitch; it is
about passing on what we have seen and become convinced of. The message of the
gospel is like a baton that runners carry in a race. Each person in the race
takes the same baton and passes it on to the next person. This is our leg of
the race. It is our job to communicate the message faithfully and passionately.
Their
“target audience” was unrestricted. Jesus said,
you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts
1:8)
In this
verse you see an outlines of the book of Acts. In the book of Acts we read
about the disciples as they preached first in Jerusalem and then they diligently
start to reach out first to Jews but then also to the Gentiles. Their work had
a ripple like effect on the rest of the world. These men were faithful to do
what the Lord has commanded them.
There
is a great and a sobering message to you and me. God has also called us to “go
into the world and make disciples.” This
is also our assignment. Our job is not merely to study the book of Luke, it
is to take what we have learned and share it with others. We have been given
the job to be a witness to our family, our friends, and as far as it is
possible to the world. This is our leg of the race. We need to have the same
kind of determination and passion that we see in the disciples. They understood
(and so must we) that this is the most important information in the world. It
is more important that what we learn in school, more important than the skills
we learn for life, and more important than any other work we do.
The
late Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote,
Do men and women need
to be told about some kind of program that will give them better conditions?
That is not our greatest need. Our greatest need is to know God. If we were all
given a fortune, would that solve our problems? Would that solve our moral
problem? Would that solve the problem of death? Would that solve the problem of
eternity? Of course not. The message of Christianity
is not about improving the world, but about changing people in spite of the
world, preparing them for the glory that is yet to come.[1]
As we
go into the world with the gospel, we actually have some advantages over the
disciples. We can travel great distances with ease. We have radio, television
and print media available to us. We have hundreds of teachers to learn from. We
have the Internet and can use it to proclaim the message of salvation. However,
these advantages are also our greatest challenges. People today are on
“information overload”. We are bombarded with e-mail, tweets, Facebook updates, text messages, blogs, discussion groups
and other teaching material. We are so used to the shallow and superficial that
it is hard for us to sit still for or digest the significant and meaty truths
of the gospel. But it can be done.
As we
saw last week, it isn’t about ability . . . it is about willingness. The
disciples, I suppose, could have hunkered down and said the job was too big.
They could have been paralyzed by fear. But they chose instead to step out and
trust God to open doors and provide for their needs. They did what the Lord
told them to do and trusted God with the results. That’s a pretty good
principle for us.
The
question you and I have to ask is this: Are we willing to serve the Lord? Are
we willing to give the time, the money, and make the sacrifices that might be
needed to reach the world with the message of the gospel?
To be
honest, the whole idea intimidates me. I like my comfort zone. I like being
safe and in an environment over which I feel I have some control. The thing is,
you can’t be safe and also be faithful. Safe involves trusting in what we feel we
can do in our own strength. Faith involves daring to move forward in God’s
strength.
So where
do we begin? The simple answer is: begin where we are. The disciples started in
Jerusalem. We need to take the message of the gospel to our Jerusalem; to our neighbors,
our friends, and our co-workers. We need to be faithful in telling our friends
about Jesus and not just about the church. Here are some ideas,
· Take the gospel into
the world of a college campus
· Testify as you go on
business trips.
· Be part of a short
term mission trip to another land.
· Get involved in youth
ministry.
· Share your faith in
discussion groups on the Internet
· View a job transfer
as a new mission field.
· Give your life to
serving some ministry overseas.
· Accept an invitation
to share your faith with others.
The
opportunities are endless. God will open doors . . . . if
we are willing to walk through them. But make sure to read the fine print.
Jesus did not say it would be easy. If you follow the story of the disciples in
the book of Acts you will see that these men met opposition; some of it fierce.
Almost all of them literally died giving their lives to message of the gospel.
That is
intimidating. But it is also a reminder that these men truly believed. Christianity was not a club or a hobby in which
they maintained a membership. Being a follower of Christ was the passion of
their lives. They believed Jesus was the only
way to a relationship with God. They
believed those who do not receive and follow Christ will spend eternity facing
God’s fierce Judgment. (How do we say this without even shedding a tear?) Consequently,
they believed that no sacrifice was too great. These men kept their eye on the
prize. They refused to be stopped by the obstacles of the world. Do we have
that same passion?
Conclusions
We
began our walk with Jesus in the gospel of Luke almost two years ago. The
gospel of Luke began in the temple where we found Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah,
Anna and Simeon. The book ends the same way. The disciples are in the temple
praising God.
This is
where our walk with Christ should start and finish. Above all things we should
be worshippers. By that I don’t mean we are “church-attenders”.
There are many who attend church and never worship. A worshipper is one who
adores and loves the Lord every moment of every day. If we have learned the
message of Luke and heard the message of the life of Jesus, we should adore the
Lord. We should talk to Him throughout the day. We should seek to honor Him
more than we seek to honor ourselves or impress our friends. We should follow
Him wherever He leads us and praise Him in every circumstance. You see, before
we can proclaim Him Lord of All we must first let Him be Lord in OUR hearts and
minds.
Transitions
are a part of life. We have studied the life of Jesus now we are asked to transition
from being observers to being participants; from being merely students to being
witnesses (or teachers). This transition takes us from darkness to light; from
the values of the world to the values of Heaven; from pursuing our agenda to
pursuing His; from living for the moment to living for the King for all
eternity. As with other transitions, it may be a little scary. But as we move forward
we will discover new joys, new opportunities, and we will find the new life we have
been looking for.
©Copyright August 28, 2011 by Rev Bruce Goettsche www.unionchurch.com