No. 06. “What if He is Coming Again-Will You Be Ready?” - Acts 1: 1-14

May 4, 2008

Ascension Sunday

Series: 50 Days of “Easter” - Why Did They Believe This?

Acts 1: 1-14

Rev. Stephen Filyer

Bothwell & Clachan Baptist Churches

INTRODUCTION

Right after World War II, a U.S. Army officer and his wife were stationed in Japan. That country had been devastated by the war. The post-war economy was in shambles. Unemployment approached 60%. Every day people came to the Army wife's door daily looking for work.
One man said that he could do wonders for her garden if she would only give him a chance. So, for the first time in her life, this young Army wife hired a gardener. He spoke no English, but the wife, through sign language and pencil and paper gave him instructions about where to plant, prune, and pamper her garden. He listened politely and followed her instructions exactly. The garden emerged as the finest in the neighborhood. When she finally realized that her new gardener knew far more about the matter than she, the wife stopped giving him directions and let him freely care for the garden. It was magnificent.

Then one day the gardener came with an interpreter who expressed the appreciation but the regrets of the gardener. "He will no longer be able to care for your garden. He must leave."

The wife expressed her regrets and thanked him through the interpreter for making hers such a fine garden. Out of politeness, she asked the interpreter, "Where is he going?" The interpreter replied that the gardener was returning to his old job as the Professor of Horticulture at the University of Tokyo.[1]

I can imagine, can't you, the look that must have been on that Army wife's face when she discovered, upon his leaving, that her gardener was a university professor?

It was probably similar to that on the faces of the disciples of Jesus as they were gazing intently into the sky. Two men in white clothing stood beside them; and they asked, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?" That's a good question. Why were they standing there gawking at the sky?

That question is much like that asked by two other mysterious figures about forty days earlier at the empty grave of Jesus. On that day two men appeared in dazzling clothes and stood beside the women who had come to the tomb on Easter morning. Those men, too, had asked a question. "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" That too, must have seemed to have been an absurd question to the sorrowful women for they had NOT come to the tomb looking for the living.[2]

So now we have today’s question: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?" This is the day that we celebrate Christ's ascension into heaven. The Ascension is probably the most difficult event in the life of Jesus for us to reconcile with a scientific world view.

World Can't Steal the Ascension

It has been said that…Ascension Day is the perfect church holiday because the world can't steal it. The culture around us has quite ruined (other Christian Holy Days)... But the world hasn't got the foggiest notion what to do with someone flying out.[3]

And if Jesus ascended physically into the heavens, where was he going? Does that mean that heaven is a physical place somewhere out in space? It's a problem. And yet the disciples experienced something that they felt we ought to know about. It was a true mountaintop experience comparable to that which they experienced on the Mount of Transfiguration. And so they placed it in the biblical record. Therefore, we must deal with it seriously. Why Do You Stand Looking Into The Sky?[4]

\\ So Why do none of the gospel accounts make much of the ascension of Jesus Christ?” *

But this raises an even more important question:

“Why do none of the gospel accounts make much of the ascension of Jesus Christ?” Because make no mistake, as out entire Series title asks 50 Days of “Easter” - Why Did They Believe This? If they believed all of this why not mention it in the very gospels?

Robert Deffinbaugh provides three reasons when he writes:

First, technically speaking, our salvation was (provided) cured by the death of Christ and proved by his resurrection. The ascension did not directly contribute to the work of the cross.233 ... It is not that the ascension of Christ is unimportant, then, but that it is largely irrelevant to the purpose of the gospel accounts.

Second, the ascension of Christ was not a favorite topic for those who were so intimately involved with Him…

Unlike Christians today, the disciples lived and walked and talked, and touched the Savior while He was on the earth in bodily form. Whenever He talked of departing them or leaving them, they were deeply distressed (cf. John 16:6,22). It was not something they wanted to happen, or that they wanted to think about…

Third, the ascension does not serve as a fitting conclusion to the life and ministry of our Lord. It somehow seems almost anti-climactic in the light of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. It tends to conclude on a note of sorrow and separation rather than of joy, victory, and triumph.[5]

So what is the purpose of the Ascension? Of all the Gospel writers, only Luke, mentions Jesus’ ascension. So why does Luke now mention it here in Acts with such detail? Certainly Jesus had warned that he could not send the Spirit if he, Jesus, did not leave. But there is also another possibility.

Jesus' Ascension Brings Sigh of Relief

Bishop N. T. Wright has studies the events of Easter in great detail. He says: to embrace the Ascension is to heave a sigh of relief, to give up the struggle to be God (and with it the inevitable despair at our constant failure), and to enjoy our status as creatures: image-bearing creatures, but creatures nonetheless.[6]

So the Ascension, at the very least, reminds us that we are NOT God. It is often tempting to create our own philosophies and belief systems, but the Resurrection and the Ascension taken together clearly speak out and saying: “Only God could have done this.” And if that is true then we are again faced with the implications of another question; that question asked by the title of this message: “What if He is Coming Again-Will You Be Ready?” Will you be ready to enter into that new world which he will be bringing when he returns?

When you try to go to another world, there is incredible danger - Apollo 11 and the Ascension

When Apollo 11 got ready to carry human beings to the moon, President Nixon asked William Safire to write a speech entitled, "In Event of Moon Disaster." If anything went wrong on the moon mission, Nixon would read the speech on TV, the radio communications with the moon would be cut off, the astronauts would be left alone to die, and a minister would commend their souls to "the deepest of the deep."

But that's not what happened. On July 20, 1969, with less than 30 seconds of fuel left, the lunar module landed in the Sea of Tranquility, and Commander Neil A. Armstrong stepped off the ladder onto the gray, powdery surface of the moon. It was the first time a human had ever gone to another celestial body.

After their return to earth, the astronauts had parades and dinners held in their honor in Washington D.C. President Nixon gave each astronaut the Presidential Medal of Freedom. What a celebration! The human race had just accomplished its greatest technological achievement of all time.

When Jesus Christ accomplished the greatest act of love and redemption of all time—when he went through the clouds and splashed down on heaven's shores—what a celebration he started! He had done it! Jesus had just completed the most dangerous and most important mission of all time. He had faced every temptation but never gave into sin. He stood up to the intense hatred of people with only truth and love. He could have called legions of angels to rescue him, but he willingly obeyed God and fulfilled his mission of giving up his life as a sacrifice to bring people back to God. He defeated the Devil. He destroyed death. Now he's returned in victory. The Father welcomes Jesus home and seats him at his right hand, the place of highest honor. He gives all authority to Jesus.

Why do we celebrate the Ascension? Because all heaven celebrates the victorious return of the Son, the Lamb who was slain, the Lion who conquered, the one who says in joy and power: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."[7]

CONCLUSIONS

Proof of the Resurrection

Our Sermon Series has been titled as 50 Days of “Easter” - Why Did They Believe This?

Science says if there is any such thing as infallible proof, it is the repetition of the same experiment.

Jesus rose from the dead, and Mary Magdalene encountered him—experiment one. The women encountered him—experiment two. The disciples encountered him—experiment three. The apostles encountered him—experiment four. Five hundred people saw him after the Resurrection—experiment five.

Each one of these is the repetition of the same experiment. They all encountered the same phenomenon. What was it? He was alive! (And) that's what changed the history of the world.[8]

The entire Book of Acts provides us with a vivid account of the radical change which took place in the attitudes and actions of the disciples who are earlier described in the Gospels as being passive and almost invisible after our Lord’s death. The Peter who would earlier deny his Lord in the courtyard of the high priest, who would hide behind locked doors after Jesus’ death… is now a very different man... The transformation of the Lord’s disciples is evident in the Book of Acts.[9]

They now believe because they have not only seen but they have also participated and that is often how we too come to a more firm belief.

We too can become active and involved both in searching for Jesus and then we ca attempt to serve him to the best of our ability. At some point ‘fence-sitting” is no longer enough. We must decide to get into the game, as it were. After all, He is Coming Again-Will You Be Ready?

This morning’s Communion Hymn is found at #23 “Jesus Shall Reign.” Are you going to be ready for that new kingdom’s arrival?

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[1] "The Speaker's Digest," QUOTE, April 1994, p. 125.

[2] The Rev. Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad, "Footprints on the Earth" May 7, 2005 Ascension Sunday, Acts 1:6-11.The Rev. Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad is a professor of preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and formerly pastored an ELCA church in New York.

[3] Marva J. Dawn and Eugene H. Peterson, The UnnecessaryPastor: Rediscovering the Call (Eerdmans, 2000), p. 140

[4] Why Do You Stand Looking Into The Sky? by King Duncan

[6] N. T. Wright, Bishop of Durham (Church of England) and writer (1948—) N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (Harper One, 2008), p. 114

[7] Kevin Miller, executive vice president, Christianity Today

[8] Walter Martin and Jill Martin Rische, Through the Windows of Heaven (Broadman & Holman, 1999)