Ascension 2023

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Luke 24:44–49 NIV84
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
How good are people at predicting what will happen in the future?
Although the start of the NFL season is months away, the “experts”, armchair quarterbacks, and even Artificial Intelligence are all predicting how the teams will do. Sorry, Packers fans, our team is predicted to be the worst in the NFC north this year with no chance of making the playoffs.
During campaigns prognosticators tell us what chance the candidates have of winning an election.
The candidates foretell what they will be able to accomplish during their time in office.
Economists try to predict who the stock market and other financial venues will perform.
And, of course, every day we listen to meteorologists to tell us what the weather will be like.
As I thought of examples of future predictions, I came across this dire scientific prediction:

End of the Sun

Earth's ultimate fate. Gamma-ray burst or not, in about a billion years, most life on Earth will eventually die anyway due to a lack of oxygen. That’s according to a different study published in March in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The researchers suggest that our oxygen-rich atmosphere is not a permanent feature of the planet. Instead, in about a billion years, solar activity will cause atmospheric oxygen to plummet back down to the level it was at before the Great Oxidation Event. To determine this, the authors combined climate models and biogeochemistry models to simulate what will happen to the atmosphere as the Sun ages and puts out more energy.
They found that, eventually, Earth reaches a point where atmospheric carbon dioxide breaks down. At that point, oxygen-producing plants and organisms that rely on photosynthesis will die out. Our planet won’t have enough lifeforms to sustain the oxygen-rich atmosphere humans and other animals require.
The precise timing of when that starts and how long it takes — the deoxygenation process could take as few as 10,000 years — depends on a broad range of factors. But, in the end, the authors say this cataclysm is an unavoidable one for the planet.
That is unless something else destroys the earth before that.
Jesus taught that the earth will pass away. (Heaven and earth will pass away.)
Mark 13:28–31 NIV84
28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. 30 I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Psalm 102:25–27 (NIV)
25 In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing you will change them
and they will be discarded.
27 But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.
His disciple, Peter, agrees with his teacher. (Earth will be destroyed by fire.)
2 Peter 3:10 NIV
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
Did Paul?
1 Thessalonians 5:1–3 NIV
1 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Revelation speaks of it as well.
Revelation 20:11 NIV
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.
Is this true? How can we trust that what Jesus foretold will happen and what hope do we have?
Logic. If previous predictions or prophecies by God and his people came true, we should be able to trust that later predictions and prophecies will also come true. This seems to be the argument that Luke makes in the final chapter of his Gospel.
Jesus explained this to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Luke 24:25–27 (NIV84)
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Later that day, Jesus appears to his disciples and says the same thing.
Luke 24:44 NIV84
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
(Other cross references).
Mark 10:33–34 NIV
33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”
Acts 13:29–33 NIV
29 When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people. 32 “We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: “ ‘You are my son; today I have become your father.’
Although even the prophets who predicted the coming of the righteous one did not fully understand their own predictions, after it happened Jesus teaches how his life, death, and resurrection had been prophesied and how he had fulfilled them. This is a basic tenet of Christianity. Jesus is the Christ.
As the fulfiller of promises, Jesus then predicts two things that we can show have happened. His keeping of those promises reassures us that his other promises of future events will also take place. He is a proven authentic prophet.
Luke 24:49 NIV84
49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
This was fulfilled on Pentecost.
Luke 24:47 NIV84
47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
History shows how this has been and is still being done through mission work.
Therefore, we can be sure that our ascended Lord is ruling over all things and that he will come back at the end of the world to usher in a new kingdom with new heavens and a new earth.
Peter teaches us how that is to impact our lives especially since we don’t know when that will be.
Earlier I had shared the prediction that the earth can run out of oxygen as soon as 10,000 years from now and almost certainly in a billion years. Not much we can do about it.
Other events in our lives will most certainly happen before that as mentioned last week. One does well to be prepared for them.
Remember what Peter says about preparing for the last day when our ascended Lord will descend from heaven and establish his kingdom in a new heavens and earth.
2 Peter 3:11–18 NIV84
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. 14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
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