Apostles Creed | Acts 1:

Intro

What’s up everybody

Hows it going?

Everyone have a good break? Cool.

So this past May a big event happened in England anyone know what it was?

Hadn’t happened since the 50’s. Big deal. It’ll happen again in our lifetimes but not for a while.

any guesses?

The crowned a new king of England. The had the Coronation of a Monarch in England. Queen Liz ruled and reigned for absolutely ever, longest serving monarch in English history.

So when she died, Charles became the king. A part of becoming the king is have a coronation ceremony, where you are installed with all the rights and what ever as king.

So this past may was King Charles III coronation. Where they place the crown on his head.

And it is a interesting thing, especially as an American because we famously have no king.

But it is this long ceremony that the church of England has, and it has it’s own liturgy. Which means this ceremony is technically a worship service.

Because the king of England is also the head of the church, it’s very different to us here in America.

But basically, they have this coronation ceremony, Charles was crowned, he was given all these symbolic things, an orb, a sepeter, a robe, a ring, a sword. All this stuff to signify he’s the king, he’s ruling.

Then when he is given all the things, he goes and sits on the throne. and for some reason he doesn’t look super happy. I’d be pretty thrilled if they crowned me King, but thats just me.

But this whole thing is his coronation ceremony. He is sitting as the king.

He sits on the throne as the first time as the king.

And that’s what we are looking at tonight.

We are still going through the AC.

And tonight we are going to look at a part of the story that we sort of gloss over.

We rightfully so, talk about the cross, the grave, the resurrection and the return of christ, all needed for the gospel. All pillars of the faith, but we often forget about his ascension. Him being taken back up to heaven.

So the line form the AC tonight is

He ascended in to heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father almighty; From Hence He shall Come to judge the living and the dead

So we are going to look at Christ Ascending and his return.

Context

So where does this come from in our theology?

There are three major spots in the Mark, Luke, and Acts, probably the most famous being Acts 1.

But for our purposes tonight we are going to start in Mark. We’ll eventually read them all, but we are going to start in mark.

But here is what I want you to see tonight, if you see anything at all. From the scriptures that this line in the AC is pulled from, we are going to see that as the church, we have a task that we cannot sit idle on.

We have been given instructions in these verse on what the goal of our lives are.

And just know, going in to this, there is a lot of context and explanation of theology in this, so stay focused or you are going to get confused.

So if you have a bible great, if not, throw a hand up and we will get one to you.

We are gonna be in mark 16:19-20

Okay so let’s read this together and then set the stage and talk about what is going on here.

but before we do that, lets pray fir out time in the word

pray

Okay cool, read this with me, Mark 16:19-20

Mark 16:19–20 ESV

19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Okay. So what is happening here?

This is the last scene we see Jesus in the gospels.

So this is after the crucifixion, after the resurrection, forty days after he was raised.

He has appeared to a ton of people, he has eaten with them, talked them, encouraged them and now he is about to leave them.

Ascension as Exaltation

And this is what happens.

Jesus gives them instruction, this some what formulaic in the gospels. Instruction, Ascension.

And so here is the first that Thing that i want to you to see as he ascends, this is Jesus coronation.

Here in the gospels and in Acts, this is called the exhalation of Jesus.

Look what it says, he went up to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

What does that mean though? What does it mean for Christ to sit down at the right hand of God?

It means he is ruling. This is Christ sitting down on the throne. To start his rule.

Think about what all has happened?

Remember last time, we talked about Atonement theory, Christus Victor, He took your place.

Christ has fought the war and won and now he is sitting on the throne to rule as King.

All of heaven in this is rejoicing that the king has come to rule and reign.

The ascension is Christs Coronation,

we gloss over this, because there isn’t a ton of detail to what that looks like, but without Christ sitting down on the throne, without him ruling, we miss the last part of the Gospel. That Christ is on the throne.

Imagine if this was the gospel. Christ died for you, now you figure it out.

What would happen if a king who had just fought and won the war, decided to not rule over the kingdom? What ever he was fighting for would revert, back.

We lose the hope of the gospel is Christ is not on the throne.

The ascension of Christ is his exaltation. When Paul writes in Ephesians 1:20-23 he is saying this

Ephesians 1:20–23 ESV

20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Christ has come to rule all things. To redeem all things.

Ascension makes way for the Holy Spirit

But that is not the only thing that his ascension is accomplishing. Shift over to Acts 1, you don’t have to flip over there, but look what jesus promises in Acts 1:8

Acts 1:8 ESV

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.”

Im going to rule, but God will not abandon you. You will receive the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus has alluded to this earlier in John’s gospel. John 16:13-14

John 16:13–14 ESV

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

This is the day the foundation of the church was laid.

We talk so often about having the personal relationship with God. This is where this is created for the people of God.

Look at what His job is? to guide us. In our walk with Jesus, the holy spirit is here to guide us, to protect us. To show us the way to truth. The HS works through reveling truth through the scriptures.

The indwelling of the holy spirit is what makes possible the personal relationship with God.

When we talk about the personal relationship, it is through the ministry of the holy spirit that we have that.

Without the ministry of the holy spirit the church would not survived the first century, let alone now.

Christ’s ascension makes way for the holy spirit to come. We need the ministry of the holy spirit in our lives. Say Jesus is Lord is saying we are sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Ascension makes way for eternity | He’s coming back

Lastly, Christ ascension makes way from eternity.

I don’t want to over look this.

But the last part of the line,

From Hence He shall Come to judge the living and the dead.

So two things, he is gone to rule, and start redeeming all thing.

Then at the end of all things, he will return to fully restore and make right all things. To judge the living and the dead.

So think about who that is? That is everyone, all of us will stand before God and be judged. This is apart of the restoration and redemption of all things.

P2Christ - what we doing in the mean time?

So the over arching theme that I want you to see tonight, is that when Jesus ascended, it implies His promise that He is coming back. That there is coming a day where Christ is going to come back.

All of the verse about Him ascending and leaving imply his return. We have been looking towards it for 2000 years.

So He has gone, but is coming back.

all of the scriptures about him ascending, come with instructions.

So what does it mean for us? What did it mean for the disciples who watched him ascend?

Well if you had just watch a man get crucified and then come back from the dead, then ascend in to heaven. What should you do? You should do what he says, and what does he say?

Look a couple verses back in Mark 16:15

Mark 16:15 ESV

15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

So this part of the creed, comes with a task.

The scriptures demand that we go in to all the world and proclaim the gospel.

I love how Acts 1:8 puts it

Acts 1:8 ESV

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.”

This is the thing that we get to do because Christ is on the throne. He is redeeming and restoring and calling all things in to himself, and this is how it gets done, through the work of the church.

And here’s the thing, as the church we can’t lose sight of this, Christ is on the throne and has given his messengers the task of going and telling everyone.

So this is what I want to do, I want to tell you something, then I want to ask you a question.

SO here is our task, proclaim the gospel to the whole of creation.

Here is what that means and does not mean.

It means this, Our task is to go and preach the gospel. The word for proclaim is the same word that gets translated as preached. It is a generic term that means, go and tell.

If we updated the language, it would read, Tell the gospel to all creation.

So our task is to go a tell.

but here is what our task isn’t, to save.

Because here is the reality that we as the church are in right now, and have been for a while.

People are not going to like you because of the message that you bring. Not ever person you have a gospel conversation with is going to get saved or honestly even be nice to you.

a couple years ago we were in Boston, and Josie walk up to a guy to just to invite him to an event the church was throwing and basically the guy told her flat no, then made fun of her for getting directionally turned around. The guy was really rude to Josie. and she was just trying to tell him about Jesus.

But like not everyone you tell is going to like it let alone get saved.

and that’s okay. Jesus warned us about this. He said they hated me, they’re gonna hate you.

So understand it is okay to face rejection, it is okay to get made fun of, it is okay if someone is rude to you.

Why? Because Christ is on the throne.

And for me selfishly, I hope I get to stand behind the guy who was rude to Josie on judgement day. Let’s see how it shakes out.

Christ says be my witness, same word that martyr comes from. Go be my martyr to the ends of the earth.

We are called to tell, but not to save, because we can’t save, we are only the messengers. Christ is the one who does the saving.

But we are called to go.

So what does it mean to go?

Growing up, there was a preacher joke that a few different pastors I had heard make, which was, if you do whatever, i’ll pray your kid gets called to the mission field.

ha ha ha, then their kids will move away.

But let’s break that down. Because this is what I want you to know, our prayer since we got here is that we would train up and send out. That some of you in this room would feel called to the mission field. Not as a punishment to your parents, but for the sake of the gospel ministry. How will they know if no one tells them?

So what does it mean to go?

Two ways, some of us it will be more as you go, in what you do preach the gospel. If you are a doctor, be the best doctor, and preach the gospel. If you’re in finance, be the best, and preach the gospel.

I read this book that says, the world doesn’t need more christian art, it needs christians who make good art.

The world doesn’t need for you to slap a jesus fish on your business card and call it a day, the world needs you to do what you do well and above all else preach the gospel.

The other way, is exactly what the preachers used to joke about. That you would go to the mission field. That you would be called away from your family, that you would uproot your life for the sake of the gospel.

We want to be a church that sends out missionaries. When you graduate from here, we aren’t sending out students, we want to be sending out missionaries.

Because here is the reality. The statement, proclaim to all creation, applies to all followers of Christ.

So do this real quick, we did a couple week ago, but look down at your feet, when you do, realize that is where your mission field. And if the lord decides to call you to move where your feet are, take the steps.

So, real quick, because I don’t think we do this a lot, if you have ever felt a call to ministry, i want you to snag me after, or text me something, I’d love to talk to you about that.

We are called to tell because Christ is reigning and one day he will come back.

So, before we finish up.

I want to you to think, if christ is on the throne, what does that mean for you?

Do you know him? Are you in the kingdom? Do you know Him as Lord?

here is the reality, He is going to come back, and when you stand before Him. What are you going to say?

So what we are about to do it pray, confess and then sing. During that time the invitation is open to come in to the kingdom. Christ is on the throne and made a way for you to have relationship with him.

Do you know him?

Answer that question.

Y’all pray with me.

pray

I believe in God, the Father almighty,       creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,       who was conceived by the Holy Spirit       and born of the virgin Mary.       He suffered under Pontius Pilate,       was crucified, died, and was buried;       he descended to hell.       The third day he rose again from the dead.       He ascended to heaven       and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.       From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,       the holy catholic* church,       the communion of saints,       the forgiveness of sins,       the resurrection of the body,       and the life everlasting. Amen.