The Ascension: Our Mission Between the Clouds

Welcome back to our study, “The Aftermath”, where we have been studying the events following the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we’ve seen on this journey through the aftermath was the disciples at pretty much their lowest point. They went from boasting to hiding. They went from dreaming of the kingdom to the nightmare of the crucifixion. They went from arguing about who was going to sit on Jesus’ right and left side as He ruled from the throne of David to utter disbelief as Jesus died a criminal’s death.

But the story didn’t end there. The Good Shepherd came looking for His scattered sheep. The risen Christ began gathering His broken disciples, restoring their hope, rebuilding their faith, and ultimately preparing them for the mission that would change the world.

First, He had to restore the disciples faith through explaining the Old Testament prophecies concerning the death and resurrection of the Messiah. Then He appeared to them again by the sea of Galilee where He recommissioned them to service. This was where He took Peter aside after breakfast and asked Peter three different times if He loved Him. And they major takeaway from that encounter is the Lord gives Peter three opportunities to declare his love for the Lord. Three declarations of love to counteract Peter’s three denials. And after each time Peter declares His love for the Lord, Jesus gives Him a commission. He says Peter, “feed my lambs”, “tend my Sheep”, and “feed my sheep”.

And then last week, after Jesus had recommissioned His men, we saw the Lord give His mission statement to the disciples. What is Jesus’ Mission Statement? Let’s review it.

Matthew 28:19–20 NKJV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Now, I’m not going to spend too much time rehashing what we learned last week, but I want to point out one major thing. The mission that Jesus gives His disciples was one thing. It was to make disciples. And every other action in these verses describes what the disciple making involves. First we have the word go. This explains where the disciples making was going to happen. They were going to make disciples of all the nations.

Simply put, the “go” described the where. Then you have “baptizing” which describes the beginning of the disciple making process. And then you have the teaching, which describes the ongoing aspect of disciple making. Notice Jesus says, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you”. You see, it takes a lifetime of teaching to develop disciples. We aren’t going to teach people to observe all the things that Jesus commanded in a single sermon. It’s an ongoing process.

So, the major take away is that disciples aren’t made in a moment, they are developed over a lifetime. As Tony Evans puts it so well:

A disciple is a learner who seeks to become like the one he is following.

I absolutely love this definition. And it brings such clarity to what we are supposed to be doing as a church. All of us individually need to be learners who are seeking to become more like Jesus, and we all need to be helping others in their journey. Simply put we need to be disciples and we need to be discipling others. And Jesus’ mission statement describes ongoing process of discipling.

Matthew 28:20 NKJV

20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

The ongoing process is “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you”. And notice what else Jesus says in this verse. He says, “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”. This a monumental statement that teaches us two extremely important truths.

When Jesus says, “I am with you always”. This is a promise from the Lord that He will empower us to complete our mission. In other words, His power will be working and present in us as we undertake our part in making disciples. Simply put, we will succeed in our mission if we depend upon Christ’s power. Jesus Christ the one who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth is always with us.

Jesus says He will be with us always, “even to the end of the age”. This is also significant because it tells us that the disciple making mission lasts throughout the church age, and even through the tribulation. My point is that this mission statement was not only for the eleven. This mission was to continue until the second coming of Christ. Which means, this mission statement applies to us Legacy.

As we talked about last week. As a church I want us committed to the disciple making process. I want us to be making disciples through baptism and the ongoing continuous process of teaching the Bible. In fact, let me reshare the short, informal version of our mission statement (our full mission statement is on our website).

Informal Mission Statement: We exist to teach the Bible, so that people become more like Jesus.

Legacy this is our mission. And I believe this mission stays true to the great commission, and I firmly believe that as we, the church, commit to this mission that we are doing our part to fulfill the mission that Jesus gave us, “to teach people to observe all the things that He commands”.

And let me add a quick side note here. Because some of us may be thinking awesome William, I’m bought in. I all in on this mission statement, but I’m not a teacher. So, what do I do to take part in the plan?

Well, I’m so glad you asked. Let me give you a Biblical example of how non-teaching roles contribute to the mission

Very early on in the book of Acts, the rapidly growing church ran into a problem. There were widows who needed daily care, and they were being overlooked in the distribution of food. This wasn’t a small issue — it was a threat to unity and to the witness of the church. Something had to be done.

So the apostles gathered the church and presented a plan:

Acts 6:2 NKJV

2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.

Acts 6:3–4 NKJV

3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; 4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

Now, the apostles weren’t saying they were “too good” to serve tables. They weren’t elevating themselves above the people. What they were saying is this: if the burden falls on us to meet the practical and spiritual needs of the people, the teaching of the word of God will suffer.

The apostles had been commissioned by Jesus to teach — to devote themselves to the Word of God and prayer. That was their calling. That was their ministry. That was their lane. And if they abandoned that calling to meet every practical need, the mission would stall.

So what did they do?

They appointed seven godly men — the first deacons — to step in and meet the practical needs of the church. These men weren’t preachers. They weren’t apostles. They weren’t called to teach publicly. But their ministry was absolutely essential.

Their service made the teaching possible. Their faithfulness freed the apostles to stay focused on the Word. Their obedience protected the unity of the church and propelled the mission forward.

And what was the result?

Acts 6:7 NKJV

7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Why did the Word spread? Why did disciples multiply? Because the whole church worked together — teachers teaching, servants serving, everyone contributing to the mission.

Legacy, that’s exactly how it works today. Not everyone teaches publicly. Not everyone preaches. But every act of service — greeting, cleaning, giving, praying, encouraging, helping, organizing — all of it fuels the mission of making disciples.

Ok, let me see if I can steer us back on course. So, the disciples have been restored, recommissioned, and given their mission, but the Lord isn’t sending them out quite yet. What we are going to learn today is that Jesus spent 40 days with his disciples teaching them additional truths about the kingdom, and then He ascended back to the father. And what we are going to see in our text for this morning is that right before the Lord ascends He tells His disciples not to depart from Jerusalem until they are baptized by the Holy Spirit. And with all that being said, I think we are ready to jump into our text for today, but let’s go to the Lord is prayer first.

Let’s pray.

Ok, so as we pick up in the book Acts, I’m going to start at the very first verse to give us some context. Luke begins,

Acts 1:1–2 NKJV

1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,

When Luke mentions the former account that I made, He is speaking about His Gospel. The Gospel of Luke was also addressed to this man Theophilus. So, Luke is saying, the first historical record which I gave you covered everything leading up to Jesus’ ascension. That is what He says in verses 1-2. “The former account I made… of all that Jesus began both to do and teach”. And now notice the word at the beginning of verse 2, “until the day in which He was taken up”. So, simply put Luke says, Everything I recorded in volume 1 (Gospel) covered everything up to Jesus accession, and now Luke is writing Vol 2 (Acts) to record what came after that. And Luke also adds the detail that Jesus was taken up, “after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen”. If I were going to paraphrase this I would say Jesus was taken up after He had properly trained His men the Apostles.

Moving on to verse 3,

Acts 1:3 NKJV

3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Now, verse 3 tells us Jesus “presented Himself alive after His suffering” to his Apostles. So what Luke is saying is that the resurrected Messiah, Jesus, presented Himself alive to His chosen Apostles with many infallible proofs. And if you’ve been with us through this study we read about some of the proofs. Remember, Jesus appears to them and they think He’s a ghost. I mean they were terrified, and Jesus says, guys it me. “Behold my hands and my feet… Handle me and see”. And when they still didn’t believe He asked for some food and eats some fish and a honeycomb right in front of them.

So, Jesus appears to His apostles and He gives them all kinds of different proofs that He really was resurrected, and notice what verse 3 says next, “being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”

Now we need to stop for a moment and do a little homework together. Luke tells us that Jesus spent forty days teaching His disciples about the kingdom of God. And here’s the problem I’ve noticed: we talk about the kingdom of God a lot, but we rarely stop to define what we mean by it.

We do this with many biblical terms, but “kingdom” may be one of the most misunderstood. And if we’re going to study Scripture faithfully, then when we come across a word like kingdom, we need to clearly define how we understand the kingdom.

You might be thinking, “Why do we need to define a word like kingdom? Don’t we all know what that words mean?” And the answer is no. And this answer is no because different people mean different things when they use the word kingdom.

Here’s what I want us to realize today:

There are multiple, very different understandings of the Kingdom of God within Christianity.

Some Christians believe that Christ’s kingdom is not a literal, physical kingdom at all. They believe it is purely spiritual. In this view, the kingdom is already here but only in our hearts. They would say Jesus is reigning spiritually, not physically, and that there will be no future earthly kingdom.

In this view, there is no literal coming kingdom in which Jesus is going to rule from the throne of David in Jerusalem. Instead “the kingdom” symbolically represents the present church age, and the kingdom of God is seen as Christ ruling spiritually in the hearts and lives of believers.

So, here is the net net. Amillennialism teaches that Christ’s kingdom is here now, but it is not a physical literally kingdom at all. It is a spiritual kingdom in which Christ is reigning through the church in this present age.

Now — that is a view held by many people within Christianity. But it is not the view I hold, and that isn’t what we teach here at Legacy.

At Legacy, we believe what the disciples believed, and what Jesus affirmed: The kingdom of God is a literal, physical coming kingdom that Christ will establish on earth when He returns. In fact, let me give you one verse that I would use to argue for a literal kingdom. Listen to what Jesus promises His disciples.

Matthew 19:28 NKJV

28 So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Jesus says that in coming kingdom, “when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. If we just let the text speak and don’t read any theology into it, Jesus language couldn’t be clearer. Jesus is coming to rule the earth, and His disciples will be rewarded in His kingdom for their faithful service to Him. Their reward was going to be sitting on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Here is what I want you to talk away with. The disciples didn’t totally misunderstand what the kingdom was. In other words, they weren’t wrong in thinking the kingdom was a literal kingdom. No, they just had the timing wrong. The disciples correctly understand the kingdom to be a literal kingdom, they just didn’t understand “the when”.

You see, when Jesus promised that His disciples would sit on thrones judging Israel, He wasn’t speaking in metaphors. He was promising them real positions of authority in His real, coming kingdom here on earth. The disciples understood the kingdom to be literal and physical because that’s exactly what Jesus taught them.

And that’s why I firmly believe in a literal, future kingdom in which Jesus will rule from the throne of David, and the twelve apostles will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

But if that’s true, then the natural question is: How do we get from where we are today to that future kingdom?

So let me take just a moment and walk you through the order of future events as Scripture lays them out. This will help you see where we are in God’s timeline and where everything is heading.

Let me give you a slide so that you will have a visual picture.

We believe that the next prophetic event in God’s timeline is the imminent rapture of the Church. At the rapture, all believers will be caught up to meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the air. Following the rapture, a seven‑year Tribulation period will unfold on earth, culminating in the return of Jesus Christ to establish His literal, earthly, thousand‑year kingdom here on earth. After the Millennium, God will bring about the eternal state, creating a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

So the point of all of this is that when I talk about the kingdom, I want you to understand that I’m talking about a literal, future kingdom in which Christ will rule from the throne of David in Jerusalem.

Ok, let’s get back to our text. Picking back up at verse 3.

Acts 1:3 NKJV

3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

As I mentioned previously, Jesus appears to His disciples for 40 days, giving them proofs of the resurrection and teaching them about the kingdom. And again, when I say kingdom I mean a literal, future one here on earth. And now moving on to verse 4,

Acts 1:4–5 NKJV

4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Now, I think it is reasonable to assume that all of these meeting with Jesus got the disciples all fired up. In other words, I think these men were probably chomping at the bit to start the mission, and so Jesus has to tell them, “not to depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the Promise of the Father”.

And what was the promise of the father? Well, obviously it was the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which Luke makes clear in verse 5. But notice Jesus says, which… you have heard from Me”. Jesus had told the disciples that the Holy Spirit was coming after his departure, and He also told them that the Holy Spirit was coming from the Father. Look at John 14:26 with me.

John 14:26 NKJV

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

Notice Jesus says, “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name… He will teach you all things.” So here’s the point: the apostles had to wait for the Holy Spirit because they needed the supernatural enablement that only the indwelling Spirit of God could provide. Let me say it plainly — the key to the apostles’ success in fulfilling the Great Commission was their baptism and indwelling by the Holy Spirit.

You see, this baptism of the Spirit would not only unite them spiritually to the Lord Jesus Christ and to every other member of the church, but it would also equip them with the empowering and gifting ministry of the Spirit. When the Spirit came upon them, the very power of God would operate through them — enabling them to preach boldly, perform miracles, proclaim the gospel across cultural barriers, and lay the foundation of the church.

In other words, the mission Jesus gave them could only be accomplished through the power Jesus supplied. And that power would come through the promised baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And there is a really cool parallel between Jesus’ baptism and the Apostles Baptism of the Holy Spirit. You see, when Jesus was baptized by John what happened? The Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and this marked the beginning of Jesus’ Spirit-empowered ministry. And I believe that every miracle Jesus performed was by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was modeling for His disciples what they were going to do.

And so just as Jesus was baptized by the Holy Spirit, these men were getting ready to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. So here is the parallel.

Jesus’ baptism → Spirit descends → ministry begins

Apostles’ baptism (Acts 2) → Spirit descends → mission begins

Let me summarize all of this to make sure we are on all the same page. Jesus has been meeting with His disciples over a 40 day period teaching them about the kingdom of God. I’m sure this had His disciples all fired up and ready to go, but Jesus says, “hang on men”, you’re not ready yet. I want you to stay put until your are baptized with the Holy spirit. And when you receive the “Helper” whom the Father will send then you will be ready to attack the mission.

So now we come to verse 6, and this is where everything we’ve been talking about comes to a head.

Acts 1:6 NKJV

6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

This is an extremely important question. In fact, this question — and Jesus’ answer — is the whole reason I took the time to explain the different understandings of the kingdom. Because right here, in this moment, the disciples reveal exactly what they believed Jesus had been teaching them for forty days. You see, the disciples here are still expecting a literal kingdom. And they are asking Jesus if the kingdom was going to come now. It’s like they are saying, “Ok, we didn’t understand that you had to suffer and die first to take away the sins of the world. But now that you’ve done that and now that you’ve been resurrected, what about now, Jesus? Is the kingdom coming now?

And listen to how Jesus responds.

Acts 1:7 NKJV

7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.

You see, Jesus doesn’t correct their understanding of the kingdom here. He doesn’t says, ‘guys, you’ve completely misunderstood what the kingdom is”. He doesn’t say, “men the kingdom isn’t what you’re expecting. It is a spiritual kingdom that will operate in the hearts and lives of believers.” He doesn’t say any of that. What does He say, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in HIs own authority”.

Simply put, Jesus says, “I’m not telling you when the kingdom is coming, that is up to the Father”. Jesus doesn’t correct their literal understanding of the kingdom. He didn’t say, “you’ve misunderstood the nature of the kingdom”. He just tells them they weren’t allowed to know the “when”.

Then in verse 8 he redirects their focus to the mission He gave them. Let’s read on.

Acts 1:8 NKJV

8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Once these men received power when the Holy Spirit came upon them, then they were to embark on their mission. Then they were to be witnesses. That means they were to bear testimony to their Master. They were preach the things which they have seen and heard. They were to start in Jerusalem, and fan out from there. Next they were to go out into Judea, then up north into Samaria, and finally to the end of the earth. And this is what the book of Acts records everything begins in Jerusalem and then the church spreads out from there.

And now that the Lord has now fully prepared His chosen Apostles, the time for Him to leave the earth has come. Let’s read our last few verses for today.

Acts 1:9–10 NKJV

9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,

I mean its almost impossible to imagine what this would have been like. But i can picture the Apostles all standing there, about to break their necks starting up into the sky. And as they were continuously starting up toward heaven, man I bet their mouth were probably hanging wide open. Don’t you know they were just in utter amazement. And then two angels appear.

Acts 1:11 NKJV

11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Now I want to focus on the last part of verse 11 as I work to close. The angels tell them Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner. Jesus was taken up into heaven in the clouds, and when He comes again to establish HIs kingdom. He is coming with the clouds. And this is exactly how Jesus describes His second coming in the Gospels. Look at Matthew 24 verse 30 with me.

Matthew 24:30 NKJV

30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

So, let me start wrapping on this up. Jesus Himself is coming back to establish His kingdom, and the kingdom is coming. IT is a literal, physical kingdom over which Jesus will rule from the throne on David in Jerusalem. And the mission we have today exists in between the clouds of His ascension and the clouds of His return. That is the title of today’s lesson.

Our Mission Between the Clouds

Do you get it?

He went up in a cloud. He will return on the clouds.

And everything in between — every sermon preached, every soul saved, every disciple made, every act of obedience, every step of faith — all of it happens between those two clouds.

This is where we live. This is where we labor. This is where we carry out the mission Jesus gave us.

Our mission is lived between the clouds that received Him and the clouds He will return on.

The kingdom is coming. The King is returning. But until that day, we have work to do. All of us have Spirit-empowered work to do, and that mission is to make disciples.

Legacy, our mission is simple and clear:

We exist to teach the Bible, so that people become more like Jesus.

And all of us have a part in this. All of us have Spirit-given gifts. All of us have work to do.

So, in this life we are living in between the clouds, let us be faithful disciples who are diligently working to complete our assignment until the Kingdom comes. So that on that day, we hear well done good and faithful servant. Amen.

Let’s pray.