Acts 1 Why are you still standing here?

Why do you still stand here looking into the Sky?

Acts 1:1–11

ESV

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 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.”

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

When I was living in Missouri I was driving down this frontage, or access road that i had driven on hundreds of times. You know, a two lane road that goes parallel to the highway. I am in the right-hand lane, and a car is coming towards me on the left-hand side. and as i begin to approach them I think to myself, hold on, something does not feel right about this. We are going much faster than a normal road, and theres no median, no barrier, nothing preventing us from a head on crash on this road.

It felt odd and unnatural, but I can’t figure out why until quite a bit after I passed the car and realize, what in the world. This is a one-way. And i am thinking to myself, it is right? Even after I merge to get off the road, I’m looking in my mirror to see if there’s actually sign saying wrong way and do not enter. Of course, because it is an access road, It did.

What is even more bizarre is that this car never seems to notice. I watched them for at least two miles, they never turn around or jerks onto a different street. They just keep going.

There is this confusion in this moment for me because what is happening seems so surreal and so unnatural.

The disciples, likewise, in the scene we are looking at today, are confused. Things feel familiar; they have followed Jesus for three or so years, and yet things are different. Jesus continues to say confusing things that don’t make sense. And before they can understand it, he vanishes. I could nto figure out what was wrong with this car until it had passed me and I was stuck looking in my mirror confused.

And the disciples are left staring at the sky, confused. And an angel had to show up and asks the question that changed everything, What in the world are you still doing here?

Right here in verse 8 we get what is considered by most people to be the theme verse of the book.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We see two major movements in this verse alone. There is a great power that is going to come upon the church. And the church is going to be sent out into the world. But for the disciples at this moment, this was the equivalent of a donkey kicking them in the stomachs. But to understand it, we have to understand the contextual scene first.

So Jesus has just died. And then three days later came back to life. He has walked among his disciples physically. He has eaten with them. He has taught them. He has been in their presence numerous times.

40 days after the resurrection, we get to this point where Jesus is about to leave his disciples and return to the right hand of God the Father. But they still don’t understand what that means. Because how can Jesus leave? Is there not a bunch of work to do?

Jesus once again shares with the disciples that it's his time to depart from the Earth. And notice he tells them ahead of time, don't leave Jerusalem. Don't go anywhere. Because right now, they're less than a mile away from Jerusalem on the mountain of Olives. So they are doing what he said. And then we see two Angels appear and rebuke the disciples for looking up into the sky.

It is no surprise that the disciples are confused and looking up to the sky. What could Jesus possibly expect? He just disappeared.

It is like he is giving them whiplash. It's like playing a game of red light, green light. Jesus sends out the disciples 2 by 2 into the villages. Then he says don't leave Jerusalem. Then he says I'm gonna send you to the edges of the Earth. And now they are being rebuked for staying within the vicinity of Jerusalem.

stop, go, stop, go.

I know some people with very high expectations, but come on, Jesus. Would any of us do better?

And he tells them once again about the coming of the Holy Spirit. But they misunderstand Jesus. They think this means Jesus, the descendant of King David, is going to start ruling Israel again and restore them to their proper place and overthrow Rome.

And Jesus gives them a rebuke of sorts. You can basically envision the deep sigh of disappointment that Jesus has, as he once again has to describe why he came here and his true mission.

Jesus is talking about a heavenly kingdom that exists on earth but has a different source, a different foundation, and the disciples are still Hung up on the actual earthly kingdoms and how they rule.

The problem is not with a hope of liberation and a hope of freedom. That is present all over the OT. The problem is with the timeframe of when this is going to happen. They are expecting revenge and justice, now at this moment. And it's the means that they're expecting it to come by that they don’t grasp.

The second problem with their question, and the bigger problem, is who is going to bring about the Change.

Jesus has to rebuke them and say you have got it all wrong, it's not me that's going to do anything. It's you. You're my witness. It's A power from the Holy Spirit that will be given to you so that you can go work.

No longer am I seeking to rule through a king, or even through a prophet. You are to be my witnesses.

Jesus says you want to change the kingdom, but you don't understand that this kingdom exists in the midst of many different countries and empires. The kingdom of God will be eternal. Listen to what Paul will write to the church in Corinth in just a few decades after this.

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” 2 Cor 4:8-9 NIV

Like the prophet, taking up his mentor's mantle, we are taking up the work of Jesus. In the gospel according to John, Jesus has this weird couple of sentences where he says you, again talking to the disciples, but referring to all of the church, this:

John 14:12–14 “12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. NIV

So Jesus promises them peace, and yet the Roman guards still guard their streets and demand taxes from their elderly mothers, and they still burn down their synagogues. Can you imagine being in this position?

Can you imagine seeing Jesus get ready to return to the side of God, and Rome is still in complete control?

I would be asking Jesus, hold on just a second Lord, what has changed? What did we spend the last 3 1/2 years doing? You're leaving, but what ground have we made in the world? Yeah, we fed some hungry people, and we healed some blind people, and you brought Lazarus back to life. But Lazarus is still going to die, right? And Rome will continue to let our fathers and mothers and children go hungry. So what was the point in all of this? Did we make any lasting change at all?

So are we really that surprised that they're asking Jesus… So when is something going to change?

Is that not how some of us feel right now? Is that not why so many pastors can't seem to preach anything but let's just gather together on Sundays, and encourage each other for a few hours, and then wait until we get to heaven? These people who are so preoccupied with heaven have missed the mission of Jesus here on earth?

But then, just as they are asking this question and waiting for a good answer, Jesus disappears. What's next, Lord? How can we accomplish these things if you are gone?

We don't know how long they're left staring at the sky but but it is long enough that after he leaves two angels show up and ask the all important question. The question this entire story hinges on.

Acts 1:11

ESV

and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Why are you standing here? Why are you looking up into heaven? What are you expecting? When I first read this passage, my first response was, what was Jesus really expecting from the disciples?

In some ways, it's like me expecting my two-year-old daughter to get a job mowing grass or taking out the trash. yeah i would love for her to carry her own weight, pay some bills, and do some chores, but that's just as likely as asking my four-month-old to write my sermon.

But more importantly, you picked a ragtag bunch of nobodies who can't get along anda rogue about power every other day, what did you expect when you disappeared?

Matthew's gospel tells us that even as they were walking up a mountain after the resurrection, some of them still doubted. Mark's gospel ends with the women who had been following Jesus, the only ones with enough faith to even show up on the day he's supposed to be risen, running away afraid. So if that's what happened to the ones with the faith to show up on Sunday, what do we expect from the ones who were hiding in a room with the doors locked?

And now they are being rebuked for staying within the vicinity of Jerusalem?

Are we not all just looking up into heaven trying to figure out how to escape this broken world and be with Jesus?

Bonhoeffer in his final sermon before we was killed by the Nazis preached

“No one has yet believed in God and the Kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour-waiting and looking forward to being released from bodily existence.” Bonhoeffer

What was Jesus expecting from them?

well. If we go back to the text again, we are reminded Jesus had already given them a mission. What was it?

to send them out to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the ends of the earth.

The problem we see with the disciples at first was that they were to earthly minded, to be of any heavenly good. They were only focused on earthly kingdoms and principalities in charge.

But now, as they stare off into the heavens, it seems they are to heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. They are so focused on being with Jesus in heaven that they miss the opportunity to be Jesus to their communities.

So preoccupied with escaping to be with Jesus that they stopped bringing the good news. So focused on the kingdom coming down that they forgot they were supposed to be the ones carrying it there.

So the angels ask… why are you here? What is your mission?

In asking the question, I believe we are to remember another time this was asked. This phrase I believ,e is meant to connect us to another story.

in 1 kings 19:13 Elijah the prophet has just run away from a king Ahab and his wife Jezebel, who stood opposed to a faithful community of God and vowed to take his life. Now he stands in the cleft of a rock on Mt. Sinai, and the presence of God shows up and asks him…

1 Kings 19:13

ESV

“And behold, there came a voice to him and said, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Once again, we see God asking a worker in the kingdom of God, what are you doing here? What is your mission? What is your purpose?

Sometimes God gives us that question because we are in the wrong place. Sometimes he gives it to us because we have lost our meaning, lost our telos, our goal, the vision and calling of God.

Elijah ran away from the mission of God because he was afraid of the earthly kingdoms. So God sends him to literally make a disciple, someone who would take up his mantle and fill his place.

Elijah, afraid of the powers of the world, running from his mission, running from his anointing, is course corrected by the whisper of God, on the same Mountain the original commandments and laws were given. So he tells him, go find the other ones following me, and teach them, and train them, to continue this mission to be faithful to me in a world that seeks to take your life.

In our story today, the disciples are caught stargazing and daydreaming about heaven. and by the voice of an angel, they are told to get on with the work of making disciples, baptizing believers, and bringing heaven to the world.

But how? That is the question the text keeps making us ask. That is what is so confusing. And I believe the answer is found if we look at the very first verse of this letter of Acts. The book of Acts from the early church is usually known as the Acts of the apotles. Many scholars think that it really should be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit because it is the Spirit in the lives of the Apostles that the work of the church gets done.

But some scholars actually think the Acts of the Holy Spirit does not really tell us the purpose and meaning of the written account of the early church. If we look at the first book, Luke details his purpose.

Acts 1:1 “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,”

all that Jesus began to do and teach. The implication is that Jesus' work is ongoing and found in the people of God. His work is continuing in us, his church. And THAT is what the book of Acts is about. Jesus continues his work even as he sits on the Right hand of God by the work of the church.

Professor Howard Snyder writes

“Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world.” Howard Snyder

You see, in the past, sometimes churches, including ours, might have been a place where we only focused on getting more people to the church. building bigger buildings, filling more seats. Afraid of the world and hoping to sequester in the homey safety that emanates from these four walls.

That was the same desire the disciples had. Yet Jesus, as we will see later in the book of Acts, will tell them to go out into the world and bring me to it. Why? Because Jesus says I have overcome death, I reign victorious over sin, the kingdom of God is at hand, the church is one the move. All of this is possible because of my death and resurrection. But my work, my mission, my purpose for coming did not stop with those things. It BEGAN with them.

SO Why are you here?

the same question remains for you to answer right now, why are you here? in this church? in this community? The same question the Angels asked the disciples that fateful day on the Mount of Olives, God is asking us now, what is your purpose, your duty? Today? tomorrow? a year from now?

I can’t tell you why you are here. What God is or is not doing in you. Why did Jesus decide to raise up a kid who grew up in 30 minutes from here in the small town of Rockdale? Send him to West Point Georgia, to Arizona, to Missouri, and now back home to Georgia?

A kid with no direction, no purpose, and feeling empty and lonely. I can tell you with Confidence that God gave that depressed and lonely kid a mission, a vision, and a purpose to go and tell the world about the love of Jesus. about the God who decided to come and live among us and gave his life for us to find life.

He gave me a gift and a calling to preach, to build up, to encourage, to convict, and to train up his church to go out into the world.

And that same young man and the leadership here at this church were given a renewed vision of what it means to be a local church here in Henry County. What it means to be a faithful Christian in this city, this state, and in this world. A vision to reach the lost no matter what it costs us, or how long it takes. To build up a body of believers who never stop abiding and growing in Christ.

A church that pursues authentic, honest, unity in our church, families, and communities. A church pursuing reconciled relationships with God and each other.

A church of service that is seeking to replicate the same posture given to us by Jesus. a church that refuses to leave anyone behind, and provide mentorship and authentic community to everyone who wants it.

But why are you here? Has God called you to something special? Has he called you to work in the same kingdom of God that says the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few?

why are you here?

Again, i can only begin to speculate in answering that question, but i can tell with absolute certainty, that here, at this church, he has called us to be faithful to Jesus by seeking and pursuing the lost and to mentoring the found.

Before we talk more about our future and where God is taking us, I want to let someone who has been apart of this church for a long time share a little on why we do all of this.