Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Me - Welcome I am glad to be back with you before we get started let me pray.

We - Before we jump in let me review what we covered so far in this part of the Story Series.

Looking at the crucifixion we saw that Jesus suffered the punishemnt we deserved and that through His work on the cross He opened up access for us to the Father.

When we looked at the resurrection we covered a lot of ground but we saw that it matters becuase, it completes the Gospel, shows that the bond between the triune God is not broken and helped us see how to properly relate to God and each other.

We stopped with this though that the resurrection defines our mission.

Through the resurrection Jesus shows us that we all have a purpose in His Kingdom work, and living out that purpose will result in a fruitful and joyful life.

God

Last week we wrapped up with .

Jesus said this before He lead them out to the place where He would make his final ascension.

From what we can tell Jesus seemed to show up and no one would know where He came from.

I am sure that took some getting used to, but they did not have much time becuase this period just lasted for about 40 days.

When He would come though he would often talk with them about their mission, their hope and also the One whom He would send, the promised Holy Spirit and that is where we will pick up today, but before we get there lets cover a little ground on why the ascension matters.

Like every part of the Easter Narrative there is too much to info on the ascension to cover in one sermon.

However, that does not mean we need to skip over everything!

So as I studied the ascension I came across a short list from J.I. Packer’s little book Concise Theology of the importance of the ascension.

Even this isn’t complete but it is a great starter list that you can use in your personal study and ministry.

So check this out, “The Ascension establishes three facts:”

1. Christ’s Personal Ascendancy ()

says

Ephesi

Through out the NT, we see that Christ is spoken of as sitting at the right hand of God.

Being at the right of God He is in the position of power, ruling His Kingdom and waiting until He returns to earth in the final days.

Part of this reality is that He went still being fully man and fully God.

This is essential to our understanding of how we live life now and how we look to the future.

Jesus dying and coming back, with a new body, gives us security that when we trust Him we will also be back fully ourselves, with perfected bodies like His and that is how we will live in eternity.

In fact earlier in we see the Holy Spirit in us, “is our down payment of our inheritance.”

In other words, His ascendancy is essential to our security.

The next thing Packer wrote is that as a result of the ascension Jesus is Omnipresent

2. Christ’s Spiritual Omnipresence ()

take a look at

Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, but He is available to all who know Him or want to know Him.

While on earth He modeled this kind of availability.

A great example of this is the story of the woman who touches Him in .

But physically He took on the limits of man and was not able to be everywhere at once.

His ascension makes Him now available to everyone anytime.

This is vital in understanding our relationship with Him and His commitment to us to be accessible and to make the Father accessible.

This brings us to the third thing Packer said.

Becuase of His ascension there is the fact that Christ has a heavenly ministry for us.

We saw this in the last passage we looked at, but take a look at .

3. Christ’s Heavenly Ministry ()

Because He has ascended He is still ministering to us through His intercession, presence and power.

By entering the heavenly sanctuary He prays to the Father on our behalf and He takes care of us.

Part of His heavenly minsitry and what we will focus on today.

And that is

Through His ascension He empowers us in the execution of His global plan.

Turn in your bibles to Acts 1:4-11

As we look at this passage we will see that Jesus simultaneously does two things.

Through out this passage He empowers the disciples to do His work both by showing them the plan and through promising the Holy Spirit.

The second thing He does is by ascending to heaven He calls them to carry out God’s great salvation plan.

So lets look at what He does first.

The ascension ensures our empowerment.

(4-8)

To see how He does this take a look at .

Take a look at verses 4 - 5:

Luke continues his narrative by showing how Jesus’ bodily earthly ministry came to a close today, and how His church is released to act in His name.

It is easy to let the ascension of Christ slip our minds as part of the Easter Narrative, but without it we would not understand the Christian life, why we are here and most importantly the inner dwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Take a look at verse 4-5.

Luke writes,

In Luke continues his narrative by showing how Jesus’ bodily earthly ministry came to a close today, and how His church is released to act in His name.

It is easy to let the ascension of Christ slip our minds as part of the Easter Narrative, but without it we would not understand the Christian life, why we are here and most importantly the inner dwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Take a look at verse 4-5.

Luke writes,

“While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem...” apperentyl the 11 had decided to come and go from Jerusalem, Jesus did not want th

Jesus starts His final face to face with the disciples by commanding them not to leave Jerusalem.

We saw in He said, “do not leave the city”.

Jesus wanted the church to start there, and He makes it clear that they need to stay there.

What are they supposed to do? Wait! Think about it for a second.

In the past 40 days they have experienced the greatest counter revolution in world history.

Jesus, the Son of God, came into this world and lived amongst everyday people, in order to live a life free of rebellion against God and died for our rebellion against the Father, and the Holy Spirit and then after being dead for three days rose from the grave with a new body and taught them some more and now they have to wait.

Obviously waiting for good things is sometimes fun.

But waiting for a promise like this might be a little harder.

They had no idea what to expect.

There is one group in particualr that has a hard time waiting and those are the doers.

If you are a doer just hearing the word might make you squirm.

Guess what many of the disciples were probably doers, but now they have to be waiters.

For many of us this is torture, but when the Lord tells us what to do, it is the best thing we can do.

They did not know how long they would have to wait they just knew they had to wait for a few days.

So what did they do?

From the best we can tell according to verse 12 they returned to Jerusalem after Jesus ascended and waited.

At this point I am tempted to tell you stories of when we have had to wait and how God used those waiting times to guide us, but that will take too long so all I am going to do is point us to a verse.

Take a look at

So often we take that “Be still and know that I am God” part and forget the rest becuase that part fits on a tee shirt and reminds us to be calm, to rest or to have peace in challenging times, but in reality the verse is much greater than that, it refers God’s grand vision.

“I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Like being still, Jesus telling them to wait is not idle time waisted it is waiting for a purpose, becuase God was about to fulfill His promise.

It is a purpose with a grand vision attached, one that will absolutely change them and everyone who receives their message.

So as they wait they have to to wait not for something but for Someone.

Take a look back at verse 4. “Which,” he said, “you have heard me speak about;” Throughout the Gospel’s Jesus prepares the disciples for this Promise by telling them that He is leaving but He is going to send the Holy Spirit to dwell in them.

In He says,

John 14:

He also describes the Holy Spirit’s minsitry in saying”

John 15:

Then in 16:8 Jesus says,

The ascension ensures our empowerment.

(4-8)

Reminding them of the promised Holy Spirit

Having reminded them of His promise the disciples then ask Him,

Look at other verses where He promises Holy Spirit and the Spirits role.

acts

This question may seem a little out of place.

Especially in our 21th century mindset, but we have to understand.

In the 1st Century Jewish thought the coming of the Holy Spirit was a signal of the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom.