Sermon Tone Analysis
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"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."
Page #
"Up, Up, and Away"
(Luke 24:46-53)
*INTRODUCTION:*
Do you have one of those "Special Places" in your life?
It might be a restaurant where you and your spouse go that has become special because of some memory.
It might be a lake house or a cabin in the mountains.
It could be a spot by a stock tank.
It might be sitting out on the patio early in the morning.
It could be any number of places.
It might even be the memory of a place.
But "Special Places" are those places where you can go to clear your head, sort things out, rest a little and focus on the really important stuff once again.
Most of us are like the guy who said, /"Every time I get it all together, I forget where I put it."
/Special Places help you get it all back together.
Bethany was that kind of place for Jesus.
The village of Bethany is just on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Like Arlington and Pantego, you can't really tell where one begins and the other ends.
Bethany was a very significant place to Jesus.
It was the home of his friend Lazarus.
I'm sure you remember the story of Lazarus.
Lazarus died.
His sisters sent for Jesus who showed up too late.
Lazarus had been dead and buried for four days.
However, that didn't stop his friend Jesus.
Jesus gave a shout loud enough to wake the dead and Lazarus, wrapped in burial clothes, stumbled forth from the grave, alive again, still stinking of death.
It scared many and angered others.
It was in Bethany where Jesus began his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey colt.
Coming down the hill the people began waving palm branches and shouting /"Hosanna, hosanna in the highest!"/
It was the ride of a lifetime; a trip that lead from triumph to the tragedy of the cross and then back to the triumph over the grave on Easter morning.
It was to Bethany where Jesus went after chasing the Money Changers and greed mongers out of the Temple and shouting, /"My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a den of robbers."/
Bethany was a special place to Jesus.
And it was in Bethany where Jesus made that giant leap to heaven known as the Ascension.
And according to this passage, Bethany could be called the launch pad of the Church.
Bethany is about two miles East of Jerusalem, and on the Mount of Olives.
It's at a high spot overlooking the Garden of Gethsemane, the Palm Sunday Road, the city of Jerusalem, the Golden Gate and the Temple on one side; and the Judean wilderness and the Dead Sea on the other.
In Bethany there is an unremarkable little courtyard; the only admission is a little gratuity to the blind beggar who sits at the gate.
As coins hit his begging bowl, he smiles and gestures toward a small Arab Mosque.
Inside is a chapel of sorts where about 8 to 10 people can crowd in to see the spot where Jesus launched himself to heaven.
It's as if this spot were the Holy Cape Canaveral.
Many people claim that this leap of Jesus to heaven was such an extraordinary leap that it left his foot print forever impressed in the rock.
I looked and I really couldn't see it, though others say they did.
The image I saw looked more like the imprint of a cowboy boot than anything else.
Now I know we've got Nazareth and Palestine and even a Bethany, Texas, but I don't think Jesus wore cowboy boots.
All of this is just to point out that Bethany was a very Special Place for Jesus.
And a special place for the Church, too.
You see, the Ascension was needed for a couple of reasons.
First, so that the disciples could see, once again, that Jesus was physically alive again.
He wasn't just some spook, some spirit who could fade in and out of existence at will.
When Jesus ascended into heaven, it was in his physical, flesh and blood form.
That was important as proof of the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Secondly, Jesus promised us another companion, a counselor, the Holy Spirit, who would dwell with us always.
But first, Jesus had to leave physically.
For the Holy Spirit is the spiritual presence of Christ with us.
And that couldn't happen if the physical Jesus were still here.
So Jesus ascended bodily into heaven.
But before leaving, Jesus commissioned the disciples as both servants of God and as his friends, for the work of the Church.
In both Matthew and Acts, Jesus commissioned the disciples with much the same words.
He said, /"You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth."/
Jesus Commissioned us as disciples, to carry the Good News to all the world.
And I think that Commission can be summed up in seven words.
Those seven words are:
*LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE, AND REACH OUT.*
*I.
LOVE GOD:*
* A.
*The very first thing we're called to do is to love God.
When Jesus was questioned about the greatest commandment, he said, /"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength."/
A man came out of Church one Sunday all charged up from the sermon.
He pumped the preacher's hand like trying to prime an old deep well hand pump.
With a smile that stretched from ear to ear he loudly proclaimed, /"I love God so much,/
/I'm ready to choke anybody who dares to speak against him."
/
/ /I really don't think that's what Jesus had in mind.
We're called to love God but we never really find out how to love God until we find out how much God loves us.
And God loves us so much that God sent that love gift wrapped in human flesh.
God sent His own Son to live with us and die for us, so that we might know God's love.
We learn to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength by experiencing God's great love for us.
A love so deep that we are no longer called servants; now we are called forgiven; now we are called disciples; now we are called friends.
And a friend is someone who knows you as you are, understands where you've been, accepts who you've become and out of their love for you still gently invites you to grow.
That kind of love made a difference in my life.
It changed me and the way I think about things and do things.
That love filled all the holes in my life, the holes in my heart and soul and even a few in my head.
I don't always do it right, but now I can love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength because God showed me how.
Through God's love for me as expressed in the forgiveness offered through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I can love God.
We all can.
*B.
*And we're called to live that love every day.
One member of a church was speaking with the Pastor.
That member was speaking rather disparagingly of a certain person who had recently joined their Church.
They said the newcomer was just an /"every day sort of Christian."/
The shrewd old minister caught up on the word /"everyday/" with real enthusiasm and he said: /"An every day sort of Christian, is he?
I wish I had known that before I accepted him into the Church and gave him the right hand of fellowship.
I would have given him both hands."/
You see, the trouble is that there aren't enough *EVERY DAY *sort of Christians.
There are too many every-other-day Christians.
Or every-Sunday sort of Christians who haven't really fallen in love with God or Christ or their fellow Christians.
We're called to fall in love with God and to make that the all encompassing motive behind all that we do.
*II.
LOVE PEOPLE:*
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