Which Way Did He Go?

God of incredible surprises, as we gaze into the clouds, remind us that we are standing on holy ground. Place our feet on the pathways of peace and hope. Draw our attention from the vision of the Lord rising to the heavens to be with you and help us to focus on the ministries that you would have us do. Keep us ready and willing always to serve you all our days. AMEN.

MUSIC

PASTORAL PRAYER AND LORD’S PRAYER Karen

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION Karen

Scripture

Acts 1:6–11 NRSV

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set 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, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

MUSIC

Sermon

Introduction

Today starts a new sermon series that will run the next 6 Sundays. The series is called Thief In The Night and is about the Second coming of Christ. This was something that I was asked to preach on at the beginning of the year. This Summer I will preach a series on Revelation which I was also asked to do. So this year you will get about 11 weeks on the “end times.” I must tell you there is nothing to be frightened of in either series. They are both about hope, the destruction of evil, a new creation where heaven and earth are brought together. With that being said let’s talk a bit about the Book of Acts.

Background

As many of you know Luke wrote Acts. We are told that Luke was a Greek speaking physician, from Antioch in Syria. He was a companion of Paul’s so his theology and narrative were based on what he learned from Paul. But Luke tells us that he did research on his own too. He interviewed eyewitnesses for his gospel and he experienced some of Acts first hand traveling with Paul.

Acts is the sequel to the gospel. Both were written to someone named Theophilus (lover of God). Luke-Acts tells the story from the incarnation to the ascension and the birth and the ongoing work of Jesus through mission and ministry of the church. Everything Theophilus would need to know and confirm about his faith.

Exegesis

Luke begins Acts by telling Theophilus that the resurrected Jesus appeared for 40 days teaching the Apostles about the Kingdom of God. Jesus also ordered them not to leave Jerusalem till they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. So we have 40 days Jesus appeared before his ascension. Then 9 days after that till the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This year Ascension Sunday is on May 24, but Ascension Day is May 21. We celebrate Pentecost on May 31.

In the verses Karen read today we have the apostles assembled with Jesus on the Mount of Olives. They are still confused by Jesus’ messiahship. Luke says that they have been taught for the last 40 days by Jesus about the coming Kingdom, but they still believe this will be a political thing. Jesus answers by telling them not now and no one knows when this will happen but God the Father.

In the meantime he says, once the Holy Spirit arrives you will become my witnesses here, there, and everywhere.

After he said this an odd thing happens. Luke said Jesus was lifted up and a cloud took him out of sight. Suddenly two Angels appear and basically tell them quit your gazing and get to work. Jesus will return to you the same way he left.

Interpretation

There is a lot going on in these 6 verses. In order to lay the foundation for Jesus coming back we have to understand the ascension.

The resurrection and ascension are 2 different things. One cannot happen without the other. However, we must understand that Jesus was physically resurrected. In other words, he is still human! Most of us tend to think of him as some kind of spiritual entity since he told us he would always be with us. No he is still fully man and fully God in a resurrected human body. And it is in that physical state that he “ascends” to heaven.

Ascension doesn’t mean he literally ascends. It means that he has been immediately located to the presence of God which we refer to as heaven.

So the resurrection testifies to Jesus’ faithfulness to God and vindicates him as lord and Christ. The ascension inaugurates his mission. This is good news! Jesus not only comes from God, he returns to God, and will come again. If Jesus had not ascended, then his mission could have never been turned over to the apostles. Jesus departure is the formal condition of their succession. If he does not depart, then those 40 days of instruction and preperation don’t mean much.

I like the way NT Wright explains this:

We see the ascension as Jesus going home to be with God after a long, tough visit with us here on earth. Luke’s language hints at another perspective. Luke says that Jesus was “taken up,” he was “lifted up,” a cloud “took him.” The language sounds more as if Jesus is leaving home here on earth, rather than going home to God in majesty. The text goes on to say that he will come back or return “in the same way” (v. 11), that his homecoming will be a return to the world. Pandipeddi Chenchiah, an Indian theologian, says that this stresses the “ongoingness, the permanence of the humanity of Jesus.”

So, this may come as a shock to you folks. But Jesus left in a body, is in the presence of God with that body, and will return home, here, in that body! Jesus remains human and is absent from us, but is also present to us. Of course this is a mystery summed up in the eucharistic prayer as Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.

Many have come to the mistaken understanding that earth is physical and heaven is non physical. Nothing could be further from the truth. The are both physical places related to each other. A simplistic way of understanding this would be CS Lewis’ Narnia. The wardrobe that the children go through to leave this world and go to Narnia is similar to the membrane or whatever it is that separates earth and heaven. Both two real physical places yet entirely different in matter and time.

This is what enables Christ through the Spirit to be present with us.

NT Wright again:

God’s space and ours interlock and intersect in a whole variety of ways, even while they retain, for the moment at least, their separate and distinct identities and roles. One day . . . they will be joined in a quite new way, open and visible to one another, married together for ever.

To be able to attempt to understand this we have to give up the notion that we become disembodied Spirits and that heaven is a non physical space made up of disembodied spirits. . We have to also embrace the understanding that Jesus was physically resurrected. He was not a Spirit being, an apparition or Ghost. The gospel writers talk about Jesus being held and eating.

Application

I know this is difficult to understand, but we are dealing wiht mysteries here. These are all eternal things which we have trouble wrapping our finite minds around. But what do we do with this? We could easily ignore it, but we would be missing out on the great truth that Jesus is coming again the same way he left. No this is important stuff we need to be at least acquainted with if we can’t wrap our heads totally around it.

If this ascension stuff wasn’t important I don’t think Luke would have told the story twice. At the end of the gospel and at the beginning of Acts.

In fact, it was so important to the ancient fathers of the faith that they included it in the creeds:

“On the third day he arose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

That is a human embodied Son of God in the presence of the Father. Who better to make intercession for us! The idea that Jesus is with God in heaven and embodied was believed by all the ancient fathers. I found quote after quote that read like this from Augustine:

“Now, indeed, that body is worthy of a heavenly dwelling place, not subject to death, not changeable through ages. For as he had grown to that age from infancy, so he does not decline to old age from the age which was young adulthood. He remains as he ascended. He is going to come to those to whom, before he comes, he wanted his word to be preached. So, therefore, he will come in a human form.”

This tells us four important things:

History is moving towards a final climatic ending of hope, not destruction. Jesus will return the same way he left, in peace. Heaven and earth will be united. We will talk more about this as the series progresses.

We have our instructions from Jesus which is to take his message into the whole world starting in our own neighborhood. We know this not just from Acts but from Matthew as well.

Matthew 28:18–20 NRSV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

3. Jesus will return the same way he came. This is no spiritual second coming. like saying the church being the body of Christ is the second coming. No Jesus will physically return.

4. Even though Jesus is in the presence God, somehow he is s till with us. In fact, this is what the book of Acts is all about. Jesus being present with the church as it grows.

So what we have here is a God who loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. God did this so we would be reunited with Him in a new heaven and a new earth. This new creation will out eden eden!

In this time that seems so chaotic. When we can’t be with our families. We have the hope of the resurrection and the new life that all of this is moving towards, not an end, but a new beginning. God still hovers over the waters of chaos bringing order where there is none. God does act in history. It might not look like it now, but the day is coming when we will be finished with all of this.

We will wake up one morning not to the statistics of death, but to the new life in Jesus Christ. The one who ascended is with us always.

John 14:18–20 NRSV

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

Come soon Lord Jesus.

MUSIC

BENEDICTION Rob

The power and love of Jesus Christ is with you. You are sent forth to be his witnesses in the world, bringing the good news, healing, establishing ministries of justice and peace. Go in confidence and the power and love of God goes with you.