Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon

Today is a rare occasion caused by the early Easter and will not happen again in a hurry.

Today we celebrate Ascension Day and Workers Day.

This is the perfect mix, because today we remember that Jesus has ascended, but also that He left the work of the kingdom to us, the workers.

We are not left here on holiday till Christ returns, our master has left instructions that we are to work.

A year or so ago most of the ministers of the UPCSA met at Eston in Natal for a minister’s conference.

The keynote speaker was a professor from the University of the Western Cape.

I think it was in his opening talk that he said, “Some Church traditions focus their faith on Good Friday when Jesus was crucified.

Some focus on Easter Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead.

Some focus on Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out at the birth of the Church.

But as Reformed theologians, our focus is on the time between the Ascension of Jesus, and the time when He will return.”

For three years Jesus announced, “The kingdom of Heaven is near”.

When Jesus died, the curtain of the Temple tore from top to bottom, and the presence of God broke out of the Holy of Holies where the High Priest only entered once a year on the Day of Atonement.

*The Holy God invaded the world of sinful people*, heaven came to earth, and a new kingdom was born.

Then Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples and a few hundred other people.

Acts tells us that after forty days, Jesus ascended to His Father from the Mount of Olives while his disciples looked on.

We live in the era between the Ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father, and His return.

We live in the era of the Church.

We live in the era of, “Go and tell that Jesus died, rose and ascended”

We live in the era of “Repentance for the forgiveness of sin and being baptised.”

Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father, but in the words of Arnold Swartzenegger, “He’ll be back”.

When we read the Acts 1 account of the ascension, we realise the disciples understood this.

The odd thing about Acts 1 is that when Jesus ascended, the disciples didn’t go into mourning, they weren’t in denial, or angry.

They didn’t try to bargain with God for a few more days or go into a deep depression.

They didn’t fall in a heap and cry.

Do you remember how when Jesus had died the disciples had scattered and gone into hiding.

When He ascended, they didn’t react in the same way.

Jesus didn’t disappear, His disciples stood watching Him ascend like a cowboy riding into the sunset.

Luke tells us that when Jesus ascended into heaven, the believers went in unity to the upstairs room in Jerusalem and they all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

PAUSE

 

Someone asked their minister, “What does it feel like to be a Christian?”

The minister answered, “It feels like being in love with someone who has gone away.”

The person said, “That can’t be very pleasant.”

The minister said, “No it isn’t, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be pleasant, but it is incredibly powerful.

You see, I am in love with my wife, and when I am away from her I start to think about her constantly.

My whole countenance perks up when ever someone mentions her name, and I’m like the energiser bunny every time I hear her voice.

That is what being a Christian feels like.”

That is what it means to serve the ascended Christ.

In the Song of Solomon, we read of the young bride who has had a bath and settled into bed for the night, when she hears her groom at the door.

She debates with herself, shall I answer or shall I stay curled up in bed.

When she gets to the door, she has taken too long and he has left.

The song tells us her heart sank when she realised her lover had gone.

Without a care that it’s late at night, she runs through the city calling for him, searching.

She runs the risk of being mistaken for a prostitute, but she doesn’t care.

Then the guards find her and they beat her and humiliate her because it is improper for a lady to be on the streets at night.

But in the song it’s like she doesn’t care about her own suffering, she just wants to be with him.

Finally the bride, beaten and bruised, cries out,

*/O daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you— /*

*/if you find my lover, /*

*/what will you tell him?

/*

*/Tell him I am faint with love/*.

Maybe that is what it feels like to be a Christian.

That is what it felt like for the early Christians as they met in Jerusalem.

They knew Jesus was alive and well, but that He was just beyond their sight.

Have you ever been away from home for a while?

Eventually the separation makes you just ache to be home with those you love.

Nothing on earth can make you feel settled.

The early Christians became impatient to see their beloved Jesus again.

How impatient are you?

Maybe as Christians we have become distracted while waiting for our Groom.

Maybe we are courting some boy from down the road?

When I travel, my phone bill goes through the roof.

I try to phone home every day, and with each phone call the same question comes up, “What did you do today?”

Have you ever wanted to ask Jesus, “*What did You do today*?”

In John 14 Jesus said He was going to prepare a place for you.

AS Jesus was in the creation of the universe, so today He is creating the place for you.

Jesus is still in the creation business.

The letter called Hebrews gives us a little more insight into Jesus day.

It says that Jesus serves as our High Priest interceding before the Father.

1 John says that if we sin, Jesus stands as our advocate before the Father.

*Today Jesus will spend His day building His kingdom and praying for you.

*

 

Today when you get it wrong, when you lose your cool because someone parked a scooter in a full sized parking bay; or the dog steals a piece of chicken off the braai, Jesus will be praying for you before the Father.

Jesus will be saying, Father, forgive Danie for I have paid for that sin.

*Let’s turn that question around.*

What would you say if each evening Jesus were to ask you, “*What did you do today?”*

Have you longed for Jesus?

Has He crept into your thoughts and shaped your decisions?

We live between the Ascension and the return of Jesus.

As God entrusted the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve, so Jesus has entrusted the kingdom to you and to me.

Jesus has said, “Look after the kingdom until I return.”

The work of the Kingdom is to seek Jesus like a love sick bride looks for her groom, risking life and limb.

We are to look into people faces for Him, we are to search in situations for Him.

Our hearts desire should be to see Jesus glorified in every situation.

We should engage ourselves in being discipled, so that we can look like Jesus.

Our goal should be to share the good news of Jesus, and then disciple people until we can see Jesus in them.

What will you do with your day today?