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The New Revised Standard Version The Promise of the Holy Spirit

1 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

The Ascension of Jesus

(Mk 16:19–20; Lk 24:50–53)

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 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.” 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 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.”

Introduction

Here is an appropriate story for the first day of the NHL playoffs...

Every once in a while, I have a meeting or something during an important Penguin game.

So I’ll record the game on my Apple TV so that I can watch it later.

This was a strategy that used to work really well for me, except...

We live in the age of the iPhone.

So almost always, in spite of my best efforts to keep it from myself, I almost always find out what the score of the game was before I get to watch it.

I almost always find out who won and who lost.

I already know the ending of the story.

But, you know what, I also almost always watch the game anyway, especially if the Penguins are the victors.

And this strange thing starts to happen when I watch a game that I know they’ve already won.

I don’t really sweat the big plays the way that I might have if I didn’t know the outcome.

That penalty doesn’t really irk me the way it normally would.

I can look past a flukey goal.

I don’t much mind the details.

Instead I put my focus on what the Penguins are doing well.

I’m watching to see if Sid had a good night.

I’m watching to see how many mind-bending goals the guys might score.

Even when they’re down, I’m watching to see how they might mount a comeback.

We as a Christian church have come down with a nasty case of Ascension Deficit Disorder.

We can do the other holidays no problem:

Ask me about Christmas? I’m there.

Ask me about Easter? I’ll give you a cadbury egg.

Ask me about Lent? I’m game.

Even for as much as not many of us know how to talk about or deal with the Spirit of God, if you ask me about Pentecost, I’m probably going to get close.

But today is Ascension Sunday, and I’m willing to bet that a whole bunch of churches up and down the block here aren’t going to touch it.

And yet, the Ascension is central to our Christian faith.

We need it.

It points us in the direction of hope.

In a weird way, the Ascension tells us the score of the game before we get to watch it.

So let’s break it down a little bit, and see if we can make sense of this story.

Bible Breakdown

Quick Intro- Luke/Acts

Some folks don’t know this, but this book, the Acts of the Apostles, is the second volume written by Luke.

Luke writes to someone named Theophilus, who could be:

A patron, someone who paid Luke to write this stuff, or

A stand in for you and I.

Theophilus literally means “friend of God.”

As we studied last week, that means you and that means me.

Luke wrote his gospel he tells us to document everything that Jesus was up to while he was here on earth.

This volume, however, is about the church.

It’s about how this Christian movement got its legs under it after Jesus left.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself here...

Coming Attractions: The Spirit’s On Her Way!

I once heard though that this book should be given a different title, and Luke is kind of teasing us with that.

He keeps mentioning the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit was how Jesus was able to give instructions to the disciples.

The Holy Spirit is coming in “not many days from now” to baptize the disciples.

The Holy Spirit is going to give these disciples authority and power.

So I’ve heard that this book should be renamed the Acts of the Holy Spirit, but that too is getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

We’ll learn more about the Holy Spirit next week with some awesome insight from the youth group!

What we have in this passage is Jesus last words to his disciples, and his last act on earth.

The Disciples have their eyes, and their fears, set on the future.

So Jesus has been hanging around for forty days after his resurrection, and he’s been teaching his disciples about whatever he didn’t get to teach them about.

Side note: I love how hard a time the disciples still have with believing all of this.

Jesus has to show these guys many “convincing proofs,” even while he’s standing there among them.

So anyone who might have a hard time understanding how a guy could be raised from the dead, congratulations! You’re in good company!

But then Luke tells us after all of this teaching from Jesus, the disciples have a question:

Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?

This is a wildly political question.

Israel was once it’s own sovereign nation, but now has been over run by a whole bunch of much bigger empires, including at this point the Romans.

And it’s been the source of an understandably great bit of consternation for the Jewish people.

But what’s fascinating is that this is the question they came up with.

After Jesus has essentially re-written the rules we came to know about life, death, and the soul...

After Jesus has spent time with them “PROVING” Luke says that Jesus is more powerful than even the forces of death and destruction...

After Jesus has spent time teaching them the way of the inner life, the work of allowing the Kingdom to grow inside...

After all of this...

The disciples ask a political question.

There are so many points in scripture that I wish I could have seen Jesus’ face as he reacts to his disciples.

“Have you guys even been listening?”

It’s not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.

Kingdoms are going to rise.

Kingdoms are going to fall.

Things that are going to feel like a really big deal to your culture probably aren’t, and things that don’t feel like a big deal at all really are.

Essentially, don’t sweat it.

Relax!

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit shows up, and she’s got a job for you to do:

You will become Martyrs.

The Job Description: Witnesses

We might have all kinds of images in our heads around this word Martyrs, but truly it’s a simple Greek word that just gets translated “witnesses.”

Think about your favorite court room drama, what are the marks of a good witness?

A witness has observed…something!

Maybe the witness watched the murder happen.

Maybe the witness heard the cry for help.

Maybe the witness smelled something fishy…ok I’m not really sure how to include all the senses in this...

And then a witness recounts what they’ve observed.

They get up in that tiny little box and share with the judge and jury what they’ve seen or heard.

They promise to God and the whole room that they are going to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

And then Jack Nicolson screams “You can’t handle the truth...”

A really good witness will be so good at this telling, they’ll make you feel it.

The best witnesses tell you what they’ve observed so vividly and compellingly that you almost feel like you were there.

But that’s really…it!

A witness observes something.

A witness tells what they’ve observed.

Jesus is telling these disciples that their principal, primary, and most important job in this world is to be his witnesses in the world.

They are people who have observed incredible things!

They’ve seen the dead raised to life.

They’ve seen the blind receive their sight.

They’ve heard incredible teachings about the best way to live, like forgiveness and generosity and mercy and humility.

And these disciples have felt some things too.

They’ve felt what it means to be forgiven.

They’ve felt what it means to know that God is ultimately on their side.

They’ve felt what a beloved community can look like.

They’ve felt what it means to have a peace that passes all understanding.

So now Jesus tells them, it’s time to go tell people what they’ve observed.

Go tell people about the guy who has been raised from the dead.

Go tell people how Jesus beat death at death’s own game.

Go tell people how the blind can see and the lame can walk and all of that.

Go tell people about how generosity and forgiveness and mercy and humility are the best possible ways to live.

Go. Tell. Witness.

Why are you looking up?

While they’re talking, Jesus is taken up in to heaven.

He literally starts floating away.

This kind of harkens back for the Jewish folks about the stories of Elijah who went straight to be with God.

And this is important for us as Christians.

Jesus is a resurrected person.

He is very much alive!

AND! He has made his way to heaven.

He is up there, seated at the right hand of the Father.

Scriptures come to mind that say Jesus has gone ahead of us to prepare a place for us.

That there will be a new heaven and a new earth.

That our futures are taken care of in God’s hand.

Essentially, to believe in the ascended Jesus is to have hope.

Hope that our future is taken care of.

Hope that our lives do not end simply because we stop breathing.

Hope that Jesus has set everything under his rule and reign.

So these disciples are watching all this happen, and then two guys show up in white robes.

And I love all the questions of the Bible, but this one is one of my favorites.

“Why are you looking up?”

…duh!?!

Jesus was just lifted up in to heaven right in front of their eyes! Of course they’re looking up!

What possible reason could these angelic figures have to ask this question?

Unless...

What if the disciples had been standing there staring for a little while?

What if they were looking so longingly at Jesus because they were starting to miss him?

What if they were looking up to heaven because they were still worried about their future?

Then all of a sudden what they say makes all the sense in the world.

Essentially these men are saying “Don’t worry about the future...”

Don’t worry about what happens to you when you die.

Don’t worry about who gets in to the pearly gates and who doesn’t.

Don’t worry about how this story is going to wrap itself up.

You already know the end.

Instead...

Do exactly what Jesus tells you to do.

Go and be witnesses.

Do the work, because you know the score of the game.

Application

Stop Looking Up

When it comes to Christian’s today, I think we are stuck with our attention in the two places the disciples seemed to have had theres:

Politics

We are so locked in to the political realities of the United States.

Sometimes I think we forget that we serve a Kingdom that is much bigger than this one country.

Sometimes I think we forget that in the end, all of this will be placed under the rule and reign of Christ Jesus.

Sometimes I think we forget that we are called to be a united church, and not a divided partisan.

To be sure, go ahead and have opinions and have beliefs and vote and take part in this vital democracy.

But don’t ever let that get ahead of the Kingdom Vision that Jesus has placed in our hearts, that this Kingdom is for Jerusalem, AND Judea, AND Samaria, AND Washington DC, AND Pittsburgh, and Pancake, AND to the ends of the earth.

If we’re asking “Lord, is this the time that you’re going to restore the Kingdom of God to America?” I think Jesus is going to politely come alongside us and say “Wrong question...”

Worries about the future.

We’ve been doing a really fun experiment over at the Adult Bible Study

I haven’t had any prepared lessons, but instead I’ve just been taking folks questions and doing my best to answer them.

You should come, it’s been great!

But there are two truths that I’ve learned in my years of doing Q and A lessons:

Teenagers will ask about sex.

Adults will ask about heaven.

We can become a little preoccupied with the afterlife, can’t we?

We have books about heaven.

We have TV shows about heaven.

We want to know what it’s like

We want to know who will be there.

We want to know who won’t be there.

We make it so incredibly central to our faith.

And there are times when it needs to be.

When you are in the grips of losing a loved one, being able to lean on all the promises that Jesus has given us about what the Kingdom he has gone to prepare looks like, it can be a remarkable comfort.

But I wonder if we need to stop looking up?

I wonder if we need to stop worrying about the afterlife, because Jesus has already gone ahead of us to take care of that.

I wonder if we shouldn’t make our faith’s central question “Who gets in to heaven and who stays out,” but rather who can we love better today?

I wonder if we shouldn’t stop looking up for help as the Psalmist says, but rather look around us for the help of God in our very present reality.

And if I’m right, if that’s not what we should be worried about, I wonder what we ought to occupy ourselves with...

Witness

Our job is not to worry about the political realities around us, or to spend our time worrying about the afterlife, but instead our job is to be witnesses to the Kingdom breaking in all around us.

I want to tell you about the way I saw Jesus this weekend sitting by my fish pond and being overwhelmed by nature.

I want to tell you about the way I saw Jesus this weekend when I met my new neighbors, and had an opportunity to welcome them to the neighborhood and live in to Jesus command to love my neighbor as myself.

I want to tell you about the way I saw Jesus over across the street in the NA meetings week after week after week as folks come to our church to find healing and restoration and wholeness and recovery

I want to tell you about the way I saw Jesus as our Session has been actively working through how best to care for this church during a global pandemic that seems to be finally coming to an end.

And that’s just the things I’ve seen Jesus doing in the last few days!

Our job as witnesses involves

paying attention to what Jesus is up to in the world.

Telling other people what we’ve seen.

So even by way of practicing, when we gather out here in line on our way to the Penguin game, for as much as I want to make sure I don’t miss it, tell me what Jesus is up to in your life.

Don’t worry. I’m recording the game.