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Good morning and Welcome.
I am so glad that you chose to worship here at BFR this morning.
I know God will bless you for taking the time to be in His house.
And He will bless each of us if we are willing to listen to His Word and do what it says.
So, lets dive back into our study of the book of Acts.
We are taking chapter one nice and slow because there is so much packed into a short little space.
In the last few weeks, we have seen the power of God revealed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We have seen Christ deliver instructions to the disciples to wait for the Comforter to come and empower them to reach the World, to turn the world upside down.
Today, we are going to look at the short passage where Christ returns to Heaven.
We are going to look at why He left His disciples, where did He go and why?
And what did it mean for those disciples and for us.
Our passage today is Acts 1:9-11.
But I want to recap just a little so I will read from verse 6.
Acts 1:6–11 (ESV)
6So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
9And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
10And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,
11and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?
This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I had a great 6thgrade Teacher.
Mrs. Thurman.
I just learned that Mrs. Thurman passed away in 2020.
Mrs. Thurman was one of those stereotypical elementary teachers.
She was tall and slender.
Had a stern face and simple haircut.
Her jaw was normally set, and she had thin lips there were usually pursed.
She could communicate more in a single eye locked glare than most women could say in 10,000 words.
Mrs. Thurman was not a woman you would want to cross.
But she was also one of the most compassionate and loving teachers one could ever have.
No student in her class ever doubted if Mrs. Thurman cared for their wellbeing, their education, or their self-esteem.
My sixth-grade year was a pretty turbulent one.
I had my tonsils out that year.
I was sick a lot and had to miss class.
I had a lot of trouble with bullies at the school.
I was trying to figure out where I fit in with my peers and more than once fell in with the wrong crowd and chose to the wrong things.
Mrs. Thurman, however, was like the Rock of Gibraltar!
She was unmoving, unwavering in her love for her students, her passion for education, and her demonstrated dominance of classroom control.
As I was reading this passage in Acts, I immediately thought of Mrs. Thurman.
See, Mrs. Thurman would sometimes leave the classroom.
I am not sure why she had to leave.
She may have needed to go make copies, get a snack or a drink… It was the 80’s so maybe she needed to head down to the teacher’s lounge to grab a smoke!
I do not know why she had to leave the class, but when she did, she would always say to us, “Look, I have to step out for a moment, but I will be right back.
You all have work you should be doing.
I fully expect you do be doing that work when I return.
There should be no fooling around.
You need to stay in your seats and do your work until I get back.
There should be no talking.
I will be listening; I will know if do not behave yourselves.”
And then she would leave.
She would just spin on her heel and walk out the door.
The classroom would stay quiet for a bit.
Most of us would be studious and do the work that had been left for us to do.
But there was always a clown or two who had to test the situation.
At first it would be a random strawberry noise, or a spit ball would fly across the room.
But if Mrs. Thurman stay away too long, eventually the classroom would descend into chaos and there would be students dancing on desks, running around playing tag, throwing paper airplanes….
You get the picture.
Mayhem
It was at this moment that Mrs. Thurman would normally return.
And let me tell you, you wanted to be the kid sitting at the desk doing work, not the kids running around or throwing things.
Mrs. Thurman believed in using a paddle.
She believed in writing lines on the chalkboard.
She believed in sending assignments home to write lines to then have them signed by your parents!
You did not want Mrs. Thurman returning to find you doing something other than what she had asked to do.
I doubt it was intentional, but Mrs. Thurman was a great example of what the disciples were learning in Acts chapter 1. Let’s look at the text again.
Acts 1:8–11 (ESV)
8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
9And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
10And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,
11and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?
This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
I asked some questions at the beginning of this message this morning.
I think we should revisit them.
Why did Jesus leave His disciples, where did He go and why?
And what did it mean for those disciples?
What does it mean for us?
First, vs 9 reads,
9And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Why did he leave his disciples?
I think there are several reasons and all of them are really important.
Look with me at John 16:5–11.
John 16:5–15 (ESV)
5But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
7Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.
8And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
9concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;
10concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;
11concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
14He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
15All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Jesus left so that the Holy Spirit could be sent into the world.
This was so important for the disciples to understand.
While Jesus had work to do in Heaven, we will get to more that in a minute, He needed to also send the Holy Spirit to do work on earth, in their lives and in ours.
This passage in John goes into detail about some of the work the Holy Spirit was going to do.
He sent the Holy Spirit to empower the church for life and witness.[1]
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