The Lord's Ascension

Luke and Acts as the Primary Witness to the Ascension

Taken out of two texts right at the end of Luke chapter 24 and the beginning of Acts chapter 1. So I suppose we can start with Luke chapter 24 then we'll move to Acts chapter 1. Once again let us ask the Lord's blessing upon our time.

Our gracious Heavenly Father we do thank you for this opportunity we have once again to look into your word. We ask that during these brief moments we have together we would once again be drawn to your truth by your spirit you would open our hearts and our minds to understand that you would write upon our hearts your truth.

All to your honor and glory we pray in Christ's name. A number of years ago I was asked to speak at a church I am fairly certain it was on Long Island but I'll be honest with you I have traveled so much now that I would not want to testify to that in court anyway and I was asked to preach on the subject of the ascension.

Now I must confess that I had never preached on the subject of the ascension before and as I thought back I couldn't remember too many sermons on the subject of the ascension and as I sort of thought about it I said you know we don't talk a whole lot about the ascension.

I mean it's sort of a given it's sort of something that we know took place we we know the story but it doesn't seem to play a really central role in too much of our thinking and our thought. I mean we know that that Christ Jesus didn't stay on earth he he went back to heaven and we don't agree with the Mormons that actually he started to ascend and then hung a left and came over to the Americas and set up a church over here with 12 apostles and the whole nine yards and the Book of Mormon and things like that but it's just sort of like yeah Jesus went back to heaven we don't really think too much about it.

And of course liturgically minded churches won't be talking about the ascension for another 40 days because as we are told in while the text will read this evening that it was 40 days that's more than 40 days that Jesus met with his disciples and taught them about things.

And so at the same time in talking about the resurrection this morning and looking at one of the resurrection narratives at least Jesus's encounter with the disciples on the road to Emmaus I thought to balance things out to be complete it would be good to look at the ascension because it seems to me most discussions are focused upon that initial action and then it's just sort of well.

And then Jesus talked to disciples and went back to heaven. There's not really much of a discussion as to what the Bible tells us about this particular event. And most of what is told to us is found in Luke's narrative both in Luke and in Acts at the end of Luke 24 excuse me beginning at verse 50 and he led them out as far as Bethany and he lifted up his hands and blessed them while he was blessing them he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

And they after worshiping him returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising God. So here is Luke's final discussion of the subject it is not overly full and it's of course we we need to be reminded that Luke didn't intend his story to end there.

That was just sort of the end of the the gospel portion. If you just turn on over to part two the book of Acts which is somewhat unnaturally separated from Luke in our scriptures in the canon as at least the order that we have we find that Jesus is described in verse.

Well let's just start verse one the first account I composed Theophilus about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen to these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proves appearing to them over a period of 40 days.

And speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God gathering them together he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the father had promised which he said you heard of from me for John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

So when they had come together they were asking him saying Lord is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel. He said to them it is not for you to know the times or epics which the father has fixed by his own authority.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth. And after he had said these things he was lifted up while they were looking on and a cloud received him out of their sight as they were gazing intently into the sky sky while he was going behold two men in white clothing stood beside them.

They also said men of Galilee. Why do you stand looking into the sky. This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet which is near Jerusalem a Sabbath day journey away and then they entered into the upper room etc etc.

The Ascension in Luke 24 and Acts 1

So here you have a sort of in two parts the story of the ascension summarized briefly initially at the end of Luke and then with a fuller accounting providing the beginning of the book of Acts. And we are given some I think rather important information about the ministry of the Lord after his resurrection at the beginning of Acts notice we're given the information that after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen now that's rather interesting that this would be said in this way because it emphasizes again the uniqueness of what we're going to be seeing in the book of Acts.

You've often heard it said well we just we just want to get back to the book of Acts. We want to have things like they were in the book of Acts. And a lot of people miss the reality that the book of Acts records for us a unique beginning period where where things were not yet normative as they would be through the rest of the church age.

And I think you see an example right here they are to stay in Jerusalem until their clothe of power from on high by the Holy Spirit. Right. But then what does it say right there after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders the apostle.

Now some people might want to say that's contradiction. No it's not a contradiction as it says in the gospel of John the Holy Spirit had not yet been given. That doesn't mean the Holy Spirit did not yet exist.

Or the Holy Spirit was not yet active in the world. There is a special way in which the Spirit came with signs upon the apostles that fulfilled the prophecies. And it also indicated that God the Father and the Son were fulfilling the promise that Jesus had made that he would come and make his abode with them by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

So it's not that the Holy Spirit hadn't been active in the ministry of Jesus. The whole point is that Jesus did what he did by the power of the Holy Spirit but that there would be a special coming a special empowering of the disciples that we call that Pentecost day that was yet in the future.

But he also gives orders to the apostles. And so these apostles are given instruction they are given orders. They are given orders from the ascended Lord Jesus but by the power of the Holy Spirit. And to these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs many convincing proofs appearing to them over a period of 40 days.

And speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God once again we would really like to know exactly what those discussions were all about. We'd like to hear about which texts of scripture were discussed and the prophecies and things like that.

But the reality is that the scriptures do not record these things for us directly. Instead we learn about what Jesus said primarily through the preaching and teaching of the apostles there in the book of Acts.

And we can get a good idea from the texts that they cite and how they explained them what was given to them during that period of time. And then we're told gathering them together he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the father had promised which he said you heard from me.

For John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So it is this baptism in the spirit this this special indwelling of the spirit that is being promised by the Lord Jesus.

And the disciples are to stay together until this has taken place now. We know from looking at Matthew we know from looking at John that during these 40 days they hadn't just been holed up in one room someplace but that now right before the ascension the command is stay here because this is going to be taking place in your experience.

So when they had come together they were asking him Lord is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel. Now once again as we mentioned this morning there were certain traditions that were deeply written upon the hearts of any Jewish person.

And obviously they even on the night of his betrayal remember what the disciples were discussing amongst themselves who would be the greatest who would have the positions of authority. They're talking about how they're going to rule or reign and things like that.

And it seems like even after this period of time even after this instruction there is still a question so when when is this restoring of the kingdom. Jesus has been talking about the kingdom and yet they still have this question is that at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel.

He said to them it is not for you to know times or epics which the father has fixed by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and even the remotest part of the earth.

The Father's Authority and the Church's Witness

Now I'm not going to expand too much upon this but there would be I think great benefit in considering Jesus's response. First of all there is a a rebuke of the inquiry concerning times and seasons which if we were to take seriously would pretty well wipe out entire sections of local Christian bookstores um and would actually bankrupt a few uh Christian publishers I can think of.

But then you see that that in opposition to that idea of knowing the times and the epics which the father is fixed by his own authority you have the the positive teaching that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses.

If you want to know what is going to describe the normative experience of the church in the future it's going to be a Holy Spirit empowered witnessing by the church even to the remotest part of the earth.

There is the description of what is going to be going on. It's it's not to be focused upon the kingdom and Israel and everything else. It is going to be a witness by the power of the Holy Spirit to Jesus and that is going to be in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and even the remotest part of the earth.

Very clearly you you see the the emphasis that we've seen in the gospels but it's somewhat it's somewhat veiled there because the disciples don't understand. But the idea that this gospel is to go to all the nations it ends Matthew.

It's here at the beginning of Acts. It is a very vitally important aspect of what the Bible teaches concerning the work of the Holy Spirit and the purpose of the church. I do want to make one other quick connection and again not expand upon it too much.

But for those of you taking notes and thinking about this I think there is a connection between what Jesus says here in talking about the father has fixed the times and the epics by his own authority.

With that text in Mark and in Matthew when Jesus is asked pretty much a a similar question about that day what the the the coming of that day. And Jesus's response is no one knows that day or the hour.

And then he gives us that that order of being no no man angels not even the son but the father only. And I believe that he's speaking in his role as the messiah at this point there is a reason why that specific piece of information would not be something that that he would have in his incarnate state.

But I think there's a connection here because it emphasizes the fact that the father is the one who fixes these things by his own authority. The father is the one who has decreed all of salvation and the timing of all of God's decree is in the father's hand it is fixed by his own authority.

Now this is not an overly popular concept amongst many people today including people who call themselves Christians there are many people who who chafe at the idea that the that the father has this kind of inalterable unquestionable authority to fix these things.

And when we when we think of the fulfillment of prophecy we think of the establishment of God's kingdom we think of all of these things. The bible tells us that God has fixed these things by his own authority.

And when you think of how many human decisions are represented in those things how anyone could say that man is autonomous and man has control over God and God is just up there and he's trying to respond to this and respond to that and he's just trying to make something good come out of all this mess.

I listened to the the words of scripture and I just I just cannot conceive of how anyone can come up with that. But given the number of us here this evening and the number of people in other churches where they believe that this evening we are in the minority.

But that's why you don't do ex-jesus on the basis of popular opinion because it seems rather obvious to me that what mankind wants is the ability to control God. And the idea of a sovereign God is quite troubling to many people.

The Physical Ascension and Christ's Return

But then we come to the ascension itself. And after he had said these things he was lifted up while they were looking on and a cloud received him out of there. Jesus could not stay. He had told the disciples that he was going to return to the father.

But what would be the methodology what would be the way in which this would take place. Well I suppose that jesus simply could have done the walking off into the sunset thing. But then there always would have been the question well where did he go.

Did he go someplace else to uh to to teach other people and and things like that instead what you have strikes modern man in a way that if you begin with a a naturalistic presupposition if you begin with the idea that that miracles don't take place and none of this makes sense.

We're talking about someone who's risen from the dead here in the first place. But the idea of jesus floating up on a cloud well that's not actually what it says is that's how people describe it. But he is lifted up while they are looking on and eventually a cloud received him out of their sight.

And so there was there was a a a physical ascension. That's why it's called the ascension. And it's natural that they would not just as not just go. Oh well that's it that they would continue looking to see if they would see something else.

And as they were gazing intently in the sky while he was going behold two men in white clothing stood beside them and they also said men of galilee. Why do you stand looking into the sky. This jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven.

So what can we learn. What can what should we take from this description. There is there's not nothing more said about it in the sense of any explication or any you know great expansion upon these things.

Well it's obvious that to the early church this was a necessary event and one of the reasons it was necessary aside from the fulfillment of what jesus had taught in john 14 and 16 it is necessary that i go to the father so that the father and the son would send the spirits.

And this would become the very energizing force for the church to be able to do what the church would would do down through the ages. There is also something else we uh we finished last year a a study in a book called hebrews and one of the things that we we noted a number of times in that study is that there were there were little pieces of information that that demonstrated that this book was written before the destruction of jerusalem in 80 70 the sacrifices were still ongoing when this book was written.

And yet what is central to the presentation of jesus in that book. Well he is present in the heavenly places he has entered into the heavenly holy of holies. He there is presenting his finished work before the father.

He is described as that one who has gone through the veil. So we have that certainty we have that sure hope because he has entered into that place in our place we are united with him. So the idea of the the ascension the the idea that well jesus just dissolved his body and and became a spirit or something like that.

No that's that would be contradictory not only to the idea of jesus's uh standing in the presence of the father which is not just in hebrews but it's also in the book of revelation because what does john see he sees the lamb standing as if slain.

And so this idea of the the physical ascension and the physical entering into the heavenly places on the part of jesus very central to the theology of that early church. And so the question would always be well how did that happen.

Well describe for us uh he physically ascended and left being in the physical presence of his disciple. Now there's something else that you may have thought of if you maybe have a certain background but jesus is not physically present with his people today.

Oh he's with us by his spirit. That's the that's the promise of like john 14 23 in texts like that. But he's not physically present with us. There's an entire religion that tries to reverse that that tries to make jesus physically present.

But notice this jesus who has been taken up what from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven. Now i realize that modern roman catholicism is a theological mess mainly because just recently uh we had illustrated for us once again maybe you may not have seen it but um there are two popes at the moment not technically but there are two men who have held that office who are alive today and the one who did something no one had done for over 600 years retired which i can almost guarantee you by the way the current one will do too um but benedict the 16th has been very quiet very very quiet almost like a bush when they stop being present they become very very quiet.

And he spoke up just recently and i read what he had to say and i could not help but be struck by the fact that he's still the old curmudgeon head of the what used to be the inquisition that he's always been and sounds just so different than francis the hippie.

I mean that's just the only way i can describe him. I mean he's just so liberal ushi gushy type guy that these two guys are just on different planets theologically speaking. And so i realize that there's a really wide spectrum of beliefs being expressed within the broad umbrella of roman catholicism.

I i get that i understand that but historically and dogmatically the central affirmation of roman catholicism is the idea of the very center of worship is the concept of the eucharistic sacrifice of the mass and for that to be a sacrifice the teaching is that is that jesus is rendered present body soul blood and divinity upon the altar in the miracle of transubstantiation.

And that the very reason that a person genuflects the very reason that a person shows respect and worship toward the altar toward what's called the monstrance or the cerebrum there's all these different uh cervorium there's all these different terms um is because jesus is physically present in the church through the miracle of transubstantiation now that was not the belief of the early church.

Augustine who's writing i mean right in the early 400s the beginning of the fifth century wrote very clearly about the fact that the church no longer has the physical presence of jesus that that is not going to be something the church experiences until the second coming of christ.

So as as high as the idea of the spiritual presence of jesus became in various early church writers it is very clear they had not the concept of transubstantiation in mind at all. Real presence in their thinking is not the same thing as transubstantiation though people will tell you differently today.

But the point is here in these words jesus has been taken up from you into heaven. Something new has taken place and that presence of god with his people is now going to be by the holy spirit of god. There is in a in a sense a direct contradiction of the biblical teaching of the roles of the trinity in the guidance and sustenance and and and uh energizing of the church there is a direct contradiction of biblical teaching in the roman catholic concept.

Now it's not the only problem with the mass i assure you uh it is a a fundamental denial of the the once for all completed work of christ justification by grace through faith and everything else. But that is also i think a major issue.

And so there needed to be a clear indication of this transition from the physical presence of the risen lord with his people and then the what was going to be the normative experience of the church down through the ages.

And that is the presence of the holy spirit. And that in fact is what ends up identifying believers from now on. When you read the new testament what is the given in every one of paul's epistles to the churches it is assumed that if you are a part of the body of christ you are indwelt by the holy spirit of god.

That is just simply the the bottom line that's what what unites all of us together is that all true believers in jesus christ are indwelt by the holy spirit. Now remember acts as a transitionary story.

And there is a couple of times early on where there is a time gap in the coming of the holy spirit miraculous signs and things like that. But by the time of the writing of the epistles that is no longer the case.

That is no longer the case. And when people try to make the unusual the not yet normative the standard they end up creating all sorts of problems within the church sadly even to this day. And so when we think of the ascension what we need to recognize is that it was done publicly not publicly in the sense of jesus took a trip to rome and then ascended from the coliseum and all the romans were converted.

You know that's that's how hollywood would want to do it. That's you know that's how the filmmakers or the book writers whatever else would want to do it. But his ascension was primarily a message for his followers and was primarily preparatory for them to be able to understand what was going to happen on the day of pentacon here.

Some of them might have been thinking oh this is great we've got jesus back and it's just going to stay this way. No no the church has a mission the church is going to be doing something. The church needs to be empowered and there needs to be a means by which this church is going to be united and empowered to do these things.

And it's not going to be the physical presence of jesus because since it was a physical presence then he was only one place at one time oh he could move from one place to another pretty quickly it seems.

But that's still not what god's intention was. If the church is going to go to the ends of the earth then the only way that's going to happen is if the ones who are witnessing for him are united by a means other than something that is physical it must be spiritual.

And so there has to be a transition there has to be a change. And yet it is done not just jesus walking off but in front of the disciples with the spiritual angelic testimony that this one who has been taken from you will return again he will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven which should protect us should have protected us from all of the false teachings that have been so prevalent especially.

Well it's really to be honest with all through church history that church history is a is a study in how many times we can repeat the same false teachings over and over again. But in our day there are major denominations that exist because they grew out of people ignoring this.

For example in the past well in the current in the never-ending and totally disgusting political experience of our society which i feel like has been going on my entire life and will continue that way.

There was a candidate who is no longer a candidate who was a member of the seventh day adventist church. Now most people don't know but the seventh day adventist church as you may know was primarily formed under the teachings of ellen g white.

And yes i know her husband was james r white. Thank you very much. I am aware of that. Please don't bother telling me about it. Heard that joke many times before. As far as i know no relation. But who knows add a lot of seventh day adventists in my family in the in the background.

So who knows. Anyway a lot of everybody knows that seventh day adventists are into sabbath keeping and dietary laws and things like that. Most people don't know what the real major problem with seventh day of venison is the real major problem with seventh day of venison is called the investigative judgment.

And the investigative judgment is the concept that jesus returned invisibly. The initial teaching was the failed millerite movement of the middle of the 19th century. It was one of those situations where man by the name of miller had gathered many followers together and they went out on the mountaintops and you know uh we're waiting for this coming of the lord.

And and of course it didn't happen. And so what do you do. You spiritualize it. And so the teaching in seventh day adventism up to this very day now there are some more liberal seventh day adventists that are sort of ridding themselves of some of these things.

But it's still the teaching of ellen g white. And certainly this is still the official team. But what they did is because that millerite movement and they came out of that as did jehovah's witnesses. Um the teaching was that what happened was that way back then in the 19th century jesus did return but he didn't return to earth.

He returned to his heavenly sanctuary. I'm not sure where he'd gone but he went to this heavenly sanctuary and what he's been doing ever since then. Now at first it sort of made a little bit of sense but after over 160 some odd years now it makes no sense at all.

Um he began analyzing and examining the lives of everyone who had put their faith in him to see whether they kept the law faithfully enough to be worthy for him to apply his sacrificial benefits to their life.

And of course central to that was proper sabbath keeping. If you don't keep the saturday sabbath then christ is not going to apply his sacrifice to you. Now for obvious reasons. Um one of the first questions that we ask today is sure has taken a long time.

I mean uh we're talking a long period of time here for this examination but obviously back then uh it made a little bit more sense than it does now. That's the problem with all the spiritualizing. Same thing happened with jehovah's witnesses.

Uh they first accepted that christ returned back in the 19th century. And they've had to keep moving the date forward until they finally got to 1914 and and they said armageddon would be within one generation in 1914.

And you might notice that people that were alive in 1914 are really old right now. And so they're getting rid of that whole thing as well. And they're doing it very slowly. They've learned doing it very quickly is a bad thing.

You know we could have avoided all this if we had just believed what was said. This jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you watched him go into heaven. Well it wasn't only but a few years ago we had harold camping running around uh numerologically uh allegorizing the bible.

And how many people followed after him. I knew many people back east especially who were members of reformed baptist churches that followed after carol. We've been given these barriers these fences these walls to keep from running after these strange and odd teachings.

But the fact of the matter is there will always be people no matter how clear scripture may be who will find ways to get around what has been clearly taught in the pages of scripture. And so i wanted to sort of bookend the resurrection because unfortunately i think in most people's thinking we look at the resurrection and we focus only upon that one day.

And then after that it becomes somewhat nebulous and foggy partly because we're not told much about. We're just given you know 40 days and we don't really think about how long that was. And then the ascension almost becomes you know i i probably the first time i ever heard anything about the ascension was some type of flannel board presentation in sunday school i just dated myself in a major way you young people are going metal board um but some of the others of you are sitting there smiling at me with broad grins going ah yes flannel board or chalk drawings those were those were how you kept people interested back when i was in sunday school uh which was back with the dinosaurs.

But uh anyway um that may have been the first time i heard about it and it's just sort of a a story that you shelve away. And you know why i think that is because i almost never remember anyone connecting it with the resurrection and then with what comes afterwards in the coming of the holy spirit.

We'd it's sort of just put over there. We don't know what to do with it. But we shouldn't put it over there. And there's that don't know what to do with it. It marks the end of that period of ministry.

And it does so in such a way as to put the disciples in the position of expectation for what god is going to do at pentecost itself. And so it's vitally important. It was obviously important to the early church in the fact that they see jesus in the presence of the father he has ascended to that place to the right hand fulfilling the prophetic the prophetic word.

And therefore it's something that i think we should we should stop having out there someplace bring it into our theology just like this morning recognizing that that term hope needs to be a positive word for us that we need to get over the barrier that our language presents in the same way.

The ascension should be something that we think of are thankful for and recognize the role that it had in god's intended teaching of the disciples of who jesus was. And the fact that there is now going to be a change in the coming in the presence of the holy spirit.

Thanksgiving for Christ's Ascension and Closing Prayer

Let's pray together our gracious heavenly father. We are very thankful this evening that as we have gathered in the name of christ we have every confidence that we have one who stands in your presence.

We have an intercessor a mediator. His work is perfect. It has been accepted that truly is the grounds of the peace that we have with you. But we recognize that you have given us evidence of this and you have done so in the glorious ascension of our lord and savior jesus.

May we think on these things. May we be thankful for your word recording these things for us as we have considered these things as we've considered the resurrection. May we go forth in the very power that raised jesus christ from the dead to serve you in this coming week.

Pray in christ's name.