To the Ends of the Earth

You’re so good to me. Father God, already we are experiencing your goodness and your love. It’s palpable in this room. We know you’re with us. Your Holy Spirit is energizing our lungs, our vocal cords to sing out praise because we love you because of who you are.

You loved us first, Lord. We know that. We thank you for sending Jesus to be the savior we all need. Lord, we ask that you would do a mighty work in our hearts this morning. We want to have open ears to hear your word.

We want to have humble and soft hearts, ready to receive what you have for us. And Father, I pray that as you work in our lives, work in our hearts and our minds, that we would be drawn closer to Jesus, that we’d want to live out our lives going forward as committed witnesses of Jesus. And we pray in his mighty name. Amen. You may be seated.

Well, happy Mother’s Day. It is an awesome thing to be here with each and every one of you celebrating the Lord, celebrating Mother’s Day. It is a great day. If you haven’t yet done it, if you get the chance, say I love you to your mom. Make sure you keep them aware of how much you appreciate them.

And I’m going to invite all the kids now to go ahead and take off. Thanks for joining us, kids. All right, the kids needed to hear that first part, though. They need to remember, say, “I love you” to your moms. Well, everybody loves a good underdog story, right?

It could be the you can think of the 1980 men’s hockey team, winning the Olympic gold medal and shocking the world, beating the Russians. It could be the New York Giants beating the previously undefeated 2007 New England Patriots in the Super Bowl in in the last portion of the game. We all love to see the little guy come out on top. There’s something in us that wants to root for that person or that team or whatever it is that people have overlooked and people said, “Nah, too small, not not able, not able to do what they’re wanting to do.” That’s why we love movies like Rudy and you know Rocky, you know, we want to cheer for these people.

We want to cheer for them. And there’s a one of my favorites is Hooers. Hooser is a basketball coach. Gene Hackman plays the coach. And he comes into the small town and he’s got this checkered past already.

People are looking down on him. And he takes this sevenplayer team and he transforms them into a winning championship team. It’s an awesome thing. The Bible is filled with underdog stories, too. Who would have thought that a a little teenage shepherd would be able to take down a mighty 9-foot champion?

Or who would have thought that timid Gideon, you know, he he was too afraid to he was afraid of his own shadow basically, but he he took the 300 soldiers with him and conquered the thousands of Midionites. And in a real sense, the story of Christianity is an underdog story. You think about how how did this group from such small beginnings explode across the known world? How did it overtake the Roman Empire? How did people in the highest positions of authority and all these people eventually come to surrender to Jesus?

It’s an amazing story. Out as a small band of ragtag fishermen, ex-p prostitutes, ex-t tax collectors, who, by the way, they were hiding out on Easter morning in a locked up room, terrified for their lives because their leader has just been crucified. How does that group eventually become the largest movement on the planet? It’s an underdog story unlike any other. And in our passage this morning, we’re going to be in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 1.

And we’re continuing our series here on how the resurrection changes everything. We’ll see how this movement got launched. So, if you are able, go ahead and stand, please, for the reading of God’s holy and perfect word. Acts 1, beginning in chapter 1, verse one. Acts was written by Luke.

And so, this is kind of carrying forward. It’s the sequel to the Gospel of Luke. From what we’ve seen in the last few weeks here, Luke says this in chapter 1 verse one in the first book, “Oh, Theophilles, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had been after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his sufferings by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, 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 when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons 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 and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and 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.” Thank you. You may be seated. So, we’re continuing this series on how the resurrection changes everything. And we begin with what Luke is saying as a as a sequel as a continuing story of what he’s already been talking about.

If you watch any Netflix shows, you maybe know that sometimes the episode will come on, but before it really gets going, you get this recap of what came before. And in a sense, that’s what Luke is doing here. He’s saying previously in the story of Jesus. He says this is what Jesus began to do and to teach. And then he continues on from there and he he says this is a continuation of his first book alluding to the gospel of Luke.

And he’s writing to a guy named Theophilos which means lover of God. And so we don’t know who exactly Theophilus is but some people would say he was probably a Roman statesman. Somebody who maybe supported Luke’s work and research as a historian. And so this intro serves as a kind of dedication. He says in verse one, in the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day that he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

So notice Luke says that this book is about what Jesus this first book I should say is about what Jesus began to do and to teach. And so he’s saying essentially what Jesus began to do through the Gospel of Luke. What we saw in his earthly ministry, he’s continuing to do. Sometimes we’re calling this book the Acts of the Apostles. I would say a better title would actually be the acts the continuing acts of the risen Jesus because all through it we see Jesus is at work.

He is alive and well and he’s still making a difference in the world. So Jesus chose these apostles and these these sent ones and Acts shows us how crucial these men were for the spread of Christianity from the start. Verse three says he presented himself to them after his suffering by many proofs. If you like to underline your Bible, that’s a good phrase to underline by many proofs. Or if you have an NIV, it says by many convincing proofs.

In other words, Jesus made it so clear. It was undeniable because of how he presented himself and because of all the different scenarios and and groups he appeared to. He was giving substantial proof he was alive. He appeared to men and women. He appeared to individuals and groups.

And so by by saying he convinced people through proofs, he’s saying that Christianity is not a feel-good fairy tale. It’s not a it’s not a madeup story just to kind of ease our our conscience or to give us something to dream about. You know, he’s saying this actually happened. God really did act in history to reconcile a lost and broken world to himself. And he proved it.

He He didn’t just say, “Trust me on this. I’m not going to give you any evidence. He gave them many convincing proofs over the course of 40 days. At one point, he even appeared to over 500 disciples at one time. That’s substantial evidence.

The early Christians recognized something. If Jesus really did rise from the dead, then we can’t go back to living as we used to. We can’t live for ourselves anymore. Because if Jesus rose, then he’s Lord. He gets everything.

All authority belongs to him. My life is his because he defeated the grave. I love this line from CFD Mole. He said, “If the coming into existence of the Nazarines, early Christians, rips a great hole in history, a hole the size and shape of the resurrection, what does the secular historian propose to stop it up with?” In other words, you can’t explain the start of Christianity.

You can’t explain the existence of Christianity apart from the resurrection. It just does not make sense unless Jesus is alive. And I love this. Jesus even appeared to skeptics. You know, one clear example is Jesus’s brother James.

It’s interesting. Today is Mother’s Day. And as far as I can tell, when Jesus was on the cross, he was being crucified. The only family member who stood by Jesus’s side was his mother, Mary. His brothers and sisters, they’re not in the picture.

That’s because they didn’t even believe in him. And this is kind of a surprising thing to note. Why would his siblings, the people who grew up with Jesus, you can imagine, you know, living with Jesus in his household, you can’t ever accuse Jesus of anything, right? Like if if there’s a problem, a dispute, it’s not like James could say, it was Jesus this time. No, no one’s going to believe him.

And so you can imagine maybe James was even a little bit bitter by that, but he did not believe Jesus was God and he knew him, but he was a skeptic. He’s thinking, you know, you can’t be the divine Messiah. You’re my big brother. And so he didn’t worship him. He didn’t live for him.

But it says that Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15 that the risen Jesus confronted James. He appeared to him and he he presented his resurrected body as proof that he was alive. And the result was that James fell down and he he worshiped his older brother as Lord. Eventually, he became a pastor in Jerusalem. That’s the power of the resurrection.

You cannot explain these kinds of things without a risen Jesus. And what we see in our passage is Jesus both appearing to his apostles, but also he’s commissioning them. He’s saying, “You guys are going to be my witnesses. You are going to take this gospel of the kingdom that I’ve been telling you about for three years and I’ve been telling you about for the last 40 days. You were going to take this message into the world and it’s going to turn the world upside down.”

So, first in your notes, the mission’s objective. This is what they were given to bear witness to the resurrected king. To bear witness to the resurrected King. And here’s what we need to see. In the last 2,000 years since Christianity got started, this mission has not changed.

Culture has changed, times have changed, the people of God have changed, but the mission has not changed. The book of Acts ends very abruptly, and a lot of scholars have noted that it seems to like there’s this it’s going to build to something, but then it just cuts off right at the end. And that’s a signal that the mission is not yet complete. The mission that Jesus gave to the apostles at the beginning is continuing forward. It’s like the resurrection ignited this flame.

The apostles started carrying the torch. They passed it down all through the centuries. And guess what? Today, we are the torchbearers. It’s passed to us to take this message into the world.

The mission is the same. Last week we saw that Jesus proved himself alive to those apostles. They were behind locked doors, you know, and it wasn’t like Jesus had to knock on the door and say, “Hey, can you guys let me in?” No, he he just appeared in their midst. And the point is Jesus took charge in giving proof that he was alive.

He didn’t wait for them to come find him. He went to them and said, “Look at me. I’m alive.” and he’s commissioned them to be witnesses, these first Christians. The New Testament was written in what’s called coin a Greek.

And so it’s always good every once in a while to look at why the Greek was chosen or why a certain word was chosen. So what’s behind the Greek in that word witnesses? Well, the word is martoures. It’s where we get our word martyr. It’s interesting.

You know these guys the word means literally one who gives testimony to an important event and it’s because of their willingness to give testimony to the resurrection that many of them did become martyrs. They died for Jesus. So it’s it’s a sense of testimony or bearing witness kind of like in a courtroom you call forward witnesses. Well, it’s like the world is the courtroom and Jesus or you could say Christianity is on trial. Why should we believe Jesus is Lord and not somebody else?

There’s lots of options out there, lots of people you could follow. There’s lots of religions. Why not Islam? Why Christianity? Or why not just your own brand of spirituality that works for you?

You know, America in the US, we love that idea. Like I I could just pick what works for me and what satisfies my sense of self. Well, the answer for why that can’t work is the resurrection. No one else, nobody in all of human history has defeated the grave. No one else is this unique savior that Jesus is.

In fact, Christianity alone claims that God entered this world. He became one of us, clothed himself in human flesh. He lived that perfect life and then he died as a substitute in our place to atone for our sins. No other religion says forgiveness of all your sins is free. It is given to you by grace.

You don’t have to work for it. You don’t have to earn it. You could never earn it. It’s not based on your merit. It’s not based on how you did yesterday, today, or tomorrow.

It’s based on what Jesus did for you. Only Jesus’s tomb is empty. And these apostles were eyewitnesses of everything. That’s the point of this passage. They saw it all.

They witnessed it. And because they wrote down their testimony in scripture, that’s what the New Testament is. It’s it’s the testimony of eyewitnesses. Now, we are called to be witnesses to the resurrected King. We have their testimony, but we have more than that.

If you know and love Jesus, then you’re called to be a witness. Not because you’ve seen Jesus in person with your eyes, but because you’ve been changed by Jesus. It’s not a matter of being qualified in in a professional sense. It’s not that you need to, you know, go to seminary or become a professional evangelist. You are a witness simply because if you can say, “My eyes have been open.

I was blind, but now I see. Then you’re a witness. You’ve been changed by Jesus, and you can witness to his resurrection. Secondly, in your notes, the mission’s authority comes from God the Father. Every mission has to have an authority behind it.

In the military, you can look at the chain of command. It’s really this this chain of authority going all the way up to the general or whoever. But even higher than that, the highest authority in the country is the commanderin-chief, the president. And the president, according to the constitution, he has the highest authority to do things like declare war or deploy troops for combat. He is the highest authority.

Well, what about our mission as followers of Jesus? According to Jesus, the highest authority we look to is God the Father. Now, God is a trinity, which means that the father, the son, the holy spirit, they’re in perfect unity. They’re co-equally God. And so, when you obey Jesus, you’re obeying the father.

But notice what the disciples ask in verse six, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Well, what did the disciples mean here? If you look at the Old Testament and you can you can trace this this scarlet thread through the Old Testament. All these promises were given. But the promise is also applied to Israel specifically that Israel would become this kingdom, this eternal kingdom and that the the promised Messiah would reign as the enthroned king.

And so they’re looking at they’re looking at Jesus and they’re saying, “Hey, you know what? You’ve defeated death. You have proved that you are the Messiah. So this must be it. This must be the time you’re going to you’re going to go into Jerusalem and you’re going to establish yourself.

You’re going to sit on the throne in Jerusalem and you are going to show those Romans we are the kingdom of God. And many of the disciples today would want to think that way as well. You know how many of you have wondered when is Jesus coming back? We think about these things. Is it today?

We’d love to just have a direct line you know feedback from Jesus saying this is the date that I am going to come back. We’d love to have that. But Jesus tells them no. Verse 7, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the father is fixed by his own authority. And people have tried to to guess at when Jesus is going to come back when he’s going to consummate his kingdom on earth.

People have given, you know, 88 reasons why the rapture will happen in 1988. But guess what? They’ve always been wrong. That’s because Jesus was clear at the beginning. Before he even ascended, he said, “It’s not for you to know.

It’s not for you to figure this one out.” What I see in the disciples question is that struggle for control that I struggle with. That sense of I need to know. I need to have all the answers. I wish I did.

We sometimes struggle over control, wanting control over our lives or over the timeline of history. But Jesus reminds us that we’re not not meant to have that kind of control. The father has fixed the timeline of history. He’s worked out salvation from before the world began. He doesn’t need your input.

He doesn’t need you to have special insight into this. He’s done everything. The father is sovereign over all of history. You know, God created everything. So everything is under his dominion.

Everything we have was created by God. It all belongs to him. You think, well, what about my bank account? It’s his. What about my schedule?

It’s his. Everything, every molecule in the universe continues in existence by his sustaining power. It’s all his. Every beat of your heart and every flow of oxygen through your veins is under his providential control. That’s his authority.

So, we don’t need to be anxious when we feel like control slipping through our fingers because guess what? We never even had control. Not ultimately. We aren’t called to seize control. We’re called to yield that trust to him.

To know the father has worked out everything in his perfect plan. And that’s an important thing to remember. He’s our father. And so this isn’t a scary thing that he has full control. This is a good thing.

This means that he’s working out everything in the timeline for our ultimate good and his ultimate glory. That’s the way we should want it. God’s timeline doesn’t always match our timeline. But if the father is in charge, then it’s something that cannot fail. His timeline is perfect.

Next, the mission strategy. Here’s the mission strategy. Love the world, suffer for Christ. This is what those first apostles were called to do. This is what we are called to do.

Love the world, suffer for Christ. When you think about what it means to be a witness or ambassador for Christ today in the world, you realize it’s all based on love. You know Jesus said, “The world will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” The only reason that we have a message to share with the world is because God has loved this world. He could have rejected it.

He could have justly condemned every one of us. But God has loved this world. He set his love on us. John 3:16 famously says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” And it’s because of that message we can love the world.

So we’re called to love the lost. But Jesus said that being on mission has this inevitable result. There will be push back. There will be hostility. There will be friction with the world.

There will even be hatred. He said, “If the world hates you, remember it hated me first.” He got crucified. Do we think it’s going to be smooth sailing for his followers? You know, Jesus said, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.”

Why? Why? Why would the world hate Jesus, the most loving man to ever grace the planet? Why would they hate us? Why would they hate his followers?

It’s very simple. Because a message of a resurrected Lord means that we have to obey him. We’re called to bow to him. It means that the kingdoms of this world must all surrender to the kingdom of God. And it’s threatening because if Jesus is king, that means I’m not.

There’s only room for one person on the throne of the universe and it’s not for me. And if I’ve been rebelling against God, this is why one theologian called sin cosmic treason. It’s cosmic treason because if Jesus is king and I haven’t been living for Jesus, if I’ve been living for myself, well then I could be indicted for cosmic treason. That means that I need to repent. I need to confess my sin and trust Jesus to forgive me of all my rebellion.

And see, that’s that’s why the world struggles with this because it’s it’s complete surrender. Jesus doesn’t say, “I only want 12 hours of your day. That’s it.” Or, “I only want, you know, four days out of the week is all I’m asking for.” Jesus says, “I want everything.

I am the resurrected king. I am the Lord of the universe. I want all of you. You have to surrender all of yourself to me. But we need to know that Jesus is a God of grace.

The Bible says that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. And so repentance, think of this. It’s not this this terrible cold thing. It’s this beautiful joyful thing to come into the arms of our loving father to know forgiveness to know we’re loved. Repentance is beautiful.

And because we have the Holy Spirit, we can have joy while this while taking this message into a world that is rejecting us. Just a few chapters ahead in Acts, the religious leaders have this time where they’re recognizing the apostles are spreading this message about Jesus and the resurrection. And their message is basically Peter, John, all those guys. They’re saying, “You killed him. God raised him from the dead and we are witnesses.”

That’s all they’re saying. And obviously the religious leaders don’t like that. And so they have them arrested and then they have them beaten. And eventually when they release these guys, you know, you’d think these apostles would be just miserable, like aching. Oh man, just got beaten.

But this is what it says in Acts 5. Then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. They are rejoicing. They’re celebrating. Someone says, “Hey, how’s your day going?”

They say, “Praise the Lord. I just got to suffer for Jesus. Great day.” So, as you can imagine, this is all because of the resurrection. See, it’s only because they had seen the risen Lord.

They knew him personally. That’s why they could rejoice. If if this life is all there is, then yeah, we we should try to make it as comfortable and and safe and and non-threatening as possible. But if this life is just the preface to eternity with God, if resurrection is a reality, then they can’t threaten us. They that that they threatened Peter and John.

They say, “You know what? We belong to the higher king, Jesus.” They they cause them to be tortured. They say, “That’s okay. You know, I’m going to be suffering for my Lord.

That’s a privilege.” They say, “Fine, we’ll kill you.” All right. Bring it on. Big whoop.

Because I get to be with Jesus if you kill me. Just their willingness to die for Jesus alone tells us that something supernatural happened to these men. They saw Jesus. They experienced Jesus in the flesh, alive from the dead. And that leads us to what Jesus said next, which is the mission’s power, the Holy Spirit.

The apostles of Jesus demonstrate this constant awareness. As you read the the letters of the New Testament and you read through Acts, they they recognize, I’m inadequate on my own. I I can’t do this. I can’t fulfill this mission. It’s only because of what the Holy Spirit has done.

They couldn’t do it on their own. What they were going to accomplish horizontally could only be done if they looked vertically. The vertical has to come first. That’s why Jesus says, “Don’t start going out spreading the news yet. You have to wait.

Wait in Jerusalem because then you’re going to get the power of the Holy Spirit and then you will be able to fulfill this mission.” And we need to have that same humility today recognizing it’s not in me. It can’t come from me. It can’t come from my cleverness or ingenuity or or strength. It’s got to come from God.

If people are going to be drawn to the Savior through me as a witness, it’s because of the Holy Spirit. He gets all the credit. He is the power of God. Romans or Acts 18 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” And I love what Paul says in Romans 15.

You know, he’s talking about really what is at the heart of the mission of the early church. We can ask wh why did this church explode so rapidly from such small beginnings? I think it’s here in Romans 15:18. He says, “For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God. Paul’s saying, ‘ Don’t don’t misunderstand.

I He made lots of sacrifices, but he’s saying, don’t think that this is all about Paul. The only thing I’m going to tell you about is what Christ has accomplished through me by the power of the Holy Spirit. It It’s not in me. It’s It’s all by the grace of God. That’s what Paul would tell you.

That’s the message we all need to believe. Next is the mission’s people, which is every believer in Jesus. And this point kind of relates back to the former point. Jesus tells them they need the Holy Spirit because they can’t be his witnesses apart from the spirit. He’s going to empower them.

And Jesus was commissioning the apostles to be witnesses. But he was not just commissioning them. He was by extension commissioning every one of us. Every follower of Jesus is in on this. Now, how do I know that?

He’s only talking to the apostles, right? Well, he said to be witnesses to the ends of the earth. And we know that this mission was not completed in the apostles lifetime. It extended way beyond that. It’s still going forward today, still today to the ends of the earth.

Missionaries, evangelists, ordinary Christians are are going about from Tiger to Taiwan living out as witnesses of Jesus. And so the same mission comes to us. Romans 8 says this, the spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. If you are a believer in Jesus, you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. You don’t need to look for some other additional experience.

If you have trusted in Jesus, the Bible is clear on this one. You have the Holy Spirit living at inside you, at work in your heart, empowering you to be a witness. There’s not these hoops that you have to jump through to be qualified. The Holy Spirit in you qualifies you. It’s easy to read the Bible and think, “Wow, these guys were amazing.

These guys were like superheroes. Look at how they’re going all over the Roman Empire. They’re willing to suffer and die. But the truth is, these were ordinary people. They were just like us.

They were indwelled by the same Holy Spirit who indwells us. And see, if we know that, if we are, if we really believe we are empowered to be witnesses for Christ, to be ambassadors for Christ, it’s not something where you have to graduate to the next level of Christian before you can be a witness. If we know that, then we’ll see that we need to live as ambassadors each and every day. The mission isn’t yet complete. And so it’s left to each one of us to carry forward, to play our role as witnesses to the risen Jesus.

And see, here’s why it’s so important to see yourself as a witness of Jesus. Because Jesus said that every person is going to live somewhere for all eternity, heaven or hell, eternal life or eternal death. Now, I didn’t come up with that. Jesus said that. And so this should matter to us.

The people we see at the grocery store, the people in our neighborhood, at the office, in our neighborhood, in our family, these are people who will spend somewhere forever. And so we should see this as our calling to witness to Christ’s resurrection. It’s very easy for us to be so busy in life and and get caught up with everything that in a sense it’s like we’re building our own kingdom and not realizing it. But we’re called to serve another kingdom, the kingdom of God. And the kingdoms of this world are very different.

The way they operate is top-down power. They they make laws and then they enforce those laws and they they it’s this top-down strategy. But the kingdom of God works with individuals transforming them from the inside out. That’s how it spreads. They weren’t conquering Rome with the sword.

They were being killed by the sword. It’s that they were sharing this message. And as people heard the gospel and believed in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they were transformed. They were made new. And that’s what caused even the Roman Empire to crumble.

Citizens of God’s kingdom recognize that passing laws and regulations, while important, isn’t what we ultimately need. What we really need is to be made new. See, a law, for instance, can ban pornography, but only Jesus can free the human heart from the power of lust. A law can ban racial discrimination, but only Jesus can change people so they love others who have a different skin tone or different cultural background. A law can ban abortion.

Only Jesus can transform us into people who want to give children the gift of life. The changed lives in this room alone prove that Jesus is alive and well, that his kingdom is still advancing and and the resurrection is still being witnessed to because if you have been changed by Jesus, you know, his power is at work in you. So, while the disciples are asking about restoring the kingdom to Israel, Jesus has in mind a kingdom that’s going to envelop all nations. He tells them, “You’re going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” There’s there’s no limit to the ends of the earth.

And he tells them in Matthew 28, you are to go and make disciples of all nations. And so, he’s talking to Jewish men here. He’s saying, there’s no room for ethnosentrism. You you can’t think just about Israel anymore. The kingdom of God is opened up to everybody.

The gospel is to cross every ethnic, cultural, and political boundary. And so that’s our final point. The mission scope to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:9 says, “And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.” I think the disciples were dumbfounded, you know, just watching Jesus suddenly lift off like this.

Can you imagine witnessing that here? They were just asking him, you know, Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? They’re thinking right now would be great. And then Jesus takes off and he goes right into heaven. And I I have questions about this, like how fast did it happen, you know, was it like elevator speed where he could, you know, wave as he’s leaving or, you know, was it like Superman?

He’s just he’s gone, right? We don’t know. But it it says that they were unexpecting this. They’re probably asking, “Why? You just conquered the grave, Jesus.

You just defeated sin on the cross. Why are you leaving us?” Of course, ultimately, he wasn’t leaving them. But many have wondered, why did Jesus ascend into heaven? Well, we only have a short amount of time, so I’m just going to give some quick observations about the ascension.

This will be the abbreviated version for what I have here. But the ascension proves that Jesus is victorious. His victory is total. He’s not on the cross. He’s not in the tomb.

He’s not even physically on earth, but he is enthroned in heaven as the Lord of the universe. And so, think of the ascension as Jesus’s coronation ceremony. It’s Jesus being rightfully crowned as king of the universe. Patrick Shriner in his commentary on Acts says, “If the resurrection proclaims Jesus lives forever, the ascension proclaims he reigns forever. Jesus’s ascension marks not the sessation of his work, but the continuation of his reign from heaven.”

So, think of heaven as the command center for time and space. And so by going up into heaven and sitting at the right hand of the father and being enthroned as king, he is in that position to rule and to reign over the earth and to pour out the Holy Spirit to work through his witnesses. The disciples were staring in wonder at the sky. They’re just shocked. And the angels show up and say in verse 11, “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. Jesus will come back in the same way that he left. He left visibly, bodily, and on the clouds. He’s going to come back visibly, bodily, and on the clouds. That is our hope.

Jesus is coming back. We look forward to that just like these first disciples did. And because this hasn’t happened yet, we’re in the same position as those first disciples, that inner advent time between Jesus’s first and second coming. We know what Jesus has accomplished. We look forward to what Jesus still will accomplish.

And so the angels are basically saying, “Stop staring slackjaw into the skies and get to work. It’s great to know that Jesus is exalted in heaven, that he’s enthroned as the king of the universe. It’s great to know that he’s coming back, but they say in the meantime, you have a job to do. And that job is continued to us. We are called to carry forward that same mission to be witnesses of the resurrection.

So here’s the question I’ll leave you with. How does Jesus’s resurrection compel you to be a witness for him wherever you are? Will you pray with me? Father God, I thank you for this privilege. And it is that to think that you chose us.

You loved us. You anointed us with your Holy Spirit. You have empowered us in in a way that we have only begun to realize to be your witnesses. And Father, I ask that you would work in our hearts. Help us to not be timid, but to be bold.

To not be judgmental, but to be gracious. To not return evil for evil, but to return good. To love those who maybe don’t love us. To to sacrifice for those who would never do that for us. Because as we do these things, we are witnessing to the resurrection.

Lord, empower us. And Father, if there’s someone seated here today listening to this right now who’s saying, you know, I don’t know about this yet, I pray that you would make yourself known to them. Show yourself to them in a mighty way. Help them to see that this gospel is for them. This promise of forgiveness, eternal life, adoption into the family of God, it’s for them.

And they are invited to step into this kingdom by faith in Jesus. We pray in hi

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