This week is Ascension Sunday. It's the day we remember Jesus' Ascension into heaven following His death and resurrection. Why did He go? What did He ask of us before He left? This message is based on Luke 24:44-45. To read it now, click here.
William Willimon , who was the Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, has written many books, one of them, On a Wild and Windy Mountain, tells of his younger days in New Haven, Connecticut as a student in 1970, during the famous Black Panther trial. The 1970s, particularly the early 70’s, were a turbulent time for our country, especially in regard to race problems and unrest. Much of this unrest came to a head during the trial of the Black Panther leaders. It was at this time that William Willimon happened to attend a mass at a Catholic Church near Yale University. A boy’s choir was singing “Ascendit Deus —God Has Gone Up.” As he sat there listening to those young voices, he found himself thinking, and this is what he later wrote: “How appropriate. God has gone up. Up and away. God has left us to our confusion. Abandoned us in the midst of the angry shouts of the mobs, the sound of gunfire and the rhetoric of the revolutionaries.” With all the social unrest of the time, it seemed, at least to Willimon, that God indeed had abandoned us. It’s only been a few years since the Ferguson riots sparked another time of racial unrest. Perhaps we haven’t gone that far since the 70’s, there are still racial tensions buried not too deep beneath the surface. Add to that the drug epidemic, financial insecurity, and relationship issues, and I think many today are living life thinking that God has abandoned us. Back to Willimon, as he sat there and continued to listen, He remembered that the boys were not singing “Abscondit Deus,” which would mean “God has abandoned us,” they sang “Ascendit Deus,” God has gone up. And there, in that Catholic Church, listening to the words that they sang, he realized that God had not given up on us. Rather the Ascension of Jesus signaled that what Jesus had begun on earth would be brought to completion in heaven after his ascension. There is a line in the Apostles Creed that says, “On the third day, He rose again; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” He ascended, not to abandon us, but to complete what he began—through the work of the Holy Spirit, through his church, and through his faithful people, Christ still is at work. The ascension is so important that Luke describes it twice—here in the last chapter of his gospel, and again in the first chapter of Acts. It takes place on the Mount of Olives, nearly two miles outside of Jerusalem, almost to Bethany. It’s forty days since the resurrection of Jesus. And now it’s time for him to return to heaven. So once again, Jesus appears to the disciples. He joins them in worship. He breaks bread with them. He announces to them that they will soon receive the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit comes to them, they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth. And after he has given them this assurance, he is lifted up before them into the heavens until a cloud hid him from their sight. There are some really great things for us to look at here this morning. These verses are full. But I want to talk about just two. First, Jesus tells the disciples to wait for the power from on high – we know that they were to wait for the Spirit to come and fill them. The power on high then, was the power of God brought to them by the Spirit, the same Spirit that we have access to, the same Spirit that will lead and direct us as we live for God. And in the first few chapters of Acts, we see how incredible this power is; thousands more people were added every time they preached! Even today, we have that power when we live our lives in harmony with God’s will, when we make ourselves available to the Spirit. Contrast this vision of power with most of society today. Have you ever seen the movie City Slickers? Billy Crystal plays the part of a bored radio advertising rep. One the day he visits his son’s school to tell the class about his work, and as he starts talking to the kids, he falls into this deadpan monologue: Value this time in your life, kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices. It goes by fast. When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, “What happened to my twenties?” Forties, you grow a little pot belly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud, one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. Fifties, you have a minor surgery—you’ll call it a procedure, but it’s a surgery. Sixties, you’ll have a major surgery, the music is still loud, but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway. Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at 2:00 in the afternoon, you have lunch around 10:00, breakfast the night before, you spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate soft yogurt and muttering, “How come the kids don’t call? How come the kids don’t call?” The eighties, you’ll have a major stroke, and you end up babbling with some Jamaican nurse who your wife can’t stand, but who you call mama. Then he breaks out of his monologue, looks at the kids and asks, “So, Any questions?” That’s funny because people can relate to it. But it’s sad too, because there’s no hope, there’s no choices for people, certainly no power. Contrast that scene with Jesus standing around the disciples telling them that after He is taken up to the Father, they will be clothed with power from heaven. They will have the mighty power of God. So the point is that we don’t do what He asks to do in our power, God gives the Holy Spirit, so we can do it in God’s power. The second point is this: In verses 47 and 48, we see what He asks us to do. He says, “repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” So what it is telling us? He tells us that repentance and forgiveness of sins must be preached to all people, all nations. We can all agree on that, right. Now the hard part – ask yourself, who is to do this preaching? He says, “YOU are witnesses to these things.” Do you think he’s just talking to the disciples? I don’t think so. I think he is saying YOU are to do this preaching. Yeah, I know you’re not a preacher or an evangelist? And that’s okay, you don’t have to be. I know what your thinking, I just said you… I know – Jesus said you are a witness. He didn’t say you are a preacher or an evangelist. I know I’ve said this a few times before, but remember what a witness is. It’s someone who sees something, and then tells someone else, right? Most people, when they hear they are supposed to witness, think it means that they should be out sharing bible stories, or telling people about Jesus and his death, sharing the gospel with others. There is certainly a place for that, but I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying here. When Paul talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, he says that some are called to be preachers, and some to be evangelists. Those are different offices, and those people have different gifts. Jesus wouldn’t tell all of us to do something that only some of us are called to do, or gifted to do. Let’s get back to what He actually says. He says you are to be a witness! Were you a witness to his death? Were you there when he performed his great miracles? Did you actually see him heal the paralyzed, or restore sight to the blind? How can you be a witness to something you didn’t see? Sure, you have knowledge about these things that many don’t have, because years of reading the bible have given you insight that most today don’t have, but to be a witness implies first hand knowledge, something you saw. But Jesus said you are to be a witness. So what can you be a witness about? Let’s look at it again – “Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached to all nations – You are witnesses to these things.” To what things? To repentance and forgiveness of sins. Surely at one point in your life you repented and prayed for forgiveness! What happened? Did your life change because of it? Did your life change when you began your relationship with the Lord? I bet it did! I bet, if you think about it, you have a lot of stories to tell about things you have seen Jesus do in your life. You can’t be a witness to what God did in Jerusalem that day, because you weren’t there. You didn’t see it. But you are a witness to what God is doing in your life right now! You are a witness to what God has done for you because of your repentance and the forgiveness of your sins. God has changed your life! That’s what you can tell people, that’s what you’ve seen, and what you can witness to! Don’t worry that you might not know the bible that well. Don’t worry that you’re not that comfortable sharing the gospel. Just tell them what happened to you. Just tell them that God is alive and well, and that you know it - because you have seen his works. You have seen what He has done for you. That’s how you can be a witness. Not because you’re passing along something that you’ve read, but because you’ve experienced his love. You’ve felt his peace. You’ve been touched by his grace and his mercy. You are a witness of these things. There are a lot of people out there who are struggling just to get through today. People who have lost their hope for a better tomorrow. They desperately need to know that Jesus can touch them, can heal them, can change their circumstances. They desperately need to know that He loves them, and yes, He knows what they’ve done, and yes, He still loves them. And you are in a great position to tell them this, because you’ve seen Jesus do these things in your life. You are walking billboard for Jesus. Make sure people can see His light shining through you. Be a witness!
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