070520 Acts 1:1-11 Up is Up

This is the original transcript of the sermon preached. To hear the final message click on the title of this article:
“While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven” (Luke 24:51). But we are not left on the ground like hopeless turtles on the ground. His up is our up. His humanity on high becomes our hope of humanity.
The Heavenly Father takes Jesus up. Jesus is withdrawn from our worshipful upward gaze into God’s presence in the form of a cloud (the Shikanai). Jesus completes His journey after His Resurrection on Easter morning when He returned from the depths of death and now He ascends to the height of glory seated at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus foretold His Ascension: “what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” (John 6:62). “In my Father’s house there are many mansions . . . I go to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:2). “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do . . . because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). In His High Priestly prayer for us in the Garden before His betrayal Jesus prays: “So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed” (John 17:5). On Easter morning He tells Mary Magdalene “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” John 20:17).
The Ascension establishes three facts:
1. Christ is personally gone up. He went up to the place of power, God’s throne at the Father’s right hand. He is Up. His humanity and divinity is really Up at the throne of God. Ascension is a personal experience.
2. Christ is spiritually omnipresent in the heavenly sanctuary in heavenly Zion (Hebrews 9:24; 12:22-24). There, Jesus is accessible to anyone who calls on Him (Hebrews 4:14). His power and presence is ready to help anywhere and anytime (Hebrews 4:16; 7:25; 13:6-8).
3. Christ’s heavenly ministry is supreme. Our Lord reigns and He intercedes for you and me (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25). Christ intercedes for us before the Father (John 14:16). He intervenes and protects us from God’s righteous wrath. He is the Judge of righteousness – and He judges with mercy and grace. In sovereignty he now lavishes upon us the benefits that his suffering won for us. From his throne he sends the Holy Spirit constantly to enrich us (Acts 2:33; John 16:7-14) and equip us for service (Ephesians 4:8-12).
Up means He’s up, He’s omnipresent. He is supreme.
1. Up means Up. How do we experience the happiness – the joy of Christ’s ascension? It’s more than a mere display of political power. Jesus came to a place called Palestine for a personal relationship with each one of us. This personal relationship is more than a faith movement that came on Greek soil and became a philosophy. It’s more than a political statement on Roman soil. His personal relationship is much more than a culture of the English empire – and much more than big business enterprise on American soil.
Roman political power was the issue during the German Reformation. It produced strange customs like the ruler of Venice on Ascension Day, who used to throw a ring into the Adriatic sea to symbolize that the port city had political authority and dominion over that body of water. The symbolism of the ring came from the wife’s being subjected to her husband.
The Holy Spirit bonds you, not just symbolically like a wedding ring, but with bonds of love and grace that can never be broken. You are personally claimed for His Kingdom now and forever.
2. Omnipresence: This second experience of the ascension reaches beyond any earthly empire. Christ’s omnipresence after the ascension is much more than a culture of Christianity in the English Empire or the Big Business image of the church in America. The power of God’s love will bring you back from distractions of the world like philosophies, politics, culture, and American enterprise - like the Heavenly Father brought His Son back up to heaven. Jesus Christ sends His Holy Spirit to bring you back to Him so you will ascend with Him.
Two final stories about an island in the South Atlantic named “Ascension” bares out how you can experience Christ’s REAL ascension in your life:
The green turtle travels over 1000 miles straight to the isle of Ascension. That animal is a living example of Christ’s salvation. The green turtle digs a hole in the sand to lay about 100 eggs, it swims the same 1000 miles back to the Brazilian coast where it remains two or three years before returning to the nesting site so far away. Like the Father sending Jesus to return to Him. Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to recapture our spiritual lives through the Holy Spirit.
3. Christ has dominion over all. Admiral Sir Thomas Williams was in command of a ship crossing the Atlantic. His course brought him in sight of the same island of Ascension, at that time was uninhabited and was never visited except for the purpose of collecting turtles.
The island was barely visible on the horizon, but as Sir Thomas looked at it he was seized by an unaccountable desire to steer towards it. His desire became more and more urgent and distressing, and foreseeing that it would soon be more difficult to satisfy it, he told his lieutenant to prepare to “put about ship” and steer in that direction. The officer respectfully remonstrated that changing course would greatly delay them. This only increased the Admiral’s anxiety, and the ship was steered towards the island.
All eyes were fixed upon it, and soon something was perceived on the shore. “It is white—it is a flag—it must be a signal!” When they neared the shore they discovered that sixteen men, wrecked on the coast many days before, and suffering hunger, had set up a signal, although almost without hope of relief.
What made the Admiral steer his ship in the very opposite direction to what he and his crew wanted was the superhuman Spirit of God (Walter Baxendale). This is how Christ’s supreme power steers us to witness for Him to others. He conquers our willful hearts and this sinful world, if we will but obey His call. Please pray with me this personal prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, I pray to You by Your Son’s sacrifice and blood. You are my Lord. You are one. I hear You and I obey. Your Son sits next to You at Your throne and You are saying this is my Son in whom I am well pleased. And You call me to sit next to Your Son as Your adopted child saying “this too is my child, in whom I am well please.” Guide me with Your Holy Spirit to witness to others and guide them to Your Kingdom so that we might all ascend to You in Your perfection through Your saving grace, in His name and Your glory – Jesus the Christ, Amen.