"Looking and Available"
The Book of Acts is actually a story that really has no conclusion. Acts is the setting for the story of the church, and the disciples of the church, that you and I are in right now. It describes what Jesus started and left us to finish the story. This focus on the resurrection and ascension are key to our faith. It is one of the main attributes of Christianity that differs from others. I am passionate about this scripture because it is where Jesus empowers me to be his disciple. This is where Jesus tells me what I need to be doing. This is where I have to decide if I am a Christian or not. Not only are these final sentences of scripture key to Christianity, they are also difficult to understand if you really think about them.
First, let us look at the description of the ascension. Now I know that heaven is not a physical place above the clouds. Unless it is further out in space beyond where our telescopes and space probes can travel, see and hear, heaven is not way up high in the air. But, when Jesus ascended “into heaven” they believed then that the earth was flat and the place where God lived was above the sky. So Jesus had to make this dramatic exit in order for them to believe. If Jesus had just vanished I am quite sure one of the disciples could haven been on the front page of the Jerusalem Daily Times giving his account of the vanishing Messiah like some backwoods country bumpkin giving his account of his house being lifted off the foundation during the last big tornado, “I seen it but you ain’t gonna believe it!” We now know, as best we can understand, that heaven is a state of being and existence more than a place. Even with that in mind, the state of being and existence is a place unto itself and that we cannot understand. I think we have good Biblical backing for that idea. Jesus had to rise into the air to be able to fulfill His mission and initiate the mission of the disciples.
Secondly, and equally difficult to understand is the second coming of Christ. Two thousand years ago, it seemed as though Jesus was doing everything: casting out demons, healings, feedings of thousands, stilling of storms, teaching of wisdom, reforming of the temple, challenging the religious and political establishment, forgiving the guilty. Jesus was the center of it all, the doer of it all.
But it was a part of God’s plan from the very beginning that Jesus would be taken away from them all. The day was coming when Jesus would be taken up. And so it was that Jesus was crucified and died. True: a few days later he was raised from the dead. And then he was with his followers for 40 days--teaching them and giving instructions and encouragement. But he was with them for those 40 days in order to prepare them for his being taken away again.
Now this notion of Jesus being taken away was a crisis for his early followers. If Jesus was taken away, who would do all of the things that Jesus had been doing and establishing this following of people we know as the church? It was only when Jesus was taken away that the disciples truly discovered that THEY had the power to do those things. It was only when Jesus was taken away that the disciples discovered that THEY could participate in the work of God and that THEY had parts to play!
When we read the story of the ascension, of Jesus being taken up into heaven, we are reminded of the Old Testament story in 2 Kings of Elijah being taken up into heaven, away from his disciple Elisha. The old man, Elijah, had lived his life and the Lord was about to take him away--just as Jesus was taken away in the story in Acts 1. And there were questions: Who would do the work Elijah had done? Elisha, his successor, was with Elijah the day the old man was taken up into heaven. And as HE stood watching the sky, he also looked down and noticed the old man’s mantle at his feet. The ‘wearing of the mantle’ was symbol of the one who would do the work. When Elisha picked up the mantle and put it on his own shoulders, he symbolized that he was picking up the work of Elijah.
The question now, as Jesus was ascending into heaven is would the disciples pick up the work of Jesus? There was no plan “B” folks. Of course I am talking in the strictness of analogies here. We know God can do anything even if the original 12 disciples decided to pack it up and call it quits. But the plan was for the disciples to pick up the mantle and get after it.
The last verse of our scripture this morning is a comment by the two men wearing white robes. They say, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
This verse is often understood as a prediction for a rapturous return of Jesus. But that’s not quite what the verse says. This verse doesn’t really say that Jesus will return to the earth from the sky--riding on a cloud. We have to go to revelation for such illustrations. Here though I think maybe it is not simply a prediction of the rapture. Inclusive of the rapture it is also a reminder that this faith of ours is full of irony. In the very act of Jesus’ leaving, he comes to us. “He will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” It is irony: in leaving us in the flesh he becomes more present to us. He comes into our inner beings. He comes among us. He surrounds us with a presence more powerful than the disciples felt when they were with him in the flesh. In his leaving he comes to us. People could not experience Jesus while he was walking this earth unless they were in his physical presence. (exceptions when he healed those not near him but those requesting the healing were with him).
Holy Spirit =Comforter Comforter = Latin “fortis” = Brave = courage and strength
And remember I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20)
The power of the Holy Spirit makes us Christ’s witness!
Witness: 1) Someone who states that something is true. No hearsay in a court of law, only eyewitness testimony. 2) A real witness is not a person of words but a person of deeds. When the English journalist Sir Henry Morton Stanly found Dr. David Livingston in central Africa and spent time with him, he made this observation “If I had been with him any longer, I would have been compelled to be a Christian – and he never spoke to me about it at all.” That is a witness in life that is irresistible.
Our lives must change to be a witness for Christ. Just thinking it our saying it does not make us a Christian. Billy Graham says that just saying you’re a Christian no more makes you a Christian than does standing in a garage makes you a car.
3) The word Witness in Greek is synonymous with martyr. A witness of Christ is loyal, no mater what the cost.
It is too easy for us to become non-participants in the work of Jesus. We often do not see ourselves as the ones to heal the sick, cast out unclean spirits, proclaim the kingdom, teach the wisdom of God, still the storms, bring life to the dead, and challenge religious and political authorities in the name of God. We expect Jesus to do those things. We’ll just watch. But when the presence of Jesus results in our abdicating OUR discipleship, our following of him, our doing what he did and saying what he taught--then Jesus is not at all present. The disciples saw him leave--and then they picked up the mantle, received the power, and carried on the work. “Wait upon the Lord” means to be available. Not too busy. When someone calls and gets my voicemail it says I am unavailable. That means I am busy. If I am busy I am not looking for the Jesus, aka the Holy Spirit in my life.
In 1895 there was an amazing discovery of the structure of the atom, it’s electrons and protons. In 1932 the neutron within the atom was discovered and in 1939 the energy of the fission of uranium atoms by neutrons was carried out to unleash the most powerful force in the universe – atomic energy. This most basic component of matter has been around since the beginning of time but we finally recognized it by looking for it.
The disciples were looking. Are you? The disciples made themselves available. Have you? The power and presence of Jesus is always available. The variable is our desire to seek Him and the availability to recognize Him.