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Jesus, Taken Up Into Heaven He is Risen, Part 5 There are five great events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ: His birth, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His Second Coming. The ascension of Jesus is His physical parting from the disciples. Luke 24:51 says, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.” Peter tells us, 1 Peter 3:22, Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God: angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto them. Yes, He is gone! If that is all there is, what sadness it would be, but He is gone INTO HEAVEN! What gladness and joy! There are THREE very unique departures in our Bible: Enoch was translated, Elijah was TRANSPORTED, but Jesus ascended of His own power, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. The ascension of Jesus is a vital teaching of the New Testament. Jesus was lifted up by a cloud and carried back to heaven. He lifted up his nail scarred hands and blessed the disciples as He went. What a fitting finish to a perfect life. Why? It is necessary for His resurrection, and it is necessary to his present High Priestly ministry. The Ascension leads the disciples to put their attention on what is vital. Right BELIEFS lead to right BEHAVIOR. If the TRUTH of the Death, Burial, Resurrection, and ASCENSION of our Living Lord sinks down into the depth of our character, will that not affect our lives, our sense of DUTY, or desire to be DILIGENT; our HEART to be HOLY? I want us to see four things that the ascension did to the disciples. These are things we need to be reminded of, even though you may already know them, even though you may be established in this truth, here it is again! 1. TO ANTICIPATION, of His Second Coming, v.11 They “looked stedfastly” toward heaven; that is, then gave careful ATTENTION; Atenizo is the Greek word. Jesus is gone, but He ever lives. He is in heaven. Jesus will come as He went. The coming of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost was not the coming of Christ here promised. Some want to wrongly say this, but it is wrong. Why? Because He will return just as He came, and when He returns, every eye shall see Him, and He will return on the clouds in great glory. Are you anticipating with excitement the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? He will come again just as he ascended: PERSONALLY, VISIBLY, and BODILY! Whatever your view of future things, this much we must agree on: Jesus Christ is coming again, PERSONALLY, VISIBLY, BODILY and we must be ready for His coming! We should be looking for the coming of our Lord with great anticipation, eagerness, and excitement. Throughout Scripture, we are reminded that Jesus is coming again. 1 Thessalonians 1:9,10; Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to WAIT for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. The word wait carries the idea of an eagerness and expectation. We are LOOKING people: Titus 2:13; Looking for that blessed hope, and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ… Philippians 3:20; For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ… Hebrews 9:28, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Because He is risen again and ascended, we wait and look for Him to come! We are a LABORING people: 2 Peter 3:12-14: Our Looking, used three times in these verses, affects our behavior. What you look at and look for, affects how you behave! We are to be people looking unto Jesus, and looking unto him, we are like Him. Looking unto him ought to give us a DILIGENCE to live IN peace, in purity, and in a blameless manner. One thing is for certain, the apostles were diligent people. They labored without ceasing because they knew their Lord was ascended, seated upon the throne, and coming again. 2. TO OBEDIENCE, of His Clear Commands, v.12 These men of Galilee return to Jerusalem and go to THE Upper Room where they had the Lord’s Supper together and where Jesus appeared to them after His resurrection. Jesus would appear to them no more. They do not go back home to Galilee, however. They are finally cured of their “fishing-itis.” They have no plans of returning home; they have no plans of going fishing any time soon in the Sea of Galilee. They will soon become those fishers of men. They are obedient to WAIT for the coming of the Holy Spirit and then WORK in His power and spread the WORD of God to the uttermost. Throughout His forty days after His resurrection, Jesus repeated Himself to His disciples, telling them to Go into all the world. On the first resurrection night, He said, “As the Father hath sent me, so send I you.” A little later He told Peter, “Feed my lambs.” Now, just before He ascends, He says, Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” Repetition is one of the greatest laws of the teacher, and one the necessities of learning. We are called to be witnesses. The disciples would go on the “fill(ed) Jerusalem with (your) doctrine of the the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 5:28. That is our goal at Heritage. We want to fill this city with teachings about Jesus! Again, I am amazed at Jesus’ command. First Jerusalem and all Judaea. The best way to reach Judaea, the region, is to reach the key city. Then Samaria. Hated Samaria! Where did they go in this region? The city of Samaria, Acts 8:8. Then they were to go to the uttermost part of the earth. Where did they go to reach the far ends of the earth? The key population centers, the cities! You cannot do everything at once. First they must go to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father, v.4. Matthew 28:19; Go ye therefore, and teach all nations… Mark 16:15; Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature… 3. To UNITY, in the Local Church, v.13,14a They were “with one accord.” This emphasizes the unity of the early church. The Greek word is homothumadon. It is a unique Greek word, used 10 of its 12 New Testament occurrences in the Book of Acts, and it helps us understand the uniqueness of the Christian community. Homothumadon is a compound of two words meaning to “rush along” and “in unison”. The image is almost musical; a number of notes are sounded which, while different, harmonize in pitch and tone. As the instruments of a great concert under the direction of a concert master, so the Holy Spirit blends together the lives of members of Christ’s church. It speaks of a unity of PASSION. Homo-thumos. Same passion. Unity in worship, Acts 2:46 Unity in prayer, 4:24 Sending forth disciples, Acts 15:25; Acts 2:46, 4:24, 5:12, 7:57, 8:6, 12:20, 15:25, 18:12, 19:29. We can be united even though we are different. The disciples were different personalities, yet they were in one accord. In this passage we find the fourth and final listing of the Apostles. In each list, Peter is first, Philip is always fifth, and James the son of Alphaeus is always ninth. Perhaps they were the leaders of the three groupings. What is amazing about the Apostles is they are men of different strokes, yet they are melted together into one Body with a passion for One Person. We can have UNITY without UNIFORMITY. We can have unity in spite of differences that exist between us. We can have unity as we AGREE TO AGREE on the essentials and AGREE TO DISAGREE on the non-essentials. There are certain truths that are NON-NEGOTIABLE. Let us be united in doctrine and learn to appreciate the DIFFERENCES that exist. The human spirit wants to make every one like Paul, another like Peter, another like Apollos. Others say, I will just follow JESUS! This is CARNAL CHRISTIANITY that follows men alone; and it is also CARNAL CHRISTIANITY that refuses to submit to human authority. Here you have Peter, and James, and John. How will these guys get along without Jesus around. Will they struggle for power and preeminence? The unity of the first century church is the envy of the church today. Oh, that we had such unity! Here is perhaps the secret of unity. Jesus Christ’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension. We must believe that Jesus alone has ascended and risen to sit at the right hand of the Father, and all of our praise and worship is to Him. John 3:13, And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. This verse is in the middle of Jesus’ discourse with Nicodemus, and probably this is a commentary of John about what Jesus did. Prov. 30:4 asks the question, “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?” Jesus! In John 6:62, many were leaving the Lord because his sayings were hard. Faith in the ascension of Jesus will keep us from leaving our Lord and keep us united as One body in Him. He is Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father. I cannot be in unity of worship with people who say Mary ascended, but if you believe that Jesus alone is ascended into heaven, at the right hand of God, and is the only HIGH PRIEST you need for your intercession, we ought to be able to unify around HIM. We are not to force a phony unity with those who deny the Word of God. Do not think that the early church did not have its struggles and troubles. False teachers arose from within the church very quickly and they had to be pointed out. 4. TO WORSHIP, of the Living God, v.14 Prayer proseuche: the most frequent word used for prayer, Supplication means to pray about specific needs and the DESIRES we have in prayer. Luke 24:52,53, And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually IN THE TEMPLE, praising and blessing God. Amen. Prayer and worship are two indispensables of the early church. Prayer is talking to God and worship is giving glory to God. Worship is the total adoring response of all we are to all God is. With God you never get a busy signal or an answering machine. You will never get that message, The Lord is not in, but for 75 cents, you can have Bell Atlantic keep trying… Do you know what is the CINDERELLA of the church? The prayer meeting! When revival comes, the cinderalla meeting of the church will be the central meeting of the church! Do you know what is the THERMOMETER of the church? The prayer meeting. It is a good indicator of the temperature of the church! Prayer is limitless in power, because prayer can cross oceans and break through walls. Prayer is not limited by time or space. You can pray at anytime, anywhere. Prayerlessess is sin, because we are commanded to pray. The church that does not pray is willfully sinning against God. Here is the first of many prayer meetings of the early church. He is gone, to be seated at the right hand of the Father. The book of Hebrews emphasizes to us the present ministry of our Savior. Because He is ascended, He is seated. He is Lord of all. He is our Great High Priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Hebrews 4:14, 16: Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. He is passed into the heavens that He might hear and answer our prayers. We know there is one above who died, rose again, and lives for ever who does hear our prayer. We can approach Him in prayer! Without question, the early church was a praying church. Prayer has a great purpose in our lives. Through prayer, God FILLS…they were filled with the Holy Ghost, time and time again, Acts 4:31. Prayer is the key to revival! Matthew Henry said, “When God intends great mercy for his people, the first thing he does is to set them a-praying.” AT Pierson said, “From the day of Pentecost, there has been not one great spiritual awakening in any land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only among two or three…” (Revival, p.84) Back in 1857 (September), a man named Jeremiah Lanphier called a noon day prayer meeting at 12:00 Noon at the Fulton Street Dutch Reformed Church. No one came until 12:30, and by the end there were six men: one a Baptist, another a Congregationalist, another a Presbyterian, and another a Dutch Reformed. The next Wednesday, 20 came and the next, 40. They agreed to meet daily, and soon, the old church could not accommodate the crowds. Prayer meetings opened up in other churches, and even Police and Fire Departments opened up their buildings for prayer. Souls were being saved, and prayer meetings spread to other cities; Phil, Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta. It is estimated that within a 24 month period, over one million came to Christ. The revival spread to our armed forces and prepared a nation for a great Civil War as well as for the controversy that erupted between the those who were theological liberals. Through prayer, God DELIVERS…yes, God delivered them from dangers and persecutors. Acts 12:5. Prayer is our only resource and recourse to persecution. Through prayer, God SENDS…for the church sent forth missionaries with the Gospel as a result of united prayer, Acts 13. Do I have to convince you that prayer is a vital part of our Christian lives and also our church life? Do I have to convince you that prayer meeting is an important part of our week? We also try to pray at other times. We encourage prayer each Sunday morning at 9:30 am. Thank God for the few who gather before our Bible Study hour. I want to suggest also a prayer chain once every quarter, and perhaps a day of prayer and fasting of our church family. One thing is for sure: prayer is Scriptural. If we want to model the New Testament church in any way, we must pray. Here we find the church in prayer at a time when the Lord Jesus has departed from their sight. That is a good time to pray! When the church is shrinking or growing, both are times when prayer is needed. Prayer is always necessary! Are there enemies at the gate? Then pray! Do others stand outside who want to flatter and praise you, then pray as well, or else you may be tripped up with pride. Prayer is the greatest problem solving action known to man! Do you have hurts, pour them out in prayer to the One who is touched with the feeling of your infirmity. |