In the calendar of the Christian year, this week is referred to as Ascension Sunday. It is the week that we look back to Jesus' last time with the disciples. After the resurrection, Luke tells us that Jesus spent time with the disciples over a forty day period speaking about the kingdom of God. But then the time came that he warned the disciples about in John 16. Jesus was going to have to leave them so that the Holy Spirit would come and be with them. Jesus' ascension closed the book on one chapter of the disciples' lives, but turned the page to another chapter at Pentecost, which we will discuss in more length next week. But this week, there are a lot of things that we can learn about how God has moved and look at how we can cooperate with God's movement in the world today.
Just a quick historical point before we really get into the meat of what is going on in this passage. You probably noticed that the Book of Acts begins in a very similar fashion to the Gospel of Luke. Both books are addressed to a person named "Theophilus." This is a major indication that both books were written by the same person, who tradition, and the name of the gospel, tells us is the physician Luke. If you read through the Book of Acts, you'll actually come across some sections in which the first person plural pronoun "we" is used. These are recollections of times that Luke actually spent traveling with Paul. One of the many things in Scripture that we often miss if we aren't paying close attention.
Now, it's not really known if "Theophilus" is the actual name of the receipient of these two books, or if it is a code name for a Roman official to whom Luke was writing in defense of Paul. What I find interesting though is that the name "Theophilus" is comprised of two Greek words - theos, which means God, and philos, which is one of the words that means love. Whoever it is, it seems apparent that these two volumes of Luke's work may very well be intended for one who loves God, and wants to know more about the early Jewish movement that became known as Christianity. Does that describe anyone here this morning? That's something to think about, but let's get back to the text.
It says that while Jesus was staying with the disciples, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem. Okay, first of all, if somebody rises from the dead, and tells you not to leave a place, you don't leave. In fact, if someone rises from the dead, you listen to every single word that they have to say. You set aside everything that you thought you knew and you listen again and again and again. The disciples were fortunate enough to have 40 days of this kind of learning from Jesus. For 40 days, they sat and listened to somebody who had once died and was risen from the dead. You can bet that they caught every single word that Jesus said. They probably heard some of the same things that he said in the previous three years, but they heard it in a new way. And they didn't just listen to what he had to say, they lived it out. They shared the message with those they met. They went to places far and wide telling people about Jesus and about the salvation that he made possible. But they started by obeying Jesus' command to not leave Jerusalem.
It had to start at home. For us, it has to start at home. Being a follower of Christ is more than appearances. How we present ourselves to those around us is important, but it is not the only witness that we give. It is sometimes said that character is who you are when nobody is looking. Something similar can be said for the Christian life. The state of your spiritual self is revealed when there is nobody around. Because when there's nobody around, there's nobody to impress. Who you are when you are by yourself reveals a lot about who you are. And here's the kicker: it doesn't tell everyone else who you are, it tells you who you are.
More often than we'd like to admit, the image looking back at us through the mirror is not who we think we should be. We are often our own worst critic, and sometimes that is a valid criticism because nobody knows us better. At other times, we are being too hard on ourselves and we do need to remember that we are children of God. The key is to discern between the truth and the lie in our self-criticisms. Learn from the truths; set aside the lies. Believe me, I know that this is easier said than done, but we are never challenged by things that are easy, and we never grow without being challenged.
There is a second element to the disciples staying in Jerusalem that we need to look at as well. The disciples had to wait on the Lord. If you'll notice, Jesus doesn't tell them how long they are going to have to wait. He simply tells them that they need to wait for the promise of the Father. The good news is that he tells them that it will be "not many days from now." However, that is still vague. What is "not many days from now"? Is it tomorrow, the day after, a week later? What is "not many days" for one that has been around since before time? Thankfully, we find out that it was only ten days later that the Holy Spirit came; however, there is no certainty as to the timeline when Jesus tells the disciples to wait. And that's the hard thing - waiting on the Lord, when there is no definite timeline.
Has anybody ever felt like God takes too long to work sometimes? I'm serious, there are times when I wish God knew my schedule and He would just hurry up and get things done. Have you been there too? But what I have found out time and time again is that God's timing is perfect. He is never early, and He is never late. If you've seen the Lord of the Rings movies, you'll remember in the first movie where the wizard Gandalf is coming to the Shire and he is greeted by Frodo, who says, "You're late." Gandalf replies, "A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. He always arrives precisely when he intended." I'm fairly certain that Tolkien had a similar experience with God at some point in his life.
I remember at my seminary graduation, I still had no idea where I was going. We were in the process of packing our apartment in Wilmore because Katie got her job as the assistant for the Indy East district superintendent. At the time, I was waiting to hear back about a ministry opportunity, and was prepared to transfer stores and spend another year selling tools at Sears. We finally received a call a few days before we were preparing to move that the ministry opportunity had become a reality. I was fairly certain that God's timing was a little late at that point, but I know that it was perfect. It caused me to put my full trust in him. We were going to temporarily live with Katie's sister, and we had no idea where we were going to live, or about anything that was coming up. We had to put all our faith in God. We had to trust that He knew what was best for us, and that He would take care of us. And I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that was one of the toughest things Katie and I have had to do in our lives.
But it's no different than what God does in all our lives. He tells us to wait on Him. As difficult as that can be at times, God is never late. He always arrives precisely when he intended. He tells us this as individuals, and He tells us this as a congregation. I know for a fact that God has bigs plans for this congregation, but we have to wait on him. We first have to learn to rely and trust solely on Him. And that's hard to do. All of the training that I've had in the past few years says that we need to get everyone together as soon as possible and write a vision statement and set goals for the church. And that's true, we do need to do that, but first, we need to wait on the Lord. At some point, we will be putting together a team of people who are listening for what God would have us do as a congregation. We are going to shape our identity, and we are going to strive after some goals, but first, we have to wait on the Lord.
And don't get me wrong here, waiting on the Lord is not a passive thing. We don't sit and twiddle our thumbs until God speaks to us in a loud voice from on high. We have to be intentional about reading His word and listening to what is going on in our community, and in the world around us. Ministry in today's society is shifting. What used to be effective and draw people in doesn't work any more because the world around us has changed. The message of the gospel hasn't changed in 2000 years, nor will it, but how we reach out to others and how we share the gospel with them has changed.
People no longer want long philosophical and theological arguments. That may have worked in a different era, but now, what you'll hear more often than not is, "I'm glad that works for you." We live in a world that doesn't believe in absolute truth. Everything is relative. Now, this doesn't mean that there isn't absolute truth, but that people don't want to recognize that there is. If people are shut off from this message from the beginning, there is no chance of sharing the gospel with them through these means.
We no longer live in a time when we can scare people into the kingdom either. I remember during my take-in with the PPRC, somebody asked what my style of preaching is. I thought about responding by saying that I was a fire-and-brimstone preacher, but I thought that might not be the best first impression. That's me keeping my onery side in check again. Seriously though, there was a time when people were scared to go to hell and so they would join a church. Salvation wasn't seen as a gift from God, it was seen as fire insurance.
Now, hell is very real. Hell is eternal separation from God; whether or not the lake of fire that is mentioned in Scripture is literal or figurative doesn't matter. One way or another, hell is total separation from God. It's not going to be a pleasant way of spending eternity; however, to use it as a tool to scare people into coming to church is dishonest and it misrepresents the core message of the gospel. The gospel isn't - turn to Jesus because he can keep you out of hell. The gospel is about turning to Jesus so that you can finally live your life as it was intended to be lived - in relationship with God.
So, where does that leave us? If we can't use absolute truth or fear to bring people to Christ, what can we do? People want to see that the gospel has made a difference in your life. It doesn't matter how solid your arguments are if you aren't living a life that glorifies God. It doesn't matter a bit. We are in an age where people are searching for honest relationships. Does this type of evangelism take a long time? You bet it does. It requires a serious investment of time and energy. Of course, isn't that the same model that Jesus displays for us in the gospels?
Jesus chose just a handful of people and spent an incredible amount of time and energy investing in their lives. But in three years, they were the ones who were sharing the gospel all around the world; investing time and energy into the lives of other people, who then were the ones sharing the gospel. It's exponential growth. If one person can influence the life of four people, then each of those four people can influence the life of four more people; suddenly, there are 20 people that have been influenced, directly or indirectly, by the original person. And if the original four and the ensuing sixteen can each influence four more people - that is 100 people that have been influenced because a single person decided to invest his/her time and energy into just a handful of people.
That is an example of the widening circle that we see in Jesus' statement that the disciples were going to be witnesses in Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now, in the case of the disciples, they physically did go to those places, and there is certainly a need for us to reach out with the message of the gospel beyond just our surrounding community. But we don't have to immediately be thinking of ways to widen our circle of influence. We have to start where the disciples started - right where they were. Right here, in Veedersburg, is where we need to start. And don't forget, we start by waiting on the Lord. I believe it was C.S. Lewis who said that if you are headed down the wrong road, progress means going back. The call today is to come back and wait on the Lord. Let's not run all over the place trying to do all sorts of things, if those things do not get us going in the direction that God has for us.
I think there is one more thing that we can learn from today's passage. At the end, Jesus ascends into heaven and the disciples are all standing around staring into the clouds. Two guys come up to them and say, "What are you looking at? Don't you know that Jesus will come back?" They're saying, "Hey, get your heads out of the clouds and get to work. Jesus will be coming back, you don't have all day to be staring off into the sky."
We like to daydream. We keep our heads in the clouds. One of my favorite television shows is Scrubs, and the main character is constantly drifting off into the world of his imagination. It's usually pretty funny, but it also shows us a very important point - we can't complete our task if we aren't focused on it. If we have our heads in the clouds, we are going to miss what is going on all around us. Ever heard the saying, "He's so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good." It's not a bad thing to be heavenly minded, but if we aren't paying attention to what God is doing right next to us, we are going to miss it. I don't want us to miss what God is doing all around us.
On this Ascension Sunday, we look back at the history of the Christian movement, but we also look forward to what God is going to do in our community. I don't want us to miss it. I want us to be intently focused on what God is doing, and I want to take part. I really do, and maybe that's crazy, but I really think that we can do incredible things all around our community if we are only listening for the leading of the Spirit. I've seen so much excitement here, and I truly believe that if we can plug in to what God is doing, then there is no stopping a significant movement of the kingdom of God in Veedersburg.
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