SPEAKER_00: We do study the books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like a paper copy of the scriptures, just lift up your hand and someone will bring one along to you.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be good to have the text in front of you as we continue our study.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts of the Apostles today, I also want to welcome all those who are worshiping with us online.
SPEAKER_00: We have a robust group of folks who worship with us.
SPEAKER_00: We mention it every week.
SPEAKER_00: This past week, though, we had folks from Deephawk City, Indonesia, Lyndale, Texas.
SPEAKER_00: Any Texas folks here?
SPEAKER_00: All right, there's one.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: In Dublin, Ireland.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: May the Spirit of the Lord move among you as it is, as He is here with us.
SPEAKER_00: Well, this morning we are continuing our study of the book of Acts, and we began our study a couple of weeks ago, and it feels like a couple of years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get a witness?
SPEAKER_00: The winter storm interrupted nearly everything here in our city.
SPEAKER_00: The Acts of the Apostles is, just to catch us up, the second volume written by Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke has more written material in the New Testament than any other writer.
SPEAKER_00: Roughly a quarter, one quarter of the New Testament, in fact, written by Luke.
SPEAKER_00: He's a doctor, a historian, a theologian, and the only Gentile writer in the New Testament that we're aware of.
SPEAKER_00: And just with the Gospel of Luke, he's writing to someone named Theophilus.
SPEAKER_00: And we think it's an individual, it could be a group, but that name means lover of God.
SPEAKER_00: Theophilus.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke explains that in his first book, the Gospel of Luke, he described how Jesus began his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to put this up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: In the first book, that's the Gospel of Luke, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach, which implies that his second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, Luke intends to give an account of how Jesus continued.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Luke, it begins, Acts, it continues through his Holy Spirit and through his church.
SPEAKER_00: And the Acts of the Apostles opens with a brief account of the 40 days in between the resurrection of Jesus and the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, and that's what we've been studying.
SPEAKER_00: We're told elsewhere that Jesus actually appeared to over 500 people.
SPEAKER_00: We see that in 1 Corinthians, giving proof that he really was alive, that the tomb was empty.
SPEAKER_00: They saw him, they heard him, they touched him.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus even invites Thomas to come touch him.
SPEAKER_00: Look, I'm not just a ghost or an apparition.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a collective imagining of the group.
SPEAKER_00: No, his body, which once lay dead and cold in a borrowed tomb, was now alive.
SPEAKER_00: And they could see him.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke, the physician, the doctor, would know something about what a dead body looks like and what a living body looks like.
SPEAKER_00: So he carefully records these things for Theophilus and for us, so that we might know that the claims of the Christian faith are true.
SPEAKER_00: That it's a reality.
SPEAKER_00: And I think there was some measure of logic, although it's kind of misguided, when the disciples, after he was resurrected, we studied this last time, the disciples come up to Jesus and they say, Okay, you're resurrected, you are alive.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, will you at this time, will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they're saying, it's incredible you're alive.
SPEAKER_00: You've defeated the brutal death machinery of the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: You've defeated death itself with that kind of power.
SPEAKER_00: We can take back our land.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get going.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for you to know the times and the seasons the Father has fixed.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: In the next few days, the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out on you, and you will continue my ministry in Jerusalem, the surrounding regions of Judea, and then Samaria, even, and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And that, of course, includes Nashville and Hillsborough village here.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what happens next, I think, is the opposite of what the disciples expected.
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord disappears.
SPEAKER_00: The text says he ascends to the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: What's that all about?
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you asked.
SPEAKER_00: All of us know the story of the birth of Jesus and the festivities, Christmas, that celebrate his birth.
SPEAKER_00: We're familiar with the death and the resurrection of Jesus, which we celebrate on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but his ascension?
SPEAKER_00: I actually think the ascension is the least considered work of Christ on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Michael Horton actually gets at this in his book, People in Place.
SPEAKER_00: He says, we treat the ascension as little more than a dazzling exclamation point for the resurrection rather than as a new event in its own right.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's on to something there.
SPEAKER_00: It's the ascension of Jesus that sets into motion the igniting of the church by his spirit, what John Stott would call the centrifugal force of authentic Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: I think we'd all have a hard time in this group if we went on to Hallmark or Walmart to try to find an ascension greeting card.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably not going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And I actually wrote one this week in case Hallmark is really interested.
SPEAKER_00: But an ascension card might be difficult to sell and kind of confusing.
SPEAKER_00: It'd say something like, hey, I'm leaving, but it's actually better for you, but I'm still with you always.
SPEAKER_00: Just not like before.
SPEAKER_00: At least not now.
SPEAKER_00: See you soon.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's gonna sell uh sell in volume.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, the truth that our Lord is reigning, his sitting at the right hand of God the Father right now should bring us great comfort.
SPEAKER_00: That truth has the power to transform a fearful, lost, despairing, confused heart.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that truth?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is full to the brim with all that his ascension means for you and for me who are united to him by faith.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna unpack some of that today.
SPEAKER_00: Turn with me, if you would, to Acts chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start, uh, verse 9, it says on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually gonna start with verse 8 just to give us a little context.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: And as we open up the scriptures this morning, I'd love for us to consider at least three things about the ascension of Jesus and how it shaped the apostles and shapes our faith today.
SPEAKER_00: One, why the ascension matters, the nature of Christ's reign, what the ascension does, what kind of transforming power does it have, and what the ascension promises, what kind of hope does it bring for us?
SPEAKER_00: So, Acts chapter 1, we'll start with verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd allow me, let me pray and we'll get started.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we bow before your presence this morning with our Bibles open.
SPEAKER_00: Open your word to us and open us to your word.
SPEAKER_00: May your spirit convict and comfort and lead us to your Son Jesus, in whose name we all pray.
SPEAKER_00: We said amen.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 1, verse 8, just to give us some context, Jesus is uh talking to his disciples, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had said these things, what things?
SPEAKER_00: That commission.
SPEAKER_00: When he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and the cloud took him out of their sight.
SPEAKER_00: And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, likely angels, verse 11, and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?
SPEAKER_00: This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Now we'll pause here for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: When he had said these things, they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him up.
SPEAKER_00: Underline or highlight the word cloud there.
SPEAKER_00: There's a pattern all throughout Scripture, from the Old Testament into the New, that often when we see a cloud, we're seeing a remarkable inbreaking of the glory of God in a unique way.
SPEAKER_00: Think about Mount Sinai with Moses and the Ten Commandments, the great cloud that surrounded him.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the cloud with the Israelites in the wilderness guiding them.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the Shekinah glory cloud that comes when Solomon is dedicating the temple to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Or in the New Testament, the cloud that comes at the Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John and Moses and Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime we see a cloud in the Bible, our ears should perk up, our eyes should perk up.
SPEAKER_00: Something is going on in God's redemptive work that's unique.
SPEAKER_00: And we're seeing that here in the ascension.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Then after the ascension, they return to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.
SPEAKER_00: I've been there.
SPEAKER_00: Many in this room have been there.
SPEAKER_00: It's an actual place.
SPEAKER_00: You can stand on the Mount of Olives and look, and you can see Israel, or Jerusalem rather.
SPEAKER_00: And it was about a kilometer away, which would have been allowable on that Sabbath-day journey.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas, the son of James.
SPEAKER_00: Judas, don't be confused, it's not Judas Iscariot.
SPEAKER_00: This is a different Judas, also called Thaddeus.
SPEAKER_00: 14.
SPEAKER_00: All these, all these people, with one accord, one mind, one purpose, unity is what that means.
SPEAKER_00: All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: They were praying to their risen Lord, together with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
SPEAKER_00: We'll pause here for just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: This is the last time we see that we read about Mother, the mother of Jesus, Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when we read a list like this, this isn't just simply a list like an Excel worksheet of hey, here's who's in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Here was the roster, here was the role.
SPEAKER_00: Now I think Luke is actually doing something really incredible here.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at verse 14, all these with one accord, unity is what's in mind here.
SPEAKER_00: And the kind of unity that we see here is actually quite remarkable, and it's easy for me just to gloss over it.
SPEAKER_00: For example, we have people in this group like Simon the Zealot next to Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember their stories?
SPEAKER_00: Matthew was a former tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: He worked for the Roman government.
SPEAKER_00: He was a traitor to the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: Simon the Zealot, the Zealots were a revolutionary group.
SPEAKER_00: They despised Rome so much so that they would actually murder Romans.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted Rome kicked out with violence.
SPEAKER_00: And in this list, we have Simon the Zealot and we have Matthew, who used to work for the Romans, all worshiping one God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the ascended Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There's a unity here that's just remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: There is no room in the kingdom economy for racism or prejudice or elitism as we prayed about before, or tribalism.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: We all come here shoulder to shoulder and we say, crown him with many crowns.
SPEAKER_00: There is one Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And they're setting the example here.
SPEAKER_00: It's just amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15: In those days Peter stood up among the brothers.
SPEAKER_00: The company of persons was in all about 120.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter said, 16, brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And here he is talking about Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: 17, for he was numbered among us, that's Judas, and was allotted his share in this ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Now, verse 18, Luke gives us a little parenthetical aside.
SPEAKER_00: Now this man, Judas, acquired a field with a reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out, and it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language, Akeldamah, that is, field of blood.
SPEAKER_00: Now I can confess here that that's pretty gross.
SPEAKER_00: Why is Luke, the doctor, remember?
SPEAKER_00: Why is he talking about Judas?
SPEAKER_00: Why is he giving so much time to Judas?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he's writing to Theophilus and through him to us.
SPEAKER_00: And I can imagine that one of Theophilus' questions might be: how can God be sovereign?
SPEAKER_00: And how can his purposes actually move forward when one of the twelve that he chose actually betrayed him?
SPEAKER_00: And here Luke is showing us God's sovereign plan that was actually prophesied about a thousand years before with David, and we'll read that in just a second.
SPEAKER_00: So Judas was actually a part in a mysterious way that we can't understand, a part of the plans of God, yet he was still responsible.
SPEAKER_00: God is sovereign and we have responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mystery we don't quite understand, but Luke is trying to show that God's plans cannot be thwarted.
SPEAKER_00: And he's going to work even through the wickedness of Judas.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: For it's written in the book of Psalms, and here David from Psalm 69 says, May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the field of blood.
SPEAKER_00: And Psalm 109, let another take his office.
SPEAKER_00: They still have a mission.
SPEAKER_00: They need to fill this office.
SPEAKER_00: There are twelve apostles.
SPEAKER_00: And so, verse 21, we're actually going to see a little job description.
SPEAKER_00: So, what kind of person is actually going to fill this office?
SPEAKER_00: So, one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the job description.
SPEAKER_00: Someone who had proximity to Jesus throughout his whole ministry.
SPEAKER_00: That's at least one thing.
SPEAKER_00: They need to have heard Jesus teach, to see him perform his miracles, to see him in his ministry context.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really interesting if you look at 22, this is the first summary of Jesus' public ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And the way that Peter summarizes it is from the baptism of John, so we remember that, all the way until he was taken up from us the ascension.
SPEAKER_00: So even the earliest summary, the ascension of Jesus is so critical, so central to their understanding of what Jesus' work was for us on our behalf, that he includes it here in this summary.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23, and they put forward two people, Joseph called Barsabbas, who is also called Justice, and Matthias.
SPEAKER_00: And they prayed.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, You, Lord, that's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know the hearts of all.
SPEAKER_00: Show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry in apostleship, from which Judas turned aside to go his own place.
SPEAKER_00: And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is a reading of God's Word, and we all said, thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: So there's much to unpack here, but I want us to consider together.
SPEAKER_00: First, why the ascension matters.
SPEAKER_00: What's the nature of Christ's reign?
SPEAKER_00: Look with me again, if you would, at verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: So one of these men who accompanied us during all that time, the Lord Jesus went in and out among us.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the summary.
SPEAKER_00: From the beginning, baptism of John, until the day he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus' ministry doesn't end with a beaten or crucified Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't end with a resurrected Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It ends with an ascended Christ, King of kings, Lord of Lords, that we sung about in almost every song there.
SPEAKER_00: All of the New Testament assumes the present reign of Jesus, which the ascension is pointing to, as a defining part of the plan and purposes of God in history.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me on the screen if you would, Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul actually teases this out.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, all right, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: There's the ascension.
SPEAKER_00: Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.
SPEAKER_00: And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
SPEAKER_00: The ascension was a critical part, and we'll see it all throughout the New Testament, a critical part of their understanding of Christ's work on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Paul sets side by side the resurrection and the ascension, as the greatness of power towards us, towards us who believe.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus goes up on a cloud, the glory cloud, he's returning to heaven as victor.
SPEAKER_00: Victor over sin because of his cross, his death, his resurrection, and is crowned King of kings and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know how many of you follow the royal family across the pond, but do you remember the elaborate coronation of King Charles just a few years ago?
SPEAKER_00: I think it was 2023.
SPEAKER_00: So if you remember that, in the middle of all that elaborate ceremony and ritual and singing and prayer, there was an actual person, Charles, who sat on an actual chair, a throne.
SPEAKER_00: And that throne, I assume, is still somewhere over there.
SPEAKER_00: You can probably go see it.
SPEAKER_00: And he was crowned as the new king.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, the nature of the relationship between Charles and all of the United Kingdom changed.
SPEAKER_00: He was no longer the Prince of Wales.
SPEAKER_00: The scope of his authority expanded.
SPEAKER_00: His reach was broader.
SPEAKER_00: And in Jesus' ascension, he was seated at the right hand of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And in essence, the nature of the relationship between Jesus and the entire cosmos changed.
SPEAKER_00: See, the incarnate Jesus, when he walked the streets in the town of ancient Palestine, he was confined to one place at one time.
SPEAKER_00: And the ascended Lord, though, he's no longer confined to time and space.
SPEAKER_00: He is the sovereign Lord of all and now intimately present by his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to wrap our minds around.
SPEAKER_00: This event is unique to Jesus, sui generis.
SPEAKER_00: It happened only once.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at verse 9, the text tells us they looked on.
SPEAKER_00: They were watching.
SPEAKER_00: If they had binoculars, they would use that to watch Jesus go up into the sky.
SPEAKER_00: This was a public and historic truth.
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't a spiritual being floating away to the sky.
SPEAKER_00: This was Jesus in the flesh ascending to the right hand of God the Father in a public way that they could see.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're familiar with your Old Testament, this is different than Enoch, who is simply taken.
SPEAKER_00: This is different than Elijah, who is taken in chariots of fire.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I'd like to go.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus was taken up in a cloud of glory to the Father's right hand.
SPEAKER_00: It's his coronation, it's his confirmation as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: Christus Victor, the victorious Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So how does that work?
SPEAKER_00: How does Jesus, incarnate in his glorified human body, now reside in the heavenly realm?
SPEAKER_00: I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: There are lots of theories, many of them sound more like Star Trek than the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But God in his wisdom, he doesn't tell us exactly how this works.
SPEAKER_00: As Keller would say, it'd be like pouring the Atlantic Ocean into a thimble.
SPEAKER_00: He could explain it to us, but we wouldn't understand.
SPEAKER_00: All I know is that I can trust the one who walked out of his own grave.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis says this in Mere Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: A man can eat his dinner without understanding exactly how food nourishes him.
SPEAKER_00: A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, he certainly won't know how it works until he's accepted it.
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's some truth there.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the disappearing Jesus was the opposite, I think, of what the disciples had thought would happen.
SPEAKER_00: They thought he would take his place as a Jewish political messiah, king with military might, but instead he disappears.
SPEAKER_00: In John's gospel, Jesus tells his disciples, It will be better for me to go.
SPEAKER_00: Why would Jesus say that?
SPEAKER_00: The ascension, it doesn't diminish Christ's nearness, it magnifies it by his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: What looks like his absence is actually the way that Jesus keeps his promise to be with us always.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been reading in our Bible reading plan, you may have been comforted recently by Romans 8, in particular Romans 8.28, which has really been a comfort to me in the last few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And it says this for those who love God, all things work together for good.
SPEAKER_00: For those who are called according to his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: And the ascension tells us who that someone is.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it matters.
SPEAKER_00: John Newton, the English hymn writer, I have an English theme going on today with the coronation and everything.
SPEAKER_00: He says this there's one political maxim which comforts me.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: So the ascension matters, but what does it accomplish?
SPEAKER_00: What does the ascension do for us?
SPEAKER_00: What difference does it make in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: And that's our second one.
SPEAKER_00: So a pastor I know tells an old story about a little boy.
SPEAKER_00: He was afraid of the dark.
SPEAKER_00: And one night in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm, he calls out in fear, and his father comes to him and he says, Oh, you don't have to be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you know that Jesus is with you?
SPEAKER_00: And the son says, Yes, but I want somebody with skin on.
SPEAKER_00: I relate to that little boy at times, even this week, maybe you do too.
SPEAKER_00: The apostles certainly did.
SPEAKER_00: In other gospel accounts, the Gospels tell us that they were sad when Jesus says, I have to go away first.
SPEAKER_00: But as we read Acts, as you read the entirety of the New Testament, it shows that the early church was ignited, it was set ablaze, it was propelled forward, it was submitting joyfully to the mission of the ascended Jesus who was with them by his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: How is that possible?
SPEAKER_00: Except they trusted that he was the Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look again at verse 10, if you would, with me.
SPEAKER_00: And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, angels, and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?
SPEAKER_00: This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Now the original language actually is a little stronger, it's more emphatic.
SPEAKER_00: Men of Galilee, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: You have a mission to get back to.
SPEAKER_00: The subtle rebuke, I think, from these angels must have worked because they return to Jerusalem and they immediately devote themselves to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We can see that there in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: They devote themselves, they set out to purpose themselves to prayer, to whom?
SPEAKER_00: To the Lord God Almighty who reigns.
SPEAKER_00: We studied it a few months ago, but the Gospel of Luke, his previous book, actually overlaps with Acts just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And it talks about the ascension, a more brief summary of it, but it shed some light on the dispositions of the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to put it up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: So this is from the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.
SPEAKER_00: And while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.
SPEAKER_00: And were continually in the temple blessing God.
SPEAKER_00: So the ascension of Jesus led to the disciples led the disciples to bow down in worship.
SPEAKER_00: They were no longer marked by sadness because he had gone to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: They were filled with inexhaustible joy.
SPEAKER_00: Because in going to the Father, they know that He reigns for them, He intercedes for them, He rules over all things for their good and for our good.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you know that.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you know that truth this week.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think they knew all the implications.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know all the implications of how this works.
SPEAKER_00: But as they stood in wonder, Jesus ascending to his throne, their instinct was to bow down.
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's something there for us to learn from.
SPEAKER_00: Max Luceto says, one glimpse of a king, and you're consumed by a desire to see more of him and say more about him.
SPEAKER_00: Pew warming is no longer an option.
SPEAKER_00: Junk religion will no longer suffice.
SPEAKER_00: Sensation seeking is needless.
SPEAKER_00: Once you've seen his face, you will forever long to see it again.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what we're seeing here in this story.
SPEAKER_00: But what else did the ascension do?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus unifies this misfit band of disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said earlier, some of whom would ordinarily have been natural enemies.
SPEAKER_00: One might have actually tried to murder the other.
SPEAKER_00: Except for the Lord Jesus, who they submitted to and worshiped.
SPEAKER_00: And that same unity is ours today.
SPEAKER_00: There's somebody in this room who actually watches a different news channel than you do.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody who voted a different way, somebody who's rooting for a different team tonight.
SPEAKER_00: But we gathered here this morning and we stood shoulder to shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: We said, Behold the risen Lamb together.
SPEAKER_00: We said, crown him with many crowns.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: Peterson said the gospel pulls us into community.
SPEAKER_00: I love that image.
SPEAKER_00: One of the immediate changes that the gospel makes is grammatical.
SPEAKER_00: We instead of I, our instead of my, us instead of me.
SPEAKER_00: And I think he's right there.
SPEAKER_00: We serve shoulder to shoulder with our mission partners, which you can meet downstairs after the service today, across the city and across the world, because we serve one Lord and Savior who's risen and ascended right now.
SPEAKER_00: In a culture that feeds on division and divisiveness, and we all know it does.
SPEAKER_00: I want our gospel community here at the village chapel to shine bright as a people unified by one political maxim alone.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus reigns.
SPEAKER_00: That's the political maxim we talk about here at the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we continue to study the gospel or the Acts of the Apostles, rather, over the next few months, we're going to see in the early church an unusual boldness, an unusual courage, an unusual poise, I might say, under a kind of persecution that none of us will likely experience in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: But in a few months, we're going to study the story of Stephen in Acts 7.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're familiar with Stephen.
SPEAKER_00: You know the story.
SPEAKER_00: Stephen begins to preach the good news of Jesus, and the religious leaders are enraged, kind of almost in a silly way.
SPEAKER_00: Says they're they're plugging their ears.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't hear him.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't want to hear him, and they decide to stone him.
SPEAKER_00: But as they pick up the rocks, do you know what the text tells us?
SPEAKER_00: That Stephen looks up into the heavens and he sees the glory of God and he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, Stephen is given a courage, a poise, because he knows the Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see how central the ascension was to the early church, to all of the New Testament, and how it should be for us today?
SPEAKER_00: Seeing the ascended Jesus put everything into perspective for Stephen, the anger, the violence against him was of little consequence, knowing that the Lord Jesus had all the power and that he held him in his grip.
SPEAKER_00: Unusual courage is on offer to all those who could grasp the reality of this ascended Jesus who upholds all things by the word of his power.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you came from this week.
SPEAKER_00: But you should know the truth that the Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on tightly to that.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul gets at it a little bit more in the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
SPEAKER_00: It's God who justifies.
SPEAKER_00: Who's to condemn?
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: There's the ascension again, who indeed is interceding for us.
SPEAKER_00: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
SPEAKER_00: And here's where it becomes very personal.
SPEAKER_00: Here's where it becomes visceral to the ordinary stuff of our lives today.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have confidence that our Lord right now is interceding for you?
SPEAKER_00: That just means he's praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: That he's advocating for you right now.
SPEAKER_00: Hold tightly to that truth.
SPEAKER_00: He's our advocate, pleading our case to the Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: His righteousness for my unrighteousness because of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord intercedes for us, Hebrews tells us, by his spirit, as we pray, he intercedes.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what you came from this week, but are you caught in the grip of sin or temptation?
SPEAKER_00: Your Savior and your Lord is alive and interceding for you even right now.
SPEAKER_00: For brothers and sisters with us today, bearing the weight of suffering or loss or grief.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe the only thing that you can do is groan.
SPEAKER_00: You have no words.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus is interceding for you.
SPEAKER_00: Robert Murray McShane, who actually put together our Bible reading plan, said, if I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million of enemies, yet the distance makes no difference.
SPEAKER_00: He is praying for me.
SPEAKER_00: Hold tightly to that.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen what the ascension is, what it does, but what does it promise?
SPEAKER_00: What does it promise?
SPEAKER_00: Let's look together one more time at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: This Jesus, at the very end, it says, This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So these angels don't just rebuke these disciples for standing around and staring.
SPEAKER_00: No, they give them a promise and a hope, the hope of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There are two days on my calendar, Martin Luther said, this day and that day.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite quotes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is interceding for us right now, praying for us right now on this day, and he's coming back on that day, making all things right, as we sung earlier.
SPEAKER_00: He's coming back on that day to swallow up death.
SPEAKER_00: He's coming on that day to wipe away every tear, to turn swords into plowshares.
SPEAKER_00: And he's coming back the same way that he left.
SPEAKER_00: Visibly, we're going to see him.
SPEAKER_00: Every eye's going to see him, bodily and gloriously.
SPEAKER_00: The hope of the Christian faith looks not only back to the cross and the resurrection, but looks forward to the day when we'll see our resurrected Savior in our own resurrected bodies.
SPEAKER_00: And who wants that?
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: The resurrected earth.
SPEAKER_00: He's coming, folks.
SPEAKER_00: This is the hope of the ascension.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just a theological doctrine, although it's that and it's a beautiful one.
SPEAKER_00: It's a life-transforming, fear-crushing, hope-giving reality for all those in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How else could Stephen face those who were set out to kill him with such courage and compassion?
SPEAKER_00: He actually says, Lord, forgive them for they don't know what they do, just like his Lord Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: He saw his Lord seated at the right hand of God the Father, and he knew he was in the grip of the one who holds the world in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: So when we go, friends, and if this hasn't happened yet, it will, when we bury someone we love.
SPEAKER_00: Because the ascended Lord reigns, we can with courage stand at the grave with tears and say, Death will not have the final word.
SPEAKER_00: When we're tempted to give it all up, we can press on, knowing that the one who began a good work in us will bring it to completion.
SPEAKER_00: He's faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord reigns now and he's coming back to make all things new, every eye will see him, every tongue confess that he is the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for that day?
SPEAKER_00: Pray you are.
SPEAKER_00: When it seems like your square inch of the world is coming apart at the seams, this week remember the Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: Not one molecule in the entirety of the universe is outside of his control.
SPEAKER_00: When you're overwhelmed by the chaos and the wickedness that you see in the news, first of all, turn off the news.
SPEAKER_00: Second of all, remember the Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: When you're wracked with fear and anxiety about the future, remember the Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: When you're utterly exhausted by the presence, remember the Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: Look up.
SPEAKER_00: When you're full of shame because of your own sin or foolishness, remember that on that final day, because he reigns, when he comes to judge the living and the dead, those who have turned to Christ in faith can point to Jesus and say, He's my prophet, priest, and king, my savior and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm united to him, and he points back to you and says, You belong to me.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for that day?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, who was born in Bethlehem, who lived a perfect life, died on a Roman cross, rose from a borrowed tomb, and ascended to God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He reigns over you, for you, in you, and in us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the truth that transformed these frightened disciples into a church that changed the world, turned the world upside down, the book of Acts will tell us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the truth that comforted Stephen when the stones were crushing his bones.
SPEAKER_00: Do you long for that kind of assurance and hope?
SPEAKER_00: I know you do.
SPEAKER_00: It's on offer to all those who call on the name of the risen and reigning Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: John Newton, just to continue with my English theme here, the English hymn writer, he says, In him, in Jesus, I have an offering, an altar, temple, a priest, a son, a shield, a savior, a shepherd, a hiding place, a resting place, food, medicine, riches, honor, wisdom, righteousness, holiness, in short, everything.
SPEAKER_00: Because our Lord reigns.
SPEAKER_00: This week, as we go back to the world, hold tightly to that truth.
SPEAKER_00: Just as Stephen did, as the apostles did.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, this morning, help us, help me fix my eyes on you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Help us fix our eyes on you, the ascended King.
SPEAKER_00: When we're forgetful, remind us that He rules over all things for us, for our good, for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: We bring before you our fears.
SPEAKER_00: We bring before you our anxieties, our grief, our attempts at control.
SPEAKER_00: Our sin, Lord, we confess it and bring it to the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And we praise you, the risen and reigning Jesus is both our Savior and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to keep our eyes fixed on you.
SPEAKER_00: In all this we pray, in the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus, Church, we all said robustly today, Amen.