Doug McMasters: Just take our Bible and go to the book of Acts, the book of Acts in chapter one.
Doug McMasters: I read an excellent biography of uh Ernest Shackleton by Ralph Fiennes a few years ago.
Doug McMasters: It was an amazing book.
Doug McMasters: It was uh an absorbing read, one of the books, one of those books you don't want to put down.
Doug McMasters: And one of the most gripping moments uh in the book came when Ernest Shackleton and his crew, 27 others, uh saw their ship endurance broken up by ice.
Doug McMasters: And with only a small lifeboat, uh they made shelter on a small little outcropping called Elephant Island.
Doug McMasters: And realizing that they couldn't just stay there, Ernest Shackleton took uh five other men with him and left on a long journey to try to find rescue by going to the island to South Georgia.
Doug McMasters: And he left there 22 men on Elephant Island to wait for his return.
Doug McMasters: And so they did.
Doug McMasters: He told them that he'd be back as soon as he could.
Doug McMasters: And under a man by the name of Frank Wilde, those 22 men waited for 126 days.
Doug McMasters: For 126 days on this barren rock, they waited, waiting for Shackleton and that crew to come back.
Doug McMasters: It was a biting, cold, desperate place.
Doug McMasters: No place to hide from the wind, no place to shelter from the cold.
Doug McMasters: They had to shoot seals to feed themselves.
Doug McMasters: They rationed their food, they dealt with despair and frostbite and all sorts of difficulties.
Doug McMasters: And they clung to survival with that question raging in their mind.
Doug McMasters: Would Shackleton return?
Doug McMasters: And when would it be?
Doug McMasters: And will we be alive when he gets here?
Doug McMasters: That question when is a question we all face too in many different places of life.
Doug McMasters: Maybe not on a piece of barren rock like they were, but we face that wind question with the same sense of intensity sometimes.
Doug McMasters: We might be asking the wind question, when is the results of that test going to come back?
Doug McMasters: When is this season that I'm in going to turn?
Doug McMasters: When is the difficulty that my loved one is going through going to be better?
Doug McMasters: That wind question can really drive deep into our souls.
Doug McMasters: Sometimes the wind question is not quite so significant, but we check it a lot.
Doug McMasters: We check it like I do, the forecast.
Doug McMasters: What's the weather tomorrow?
Doug McMasters: We're always asking about the future, what is that going to be, and when am I going to see things different?
Doug McMasters: An obsession with the wind question often speaks of something underlying there.
Doug McMasters: That if we did know the answer to the wind question, then we might be able to rest our soul.
Doug McMasters: That having the answer before the thing happens is what will give me the rest and the freedom that I'm longing for.
Doug McMasters: But God doesn't always do that.
Doug McMasters: We would love for God's trials and difficulties to be on our app, our calendar app.
Doug McMasters: And we'd like to be able to open our phone up and go, hey, in 13 days, I'm gonna have a trial.
Doug McMasters: And it's going to last six months.
Doug McMasters: That's pretty difficult.
Doug McMasters: But it's six months.
Doug McMasters: I I think I can get through that with God's help.
Doug McMasters: God doesn't put our trials and troubles on an app and schedule them with us ahead of time to tell us when they're coming.
Doug McMasters: And so he leaves us often with just the question, when.
Doug McMasters: And the reason I bring that up is because the very first question that we find the risen Christ asked as we enter into the book of Acts here is that question.
Doug McMasters: When?
Doug McMasters: The disciples are standing with him, and they're, it's the last day they're going to see him here on earth.
Doug McMasters: And the question that's driving their mind at the moment is when?
Doug McMasters: When?
Doug McMasters: They want to know the timing of a question we'll look at in just a moment.
Doug McMasters: But I want us to see what the risen Christ does with that one question and what he does with these disciples after they ask it.
Doug McMasters: Because as we come into this passage today, we're coming into the moment of the ascension, in which Christ himself is risen into the heavenlies and received into his glorious throne.
Doug McMasters: And we're going to watch the king go up, and we're going to hear him speak to his disciples about their win question and see what he does with it.
Doug McMasters: And we're going to also see those disciples themselves asked a question by the angels who are there.
Doug McMasters: So let's look at these verses, verses six through eleven.
Doug McMasters: Let's read them together.
Doug McMasters: So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?
Doug McMasters: He said to them, It's not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set in his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Doug McMasters: And after he said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Doug McMasters: While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them.
Doug McMasters: They said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven?
Doug McMasters: This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come in the same way you've seen him going up into heaven.
Doug McMasters: Jesus here is not leaving in order to be absent.
Doug McMasters: He's leaving in order to reign.
Doug McMasters: And the clouds are not going to carry him off into retirement, they're carrying him off into enthronement.
Doug McMasters: And I want you to hold on to that because that's going to spread through all of this message this morning.
Doug McMasters: And because the king is reigning, he gives three things to these men here and three things to us.
Doug McMasters: The first thing that he does is he takes the win question out of their hands.
Doug McMasters: And the second thing that he does is he puts something into them to do.
Doug McMasters: And the last thing that happens here is he shows us that this reigning king will return.
Doug McMasters: So let's look at these three points.
Doug McMasters: So the first is this that the king redirects their question.
Doug McMasters: The king redirects redirects their question.
Doug McMasters: In verse 6, the question shows up: Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?
Doug McMasters: That's not a foolish question.
Doug McMasters: The whole Old Testament has been promising a kingdom, and they've been looking forward to that.
Doug McMasters: The load-bearing words in this sentence, though, are Israel and at this time.
Doug McMasters: They want a national kingdom and they want it now.
Doug McMasters: That's really their emphasis.
Doug McMasters: And the Lord takes that question and doesn't answer it the way that they would like it answered.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't even correct their hope or even enter into the discussion of the clock that they want.
Doug McMasters: Look at what he does in verse 7.
Doug McMasters: It's not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
Doug McMasters: He takes that one word that they're reaching for, when, and he takes that when question and he puts it into the Father's hands, not theirs.
Doug McMasters: It's a very interesting way to answer that question.
Doug McMasters: And what he's telling them is that it is God's determinations of this question.
Doug McMasters: It's not for you to hold on to them.
Doug McMasters: It's the Father's business.
Doug McMasters: And it's always been that way.
Doug McMasters: In Deuteronomy 29, 29, it says, The hidden things belong to the Lord, and the revealed things belong to us.
Doug McMasters: There are matters that only God Himself knows, and God Himself will accomplish, that He hasn't given to us.
Doug McMasters: And in Daniel chapter 2 and verse 21, it says, It is God who changes the times and the seasons.
Doug McMasters: Listen to those two verses again.
Doug McMasters: The secret things belong to the Lord, and it is God who changes the times and the seasons.
Doug McMasters: The revealed things belong to us.
Doug McMasters: And so he's driving a wedge between that win question and who they are and who God is.
Doug McMasters: Because when we are obsessed with the win question, underlying that is this thing, I want to know things the way God knows them.
Doug McMasters: It's almost as if there's a hunger for us to sit in the Father's chair.
Doug McMasters: Not just to know so that we might be quieted, but know so that we might feel in control.
Doug McMasters: And for a lot of folks, that is a real challenge of the heart to let go of the wind question, to let go of the times and the seasons, to be obsessed with what might happen.
Doug McMasters: And people are often driven to anxiety because of that, who live their lives fearful of what might happen because they don't know what will happen or when things will transpire.
Doug McMasters: Afraid of releasing themselves to God in trust.
Doug McMasters: Now notice what the Lord does with these men.
Doug McMasters: He reassures them that the God who watches over them is the God who holds those things in his own hand.
Doug McMasters: And he makes the determinations of how everything will unfold.
Doug McMasters: I like a story from Corey Tenboom with her father.
Doug McMasters: She and her father were on a trip, on a journey, on a train journey, and she had asked her father a rather heavy question.
Doug McMasters: And her father didn't answer the question.
Doug McMasters: He simply took the baggage that he had had that were next to them as he asked the question.
Doug McMasters: And he he asked her if she could pick up the piece of luggage.
Doug McMasters: And she was a little girl and it was a heavy bag, and she grabbed it and she pulled with all of her might and she couldn't lift it.
Doug McMasters: And he said, The question that you're asking is like this heavy bag.
Doug McMasters: It's too heavy for you right now to pick up.
Doug McMasters: But there'll be a day later in your life when you'll be able to handle this luggage and you'll be able to pick up that luggage.
Doug McMasters: That question is an answer only for another day.
Doug McMasters: And so the Lord, when we have our wind questions, is acting like a good father.
Doug McMasters: He's saying, for you to know these things is too much for you at this moment.
Doug McMasters: I'm holding on to you, and I will carry the burden of the wind until the day comes when you enter into my moments.
Doug McMasters: That's how God works with us.
Doug McMasters: And this is what the Father is doing here with them.
Doug McMasters: He's helping these men to understand that he's not hiding things from them, but he's redirecting them away from their question.
Doug McMasters: And I want to think about that for a moment, just how obsessed they might have been with that when question.
Doug McMasters: Because it's a question they had asked Jesus before.
Doug McMasters: They had longed for themselves to be on that throne, in that place of authority, ruling over the nations.
Doug McMasters: They had looked for that for a long, long time, and yes, there were many in the land at the same time who were looking for the same kind of rule and reign of the Messiah.
Doug McMasters: They were pouring energies into a question that wasn't going to be answered at the time and in the way they thought it would.
Doug McMasters: How often do we spend time and energy and strength asking and worrying over when questions?
Doug McMasters: How much energy we spend sitting at the window wondering when things will happen when there's actually something else in the room for us to do.
Doug McMasters: Turn around and look at the room.
Doug McMasters: There's something for you to do inside the room.
Doug McMasters: Now, the Cain might king the timetable, but he doesn't keep himself from these men.
Doug McMasters: The Lord of glory is with us, even if he's not answering all of our questions.
Doug McMasters: And so let me encourage you: if you're wrapped up with a when question and worrying over it day and night, take your when question and yourself and put yourself and that question into the Father's hands.
Doug McMasters: He holds the times and the seasons, and as one of his children, he holds you as well.
Doug McMasters: Let's move through this because he's not only going to redirect the wind to the father's hand, he's also going to put something into their hands.
Doug McMasters: In verse 8, he talks about this.
Doug McMasters: And it begins with that adversive word, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit is come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Doug McMasters: They were asking a when question, and he answers with a task.
Doug McMasters: And he tells them that they're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on them.
Doug McMasters: The power and the spirit are joined together.
Doug McMasters: And what they are about to do is not going to be done in the power of human capacity.
Doug McMasters: What they're about to step into could only be done by the power of the Spirit who's going to be working in them and through them in a very short time period.
Doug McMasters: And what he gives them is not a program, but a purpose.
Doug McMasters: A witness.
Doug McMasters: Now, what is a witness?
Doug McMasters: A witness is a person who testifies about what they've seen.
Doug McMasters: That's what a witness is.
Doug McMasters: And so here he is giving them that task, but he also gives them a roadmap.
Doug McMasters: Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Doug McMasters: And in one sentence, Christ has laid out the outline of the whole book of Acts.
Doug McMasters: In Acts 1 through 7, Jerusalem, Acts 8 through 12, Judea and Samaria, Acts 13, all the way to 28, the uttermost parts of the earth.
Doug McMasters: But notice he's also answered their question in a way they didn't expect.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus is lifting their eyes to the prophets who spoke centuries before about how God was actually going to rule over the nations.
Doug McMasters: And it wasn't by setting Israel over the people, but by sending the servant into the nations.
Doug McMasters: We went through the book of Isaiah and we saw that together very, very clearly.
Doug McMasters: That term servant is used several different times about several different people in the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: The people of Israel were called the servant.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah himself was a servant.
Doug McMasters: Cyrus was a servant, but there was also another servant, a coming servant.
Doug McMasters: And he was given the task of bringing salvation to the ends of the earth.
Doug McMasters: And the people Israel in Isaiah chapter 43 were called, You are my witness.
Doug McMasters: But at the same time they were blind and they were deaf.
Doug McMasters: In Isaiah 42, 19, they were unable to speak, unable to hear, unable to see.
Doug McMasters: And so Isaiah spoke of another promised servant who would come, one who would not fail like the people were doing in Isaiah's day, one who would be able to represent the truth of God to the nations, like the people of Israel were not doing in that day.
Doug McMasters: A servant who would be the light to the nations, a servant who would carry God's salvation to the ends of the earth, as it says in Isaiah 49, 6.
Doug McMasters: That servant that Isaiah speaks about is this servant who's about to be brought up into the clouds.
Doug McMasters: And this servant, the true servant, the true witness, is now saying to his disciples, You will be my witnesses.
Doug McMasters: Do you see what's happening here?
Doug McMasters: Jesus, the true servant, has come and has fulfilled all of the Father's commands and is completing all of the Father's purposes, extended through those who are believing on him.
Doug McMasters: And he's saying, You now will be my witnesses.
Doug McMasters: And so he joins his people to the true witness, the true servant, Jesus, who did always the things that pleased the Father.
Doug McMasters: The one who said, I can say nothing but from what I've received from heaven.
Doug McMasters: And the things that he saw, as John said in John chapter 3, that he witnessed in heaven, he brings to us here.
Doug McMasters: And now that servant is saying to his servants, here, you are my witnesses.
Doug McMasters: You are extending the work of the servant of Isaiah as you go forth.
Doug McMasters: So I want us to travel a little bit through the book of Acts together.
Doug McMasters: Let's just take a journey very quickly through this book.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 8 again and pick up that word, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem.
Doug McMasters: And now move your eyes over to verse 22.
Doug McMasters: Beginning from the baptism of John until this day, he was taken up from us.
Doug McMasters: From among these it is necessary that one become a witness with us of the resurrection.
Doug McMasters: So there is this idea that witness of the resurrection of this Christ has to be accomplished.
Doug McMasters: Let's go over to chapter 3 in verse 15.
Doug McMasters: Here Peter is preaching.
Doug McMasters: He said, You denied the holy and righteous one and asked to have a murderer released to you.
Doug McMasters: You killed the source of life in verse 15, whom God raised from the dead.
Doug McMasters: We are witnesses of this.
Doug McMasters: By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you now see and know.
Doug McMasters: So faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in front of you all.
Doug McMasters: Now turn over to chapter 5 in verse 32.
Doug McMasters: Peter and the apostles replied in verse 29, We must obey God rather than people.
Doug McMasters: And the God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging him on a tree.
Doug McMasters: God exalted this man to his right hand as ruler and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
Doug McMasters: We are witnesses of this thing, of these things.
Doug McMasters: And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.
Doug McMasters: Now flip a few pages over to chapter 10.
Doug McMasters: In verse 30.
Doug McMasters: Well, I'll start in verse 37.
Doug McMasters: Let me start in verse 36.
Doug McMasters: He sent the message to the Israelites, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all.
Doug McMasters: You know the events that took place throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Spirit, and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with them.
Doug McMasters: We ourselves are witnesses of everything he did in both Judean country and in Jerusalem.
Doug McMasters: And yet they killed him by bringing him, hanging him on a tree.
Doug McMasters: And God raised up this man on the third day and caused him to be seen.
Doug McMasters: Not by all the people, but by us whom God has appointed as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
Doug McMasters: Now turn to chapter 22.
Doug McMasters: This word gets pushed deeper and deeper into the whole book.
Doug McMasters: And here the Apostle Paul takes it up in verse 15 of Acts 22.
Doug McMasters: In verse 14, he said, The God of our ancestors has appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear the words from his mouth, since you will be a witness for him to all people of what you've seen and heard.
Doug McMasters: And then take a look at verse 20 of that same chapter.
Doug McMasters: There it says, And when the blood of your witness, Stephen, was being shed, I stood there giving approval and guarded the clothes of those who were killed.
Doug McMasters: Now turn to chapter 26, in verse 16.
Doug McMasters: Paul here is recounting his testimony in verse 20, verse 15.
Doug McMasters: He begins by talking about it.
Doug McMasters: Who are you, Lord?
Doug McMasters: But then in verse 26, or no, chapter 26, verse 16, he said, The Lord replied, I am Jesus, the one you're persecuting, but get up and stand on your feet, for I've appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you've seen and what you will see of me.
Doug McMasters: Now let's go back to Acts 13 for just a second before we head back to Acts 1.
Doug McMasters: I want you to bring your eyes on Acts 13 and verse 47.
Doug McMasters: Paul in verse 46, and Barnabas boldly reply, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first.
Doug McMasters: Since you reject it and judge yourself unworthy of eternal life, we are turning to the Gentiles.
Doug McMasters: For this is what the Lord has commanded us.
Doug McMasters: I have made you a light for the Gentiles to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.
Doug McMasters: What is Paul doing here?
Doug McMasters: He is taking that very word about the servant of Isaiah, in which the suffering servant of Isaiah would be the light to the Gentiles to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.
Doug McMasters: And he's saying that in the gospel proclamation, he has been given the mandate of bringing that same salvation message to the ends of the earth through the missionary effort that's going to the ends of the earth.
Doug McMasters: And he brings that very word given to the suffering servant to himself.
Doug McMasters: This is what the Lord has commanded us.
Doug McMasters: And he takes up the very words given to the servant.
Doug McMasters: Do you see what is happening in the book of Acts here?
Doug McMasters: The people are given the command in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, but the rest of the book are all of those men being obedient to the very charge given them as they go in Jerusalem, as they go into Judea and Samaria, as they reach out into the ends of the earth, as they end up at in the book of Acts in 28 in Rome itself.
Doug McMasters: And this tells us something, that this is the drumbeat of the whole book of Acts.
Doug McMasters: When we get to Acts 1 and verse 8, this is the drumbeat of the whole book.
Doug McMasters: Everything is beating to the march of this score right here.
Doug McMasters: Everything.
Doug McMasters: And he is ruling the nations not in power like those men expected, but with the power of grace and the power of forgiveness, and the power of the gospel.
Doug McMasters: He's not conquering these people with a rod of iron.
Doug McMasters: He is conquering their hearts by making them his own through the forgiveness of sins.
Doug McMasters: And this is how he is ruling the nations.
Doug McMasters: One day, as the angels say, this very same Jesus will return.
Doug McMasters: But until he returns, this is how he's ruling the nations.
Doug McMasters: He's ruling them through the gospel, he's ruling them through the work of grace.
Doug McMasters: He's ruling them through the messengers who are witnessing and testifying about the Lord Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.
Doug McMasters: This is the kingdom of grace that comes before the kingdom of glory.
Doug McMasters: First the witnesses, and then that visible throne.
Doug McMasters: Now feel this mission.
Doug McMasters: And what it's going to cost these men.
Doug McMasters: Jerusalem, the very city that crucified Christ, they're going to return to.
Doug McMasters: Judea, the country that had rejected Christ, they're going to enter into.
Doug McMasters: Samaria, the country they would avoid even going into, they will now enter.
Doug McMasters: And the ends of the earth, well, the outsiders, those other people, the ones who are not belonging to the covenant, they will now give a message of hope and life to in the same Messiah.
Doug McMasters: You see, the king means to walk as Lord in Christ over all people.
Doug McMasters: And he's now beginning to commission his servants to do just that.
Doug McMasters: But it's going to cost them.
Doug McMasters: It's going to cost them.
Doug McMasters: Because hidden in that word witness is another English word.
Doug McMasters: The Greek word martus.
Doug McMasters: We transliterate it martyr.
Doug McMasters: Some of these men and women are going to be martyred.
Doug McMasters: But they're all going to be witnesses.
Doug McMasters: Many of them are going to suffer for the name of Christ.
Doug McMasters: And God is going to extend his gracious rule of the gospel through the martyrdom and the witness of these people.
Doug McMasters: As one church historian said, the blood of the saints is the seed of the church.
Doug McMasters: And they were going to go forth in the name of Christ.
Doug McMasters: And it wasn't going to be an easy journey for them.
Doug McMasters: But it was going to be the means by which God would extend his kingdom.
Doug McMasters: Now think of these men, what they're told here.
Doug McMasters: They're told that they are to wait, they're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them.
Doug McMasters: And when that occurs, they would begin to become the kind of witnesses that God has for them to be in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Doug McMasters: He's not telling them that the things that are going to happen are going to come because of their collective abilities or their ingenuity or their creativity.
Doug McMasters: It's going to happen when the power of God rests upon them.
Doug McMasters: And so he's not going to send them off into a journey without also providing them the means by which that task is going to be fulfilled.
Doug McMasters: Just think about it for a second.
Doug McMasters: When you see a sailboat in the harbor and you see it moving out of the harbor, you don't see a bunch of people underneath rowing away.
Doug McMasters: A sailboat lifts up the sail and catches the wind and it moves.
Doug McMasters: And what moves that sailboat is the wind itself.
Doug McMasters: And what the Lord is telling these men is raise the sail, let it be filled with the wind, and watch yourself move as you're carried by God into the places He wants you to go.
Doug McMasters: Their job was not to generate the power, their job was to wait until the power came.
Doug McMasters: And then they would go.
Doug McMasters: This is what it means for them to be a witness, to go the direction that the Lord wants them to move.
Doug McMasters: And he wants them to be in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the outermost parts of the earth.
Doug McMasters: And they don't have to convince everybody of every single question that they might have.
Doug McMasters: A witness is a witness that testifies of things that they've seen.
Doug McMasters: And one of the best examples of a witness is that man in John chapter 9 who was born blind, that God heals and Christ heals him, and he can see.
Doug McMasters: And he's surrounded by a bunch of religious people who are demanding an answer from him.
Doug McMasters: And they're saying, We know that the man who healed you was born a sinner.
Doug McMasters: And I love the I love his response.
Doug McMasters: He said, Well, whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know.
Doug McMasters: But one thing I can tell you was I was blind, but now I see.
Doug McMasters: Explain why I can see now.
Doug McMasters: Explain why I'm completely transformed.
Doug McMasters: And nobody, we've nowhere in history have we ever read of a man being made sightful like this.
Doug McMasters: Who do you think this guy is?
Doug McMasters: Do you also want to be his disciples?
Doug McMasters: I love that account.
Doug McMasters: The man couldn't enter into some deep, convoluted theological discussion, but he could certainly testify about what had happened to him.
Doug McMasters: Just like the woman at the well said, Look, just just come see a man.
Doug McMasters: Just come see him.
Doug McMasters: Now you may be here saying, I, you know, I just don't know the scriptures well enough.
Doug McMasters: I can't argue with people well enough.
Doug McMasters: They've got questions that go beyond my ability to answer.
Doug McMasters: One thing you absolutely do have as a believer in Christ is you can say, I was once blind, but now I see.
Doug McMasters: Right?
Doug McMasters: I can you can say that.
Doug McMasters: And there's nobody can disrepute that at all.
Doug McMasters: Because the transformation that the gospel does in your heart is such where they're looking at you going, what happened?
Doug McMasters: What happened?
Doug McMasters: Just tell them what happened.
Doug McMasters: Just tell them.
Doug McMasters: And so here he is, filling them, as we'll see soon, and sending them.
Doug McMasters: And he's put us into this same equation because the uttermost parts of the earth, the ends of the earth, we're still reaching those places.
Doug McMasters: We're still partnering together with people in places around this world where there are those who have never ever heard the name of Christ.
Doug McMasters: And we're bringing that message to them.
Doug McMasters: We're partnering together.
Doug McMasters: We're sacrificing our very own, who would be sitting in this pew otherwise, and sending them around the world so that they might do exactly what these people are doing here.
Doug McMasters: Testifying to the grace of God found in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Doug McMasters: To think this week, perhaps, of one person that maybe you can't argue with, that you can't answer all their questions for, but one person this week you could say, Can I share how I was once blind, but now I see?
Doug McMasters: And tell you just who did that for me.
Doug McMasters: And be a witness.
Doug McMasters: So he takes their win question out of their hands, and he puts it into the Father's hands, because that's where it belongs.
Doug McMasters: And then he takes from the throne room of heaven a promise that the day would come very shortly in which heaven itself would come to earth and send them off to places to be a testimony of Christ.
Doug McMasters: Let's wrap up this section of scripture by looking at the third part of the king ascending.
Doug McMasters: In verse 9, after he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him up out of their sight.
Doug McMasters: Now, notice the wording here.
Doug McMasters: And uh, you know, it was a fair, fair spring day and you know, in this area, and a little bit of cloud there floated in, and Jesus just disappeared into that partly cloudy day.
Doug McMasters: That's not what it's doing here.
Doug McMasters: The cloud in Scripture is always associated with the presence of God.
Doug McMasters: The cloud on Mount Sinon, the cloud that filled the temple that the priests couldn't stand in.
Doug McMasters: The nation of Israel who were, as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 10, who were under the cloud.
Doug McMasters: They were encompassed by the very presence of God.
Doug McMasters: That's what it's saying.
Doug McMasters: These are the men who went up into the Mount of Transfiguration into a cloud.
Doug McMasters: And in the cloud they heard, This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased.
Doug McMasters: The cloud.
Doug McMasters: The cloud that's receiving Christ is the cloud of glory.
Doug McMasters: The cloud that's receiving him is to signify that he's being brought welcomingly into the presence of God, the Father.
Doug McMasters: And these men, like we would do, are just staring up into the sky, amazed at the whole thing.
Doug McMasters: And the Peter of the Mount Transfiguration is not far from the Peter of this mountain.
Doug McMasters: Just staring.
Doug McMasters: And his Peter said there to Jesus, Jesus, it was really good for us to be here.
Doug McMasters: And uh, we should set up three booths here, and we should just memorialize this moment.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus doesn't answer their question this time, the angels do.
Doug McMasters: With a question.
Doug McMasters: They ask a question and then they give a promise.
Doug McMasters: Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up into heaven?
Doug McMasters: Uh, because a guy just went up into heaven, that's why.
Doug McMasters: It's not a cruel question.
Doug McMasters: It's meant to turn to something better.
Doug McMasters: This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, there's that word again, taken, right?
Doug McMasters: Will come in the same way that you've seen him going into heaven.
Doug McMasters: They might have thought about Christ leaving as a departure, but Christ was being received.
Doug McMasters: It was a coronation, not a departure.
Doug McMasters: He was brought into the place of rule and authority.
Doug McMasters: Daniel in Daniel 7 said that one like the Son of Man, coming with clouds of heaven, was brought before the ancient of days and given dominion and glory in a kingdom that will never pass away.
Doug McMasters: Jesus wasn't going up and disappearing, he was going up and receiving a kingdom.
Doug McMasters: And this is why in Acts chapter 2, when Peter preaches to the people in Jerusalem, he says, This same Jesus has accomplished what you see and hear today.
Doug McMasters: Because he's acting from the throne room of heaven on earth as they proclaimed the gospel, and as the Spirit is manifested to all of those people who had come for the feast of Pentecost.
Doug McMasters: And so they're asking the question Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?
Doug McMasters: And the answer, in a way, is yes.
Doug McMasters: It's just about to happen.
Doug McMasters: Because the true Israel just sat on the throne, the true servant just sat on the throne.
Doug McMasters: The true one, the righteous one, who is now sending the edict of the gospel of grace and forgiveness of sins to the nations, is issuing his command.
Doug McMasters: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
Doug McMasters: There.
Doug McMasters: And he told his servant Elisha that if Elisha stayed with him and continued with him until the day of departure, a twofold spirit would fall upon him.
Doug McMasters: And he watched Elijah go off into the heavenlies, and he received the mantle of Elijah and walked in the spirit in a two-fold manner of Elijah.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus said to these disciples before he went into the passion of his suffering, his death, his burial, and his resurrection, he said, Greater things than I you shall do.
Doug McMasters: And here they are, these men are now about to receive the Spirit in such a way that they would not just be witnesses like Jesus was in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, but they would be witnesses of Jesus in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Doug McMasters: They would see the dead nations come to life.
Doug McMasters: All because of the enthroned Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: The angels have been asking them questions.
Doug McMasters: At the empty tomb, why are you looking for the living among the dead?
Doug McMasters: He's not here.
Doug McMasters: To these men, why are you gazing up into heaven?
Doug McMasters: You have somewhere to be.
Doug McMasters: And they're sitting at the window with the wind question wasn't where God wanted them.
Doug McMasters: He wanted them to realize that there was a place for them to go, and that there was an empowerment for them to enter into that, and that there was a task that was ahead of them, and that was to be their focus, energized by this reigning, risen, ascended king, until the time came when he, in his own times and determinations, comes back.
Doug McMasters: That is the commission to the church, and that is the commission to us, to be the extension of the message of the true servant, the true Israel, as recipients of that message and as witnesses of it in our generation, continuing to bring it to the very ends of the earth.
Doug McMasters: And suddenly two men in white clothes stand by them and they say, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven?
Doug McMasters: This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come into the same way in which you've seen him going into heaven.
Doug McMasters: This same Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And the hands that were still scarred by the nails, and the side that was still marked by the spear, that same Jesus.
Doug McMasters: You see, he's not ascended into the throne room as a distant emperor who never knows our trouble.
Doug McMasters: He is the same Jesus who lived this earthly life and knows in every place in which we ourselves are put into testings and trials and troubles.
Doug McMasters: And he now sits on the throne and issues from there not just a command to go, but a work that he continues to do of interceding on behalf of his own.
Doug McMasters: This same Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And this same Jesus who brought himself and laid down his life on the cross, brothers and sisters, is the same Jesus who is working now and going to welcome you into his presence.
Doug McMasters: This same Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ as your Savior, I want to say something here.
Doug McMasters: This same Jesus came for undeserving people, gave his life up so that by believing on him you might have eternal life.
Doug McMasters: This same Jesus, he stepped into your guilt, he stepped into your failure, he stepped into the consequences of your sin that you could never pay for.
Doug McMasters: And he says, by the blood of Christ alone you are forgiven.
Doug McMasters: And the scriptures issue in this message of the king that we are to declare around this world.
Doug McMasters: Believe on him.
Doug McMasters: It is a cry and a command to all, believe the gospel and live.
Doug McMasters: It is a call to everyone.
Doug McMasters: This is your only hope.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ as your Savior, while we still breathe this air in this room, there is hope for you.
Doug McMasters: Believe on Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Because I want to tell you a little bit more of what the story is.
Doug McMasters: This same Jesus is going to return.
Doug McMasters: And the time and the seasons in which that will happen are only in his hands.
Doug McMasters: And it could be today.
Doug McMasters: And it could be soon.
Doug McMasters: And if you're sitting there saying, I'll decide on Christ at some other time, you may never have that other time.
Doug McMasters: And this same Jesus will return.
Doug McMasters: And he will not return with the gracious edict that he's offering today.
Doug McMasters: He will return in might and power and judgment, in which all will have a given answer to him.
Doug McMasters: And he will separate sheep from goats.
Doug McMasters: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Today is the day of salvation.
Doug McMasters: Now is the accepted time.
Doug McMasters: Because that time and that day and that season will end.
Doug McMasters: And this life as we know it will be over.
Doug McMasters: And the opportunities will be gone.
Doug McMasters: Gone.
Doug McMasters: If you're here and you're testifying to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I know many, many of you are.
Doug McMasters: Keep doing that.
Doug McMasters: May I encourage you, not only in what we're looking at now, but in what we'll learn next week, do so only in the might and power and direction of the Spirit of God.
Doug McMasters: Lift up your sail.
Doug McMasters: He'll fill it with the wind.
Doug McMasters: Just be a witness.
Doug McMasters: If you're here this morning and you haven't spoken about Christ to an unbelieving soul in some time, you don't need a seminary education.
Doug McMasters: You just need to speak about our Savior.
Doug McMasters: I was once blind, but now I see.
Doug McMasters: That will do.
Doug McMasters: And again, if you're here this morning, you don't know Christ.
Doug McMasters: Come to Him.
Doug McMasters: He's coming back.
Doug McMasters: Are you ready?
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for these verses that enrich our understanding of our Savior, who give us a recognition, though not the timing, of your good purposes and plan in Him and through us.
Doug McMasters: And Father, for the glorious knowledge that a message of life and forgiveness, that we call the gospel the very good news, the best news, the eternally only good news, those who believe on him will not be condemned.
Doug McMasters: And Father, we thank you that we not only receive this commission, but we also receive the empowerment by the Spirit to accomplish it.
Doug McMasters: And Lord, as we continue in our witness daily here, as we continue in our gospel partnerships to ensure that those who have not heard of Christ do hear of him.
Doug McMasters: We pray that you might continue to guide and direct and empower all of us as your people.
Doug McMasters: May the risen Christ flow through in his saving work, in his people.
Doug McMasters: And we pray this in Christ's name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.