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Printer Friendly VersionAccording
to the Church Calendar, Thursday was the celebration of Ascension Day. It
is the day the Church sets aside to commemorate that great event of the Risen
Lord Jesus Christ returning to heaven.
Luke
tells us the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy! (v. 52). How
come? Their leader was gone. Their beloved captain had ascended into the blue
skies. You would expect them to return to Jerusalem with great fear. After
all nothing had changed. The Romans who put Jesus to death were still in the
country. The priests who conspired to have Jesus assassinated were still running
the temple.
Could
it be that on the Mount of Olives they had experienced something that had
transformed their sadness into gladness? Could it be that as they watched
Jesus ascending into heaven, doubt and fear, anxiety and misgiving were done
away with and in their place were joy and confidence?
Today
I want us to look at what Jesus said to them on the Mount of Olives that would
make them return to the city, where they had been hiding, full of joy. When
I think about the disciples on that particular day, I try to stand in their
sandals. Let’s stand with them. As I stand there with them and I am
full of questions. The first question that comes to my mind is, “Where
do we go from here?” Jesus answered that question in vv. 46-48. He told
them to go into the whole world.
There
are some very important verbs in these two verses: suffer; arise; be proclaimed.
The first two had been accomplished by Jesus, and now He was turning the work
over to them. “Go and tell the whole world that I suffered, died and
rose again and that repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed.”
The verb ‘to proclaim’ can also be translated ‘to herald.’
A herald is someone who delivers a message on behalf of his master. His task
is to make the message known. He does not change the message in any way.
As
I travel from country to country in Northern Europe I see our Church has many
different ways of presenting this message, but everywhere I go I perceive
that the Message is the same. The package might be different but the content
is exactly the same: repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed.
Why would someone who is working two jobs to support his family, in Oslo,
Norway want to plant a church for Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking immigrants?
Why would an electrical engineer leave his job and take his wife and five
children to the poorest part of Eastern Hungary to plant not one but three
churches? Why would a bright, young M.A. graduate give up the opportunity
to begin a lucrative career to volunteer to set up a language school in Poland?
Why would a trained opera singer give up her career to begin a choir ministry
among former communist atheists in Northeast Germany? Why would a very successful
pastor in the Caribbean leave his home and take his family to London, England
to pioneer ethnic churches? Why would a physiotherapist whose husband is a
District Superintendent want to begin a church in their hometown in Holland?
Why would a worship leader travel 3,000 miles and relocate in a new culture,
when most people his age are thinking about retirement, to pastor our only
church in the Republic of Ireland? There is one answer to all of these questions.
They are driven by A Great Purpose. It is the same purpose that took those
first apostles back to Jerusalem with great joy. It is the desire of Jesus
that repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed. The world still
needs to hear that message. Where do we go from here? We go into the entire
world.
Remember,
I’m standing with the disciples. The next question that comes to my
mind on hearing the answer to the first question is, “How can you be
serious Jesus? I mean, these people have proved themselves weak in the past.
Don’t you remember? They were scared to death when you were sleeping
in the boat in the storm. They had to waken You to come to their rescue. They
could not heal the lunatic boy when You were on the mountain with Peter, James,
and John. You had to do that when You came down to join them. There were lazy
in Gethsemane when You wanted them to support You in prayer. They argued among
themselves on more than one occasion as to who was the greatest among them.
One denied You and the others never spoke up for You in your hour of greatest
need.”
The
more I think about those disciples standing there contemplating going into
the entire world, and I think about you and me facing the same prospect, the
more I think, “How can You be serious, Jesus?” We are just like
them. We are just an extension of those first apostles. There are times when
we feel afraid; when we are weak; when we stay at home and rest instead of
going to the prayer meeting; when we argue as to who is best; when we do not
speak up for You. How can You be serious Jesus? As we stand with those apostles,
no matter how ineffective, how unprepared, or how hopeless we might feel,
Jesus still wants us to do it. Now as we stand there, a momentous turning
point occurs.
Jesus
did not expect them to do this work on their own. He would fulfill the promise
of His Father when He returned to heaven. He would send them the Holy Spirit,
the One who would be in them; the One who would work with them and through
them. As I stand there with the apostles, I discover a great truth: this is
His work. Jesus started it and He will complete it. But He wants me to help
Him. I look at myself and my first reaction is, “I cannot do this.”
But He gives me the promise of the Helper.
I
had a call from someone in distress. He was endeavouring to evangelize and
had been through several gruelling meetings with the local authorities. They
wanted another meeting. The individual was reluctant to go. The other meetings
had been too painful. As the person prayed about the meeting he told the Lord
he would do anything other than go to the meeting. The day before the meeting
the individual got so agitated that he said to the Lord, “If this is
so important why don’t You go to the meeting? That’s it Jesus,
you go.” As he sat in prayer the Lord responded, “OK, I will go,
but can I borrow your body to get there?” Wow, what a realization: the
Lord would be there. He would be in that person and working through him. He
was not on his own. And neither am I when I go in His name.
There
are a few verses in 2 Timothy 4 that seem to speak to me on a regular basis.
Paul is in prison and he is writing to Timothy, telling his young student
about his ordeals. In v. 16 he writes, “At my first defence, no one
came to my support, but everyone deserted me, may it not be held against them.”
Have you ever felt let down by people, especially people you trusted? I’m
glad his report does not end there. Triumphantly he recalls, “But the
Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message
might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered
from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and
will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and
ever. Amen.” What a Saviour, who never leaves us on our own.
By
now you know I am one of those people who likes asking questions. Where do
we go from here? You go into the entire world and proclaim repentance and
the remission of sins. Jesus gave them a Great Purpose. How can You be serious?
I will make sure you are never alone. Jesus gave them a Great Promise. How
will that work? You know when You were with the disciples they rarely got
it right. You know how timid and fearful they were. So, how will it work?
The
Holy Spirit of promise would fill them with a Great Power that would make
them adequate to perform their work in Jerusalem and enable them to expand
their ministry to the uttermost parts of the world. As I stand with them I
hear myself saying, “Yes. That’s exactly what I need.” No
wonder they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. On the Mount of Olives Jesus
had given them a purpose for their lives, He had given them the promise that
they would never be on their own, and the prospect of a power to complete
their purpose.
As
I read the story Jesus wrote through their lives, I observe that those disciples
were empowered to stand and proclaim repentance and the remission of sins
to thousands of people, and they were unashamed and unafraid. Some of them
were empowered to perform miraculous feats; others were used in healing the
sick instantaneously. They were empowered with wisdom to help them discern
error and courage to confront evil. They were empowered to endure the most
torturous deaths. Something transformed those timid, awkward, fearful disciples
into bold, devoted, and inspiring followers of God. That something was power,
the power of the Holy Spirit. It was the power to be faithful to Jesus Christ
and His Church, and dedicated to the purpose Jesus gave to their lives that
day on the Mount of Olives.
I
was saved at the age of seventeen. An old man in our hometown took several
young converts under his wing to help us become established in our new faith.
He taught us to study the Word of God and to pray. He took us onto the street
to proclaim our faith in open-air meetings. His son and I were good friends.
When the old man died his son took me to his father’s study. He took
a large envelope off one of the shelves. It was bulging with little scraps
of paper. He said, “Take one.” I took one and read it. There was
a date at the top and information below, “Two young women saved.”
“Take another,” he said. We sat for a long time to read every
piece of paper and shared in the ministry of a man who was mightily used of
God. When we had finished reading the contents his son turned the envelope
around and his father had written, “Acts chapters 29 & 30.”
Now, if you look at your Bible, the book of Acts ends at Chapter 28. What
Jimmy was conveying to us was that the Purpose of Jesus, the Promise of Jesus,
and the Power of Jesus spoken to the disciples that day on the Mount of Olives
did not end at Acts 28. We live today with the same purpose; with the same
promise; with the same power. And Jesus through the Holy Spirit is writing
Acts 29 & 30 through our lives.
I
wonder what kind of story He is writing through your life and mine? When the
stories are read in heaven how will ours read?
You know I like questions. Please allow me ask you a few this morning.
Does
your life have a Great Purpose? There is more to it than making money and
making life comfortable. There is an incident that happened during the bombing
of London during the Second World War. Some people arrived at church to discover
that the church had suffered damage the night before. As the people entered
they saw a statue of Jesus with His hands broken off. Someone had placed a
card at His feet which read, “Jesus has no hands but our hands to do
His work today.” He needs us. He wants us to be fulfilled in our lives.
He desires that our lives would be given to His Great Purpose. Why don’t
you come to the altar this morning and tell Jesus you are available to fulfil
His purpose in your world?
Do
you feel alone and lonely? Are you facing something and you sense that you
are by yourself. Why not come and talk to Jesus and ask Him to renew His Great
Promise to you personally?
Do
you lack the power to fulfil His purpose in your own world? That power is
freely available to all of us. Why not come and talk to Jesus and ask Him
to fill you anew with His Great Power?
That day the disciples left their final meeting with Jesus with great joy. How will you leave your meeting with Jesus today?