We live in a time of shaken confidence. The events of September 11th have eaten away at our certainty. We no longer can have confidence that we are an invulnerable island, untouchable by the violence that rocks so much of our world. The destruction on the evening news was commonplace elsewhere, but never here. What is more, the fallen towers are visible reminders of a fallen economy. The Dow’s record-breaking losses this week are only the most dramatic in a long slide into recession. Jobs are being cut; production is down. The halcyon days of the nineties and the euphoria of the past fades and are gone; our confidence is shaken. How then do we find the confidence we need? Last Thursday evening President Bush delivered an impassioned speech, stirring Americans to response. Certainly a successful military response will no doubt embolden American confidence. The eventual economic recovery will guarantee a greater conviction that ours is a robust system. We know that with time, we will adapt. Confidence will eventually return. Yet, a lesson we must firmly etch in our minds in light of our shaken confidence is that wherever we place our confidence, be it in our military might or strong capitalist system – they are not invulnerable, they are not invincible. We need a certain confidence that will not fail. Our passage this morning shows us where our full confidence can be found. The place we are to look is not within ourselves to muster the might to overcome evil, nor can we have certain confidence that our country will always stand firm. Rather, confidence is found the fact that Christ has ascended. Finding confidence there may seem strange at first glance. For Christ’s leaving the small band of hapless disciples to the task of establishing the church is not a great confidence builder. But as we saw last week, Christ leaves the powerless with power. Rather than the disciples’ confidence being shaken by his departure, they are reminded that they will receive power as we saw in Acts 1:8. What takes place following those final words gives us confidence. The ascension makes us confident, because of Christ’s position, our purpose, and Christ’s Parousia.
As we have said before, Acts gives us a new perspective on Christ. Luke’s gospel tells us what Christ has done in his ministry on earth. In the Gospels we see how Christ fulfilled the promises foretold in the Old Testament, what Jesus taught, the how he triumphed over the grave. The Gospel ends with the victory over death and the hope we can have now. But in Acts we do not see what Christ has done on earth, but rather are shown a glimpse of what he is doing now through the Holy Spirit. The age of the Holy Spirit, the presence of the kingdom of God, the arrival of the "age to come," are all now a reality for the people of God. The "last days" are at hand. For as Christ has ascended, so will he return. Despite all the tragedy we have faced and no doubt will continue to face as a nation, and as individuals – the ascension of Christ gives us a certain confidence. We are confident because of Christ’s position [verse 9]What is the reason for the ascension? Isn’t resurrection enough? You will recall that on Easter morning, Christ rose from the dead. Then over a period of 40 days he would appear to his disciples, and, as Paul reports in 1 Corinthians, to over 500 people at one time. But the ascension is the end of this 40-day period. This is the final disappearance of Christ. But the way in which he leaves his disciples is a reason for us to be confident. The reason for the public and visible ascension is to make clear that he was gone for good. During the forty days he had kept appearing, disappearing and reappearing. But now this interim period was over. This time his departure was final. So they were not to wait around for his next resurrection appearance. Instead, they were to wait for somebody else, the Holy Spirit. For he would come only after Jesus had gone, and then they could get on with their mission in the power he would give them. What is the reason for the clouds? Some modern readers point out that this just represents a primitive cosmology, the idea that heaven is up above and hell below. So, of course, Jesus had to go up. But what is described here is important – he is hidden from their sight by a cloud. In Luke 9 we see a similar situation where Jesus is speaking with his disciples on a mountain when a cloud envelops them and the Father speaks. There is a cloud which receives the two witnesses in Revelation 11:12. After they are struck dead, they are raised once again and ascend to heaven in a cloud. The cloud in Scripture is a portrait of God’s glory, that which obscures God’s magnificent holiness from sinful eyes. In Exodus 19, before the Decalogue is given to Israel, we read of a cloud in verses 16-19. This cloud is associated with the presence of God as he leads Israel through the wilderness. At the end of Exodus we read how the glory of God and the cloud that covered the tabernacle were signs of God’s powerful presence.
Another passage that helps us to see how this cloud plays into Christ’s position as he ascends is Daniel 7. There the Son of Man comes before the Ancient of Days on the clouds. This coming One is given authority, glory, sovereign power, and an eternal kingdom. It should come as no surprise then, when in Matthew 26:64 he identifies himself as the Son of Man who will come again on the clouds of heaven. It is this statement that causes the High Priest to rend his clothes, pronounce him a blasphemer, and to declare him worthy of death. The ascension in the clouds gives us confidence that Christ now rules The Ascension into the clouds is not just a grand exit, nor a meteorological statement of the weather that day in Bethany. It is a powerful proclamation of Christ’s position of authority, a position that gives us confidence today! It is this confidence which so affected the Apostles preaching: Peter proclaims to the multitude at Pentecost that the Christ who was crucified is now exalted to the right hand of God and received from the Father the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is now poured out on his people. When standing before the Sandhedrin, the Jewish Ruling council, Peter states in Acts 5:30-31, "The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead – whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel." Stephen, when on trial, proclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Father’s anointed Son; In Acts 7:55-56 he sees Jesus standing in the privileged position, at the right hand of God. What the resurrection began, the ascension of the glorified God-man into heaven completes. What was promised is now given – Christ reigns. That he reigns means we have confidence. Christ’s ascension means that HE is the Great High Priest Because of his Ascension, we can approach our God, boldly and without fear. For our intercessor, the Lord Jesus, can sympathize with all of our sin, suffering and frailty. This also means that we are to base the assurance of our salvation, not on anything in ourselves or in our ability to keep the law, but upon the life and death of a perfect savior, with whose righteousness we are clothed and whose forgiveness we receive through faith, and who at this very moment pleads our case and prays that our faith will not fail. We can trust not only in his life and in his death, but also in his present work as our intercessor before God. Christ’s ascension means that HE is the Prophet We have certainty that what is revealed is true. We need not wonder whether God’s Word is trustworthy. We are confident that Christ spoke what is true. The ascension is the seal of the Father’s approval – that Christ is the Word incarnate. Christ’s ascension means that HE is the King He alone sits next to the Majestic Father in Heaven. He rises over all and fills all. It is the name of Jesus that will cause all creation to bow at his feet. He will reign until he puts all enemies under his feet and He will hand His kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. The last enemy he will conquer is death itself. Thus, his rule will be complete at his return, when the penalty for our sin, death, is forever swallowed up in the glories of the Resurrection. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Sovereignty is not just a theological construct or a philosophical point of discussion. It has flesh and bones when our confidence is shaken. Fear comes when we are out of control and have nowhere to turn, when all our support systems are questionable. What is the answer to fear that we face now, whether it is the monumental fear of a nation under attack, or fear when you are personally attacked? – It is that Christ is on the throne, and this gives us confidence. We must remember that sometimes the Lord calms the storm. Sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child – but no matter what – Christ reigns supreme. To say that Christ has ascended is to confess that Christ now rules victorious, that he has received all power and authority, dominion and glory. There is no reason to have our confidence shaken in this most basic of all truths – our God is in control. We are confident because of our pupose [verses10-11a]Our purpose is easily lost Confidence ebbs not just when we are uncertain whether those in power are in control, but our confidence is also shaken when we lack any direction or purpose in life. It has been said that: "The most basic craving of man is not food, love, or sex. It is knowledge for the right direction." Knowing that God the Son now reigns is critical, but flowing from that is the necessary knowledge of what we are to do. It is not enough to say God is in control, if we don’t have a clue as to what our life is to be about, and if we don’t know how his sovereignty affects our lives. The disciples are at first perplexed. They stand gazing heavenward at what they’ve just seen. At first their looking is understandable and the angelic rebuke seems odd. Perhaps they were overwhelmed by the miracle they had just seen. The phrase in verse 10 "looking intently" is used by Luke in response to the miraculous. We read of Cornelius in Acts 10, who, after seeing an angel, it is said, "stared at him in fear." Perhaps they were hoping to catch a glimpse of him through a break in the clouds. Understanding the theological significance of clouds, they may have hoped to see the glories of heaven, to see what change might occur now. Perhaps they were thinking his ascension would very quickly translate into his return. Dense as they may have been, perhaps they still thought that this was the time and place when the Father would establish his kingdom. Yet there suddenly stood by the disciples two men dressed in white, who chided them for their skyward gaze. These angelic visitors’ rebuke may not seem fair. If I, following the benediction, arise, you no doubt would stare. But their rebuke flows from what Jesus had just said to them. With Christ returning to the Father, they are now to return to their new vocation. They had a new purpose, which they could not neglect.Our purpose is focused on this world Our confidence is found in that we have been given a task and the means to accomplish that task. Between resurrection and return, our job is not star gazing, but earth shaking. The words Jesus spoke before his ascension to the Apostles lay out their task – they are to be confident that he will return, but in the mean time they are to be at work. It is the earth and not the sky that was to be the focus of their preoccupation. The same is true for us. What Christ has for us is not an optional ministry for those with cross-cultural interests and churches with a surplus of funds. The great commission is the primary task the Lord left his church. The church must always be a missionary church; the Christian must always be a world Christian. Our attention should be not upward, but outward to a world that is in need of the Gospel. On day six of the ill-fated mission of Apollo 13, the astronauts needed to make a critical course correction. If they failed, they might never return to earth. To conserve power, the onboard computer that steered the craft had been shut down. Yet the astronauts needed to conduct a thirty-nine-second burn of the main engines. How to steer? Astronaut Jim Lovell determined that if they could keep a fixed point in space in view through their tiny window, they could steer the craft manually. That focal point turned out to be their destination – earth. As shown grippingly in 1995's hit movie, Apollo 13, for thirty-nine agonizing seconds, Lovell focused on keeping the earth in view. By not losing sight of that reference point, the three astronauts avoided disaster. (Stephen Nordbye, Leadership, 1,97) The trouble is, Christians too easily become sky watchers. The date-setters and prophecy-mongers are sky watching for the Second Coming, their enthusiasm apparently undiminished by the fact that Jesus has expressly forbidden such speculations, and the embarrassing reality that an expanding list of exploded false prophecies litters the past and brings a reproach on the gospel. The sermon tasters and the seminar hounds likewise gaze skywards for ever fresher insights, while the world perishes for lack of real Christian witness! In point of fact, we need neither wait nor look into the sky, because that for which the apostles waited – the Holy Spirit’s outpouring – is a reality now. (Keddie, You Are My Witnesses, E.P. p.16)The vision they were to cultivate was not upwards in nostalgia to the heaven that had received Jesus, but outwards in compassion to a lost world that needed him. Curiosity about heaven and its occupants, speculation about prophecy and its fulfillment, an obsession with times and seasons; these are aberrations which distract us from our God-given mission. Christ will come personally, visibly, and gloriously. Of that we have been assured. Other details can wait. Meanwhile, we have work to do in the power of the Spirit. We are confident because of Christ’s parousia [verse 11b] Five times in these three verses Luke makes reference to their eyes, sight, looking. The emphasis here is that there will be a return just as physical and visible as his ascension. Two important truths flow out from this simple observation: First, Christ, the incarnate Son of God, is in heaven, at the Father’s right side. His departure ensured the coming of God the Holy Spirit. He is not physically present in our world, neither in the Sacraments nor in some secret return in the past. But Christ’s physical absence now does not mean we do not possess what we need. Christ’s ascending to the Father means that now God’s work of grace is no longer confined to one man, but God’s powerful grace will flow through all those who are his. We have reason to be confident. Second, he will come again. Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, reminds us of this fact so that we would encourage one another with these words. When faced with the separation of death and the turmoil in our world, we must remember that Christ will return. The ascension is not a farewell, but au revoir, we will see him again. The Ascension is the guarantee that Jesus Christ will return to earth in the same manner in which he left. In Luke 21, it tells us that Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, will return with power and glory. Jesus, the son of Joseph, the carpenter, is not the Jesus who will be returning from heaven. When Jesus Christ returns to the earth he has made, it will be in the same glory cloud that appeared at his Ascension, and he will come in great power accompanied by armies of these same angels who watched him ascend. He will come in judgement, and it will be so frightening to those who are not his, that according to Revelation 6:16-17, they will pray for the rocks to, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" In the meantime, we should take the stance of Colonel Davenport, Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives after the Revolutionary War. One day in 1789, the sky of Hartford darkened ominously, and some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand. Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said, "The Day of Judgement is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought." Rather than fearing what is to come, we are to be faithful till Christ returns. Instead of fearing the dark, we're to be lights as we watch and wait. (Henry Heintz, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 2). Thus, the exaltation and the beginning of the reign of Christ in His Ascension, serves as the basis for his second coming. This is certainly why Paul would close 1 Corinthians with the words used repeatedly as a doxology by the early church; "Marantha," meaning, "come quickly, Lord Jesus." And this is why it would be fitting, perhaps, to close with these same words this morning. "Marantha, come quickly, Lord Jesus!" Christ is ruling; Christ is coming again! |
