Empowered by the Ascension: Continuing Christ's Mission

“Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’” [00:43:35]

“And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.” [00:92:48]

“Now, set within the context of the ascension, if Jesus had simply risen from the dead and gone directly to heaven, without the forty days in between his resurrection and his parting from them, then the disciples would have been filled with all kinds of unanswered questions. And if you have your finger in Acts 1, you will see what Luke tells us there in verse 3: Jesus ‘presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.’” [00:59:26]

“You see, the ascension of Jesus is the defining moment—is the defining moment—before ending his personal ministry (personal to them, immediate to them). Before that, on the day he is taken up from them, he purposefully made provision for the continuance of his ministry. Because you’ll note the way Acts begins: ‘All that Jesus…’ ‘In [my] first book,’ he says—namely, the Gospel of Luke—‘all that Jesus began to do and teach, [before] he was taken up.’ The inference, clearly: that he was going to continue. How was he going to continue? Well, still on earth, through his apostles, but from heaven and by the Holy Spirit.” [01:07:22]

“Augustine masterfully writes, ‘Unless the Saviour had ascended into heaven, his Nativity would have come to nothing … and his Passion would have borne no fruit [in] us, and his most holy Resurrection would have been useless.’ That states it very clearly. And that is why when the apostles begin to proclaim the gospel… You will notice this if you read the early chapters of Acts. For example, in chapter 2, where Peter is speaking, he says, 2:32, ‘This Jesus God raised up, and of that we [are all] witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.’” [01:54:58]

“Now, what we discover in the section that we read from verse 44 is that Jesus is making it clear that he has fulfilled the will of the Father completely. He is able to say—and it’s no surprise that Luke writes in this way, because he has begun in the same manner—that he has accomplished the work of atonement, he has risen in triumph over sin and death and hell, and ‘all his work,’ as the hymn writer puts it, ‘all his work is ended, joyfully we sing: Jesus ha[s] ascended! Glory to the King!’” [01:52:45]

“Secondly, how are you going to do this? How were they to do this? Well, first of all, they had to wait. Wait. You see that there in the text, again: ‘I want you to stay. You’re going to be clothed with power from on high. I’m sending the promise of my Father upon you. Stay in the city until you’re clothed with power from on high.’ That’s a real problem for activist people, isn’t it? Waiting. After all, the plan was clear, the opportunity was great, and people would inevitably say, ‘And speed is of the essence! Let’s just get at it immediately. We’ve got a whole new adventure, or a whole continued adventure, here before us.’” [02:00:38]

“Now, it is by this means and only by this means that the kingdom grows. Very quickly the apostles would be out on the streets of Jerusalem, and they would be speaking with a previously unknown boldness that had nothing to do, actually, with their personalities. In fact, when people looked at them and said things about them, they said, ‘You know, they’re not the brightest group. I don’t think they’ve gone to any of our important universities. But I’ll tell you something: apparently, being with Jesus has really impacted them.’ People can tell if you’ve been with Jesus. There’s a fragrance about Christ by the Holy Spirit.” [02:14:32]

“So, the plan: that repentance and forgiveness of sin should be preached, beginning in Jerusalem and to all the nations. ‘Don’t just immediately charge off!’ There would be a ten-day waiting period before there was finally closure. And who would then be the ones to launch into this great mission? Well, the folks that are identified for us there: the core group, the original group—not exactly having distinguished themselves, would you say? I mean, we’re only talking six weeks. You go back six weeks and what do you find?” [02:16:14]

“After all, parting is such sweet sorrow. And Jesus is going to continue his work from heaven, by the Holy Spirit, through this less than stellar team. These are not the crack troops! This is his group. ‘Not by might, [not] by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD.’ ‘Not many of you were mighty. Not many of you were noble. Not many of you registered on the Who’s Who list,’ he says in Corinth. ‘And frankly,’ he says, ‘if you want to think about me, when I showed up, I came in weakness and in fear and with much trembling.’” [02:38:00]

“One of the great challenges that faces the church in our culture at this time is the challenge that comes as a result of having been fed a story that is just not true over a period of a quarter of a century, and that is that if we will only buckle down, we can handle this, we can do this. In other words, we are listening to the sound of the cheerleaders that I often refer you to from that old football game where the cheerleaders were singing, ‘You can do it, you can do it! You can, you can!’ And they were losing, like, 39–nothing or something. And it was obvious to any bystander that they couldn’t do it. They couldn’t do it.” [02:44:31]

“Do you understand, loved ones, that the great impetus, the great launching pad for usefulness is in first of all personally, privately, humbly, truly, getting before God and saying, ‘I cannot do it,’ as opposed to, ‘You’ll be able to do it’? Nobody knows how to preach. Nobody knows how to preach. Only Jesus! It is wrong that it should paralyze us; it is right that it should humble us. Because then everybody, from preacher through every seat in the place, will say, ‘Well, what a strange plan. And what a strange occurrence, that those who long for his companionship learned to rejoice in his absence because they made the discovery that when they are weak, then they are strong, and that his grace is sufficient for us.’” [02:52:22]