The Book of Acts, Week Two

Does Jesus, as I speak today, ever need to get haircuts? Does he need to trim his fingernails? That might seem like bizarre speculation, but there’s an important truth behind it. What form is Jesus in today? Has he just been absorbed into some spirit or does he have a body? And if he has a body, where is that body? Where is that place? These are crucial questions. When we remember where Jesus is right now, who he is and in what form he is right now and what he’s doing right now, every day will be different. There will be a new glory and hope and joy in your life. If you ignore the ascension, you’ll be living half a Christian life. We’re continuing on in our series on the Book of Acts. Last week, Kurt talked about Jesus promising to send the Holy Spirit. The second major event in the Book of Acts is the ascension of Jesus.

Let’s read it here from Acts chapter one verses nine through 11. After saying this, he, Jesus was taken up into a cloud while they were watching and they could no longer see him as they strain to see him rising into heaven, two white robe men suddenly stood among them men of Galilee. They said, why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go. Now there’s so much going on here in historical context. In the first century when a Roman emperor would die, people would sometimes say they saw his spirit ascend into heaven. That was sort of a sign of his supposed divinity. In fact, even today, if you go to the north side of the forum in Rome and you look under the arch of Titus a Caesar from the eighties, and you look up, there’s an inscription of where Titus’s spirit is apparently ascending into heaven.

The authors, it’s really a a throw down here. Luke is clearly laying out. Jesus is altogether different. It’s not a spirit that PE people see as sending in heaven. It is his actual body that is going there. And so the angels have to appear to explain to disciples what’s going on. I mean, think about all of this. They had lived with Jesus for three years and not to be indelicate, but he lived in a real body. They had seen him sweat. It’s fair to assume they might’ve heard him burp or even snore in the middle of the night. I I, I don’t know. And then they saw that body crucified. Shockingly they saw him after he was resurrected and they knew it was a physical body. ’cause Remember he ate fish and then he said, touch my hands where the wounds were, touched my side.

And then for 40 days after the resurrection, he kept appearing and there was this, well, here it is. And so the angels are explaining what had happened. And and I love this because it really gives a journalistic integrity to the biblical narrative. We should expect them to be just amazed and dumbfounded. How has this happens? And then that is the angels are making it very clear. Now, you shouldn’t keep expecting to appear in the body. He’s sending you his spirit. This is it. He’s now ascended. When he comes back, it will be at the fulfillment of all things that we see him. So what the ascension tells us very clearly is that the incarnation continues. Jesus’s incarnation continues. I don’t know if he needs haircuts. I don’t know if he has to trim his fingernails, but it’s significant and it’s important that we know. It’s a physical body that you could see and touch, and we’re gonna explain why that matters.

He is not a Christ spirit or just a historical figure or a principle. He has a glorified body and he lives in a place where is that place? It’s the heavenly realms. Ephesians one 20 through 21, God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked not only in the present age but also in the one to come. There is ne, there has never been a ruler. There’s never been a figure. There never will be one who is higher than the ascended Jesus. Well what? What are these heavenly realms? The Bible gives us a few glimpses. You might remember the story of Elisha. He’s surrounded by a king who comes with many soldiers to take him. And Elisha’s servant is freaking out. And Elisha prays that God would open up his servant’s eyes so that he could see in the heavenly realms all of the angels protecting them.

I know people say, well, that’s just biblical stuff. But most of us have heard of someone and some of you have been in the room when this happened, where they were just on that twilight from death to to the new life. And what do they say? Oh, there’s Jesus, or there’s somebody that they know has already passed on. It’s so common. It happens too much for us just to pretend this is some psychological trick. There’s this reality that somehow God allows some people at that moment to see the heavenly realms. And T Wright, the renowned theologian puts it this way, heaven in the Bible is God’s space and earth is our space. It’s not a location within our own cosmos of space, time and matter in the sense that we could get there if we had the right rocket or if we had a telescope, we could see it.

Jesus didn’t go into space as we think of space. Instead, his right explains Heaven and earth are two interlocking spheres of God’s reality. The risen body of Jesus is the first and so far the only object which is fully at home in both heaven and hence in either anticipating the time when everything will be renewed and joined together. So the reality is Jesus has a physical glorified body, but, but here’s the wonder of Jesus. By his spirit, he’s able to be present to all of us all the time. If he had stayed in his earthly incarnate body and hadn’t ascended to heaven, we could line up to meet him and shake his hand, but he wouldn’t be present to all of us at the same time. It is amazing what we have in our God. There is no God like the true God revealed in Jesus Christ.

But if that explains the ascension, what does the ascension mean for us? For people like you and me? The first thing it means, it gives us tremendous hope that Jesus is preparing a place for us. Jesus said in John 14, three, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me. That you also may be where I am now, no matter how bad things may be going for you right now, could be health issues, could be relational issues, it could be financial issues or whatnot. They just don’t seem to obey. You’ll find great hope when you remember that Jesus is preparing a place for you. He will take you where he is now. And this is Jesus who was a builder on earth and now he’s building a place and look at how good of a builder he is.

Just look around us, go outside. We see the mountains. We see the beauty of God’s creation, that God, that builder says, I’m preparing a special place for you. This is the contractor of all contractors. Lisa and I have lived a lot with contractors last couple years. We bought a home in Centennial. A lot of you know this. Two years ago it was built in 1971, so we had a lot of work to do. There were just quirky things you find in an old house. I took this video on the day that we closed. There was this drawer underneath the island in the kitchen. I thought, who, who? What do you put in that drawer and how can you get it out? Your hand doesn’t fit in there. It was just crazy that had to go. Every toilet room in the house was carpeted around the toilet and they had raised two boys in that house. I don’t trust the a hundred percent accuracy of two boys who were growing and in different stages of sleep that had to go as well. But I was grateful we didn’t have some other crazy things. I’ve seen contractors do like this one where the contractor apparently assumed the person has very long arms to get the job done.

Did any, we got one of these letters. Have any of you gotten a letter from Denver about you’re using more water than your neighbor? What if you have a neighbor who’s a widow and spends half the year in Arizona? Right? Of course we use more water than our neighbor. We didn’t put in the shower. But when somebody sends me something like that, it tempts me to say, okay, I’ll show you how I can use water. There’s a . There’s another kind of shower you could put in. This is for the really sad people who just wanna sit in the shower and cry. It’s right there. You could just ball up and you’re right there. Or the contractor who decides, he wants to make neighbors really friendly so you know everything that’s going on in their life. Or the contractor says, you want stairs? Sure, I’ll give you stairs.

The only problem is you have to go out the window to use those stairs. This next one amazes me. I think this is what happens when mushrooms become legal and then they lay tile. You’re looking at it like, like what? H How? How does that happen? Do you think? I’m just gonna break all of the rules here. We had an issue in our house where one of the doors was put on and it swung in the wrong way. So you can do one of two things. You can change the hinges as we did and put the door on the other way. Or you can just do what this contractor did and cut a hole in the door that will just go right around the toilet. This next one and the last one, it seems a little passive aggressive to me. The Congress goes, fine, you want a throne?

I’ll give you a throne with steps to go up to the throne. Jesus isn’t a crazy contractor. He’s a builder who’s preparing a place for you and he knows how to build. And my heart has really gone out for a lot of you this week as I prayed for you, because some of you are living disappointing lives. And as a pastor, I can’t tell you that I’ll be fixed. I’ve walked with some of you where the health hits keep hitting again and again. The relationships don’t get reconciled. The work situation doesn’t improve. The revenue doesn’t come in. And we can be overwhelmed by that. If we just focus on this world. The ascension reminds us there’s another world we will be where Jesus is. Now, John Calvin puts it this way. We look to our head who is already in heaven and say, although I am weak, there is Jesus Christ who is powerful enough to make me stand upright.

Although I am feeble, there is Jesus Christ who is my strength. Although I am full of miseries, Jesus Christ is in immortal glory. And what he has will someday be given to me and I shall partake of, what’s this word? All his benefits. This is how we must look at the ascension, applying the benefit to ourselves. In a few weeks, we’ll get to the story of Stephen. And you might remember his story. He was stoned to death, the first Christian martyr and on the verge of being stoned, he looks up and he says, look, I see heaven open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God, seeing the ascension. That was where God allowed him to see the heavenly realms, gave him the courage to face a terrible death. Us meditating on the ascension and remembering the ascension gives us the courage to live a disappointing life.

Knowing this life doesn’t define us. Others of you have an entirely different issue that the ascension addresses your life is too comfortable. I don’t, I don’t mean too comfortable. God’s kind to you. He’s merciful. I’m not saying you should feel guilty about that, but you might be in a place where you don’t even think about the next world. ’cause This world has turned out pretty well for you and and you just call it home and you make it your home. But when you understand the ascension that Jesus is preparing an even better place for you, you might have a mansion that looks like this in comparison to where you’re going. It actually looks like this. So don’t get too comfortable in this world. Lay your head down in this world fine. And thank God for it. Don’t lay your heart there. Jesus said that we should be focusing on his kingdom.

And the ascension tells us there is another world, an eternal one. Just compare where Jesus lived. Where was he born? In a stable, how many sets of clothes did Jesus have as an adult? One Where did he live? Nowhere. He had no address. He was supported by wealthy women and a few others. He had nothing that this earth thinks is essential for happiness and luxury and purpose. And yet we see where he ends up reigning at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly realms. That’s where our heart should be as well. The second thing the ascension tells us is that Christ reigns. The ascension means that Jesus rules earthly monarchs ascend an earthly throne. The throne in Great Britain is that the palace of Westminster. But what happened when Elizabeth died, her reign ended and King Charles reign began. Jesus’s reign is entirely different because Jesus’s reign has no end.

Psalm 45, 6, your throne, oh God will last forever and ever. And his reign is over. Every jurisdiction, Elizabeth and Charles reigned over a certain part of the world. Jesus reigns over every world and every country. Dr. Jarret Scott Dawson has written a wonderful book if you want to get into the theology of this ’cause just frankly a 35 minute sermon can’t do justice to the ascension. If you write down this name, he wrote a book called Jesus Ascended. It’s a seminary level book, but it’s great. I know I’m always hawking books, but I think books are cool things. So here’s what he says. The ascended Jesus is the reigning Jesus of all the meanings of the ascension. This one is preeminent. Jesus has gone up to the right hand of God. The Father exalted above every name and power He reigns. And I know we’ve already read this verse, but I want it to sink deep into our souls.

He gets this from Paul’s words to the Ephesians, God raised Christ from the dead and seated him in his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, he reigns for us. He rules for us. That’s where we find our identity, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. And it’s this talk of Jesus reigning that has always made me a little leery. It was a popular movement. It came from a book written about a hundred years ago called what would Jesus do? And people would wear these bracelets, ww JD, what would Jesus do?

And thinking was we devote our lives to imagining what Jesus would do and then do exactly that. And you’d say, why? Why would a pastor have a problem with that? Well, it’s not so much that I have a problem with it, it’s that I’m uneasy about the picture it gives us of Jesus as if he just lived a life, he died rose from the dead and is forever hidden from us. And now we just kinda guess at what he did and how that would apply to us. Why would I ask, what would Jesus do when I can go to the reigning Jesus and pray, Jesus, what are you doing now? How are you reigning? Where should I be giving my time and efforts? Because it’s not that you did one thing, you continue to reign and I wanna acknowledge that. And when you live as Jesus reigns now it gives us tremendous hope and we need hope in this country.

We really do. We’re gonna face a crazy year. Everybody knows that. With the election coming up, I was supposed to have a book published this fall and we put it off as we were. I was talking with the publisher, we realized the election is gonna soak up all attention and all focus. They said, let’s not try to launch a book. So then we thought early spring, then we thought, you know what? The inauguration is gonna be just as chaotic regardless of who wins. It’s gonna be just as crazy push off an entire year to next fall. But as I look at this crazy year, I, let me, I’m gonna make a prediction here, and this might shock you. I’m gonna tell you who’s gonna win the election this November for us presidency. And I know I’m being taped and recorded, you all can remind me of this, but I feel pretty confident in this prediction. The person who wins the election for presidency of the United States in November of 2024 will be drum roll.

A very flawed person, a very flawed person. Even if the leading candidates are wiped out and they bring in someone else, it will be a very flawed person. Now, I believe voting is important. I hope everybody here offers an informed vote. But it’s because of that that I don’t put my hope in anyone I vote for, nor do I despair if the person I vote for doesn’t win my vote. My hope isn’t in a person I vote for. My hope is in the man I worship Jesus Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father where he reigns above all rule, all authority, all election, any government and any party. The church isn’t dependent on any human election. Church lives off of the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus Christ. And that’s where we place our hope and our joy. But then it gives us a convicting message.

If that’s true, I gotta ask you, are you ignoring Jesus’s reign or are you just working with Jesus? See, if you don’t remember the ascension, you might think, well, Jesus died and he rose from the dead. So my sins are forgiven. I’m on my way to heaven. I’m pretty good. That’s half of Christian life. The ascension says We’re to be involved in what Jesus is doing. Now, I hope what Barna says isn’t true. They’ve done a study and it’s probably true to life. But here’s what Barna says. When asked to describe the ends they live for the top items most American Christians reported were good health, a successful career, a comfortable lifestyle, and a functional family. The average Christian assumes that when we are happy, God is happy. A large majority of Christians contend that the true meaning of our earthly existence is to simply enjoy life and reap as much fulfillment as we can from our daily pursuits.

That might be the American dream. It is not the Christian life. Jesus does have something much bigger for you. I want you to, and I know I quilt this verse all the time, but it is so central. Matthew 6 33, seek first. Not a big house, not a fulfilling job, not even a happy family. Seek first the kingdom of God. ’cause God might provide for you the biggest, most comfortable man mansion you could imagine. You will know you are unfulfilled because God created you for more than an earthly mansion. He prepared you to seek first his kingdom of eternal significance and eternal impact. And we shouldn’t set our sights any less than that. The risen and ascended Jesus didn’t ascend to get away from us. He ascended so that he could send his spirit so that we become his body on earth and we build his kingdom.

Jesus is building his church and we are His body on earth. It’s not just what we remember. Jesus did. The ascension keeps reminding us of what he is doing. The third thing the ascension does, and I love this one, it gives us hope because of Jesus’s prayers. Romans 8 34 says this, Jesus who died more than that who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us. If you ever had any doubt, is Jesus for me, I’m, I’m not sure I’m the best friend to him. Jesus is for you. He’s interceding for God. If you have given him your life and he’s at the right hand of God, he is interceding for you, the Heavenly Father. And he’s right there in the Heavenly Father’s presence. Do you, are you amazed by the axis we have to the God of the universe through what Jesus has done and who he is?

Some traditions talk about praying through Mary or praying to the saints. Why don’t we do that here at Cherryhill? Look at it this way. Why go to a county magistrate when you can go straight to the chief justice of the Supreme Court to plead your case? Especially when, I’m not even sure the county magistrate can hear Jesus. We don’t need an intermediary. We can go straight to him. But I know we, we want that access. And sometimes we think, well, I want somebody that I really believe has a close relationship with God to pray for me so that maybe God will hear me. My father-in-law kind of did this on the day he died. He’d been battling cancer for seven years. And he called me up and said, Gary, would you just please ask God to let me go home today? I’m tired of fighting this.

I know where I’m gonna be. I wanna be with Jesus. Would you please, please pray that he would let me go home? And God did bring him home that day. Well, I appreciated his plea and I, I was glad to pray for him. And we should all pray for each other. He can go straight to Jesus, who is our advocate at the right hand of the Father, and our prayers will be heard. The fourth thing the ascension teaches us, this is so important. Jesus truly is the only way to be a father. There is no one else Jesus’s experience. His biography is completely unique. He existed before the creation of the world. No one else did. He 2000 years ago became incarnate, took on the physical form of a body. That body was crucified. He rose from the dead in the same body. Now he’s ascended to the heavenly realms where he lives in a glorified body.

He is the only one who has done that. And so teaching and religion, it’s not just about wisdom or principles or morality. You might be inspired by another religious teacher, that’s fine. But there’s no other teacher that can offer you salvation because Jesus is the only one who is in the heavenly realms and has returned to the heavenly realms and knows the way. No other teacher even claims that. And no other teacher has fulfilled that Jesus is really and truly the only way. And it’s not just our only way to salvation. He is why we focus on him. We’re not enamored by teachers or churches. Curtis said in, in this, we don’t wanna build this church on one person. We don’t wanna build this church on one team. We wanna spend all of our time exalting Jesus, celebrating Jesus. And didn’t the worships that do that in a great way, it’s where we want our focus to be.

Because our hope is in Jesus who is unique. He isn’t one of many options. The ascensions means he really and truly is the only option. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember 400,000 service members who died fighting the Nazi regime. And they were brutal to the very end. Gida was a Polish civilian taken prisoner by the Nazis in the last few days of the war. This is after Hitler had already committed suicide. The Nazi soldiers knew it was over. They wanted to kill as many as they could before they were taken over. And so they had a bunch of these Polish women. They herded them into a factory, about 300 of them. And they sealed up the factory. Nobody could get out. And they set a timer connected to a bomb as they had to leave, as the allied forces were approaching, they wanted to get away, but they wanted to blow up the 300 women before the allies got there.

The women inside knew what was happening, but they couldn’t do anything about it. They couldn’t get out and they really didn’t have much strength to fight anyway. I mean, they were starved. They were malnourished and everything. But then a miracle happened. It started to rain. And as the Nazi forces pulled out, the rain put out the timer that connected it to the bomb. The women figured out what had happened. And there was a moment reprieve. But then there was great dread throughout the night. Who, who? Who’s gonna come to us first? Will the Nazis come back to blow us up and finish the job? And so in the morning when they heard some machinery, girdle looked out and she was anxious and her heart leapt ’cause she saw a white star on a Jeep. She goes, these are the American forces. We’re gonna be okay. American forces sending a soldier named Kurt Weissman because he could speak German. And he went up to Gida and started talking. And almost immediately Gida said to Kurt, we’re Jews. You know, we’re all Jews in here.

Why would a woman say that? Just as they’re about to be saved? Why? Why does she wanna put that out front? And the sad thing is it betrays the reality that for 10 years they were treated as the refuse of the world. Vermin less than human before she got her hopes up before the other women got their hopes up before he. So-Called wasted his time. She wanted him to know before you go to the trouble, maybe you just wanna pass on by. ’cause We’re all Jews here. Kurt was overwhelmed and he was silent. And gida misunderstood. His silent. She’s thinking, he’s deliberating. Is it worth it? Should we just pass on by? But he wasn’t silent to figure out what he was gonna do. He was silent ’cause he’s trying to get his emotions in check to Finally he said, I am too. And Gird t’s heart leapt. It’s in one of their own. He belonged to them. He was one of them. Maybe this could really happen. And then Kurt said, can I see the other ladies? And Ham remembers she was so overwhelmed that she couldn’t remember the last time they were called ladies.

And what Kurt saw, he’ll never forget, very few of the women could even sit up. They were malnourished, they were unshared, they were dehydrated. Some were sick. They didn’t even have the strength to acknowledge him. The American Cross brought in their trucks. They sent the women out to the hospitals. Kurt was so impressed by T’S leadership and her strength and they began to talk at the hospital. He visited her as often as he could. But as Ger has started to get better, she didn’t know what she was gonna do. When she could contemplate leaving the hospital, where would she go? Her hometown had been blown up. The Nazis had killed literally every one of her family members. She was completely alone. And when she was talking about this, Kurt said, well, I would like for you to come to to America. Well Kurt, what would I do there? Kurt looked at her and said, for starters, you could marry me. Girder said, her heart leapt. She remembers it was the happiest day of my life.

It’s the picture of Jesus and the church. We were under the most brutal spiritual dictator of all times. Who, who? Who seeks to kill and steal, steal and destroy, and to ruin us because that’s how he is. And Jesus realized to reach us, to save us, he had to become one of us. And so he did. Taking on a body, he became one of us. And then he saved us. And even more than that, he took the amazing step and saying to the church, I don’t wanna just save you. I want you to become my bride, and I want to take you to my country. A country that isn’t blown up, A country that isn’t ruined, a country that isn’t ruled by evil forces. You’ll come to my country. That’s the picture of the ascension. It’s the wonder of the Jesus that we worship and love.

There is no one like him in the crucifixion. Our sins were paid for in the resurrection. Death was defeated in the ascension. We have purpose and hope. Jesus reigns and he says, reign with me and hold onto the fact that I will take you one day where I am now. So if you’re one of those people where forgive my language, life sucks for you right now and it has for a long time. I can’t promise it’s always gonna get better. I can’t promise you what Jesus promises you. He is preparing a place for you. If you could see that place, knowing that every day takes you 24 hours closer, you would live with joy and you would live with happiness. Even if this world keeps disappointing you, others need the assurance that Jesus is praying for you. He’s interceding for you. You are not on your own.

He hasn’t forgotten you. He’s at the right handed the Father, and you can go to him directly. Some of you need to remember that Jesus reigns, you’ve sort of settled into the fact that he died and he rose from the dead. So now you can just go about your life. No, no, no. He reigns now and he wants to reign with you. Be a part of He’s doing. For those of you who are new to the faith, I hope you see that. It also means he really and truly is the only way. If you wanna know how to meet him, we’re gonna have trailhead at the end of this to my left and your right, where someone can take you. I want us to get this truth buried deep into our minds and souls. So let’s reread Calvin’s quote together. Shall we please read it with me?

We look to our head who is already in heaven and say, although I am weak, there is Jesus Christ who is powerful enough to make me stand upright. Although I am feeble, there is Jesus Christ who is my strength. Although I am full of miseries, Jesus Christ is in immortal glory. And what he has will someday be given to me and I shall partake of all his benefits. This is how we must look at his ascension, applying the benefit to ourselves. The only response for this church is to give Jesus around of applause. Recognizing who he is and what he’s done and where he is right now. Jesus, we thank you.

Before we close this morning, I want to call up the Juarez team is sort of a weekly thing here, . It seems like we’re sending somebody to wars about every other week, but this is a special one they’re coming forward. This one is led by Jessica Baller. They’re returning to wars. For some of them it’s their 10th year together as a Cherry Hills group. They’re gonna be building a home for a family that attends one of our partner churches. Think a, a home that doesn’t exist now in Juarez will exist because these members are going there. They’re gonna be doing crafts with kids and a food outreach at a church. And I love this. Another food and outreach at a partner ministry that houses abandoned elderly folks in the colonias. They are the body of Christ. His arms, his hands, his feet, his mouth to reach out to people who need it.

We are those who are sending. I really hope that you’ll recognize and maybe make a notation to put a reminder in your phone to pray for them throughout this trip. They’re doing a great work and we wanna begin that by praying for ’em. Now, if you’ll please reach out your hand toward them, we’ll pray for them together. Father, thank you for these brothers and sisters who wanna take the message that Christ saves and Christ reigns. We pray for traveling mercies that you would bring them there safely and bring back everyone for their health, that they would have full strength and focus to reach out. We pray, Lord, for excellence in their craft as they build the home. We pray, Lord, that you would give them personalities that are winsome, that will provide not only food and crafts, but words that would bring many to life in you.

Father, thank you for their faithfulness and their willingness to be your body on earth. May you fill them with your spirit and give them every gift they need to do the work you’ve called them to do. We entrust each one to you in Jesus’ name. Amen. Just a quick reminder right before we go, we have a military support lunch today, right after this service. It’s in the fireside room, right when you start to go out the doors. If you go left, there’s to my left. There’s a stairway up there. It’s up there. We’d like to feed you. It’s free, and we’d just like to honor you for that. Thank you for joining us on this three day weekend. This is the faithful core of the church. God bless you and I hope you have a great rest of the weekend. Thank you for joining us.