C Cycle – Feast of the Ascension 25

Acts 1:1-11

There is no doubt we would be blown away if Jesus appeared to us. Filled with excitement, wonder and awe.  Inspired to become a witness by sharing the good news of Christ.  Yet, forty days after His resurrection, the disciples remained confused and uncertain about the future. 

Since His death and resurrection, Jesus appeared to them three times.  He breathed the Holy Spirit upon them, offered them peace, and had Thomas place his finger in his wounds.  He ate with them and offered Peter forgiveness, but they remained uncertain about what would happen next.  Would He remain with them.  As Jesus appears to them this last time, He emphasizes why He came and what His death achieved for all who believe in His name.

If you think about it, they had heard Jesus, tell them He must suffer and die.  He told them His death would set all generations free from the bondage of sin and death. What God had in store for the restoration of His plan for us to be in His presence began the minute Adam and Eve sinned.  Every prophet detailed that plan was to have a blood sacrifice to take away the sins of all of us.  That the Lamb of God would come and by His death we would have access to the Father. 

Jesus came to show us the Father and reveal to us how deeply the Father yearns for us to “return to Him.’  But the plan of God was for us to be more than forgiven. It was for us to yearn for the Father as much as He yearns for us.  Our yearning must go beyond “sacrifices and offerings.”  It must be a sincere yearning to give God our very selves in the same way Jesus gave of Himself for us.  The fact is there is and always has been a force seeking to destroy our relationship with God.  That force can use our lack of understanding, our desire for a comfortable religion and our inability to see beyond what is evident to keep us from doing what we must do to be blown away by the presence of God.

In one way we are no different than those disciples.  We have been created with a destiny in mind (Ps. 139:16).  We have been chosen and gifted to be more than believers. We have been chosen and gifted to be disciples in the same way as Peter, Andrew, James, and John (Eph.2:10).  Why do we continue to resist and like these disciples keep “looking at the sky?”  Jesus has promised us an anointing because it is the Fathers will that we change our entire approach to living our faith.” 

Wait until you receive the promise of the Father. What is the promise of God?  It is that we do more than just show up and are obedient to the tenants of our faith.  The promise of the Father is He will send us the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts (Jer.31:33 and that change would motivate us to seek intimacy with Him. The Spirit will motivate us to live according to His plan not ours.  The Spirit would pour the love of God into our hearts and like the prodigal son feel the grace of forgiveness enfold us. 

We will understand what the death of Jesus has done for us to be free all the while knowing we are weak, sinful but redeemed children of God.  Why are we looking for Jesus to come again when He is here among us always.  His words were not spoken for a moment in time. No, His words are everlasting, and those words are inviting, welcoming and healing.  Those words are encouraging, prompting, and empowering. 

What Jesus did for us was more than we can imagine. His death was and is a defining moment in our relationship with God.  It is why we are sitting in church today, worshiping and giving thanks for the gift of life and the empowerment of each of us to become members of the Kingdom of God on Earth.   That place where God still speaks to us and where the Holy Spirit reveals to us how we are to respond to Jessus Christ.

Are we going to leave this church today looking upward and wondering what it all meant? Or are we going to do what the disciples did after Christ’s ascension.  They gave us a formula to use during these next seven days.  Dedicated prayers, earnest prayers, inviting prayers all the while knowing something powerful will come down upon us.  It will be an electrifying surge of grace enabling us to feel the Fathers love as the fire of the Spirit is ignited within us.  We will understand the words of Christ; we will desire more of those words.

We will know we can and will do the things Jesus did – proclaim the good news and give sight to those who cannot yet see their destiny. We will free the lame, those who are held in bondage by sin and a sense of unworthiness. We will help those who cannot yet hear the voice of God to distinguish it from all the other voices seeking to draw them away from God.  Wait until you are filled with power from on high.  Pentecost was the moment the disciples became doers of the Word.  It is the moment God will send it to us and change us.