The Ascension: Glory, Power, and Promise | Acts

We remain standing in honor of the Word of God. We'll be continuing through

our study of the book of Acts.

We'll be reading Acts chapter 1, verses 1 through 11.

Acts 1:1–11

Hear now God's holy word. In the first book, O Theophilus,

I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he

was taken up and after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the

apostles whom he had chosen,

he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs.

Appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem,

but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me.

For John baptized you with water,

but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time

restore the kingdom to Israel?

He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father

has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on.

He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by

them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?

This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way

as you saw him go into heaven. This is the word of the Lord.

Lord, you can be seated. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we ask now that your

Holy Spirit would help us understand, hear, listen, and obey,

and in all of it, Lord, that we might see Christ Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.

So today, the title of the sermon is not very tricky. It's called the Ascension.

The focus of the passage will be 9 through 11, but I want to review a little

bit before we do, remembering what we've been going through in the book of Acts

in terms of Luke's writing of the book of Acts, how he's structuring things.

Remember he said that in the first book, Gospel of Luke, I dealt with all that

Jesus had begun to do and to teach.

Now in this book, Acts, which we could tentatively call 2nd Luke,

he is going on now continuing the work of Jesus Christ.

It's a connection we just can't miss.

The book of Acts is not just about what happens to Paul, what happens to Peter,

and the church's persecution and missionary work.

The book of Acts is a continuation of the work of Jesus Christ as it was outlined

in Luke, and how Christ is now working in connection with his church.

It's super important to keep that connection, particularly when we look at the events that are coming.

The church is central, and the mission of the church is central to the work

of Jesus Christ. The work of the church is the work of Jesus Christ.

The work of Jesus Christ is the church as well.

It's not, remember, it's not just the Great Commission didn't just say,

you guys go out there and as many people of you have gotten saved,

you go out and get other people saved.

The Great Commission, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth.

It's going to be connected in our passage.

All authority has been given in heaven and earth. Make disciples of the nations.

How? By building the church.

The church of Jesus Christ is the center of the call of the book of Acts.

And the work of the Holy Spirit, remember, is about to come in Pentecost,

not as an addition to the work of Christ,

not so that you and I can continually experience signs and wonders and miracles

and healings, but so that Christ will dwell richly in his church in us.

So the church is central, and we have to keep that connection.

And as we do so, we have to keep it even in connection to Luke's understanding.

In the Gospel of Luke, he wrote a lot in terms of his structure about promise and deliverance.

This is what was promised. Even when the book of Luke starts,

he talks about the promises given for the coming of Elijah, John the Baptist,

and the promises given to the coming of Messiah as it's outlined in Mary when

she's announced that she'll give birth to the angel Gabriel.

Angels factor prominently in some of Luke's accounts, as we'll see in a moment.

So we need to keep the connection to Luke's theology of promise and deliverance.

And the same thing's true of this story of the ascension, the story where Jesus

is taken up and seated in heaven.

I don't know if you've thought about the ascension. Most Protestant traditions,

outside of some Anglicans, don't focus much consistently on the doctrine of the ascension.

Some church calendars include the ascension day, where just like Easter and

just like Christmas, people concentrate on the ascension.

As I preach through books with the Bible, I find that the Bible itself will

review these kinds of things.

But I found also that the doctrine of the ascension is not a doctrine we concentrate on very much.

But Luke concentrates on it a lot.

The Great Commission has been given, and now Jesus is going into heaven,

which has worried the apostles or the disciples. We see that.

They're wondering, what's going to happen when you leave us?

Where are you going? When will you restore the kingdom to Israel?

All of those questions, all of it relates to Jesus going up and apparently going away.

But he's not just going away. What we see in the doctrine of the ascension,

it's actually a doctrine that means quite a lot to the church and to church

history, and it should mean a lot to us.

The doctrine of the ascension, I would submit to you, has been one of those

doctrines that has not only changed history by the ascension itself,

but changed the way people look at history.

The great Saint Augustine who wrote this magnum opus, this great work called The City of God.

In that City of God, Augustine outlines a view of history that is so radically

different from the ancient world and that centers on the doctrine of the ascension

and the coming consummation because of the ascension.

History has meaning. History has importance.

Our lives have meaning. Our lives have importance, partly because Jesus not

only rose from the dead, but he was enthroned.

You'll hear me use that word enthronement as much as the word ascension.

It's not just that he went up like whoo on a cloud.

The typical picture is Jesus on a, we don't have puffy white clouds today, so it won't work.

But on a good summer day, you'll have these puffy, what are they called?

Nimulus cumulus clouds, these little puffy clouds.

And the typical picture is of Jesus on top of that cloud going away.

And finally, he just goes so far, they can't see them.

I want to say this morning as we get into the text, it's not what really the text is saying.

He's not on a puffy cloud. He's not being taken away slowly,

slowly. He is surrounded by the glory cloud presence of God.

The guardian angels, the throne guardians of God come and surround him in their

glory and take him to his throne.

It's a pretty powerful image.

It's a basic theological truth that Paul talks about a lot. One of the reasons

we read from Ephesians is that Paul says to us, to the Ephesians,

that he wants the eyes of their heart to be opened up with understanding. Let me read it again.

He said, I want the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,

that you may know what is the hope of your calling, his calling.

What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints?

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe? There's a lot here.

According to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ,

notice when he raised him from the dead, yes, the resurrection and the ascension,

he says, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

And he goes on to describe this enthronement where Jesus is seated there and

enthroned far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every

name that is named. This is an amazing thing.

This is something worth meditating on, thinking about. This is a doctrine that

I think if we think of it rightly will change our lives.

This isn't just Jesus going up on a puffy white cloud. This is the enthronement of the King of glory.

And his enthronement is over every power that is named. There is no governor. There is no president.

There is no United Nations. There is no parliament.

There's no king or queen more glorious than the King of kings.

That's where we kind of get that phrase is from this enthronement scene where

he is given the seat of glory over all things visible and invisible.

And it says here also in verse 22, and he put all things under his feet and

gave him to be had over all things.

Listen, to the church for us.

It's an amazing thing, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all

in all. It's an amazing scene.

I hope, and words often fail me. It's my job. I'm a pastor.

I'm supposed to use words to convince and get you to understand,

but words fail me on this.

I'm going to try my best to go through the text, to dig around,

to present what the text is saying so that we can capture a glimpse of the glory

of the ascension and sing of it.

At the end, in fact, we'll sing Psalm 98a, and I want you to think about that

psalm written thousands of years before as having now a Christ centered sense

and an ascension glory, and sing the song afresh.

The song says, sing to the Lord a new song.

Oftentimes that means not just make up a new song, but sing the same song with freshness and hope.

And so hopefully as we close the service with that song, we'll sing it with

the hope of glory and this doctrine of ascension. Well, where did it come from?

Why is this happening? Again, if you picture a poofy white cloud and just floating

up and going away, I think you missed the important connection.

As you'll always see me do, or at least I'll always try to do,

when we're looking at the New Testament, we're not looking at something brand new.

We're looking at something that has its context situated in the Old Testament.

I even think that when you read the book of Daniel, chapter 7,

Daniel 7:13

verse 13, you can catch a glimpse of what's happening in our passage in the book of Acts.

Much greater significance. In Daniel chapter 7, verse 13, it says,

Daniel 7:13

I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man,

coming with the clouds of heaven, the clouds of heaven, the glory cloud thrones.

He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.

And then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples

and nations and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. This is the enthronement of Jesus Christ.

Like the psalmist said, the father says, ask of me and I will give you the nations.

This day you are my son. Today I've begotten you. Ask of me and I will give

you the nations, the world as yours.

As Jesus takes his place on the throne of glory, he does so having accomplished

redemption and now moving redemption towards the future and the coming, his coming again.

He returns to his rightful place. You see, when Adam sinned against God,

it was an attempt to dethrone God from his proper place.

The sin in the Garden of Eden was an attempt to say, you are not my king,

you are not my God, I am the ruler.

I will make my own destiny, I'll make my own way, I'll do what I want, I'll think how I want.

And from that dethronement, as it were, in the fall, from the rest of redemptive

history, we're moving towards this glorious point where Jesus Christ comes and says, I am God.

And I will undo the curse of Adam and I will push back the darkness and sin

and Satan and everything involved with that attempt to dethrone me.

So here we see that they're standing there and they're waiting and they see

the glory cloud presence of the Lord.

We saw, by the way, in Daniel's prophecy that the glory clouds would come to

this ancient of days and surround him.

I think that's more of the picture we should think of when we see this happening in our texts.

And the angels, we know there's angels involved because two angels stay there and they communicate.

Typical word in Greek is angelos for angel. But here, the other glory cloud

creatures don't have a particular name.

Sometimes in the Old Testament, they're described as seraphim and cherubim,

those supernatural beings that surround the glory presence of God.

So this cloud that was spoken of here, why a cloud, by the way?

If it were just a cloud, like a poofy cloud, what does it mean?

But it looks like it's a cloud in terms of not so much vapor,

but a glory cloud presence of God that begins to surround Jesus as the glory

cloud presence causes him to be surrounded and engulfed by this.

In the ancient world, and if you've ever been to any major museum and you've

seen the relics of Babylon or Egypt, we're on our way home from Africa.

We stopped in Egypt to see the great pyramids, and there you see the Sphinx.

The Sphinx was one of those mythological creatures that most of the ancient

world had as guardians of the throne.

They would typically be set at the throne room entrance of the king,

who was typically also thought of as a god.

The griffin and in Greek other mythologies, all of these creatures,

the gates of Nimrod, if you see in the British Museum, you see these giant bulls

with the heads of human beings at the entrance of the throne room.

These are sometimes called the throne guardians of the king.

This cloud is significant because through Scripture, clouds often symbolize

the presence of the glory of God.

God led the Israelites through the wilderness with a pillar of cloud.

Again, not just clouds, but the presence of God.

At Jesus' transfiguration, a bright cloud overshadowed him and his disciples.

And God spoke from within the cloud, from within the glory cloud presence of God.

Ezekiel's vision describes God's glory cloud as surrounding the throne of God.

With all of these creatures looking out and looking in and covering themselves in the presence of God.

The cloud in Acts 9, I think, needs to be understood as that kind of manifestation.

The glory cloud presence of God comes down and surrounds and hides Jesus from the disciples.

And from the glory cloud presence of the Lord, these two angels are remaining to speak to them.

Why a cloud? Why that presence? Why that glory cloud enthronement scene?

There's a couple of reasons we'll talk about, but one in which is we're seeing

that here, we have the coming of the Lord in glory and on clouds.

It's not talking about the end of the world in Daniel. It's talking about the

enthronement of Jesus Christ and the end of the old age.

It's important that sometimes, anytime people talk about Jesus coming on the

clouds with glory, they immediately jump to the end.

This does point us to the end.

And I hope you'll keep that connected as we go through it. This definitely points you to the end.

In fact, the moment we see Jesus enthroned, we need to immediately think there is going to be an end.

There is going to be a coming. There will be a judgment. And everyone will give

an answer for everything that has been said and done.

The coming of the Lord is on glory with the glory cloud presence of God.

And it's interesting that they're looking up like, what do we do now?

Where do we go? And the angel says, stop looking up.

Have you ever heard the phrase that some people are so heavenly-minded,

they're of no earthly good?

People are always standing with their eyes up talking about heavenly things, but they don't do much.

They just talk about heaven and the glory of God, and their eyes are up.

Here the angels say, what are you looking up for? Look ahead.

I think it's important for this story to be pushing our hearts and our minds

to the future and also the present with the future in mind.

The Bible demands us to be heavenly minded. And here it is. Jesus is taken up

in a glory cloud presence.

He's seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. We read it in the Creed.

And because he's seated in heaven, he tells us, get busy on earth.

The Great Commission reminds him, all authority has been given to me in heaven.

Are we together? and on earth, right? Are you with me?

I see some yawning, but that's okay. I know it's tired, but.

So the Great Commission doesn't just say, I've been put in heaven,

look to me in heaven and wait for me. And I don't know exactly what it would mean.

But he says, all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth.

And the disciples' eyes and our eyes and the church's eyes are pointed to our

heavenly activity here on earth because of our heavenly King who has authority

on earth. Remember, over every principality and every power and every name that is named.

This is what caused one of the most difficult challenges that the early church

had after the apostolic age. It was this doctrine that Jesus is the king.

He is the ruler. So Caesar, we're fine with Caesar. Caesar can be our king,

but we will not worship him as the only true king.

This immediately brought the church into conflict. And by the way,

all they wanted the church, the early church sometimes to do is take a pinch

of incense. Whoa, a pinch of incense and drop it on an altar,

which says Caesar is also God.

For that many Christians were tortured and killed and died because of the ascension.

They said, no, there's only one king.

He's the king of kings and the Lord of Lord. There's a coin in the Roman empire

that says, there's no other name under heaven whereby men must be saved except Caesar.

It's the exact phrase that Paul used when he said, there's no other name in

heaven whereby men must be saved except Jesus Christ.

It completely turned the world upside down. Everything we think and everything

we do in this world must be done in regard to this ascended Lord of glory,

to everything he says, everything he calls us to, everything he wants of us.

Our whole legion is to the glory of this King.

So it's far from being something that makes you so heavenly minded,

you're no earthly good. It's to the contrary.

The ascension demands a heavenly minded earthly living.

It's who we are in Christ. And because we are in Christ, we are to look at this world differently.

Think of what Paul says in Colossians chapter 3. He says, If then you were raised

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand.

Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.

For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ,

who is our life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.

Therefore, this is interesting. He just said, think about heaven.

Put your mind on things above.

Jesus is there. And then he says, therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth.

The radical enthronement of Jesus Christ means our minds are set on him in heaven,

which then means everything is different here on earth.

Put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication,

uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

In which you yourselves once walked when you lived but

now you yourselves are to put off these things notice mind in heaven work on

earth anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy language out of your mouth don't lie

to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put

on the new man who is renewed and the knowledge according to the image of him who created him,

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies,

kindness, humility. You see all these things.

If your mind is set on Jesus in heaven, it will change everything in your life here on earth.

There's a great book by Leland Ryken about the Puritans called Worldly Saints.

I love the ironic title because he said the Puritans were one of the most earthly-minded

peoples because they were one of the most heavenly-minded peoples.

They respected and loved Jesus as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords,

as the final word on everything.

And because of that, as saints of God, they transformed this world in ways that

we're still enjoying today.

We still reap the benefits of the institutions they created and the law and

the ideas and the culture.

They're almost vapors by now, but they're still around us. We're still enjoying it.

Some other practical items connected to the doctrine of the ascension is once

you see Jesus enthroned in heaven, you realize that self-centeredness is not

an option for Christian.

One of the earliest things that you have to teach your children that we always

have to keep teaching ourselves is what my mom used to say, you are not the center of the world.

Didn't like that when I heard it because it was usually something because she

wasn't correcting me. I wanted this, I wanted that.

I had to have this, I had to go there. Why can't I do this? Why can't I do that?

Answer, you're not the center of the world.

The family has other considerations. There are other people,

there are other thoughts. There are bigger things than you. The ascension reminds

us of that. We're not the center.

Paul has just said, Jesus is the center. And he was raised and enthroned in

heaven so that we would remember we are not the center.

And all things are going to be moving towards the end as Christ has ordained it.

We are not the center. That's what I love, by the way, about our worship here.

The first thing about worship that is God-centered is that when you enter into

worship of God, you're basically at the very beginning reminded, you're not God.

So basic about worship. We're not God. We're not in charge of anything.

We're not the ones who get to say this or that. It's God who tells us from his

throne room through his word, who we are and why we're here and what we're doing. Can you see God?

I wanna connect it to the ascension. I should have all the children here who

know that children's catechism. Can you see God?

Answer is, no, I cannot. I know you know what you're saying it,

but no one said it. No, I cannot see God, but what?

But he always sees me, right? In the ascension, we're reminded of more,

that reminds us more that God is omniscient. He knows everything, he sees everything.

But in the ascension, we make the connection between God knowing everything

and the fact that we're gonna have to answer for everything.

This is a little more startling, actually. Yes, God knows everything.

Can you see God? No, I cannot see him, but he always sees me.

What is the fact that he always sees you? What does it matter?

Because you're going to have to give an answer.

You're going to have to give an answer. The Nicene Creed says it so beautifully and so well.

He was enthroned. He was seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.

And then it says, from there, he will come to judge the living and the dead.

Now, we could step back and talk about St.

Augustine and the great classic work and how it changed the nature of history

and historical perspective and Western civilization.

And it's true. And we'll pick up on that more as we go through Acts.

But this morning, I wanted to make it a bit more personal.

It's not just the fact that all things in history are moving towards the consummation

and towards the second final coming of the Lord when he will come to judge the

living and the dead, but what it means for me today, today.

When you read that Nicene Creed and you say, from there, from heaven,

from his throne in glory, he will judge me. Yikes.

Not only does he know all things, does he see all things, nothing can be hidden

from God, but you'll answer for all things.

He ascended into heaven, and from there he will come to judge the living and

the dead. It's a powerful, tiny little phrase.

In other words, it means that all the things we do in life are given an answer to.

And what we used to say in my house was when someone got caught doing something, we said, you're busted.

You're busted. Dad saw you do that. There was a one time, I won't tell her name.

I don't tell family secrets, but because you may meet her one day,

but one of my sisters, I have three, so you don't know. So my sisters was getting

reprimanded by my father.

She was doing her thing, listening, acting respectful to his face.

And then she turned around and walked down the stairway to the basement.

And she started making disrespectful gestures.

But what she didn't remember was that the bottom of the basement was a mirror.

And Dad was standing at the top of the stairs.

And of course, we all said, you're busted.

You're busted. And of course, thankfully, my dad actually caused him to be tickled.

He laughed because what she didn't realize is that there was a mirror where her father could see.

I think we need to think about that with regard to the doctrine of the ascension

and the final coming of the Lord.

We are seen, and we will give an answer for everything that we do.

I was even thinking recently, in Sunday school, someone said,

can we record Sunday school? It reminded me of an illustration.

When you think of your life as actually being recorded, and I am actually right

now too, it makes you think twice about what you say.

There's actually a guy that I know, we follow him sometimes, James O'Keefe.

He does all of these secret recordings, goes to pharmaceutical people,

And they just think they're on a date.

And they start telling all about this and that. And then when it comes public, they're embarrassed.

And then they lie and they twist. And I didn't mean it like that.

I don't know what that, blah, blah, blah.

Congressmen, many congressmen, many leaders have been secretly recorded,

taking bribes, organizing corruption.

And when they realize they're recorded, suddenly they're embarrassed and they're

ashamed because it's exposed. They're busted.

It's been revealed what's happening to them. What if you were being recorded?

And there is a sense in which we are.

Listen to the book of Revelation chapter 20. Then I saw a great white throne

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

and him who was seated on it.

And from his presence, earth and sky fled away. There was no place was found for them.

The presence of the Lord is powerful. And I saw the dead, great and small,

standing before the throne. and books were opened.

Uh-oh, a recording, which was the book of life.

And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them.

And they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. That is the second death, the lake of fire.

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life,

he was thrown in the lake of fire.

Most ancient churches, especially cathedrals, when you enter the main entrance

of the church from the east, there'll usually be some sort of curve,

maybe a Gothic entrance.

And oftentimes above that would

be this scene depicted, very common in old churches, of the judgment.

There are seats, there is seated Jesus. From this side, people are coming up

to meet Jesus, to face him.

And on the other side are people who are cast out and thrown down,

and the rest are taken up by angels into glory at the great judgment seat when

they answer for all things.

This helps us to begin to order the loves of our lives as we live day to day.

When we think of the enthronement of Jesus, it's not just a doctrine that happened

historically. It's a radical life-changing truth.

I have to live as someone who will give an answer, and there will be no secrets.

So often people, when they discover that their secrets are discovered, it spoils everything.

I want to spoil everything for you this morning. Your secrets will be discovered.

There's no incognito mode with God. I just discovered that not too many years

ago. Someone was struggling with pornography.

And I said, I thought you gave your wife the passcode.

Yeah, but I was using incognito mode. I'd never heard of that.

It's a secret mode, so no one can see your browsing history.

No one can see what you've been doing. No one can see what you've been looking

at. There is no incognito mode with Jesus.

You will give an answer. You will have to stand. And my urging for you this

morning is a gospel urging. Do it now.

Do it now. Because instead of standing at the end, at that great white throne

judgment, and giving an answer then, which you will do, Answer now by turning to Jesus Christ.

All you have to do is confess your sins. And you've heard it said this morning

already, he is faithful and just

to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. That's the gospel.

Jesus didn't die and be resurrected and be seated in glory so that he could sit.

He even said, I did not come to condemn the earth, but that the earth through my love might be saved.

Now is the day of salvation. There's no secrets.

The doctrine of the ascension is a very practical doctrine. We defer our gratification.

If you know that what you do, you'll give an answer to, and that it's seen,

and that you'll be judged for it, you need to stop it.

It's why Christianity, very early in its history, was known as these people

are the same as us. They dress the same.

They speak the same language. They eat the same food. But they don't immediately

gratify and please themselves like others.

Why? Because the resurrection and ascension.

These are people who know they're going to give an answer. And so instead of

getting the pleasure that you might otherwise want to have now,

you defer that pleasure.

Do you see how radical this transforms lives, families, and cultures?

If you simply do not live for the here and the now, but in reference to the

glory of Jesus Christ and the answers you will give,

not that you might give, that you will give them, the enthronement shows you

that you will give them, then you'll stop doing it and you won't be able to just stop it.

I saw a great Bob Newhart comedy skit where Bob Newhart is an old comedian.

He played a psychiatrist.

This guy came into his office doing these weird things, and he said, well, stop it.

Just stop that. We're not able to just stop things.

Paul described in Colossians a process where we put off the old and put on Christ.

We live with reference to our enthroned King of glory and with reference to

the future judgment. and with reference to the hope that we have.

We're people with hope because Jesus has been enthroned and Paul says he's seated

there above every power that is named.

Nothing will stop him. Nothing can stop him. And everyone will answer to him, even us.

Everyone, no secrets. With reference to that, we defer gratification. We control ourselves.

We put off and put on Christ. We even put off things like revenge.

Early Christians were known as people who didn't seek personal revenge like all the other cultures.

In my studies of history, I noted that whenever Christianity came to a kingdom,

the king would immediately, if he became a Christian, would say, you know what we need?

We need laws to cover the whole kingdom so that individuals would not be going

about carrying out their own personal vengeance.

You know, blood feuds are common in all ancient cultures. You kill or hurt my

family, I kill or hurt your family. And I'm allowed to do it personally.

Christianity brought a temperance to that, a change to that.

People were told they're no longer allowed to just get justice on their own.

Do you know how difficult that is? What if someone offends me?

What if someone does something wrong to me? Actually, it's not a what if.

Pure conscience this morning. You've been offended. And you will be. Sorry.

The good news is the gospel is the answer, but you will be offended. You will be mistreated.

There will be injustice in the world. And there'll be times when you can't do anything about it.

You have a choice. You can stew on it. You ever been in a situation where someone

says to you and you're caught off guard and you go away thinking,

if she ever says that again, and you're ready?

You're ready for vengeance. You're ready for that situation where you can get back at someone.

What if you're in a situation culturally, like we've been many times where the

justice that you know ought to come doesn't come.

It's not there. And worse yet, not only does it not come, the person that commits

this injustice seems to prosper all the time.

They just get richer. They just get more powerful. What do we do?

Seek vengeance on them? Take the law in our own hands? Not at all.

Jesus said, do not repay evil for evil.

Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.

The future belongs to the justice of God. And we are people who wait on that

justice, hope in that justice, and live in that justice, no matter what happens to us here on earth.

And there are people who are deeply and seriously offended.

We're talking about physical harm, abuse, rape, incest. These are things not

easy to overcome on your own power. In fact, you can't.

But because Jesus Christ has not only been raised from the dead,

he has been seated above all of those powers.

He has authority, and he will make all things right. point.

We need to understand that Jesus didn't just die to save sinners,

to keep them out of hell so we could go to heaven. He came to die.

He was raised and he was enthroned so that one day everything will be made right.

That's good news. That means that we have hope. And this is not a hope like,

gee, I hope it doesn't rain this afternoon.

This is true, genuine hope that will happen because it has happened.

Jesus is enthroned and Jesus is seated and it will be that one day all things will be made right.

We live in that presence. We live in that hope all the time,

whether it's deferring your gratification, whether it's exposing a secret sin.

And I would urge any of you living in a secret sin now, expose it now.

Confess and repent now, because you will one day anyway. And the good news is you'll be forgiven.

You'll be forgiven. We said, not only forgiven, but cleansed of all unrighteousness. That's the gospel.

And that's the gospel hope that the book of Acts is teaching us in this little

story about the glory cloud presence of God enthroning Jesus Christ at the right

hand of the Father and all the promises that come with it.

The church, as we go through the book of Acts further, will begin to learn the

hope of the glory of Christ. We also need to learn it.

As a local church, believing and living in light of the ascension will change our lives.

Will change our lives. We'll begin to live in the hope of Christ's glory.

And I want to read the book of Revelation as I close, because this is our hope,

and everything will be made right.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had

passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God

is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.

And God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Death shall be no more. Neither will there be mourning, no crying, nor pain anymore.

For the former things have passed away.

He was seated on the throne and said, Behold, I am making all things new.

Also, he said, Write this down.

For these words are trustworthy and true. And he said, To me it is done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

To the thirsty I will give from the spring of water of life without payment.

The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, murderers,

sexually immoral, sorcerers, adulterers, and liars, their portion will be in

the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

As we come to this Lord's table, I would encourage all of you to seek the hope

of the ascension in this supper.

It reminds us that we are daily fed by Jesus Christ, by his body and by his

blood to live the kind of life. You can't just stop.

You must put off the old and put on Christ and hope in the glory of this ascended

and ruling king. Amen. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your ascension, your enthronement.

We thank you that the creatures from heaven came down and revealed themselves

before us today as we see them covering our Savior and taking him to heaven and enthroning him.

And the Father giving to him the kingdom that he earned by his work of redemption.

And as we come to this table, Lord, we pray that you would help us to come with the same hope.

Our redemption, our salvation has been secured. Lord, we pray that you would

seal it by your Holy Spirit as we eat and drink the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Send us out with the hope of your glory that you rule, not just as a political or cultural matter.

Of course, you rule over all nations, all kingdoms, all powers, all authorities.

But Lord, rule us that we may live in the hope of this glory in light of your ascension.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.