He Ascended into Heaven

Thank you so much for causing your word to be written.

We thank you that you sent your son Jesus to die upon the cross to be our savior.

We thank you for his tasting all there is to taste of death with nothing left over.

We thank you, Father, for his mighty resurrection, and we thank you for his ascension,

and we thank you, Father, for his coming again in glory.

And we thank you, Father, that you didn't just act to save us, but you gave us the good news.

You interpreted what happened. You told us what happened.

Father, we thank you for this.

We ask, Father, that you would gently but deeply pour out your Holy Spirit into us,

so that our minds will not be conformed to this age,

but we will be transformed, Father, by your word and by your Holy Spirit.

We will be transformed and have minds that lead us to act in such a way

that our lives bring you great glory.

And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

I wish I could tell you that every time somebody says something to me at a coffee shop,

like one of my non-Christian friends,

I wish I could tell you that I was like an apologetic ninja

that could just always parry everything that they say and just get them.

But, you know, often I'm the exact opposite of an apologetic ninja.

I just sort of stand there, not quite sure what to say,

and then thinking of the perfect thing to say five minutes or five hours later or something like that.

But I had a time just a little while ago where,

maybe it was even about a year ago,

maybe somebody had been to a church and heard something like the story of the Ascension,

which we're going to look at.

And he just completely mocked the story.

And really, like, in really quick, you know,

it's as if he'd been practicing,

and his speech just came so perfectly flowing and quick.

You know how completely and utterly ridiculous the Bible is?

It's completely unscientific.

It's worse than unscientific.

It's completely anti-scientific.

It presents this idea as if somehow or another

God sent down a fishing hook or a line and grabbed Jesus

and pulls him up into the sky.

And just on the other side of the clouds,

you know, where there's the blue dome,

and it's just painted blue,

and God paints it blue during the day,

and he paints it black at night,

or however, he just turns the light on and off.

And God lives in some little room just above the sky,

and he pulls Jesus up there,

and that's where Jesus is.

And the God and Jesus are just sort of waiting.

And he said, you know,

the Bible is just so completely and utterly ridiculous.

And I remember one time when I had something like this happen to me,

the fellow did it as well in a bit of a loud voice

so that most of the Starbucks could hear it.

And I can't remember what I said in reply.

What I do know is that he actually probably,

the fellow who said all this to me,

actually probably wasn't willing to hear the answer.

He just wanted to embarrass me.

But some people don't just want to embarrass us,

but they're troubled by texts like this.

They're troubled by the fact that it seems as if the Bible has a worldview

that science is just completely and utterly disproven

of a very tiny little planet Earth,

and there's no, you know, the sun is just like a,

I don't know, like a light that God turns on in the sky

and sort of walks it around the roof,

like a theater a little bit, I suppose.

You know, that the, and that God is just on the other side of that ceiling

and he turns different lights on and off and,

you know, has spotlights that move.

And that's sometimes how it looks as if the Bible,

is that what the Bible teaches?

Is that what Christians are supposed to believe?

It's obviously scientifically ridiculous.

So let's look.

Let's look and see what the Bible says.

Be a great help to me if you open the Bible.

Bible and Acts 1, verses 1 to 11.

Acts 1:1–11

And just a little bit of a plug.

I also read my Bible on my phone and stuff like that.

But, you know, I just want to really encourage you.

There's something about a book.

And part of the thing that's so good about a book

is that you know it's a book.

You know, when you're reading the book of Acts

and you know, look at this, there's all this stuff

in the book that goes before

and there's all this stuff that comes after.

There's just something about a book.

And so I want to encourage you not to give up on books

when it comes to reading your Bible.

I mean, obviously, if the screen helps you read,

then that's what you should do.

But sometimes it's good to crack open a book

and look at the words

because you see the bigger flow.

Anyway, Acts 1, 1 to 11.

So is the Bible teaching us something pretty ridiculous,

not only unscientific,

but completely and utterly anti-scientific?

So let's have a look.

And we'll start here.

Acts 1, verse 1.

Acts 1:1

In the first book, O Theophilus,

I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.

Now just pause.

He says here in the first book.

So Luke has written another book

and we know it as the Gospel of Luke.

And it's very important in this case,

if we just want to understand what the Bible is saying,

to look at how Luke introduces his first book

because he has a very similar type of introduction

in both books.

So if you can just, you can keep your finger there

or maybe you're really good at finding places in the Bible,

just turn to Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

And we're just going to read the first four verses

of Luke chapter 1

Luke 1 · chapter mention

and just see how it is that Luke introduces

the first book that he writes.

And here's how he introduces it.

Luke 1.

Luke 1, 1.

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative

of the things that have been accomplished among us,

sorry, start again.

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative

of the things that have been accomplished among us,

just as those who from the beginning

were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word

have delivered them to us,

it seemed good to me also,

having followed all things closely for some time past,

to write an orderly account for you,

most excellent Theophilus,

that you may have certainty

concerning the things that you have been taught.

So notice here that,

in fact, just if you're not aware of this,

Luke was not one of the original disciples.

He's not Jewish.

He didn't actually,

he was an eyewitness of Jesus

and what Jesus did.

Luke was a pagan, well-educated.

He was a doctor,

who had been relatively prosperous,

upper-middle-class doctor.

He becomes a Christian,

leaving paganism behind to become a Christian.

And he's one of the early pagans

who becomes a Christian.

And Luke becomes very deeply involved

in the early Christian community.

He meets many of the people who are eyewitnesses.

He probably,

who knows what types of other things

were in circulation,

maybe little handwritten things

or something like that.

And he's a literate man,

a scientific man,

at least as they would have understood science back then,

somebody who was careful in observation.

And he decides to write

not a story inspired by true events

or based upon true events.

He tries to tell you true events.

That's what he's claiming to do.

He tries to put in a narrative form.

And the best history is always written

in some type of a narrative form.

He tries to put in a narrative form,

selecting out of the hundreds and hundreds

and hundreds of things

that he could have written about Jesus,

eyewitness testimony in a narrative form.

And that's what he's trying to do.

And Theophilus is a pagan name.

So he's not writing it for Jewish people,

although obviously he'd be fine

if Jewish people read it.

He's writing for other pagans.

Whether Theophilus is a pagan

who's become a Christian

or whether he's a pagan

who's a complete opponent and skeptic,

whether he's a seeker, we don't know,

but he writes to another pagan.

So now let's look at Acts chapter one.

Sort of mindful of that.

That's Luke's first book.

And now we see Luke's second book.

And he wrote the first book

thinking he'd write a second.

And now we get how he introduces the second book.

Remember, this is all important

because we're trying to look and understand

does the Bible portray

that the universe is a little bit

like the Ottawa Little Theater

and God is on the roof.

Well, actually, there's a space between,

you know, here.

No, God doesn't need a roof.

So God just lives on the roof.

Is that what the Bible's telling us?

So chapter one of verse one of Acts again.

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

after he had given commands or orders.

It's a bit of a military image.

Those of you who've served in the military,

Jesus gave orders.

He gave them a commission.

He gave 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 40 days

and speaking about the kingdom of God.

So here's the first thing.

Those of you who know me,

I'm not going to say,

well, this is just a metaphor.

It's just an analogy.

It's just, you know,

a mythical account of peak experience

or mystical experience.

It's, you know,

a way to use language or imagery

to talk about, you know,

what is Luke claiming?

If you could put the first point up, Andrew,

that would be great.

Luke tells the true story of Jesus,

body and soul,

being taken up into heaven.

That's what Luke's claiming to do.

Now, we might say he's wrong.

We might say that he was, you know,

full of it.

We might say that he's just,

he's believing nonsense.

We might believe,

we might say all of those types of things

and skeptics do

and people from other religions

and other faiths

and other spiritualities

and philosophies.

That's what they do.

But at least we need to hear Luke.

And this is what Luke is claiming.

Luke is claiming

that he is telling

the true story of Jesus

who, body and soul,

he was taken up into heaven.

And so it's not a metaphor.

It's not an image.

And by the way,

you know,

here's one of the things.

I'm not just saying this

because this is what Christians

have always believed.

And some people might feel

very uncomfortable

because you see some Christians

under the pressure

of science

and of skepticism.

They think they're helping

the Bible

or helping the Christian faith

by saying that it's just a metaphor

or it's an image,

it's an analogy,

it's just a mythic telling

of a spiritual truth.

And they might even say,

doesn't it actually say,

George,

in 1 Corinthians 15

that Jesus doesn't have

a physical body

but he has a spiritual body?

So isn't this just accounting

just a spiritual thing?

And so some people,

in a well-meaning way,

they try to reinterpret it.

But the fact of the matter is,

that's not at all

what the Bible,

it's not what the text says.

Just even if you just set aside

for a second,

in a sense,

I don't know if any of you

have ever watched,

there was a movie

that went out,

a documentary about

Christopher Hitchens

debating this very

orthodox Christian

and across the country.

And one of the things

that Christopher Hitchens

says is that he loves

debating this fellow.

In fact,

here's Lord have mercy.

He said,

I hate debating

those Anglican types

because when I start

to press them

on what the Bible says,

they say it's just a metaphor,

it's just an analogy,

it's just a parable.

But when I press

this guy on things,

he says,

yeah, darn tootin',

that's what it says.

And he defends it.

And the fact of the matter is,

is that you can't read

the book of Luke

and you can't read

the book of Acts

without coming to believe

that Luke believes

that everything

he's talking about

happened.

That's what he believes.

From a literary point of view,

that's what the book

is trying to communicate.

Whether or not

that's ridiculous,

that's a bit

of another question,

but we can't take refuge

that it's describing mysticism.

That's not what

the text is saying,

just straightly

from an intellectual level.

Now, here's the other thing

about this text,

is obviously we can't prove,

I mean, Luke is claiming

that if we went back

in a time machine,

and if we were there

with the apostles,

we were somehow able

to be just somehow

there in the background

waiting for it to happen,

what Luke described

is what we would see.

That's what Luke is claiming.

But the proof for this,

for somebody like you and me,

is it ultimately goes back

to the resurrection,

which I'm not going to spend

very much time on.

But, you know,

I'll just share with you,

I've had different times

in my life,

especially in the first

ten years of my Christian life,

where I almost left

the Christian faith.

You know, I have a degree

in sociology

with a minor in philosophy.

I only have studied

with non-Christian professors.

I've never had

an evangelical professor.

For any of my first degree

and my other types

of post-graduate work

and my graduate degree,

I've always had

non-Christian professors.

And I've had times

where I almost gave up my faith.

Just as I, you know,

you really just,

you get filled with the weight

of criticism.

And it can sometimes be very,

it was sometimes

very, very hard.

And I'd pray,

and I'd do reading,

and I would do research.

But I have never yet seen

any good account

for the start

of the Christian faith

that actually can deal

with the facts

in a reasonable way.

You know,

in our,

just during the last election,

one of the big cries

is that you wanted

evidence-based policy,

evidence-based thinking.

That was one of the big things

that supposedly,

I'm not making a political comment

one way or the other,

the conservatives

didn't believe

in evidence-based policy.

Whether you,

you know,

that's a separate matter.

I'm not going to comment

on that at all.

But, you know,

unless you're a person

who just says,

on no condition,

no matter what actually happens,

it's just absolutely

completely impossible

that anything in the book

of,

that any of the eyewitness

accounts of Jesus

are possibly true,

if it's just rejected,

using the philosophical term

a priori,

you just reject it

completely and utterly

as not even being

worth considering.

And you just say

it's completely and utterly wrong.

Unless you're,

if you're actually willing

to look at the evidence,

the evidence is very,

very, very strong.

And there's,

I have never seen

a good account

to account for Christian origins

apart from

this astounding claim

that Jesus really did die

on a Friday afternoon,

that he was

physically just known

to be dead,

that the thrust

of the spear,

the partial embalming,

the seal on the tomb,

and that on the third day,

the tomb is empty,

even though it was

guarded by soldiers,

and that Jesus appears

alive to a whole range

of witnesses

over 40 days.

And I,

there's been no account

that deals with the,

there's no other account

that deals with the evidence

of the explosive growth

of the Christian faith

in the very city

where Jesus died,

where all anybody had to do

was show the body.

And the explosive growth,

despite persecution,

despite jailing,

it's a complete opposite

of the,

of,

of Islamic origins

that are closely tied,

Islamic origins

are closely tied

to military victory.

Christianity suffers

complete and utter

the,

the weight,

the unrelated,

lenting weight

of the state

and the military

against it,

and the explosive growth

on the claim

of an empty tomb

and a real resurrection,

and there has never been,

I have not seen

an account

that can deal

with the evidence.

I just never have.

And that's,

it's because of that

that these other types

of claims

that I think

we need to take them

very seriously.

And,

and the claim

that we can't take

this very seriously,

this whole thing

of a,

of the worldview,

there's a very,

very simple mistake

that people make

when they say that.

They,

they,

sometimes they might

be well-meaning,

sometimes,

like my friend,

they were just trying

to embarrass me.

But,

Christians believe,

I mean,

this is a bit of a

theology geek moment,

like a bit of time out,

theology geeks,

okay,

time out for theology geeks.

But,

the Christian claim

is that it's the words

of the Bible

that are inspired.

It's the words,

the words that God

wanted written

are the words

that were put down.

The Bible doesn't

make the claim,

Christians haven't

made the claim,

that God scanned

the earth and thought,

you know what,

the most brilliant

person ever is Luke,

so I'm going to have

Luke write it.

And,

and the most mystical

person and holy

person ever is John.

I'm going to have

John write it.

Oh,

and look at Mark.

Mark,

whoa,

IQ through the roof,

you know?

No.

The Bible,

in fact,

God,

the consistent record

of the Bible

is that God chooses

the weak and the foolish

to shame the strong.

He wasn't looking

for the guys

with the highest IQs.

And that's a bit

of a put down

for us,

by the way,

okay?

We're not the highest

IQs in the city

of Ottawa.

If you think you are,

a few marks off

your IQ right there.

And,

and so,

what the Bible says

is that,

that,

okay,

you know what it says?

It's very chaste.

Look at verse 9 again.

Look at verse 9.

It's a very chaste

description

of what happens.

The whole account

of the ascension,

what goes on,

the few verses before,

which we're going to

look at in a moment,

the few verses after

give you interpretation

and context,

okay?

But the actual event,

look how simple it is.

And when he had said

these things

as they were looking on,

he was lifted up

and the cloud

took him out of their sight.

It's very,

very discreet.

Now,

you know what?

It might very well be

that if we went back

in a time machine

and we knew how to speak

to the apostles,

we'd mastered their language,

that if we were going back,

afterwards as they were going back

to their next place,

they might actually,

each one of them

might literally have thought,

whoa,

you know,

the world is like

the Ottawa Little Theater

and God is on the roof

and God pulled Jesus,

and that might be

what they think.

I mean,

that might be

what they think.

But you know,

one of the things

which is so wonderful

about the Bible

is that none of this

is actually in the Bible.

Like all their views

about how the world worked,

all their views

on what we would now call

astronomy and physics,

it's not there in the Bible.

Part of the power

of the Bible

as God's inspired word

is what's not in it.

And you know,

we should be so glad

that what is in it right now

doesn't accord

with what we say

in 2016,

because the fact

of the matter is

is that if Jesus

tarries in 2416,

the science

that we now hold,

they will laugh at.

So that if the Bible

was written in such a way

of somehow or another

that God had magically

given the apostles

an understanding

of physics and astronomy

that would match 2016,

it would just make it ridiculous

in a hundred years' time.

You see,

part of the power

of the Bible

is all the things

that are kept out.

Here's another thing.

This actually is something,

and you know,

maybe science will come up

with something

a little bit different.

You see,

the possibility,

it is making

an astounding claim.

What the text is saying

is that Jesus

started to rise.

And that as he started

to rise,

a cloud comes

and obscures him.

Now,

if you've read Luke,

you'll know that

at the end

of the transfiguration,

the cloud comes

and obscures Jesus

and everything

that's going on.

They're in a cloud.

And if you've read

the Old Testament,

there's a cloud

that leads the people

of Israel by day.

And if you read

the Old Testament,

you know that

the Shekinah,

the glory,

the cloud comes

and settles on the temple,

that there's different times

when the cloud

is a very,

very chaste way

of describing

the presence

of God's glory

and how,

as God's glory

comes,

it's as if

we can no longer

see God's glory

because our unfallen,

our fallen eyes

cannot behold

unfallen realities.

But rather than

trying to do it

the way

Steven Spielberg

would do it,

the Jewish people

under the inspiration

of the Holy Spirit

give a very chaste,

simple description.

And so what we see

is that Jesus

is rising,

the cloud,

the Shekinah glory

comes and no longer

can Jesus be seen.

And we can just imagine

that Peter and John

and James,

they elbow the others

and say,

we've seen something

like this before.

The cloud's going to go away

and it's just going to be

Jesus only.

But the cloud fades,

they're looking up,

waiting to see Jesus only

and Jesus is gone.

Christians believe,

you want to know

something which is

really cool?

And I have to be careful.

I'm going to be saying

a few things about physics

and all next week.

I know there's at least

one real physicist

in the room,

so I'm always a bit nervous

anything I say about physics.

But what I understand

about,

one of the things

I've understood

about physics is that,

and this is mind-blowing,

is that space is curved.

Like,

I always just sort of thought

that space,

like if you were able

to get like a laser,

like some unbelievably

powerful type of laser

that would never turn,

would just go straight

and somehow could withstand

gravitational pull

so that if you pointed it

at a black spot in the sky,

it would just go on

forever and ever

and ever and ever

and ever and ever

and ever and ever

and ever and ever

because space just goes on

forever and ever

and ever and ever.

But you know what physicists say?

That if you had that,

if you had that,

that laser

and it could point in,

it would never vary,

it would never go anything

other than straight

and it would never be affected

by gravitational pulls,

that if I did it like this

and it could speed time up,

it would hit me

in the back of the head.

That's what physics teach.

Space is curved.

Isn't that freaky?

And so what the Bible teaches

is that everything that we know,

all of space and time

was created by God.

Just imagine,

I'm not God,

but just imagine I'm God.

This is space and time,

all of the created order.

It's this tennis ball.

And God is outside of it.

There was a really,

really wonderful debate

slash dialogue the other night

and right up here,

the philosophy professor

from the University of Toronto

who was the atheist,

you could almost see him

just going like this,

like, you know,

how on earth could there possibly

be a God who's created all things?

Like, what was he doing before?

Like, was he just sort of

sitting around waiting

and he just sort of like

with a little bit of a grin

on his face?

The fact of the matter is

is that space and time

is created.

It's on the ball.

Time doesn't apply to God.

Just as if you're watching,

you know,

Downton Abbey

or watching something on Netflix

and we're outside of it,

the time that's going on

in the show,

that's completely different than us.

Just a very smart way.

And all of creation

is like this tennis ball.

It's even curved

because who on earth

can get their mind

around the fact

that space is curved?

And God is outside of it.

Time doesn't apply to him.

And what the Bible text

is just saying

is that Jesus,

who lived with body and soul,

that he entered,

in a sense,

this tennis ball.

He entered the realm

of space and time,

the credit order.

And he did all the things

that he did

to ultimately save us,

that at some point in time,

the resurrection appearances

come to an end,

which is part of the point

of the ascension.

And Jesus leaves space and time

and body and soul,

he goes outside of space and time

where God is.

And if you say,

well, how on earth

does that work?

Then all I can say

is what Paul says

in 1 Corinthians 15.

You fool.

How on earth

can we possibly talk

about what existence

is like

outside of space and time?

You know,

we can't even,

it's a famous problem

in philosophy

that you can't even

talk about time

without using

an analogy

of distance and length.

Isn't that freaky?

I think that's mind-blowing.

So how on earth

could God use

any words

that would mean

anything to our minds

framed by space and time

as to what it's like

for the God,

the Son of God,

body and soul,

to leave space and time

to be where there is

no space and time

where God is?

I don't know what that means.

But one day I will.

I will.

Now,

that's all pretty cool.

But you know what?

For some people,

just hearing what I've just said,

all it would do

is create fear within them.

I just saw this

really spectacular quote

in the paper the other day.

It was quoting

a Canadian academic.

It was written by,

the article was by

a non-Christian,

really very,

very, very, very

deeply thoughtful guy.

I love reading him.

And he was talking about

this new work

by a Canadian

teaching the States

trying to talk about terrorism.

And Andrew,

could you put up

the first note?

Hey, bien.

I'm going to,

this is a quote.

It's just NB

because it's not my point,

although I've just

slightly adapted it.

Here's what I saw

in the paper

just recently.

If God is,

actually they use God

with a capital G

and I demoted that God.

Sorry,

it's a Christian church,

so I demoted him.

it

for this purpose.

But if God is on our side,

everyone else is godless

and worthy of death.

If God is on our side,

everyone else is godless

and worthy of death.

Now,

in our bones,

we believe that.

I mean,

for a lot of people

in our culture,

if I,

the more you come

to prove that Jesus

might actually have risen

from the dead

or that it's intellectually compelling,

for many of them,

it's not,

oh,

you know,

tune my heart

to sing thy praise,

but a feeling of dread.

Now,

this quote was in the context

of explaining

Islamic terrorism

or Islamists,

anyway,

you know,

I don't,

I'm not,

you know,

that terrorism

from that root,

but the fact is

he didn't say that.

He made it

in a very general comment

and that for many,

many,

many,

many people

in our culture,

this is how

they view religion.

It's why,

no matter how compelling

arguments would be,

they do not want,

part of the reason

they do not want it

to be true,

but let's be honest.

If I was like God

and I could do things

like God

and get away with it,

people would die.

And I'm not

especially wicked.

I'm probably only

average wicked.

I think every single

one of you too,

if you think about it,

my body count

might be way higher

than yours

because you're

a better person

than me.

And why is it

that we talk

about murderous looks?

And there is

something deeply

human

in this phrase.

That if I had

the power of God,

if I thought that

God was on my side,

then those who

are the godless

are worthy of death.

And we would

kill some of them.

I would kill some of them.

So would you.

There's something

very true

about that statement.

So,

and the other thing

about it was

we have to be honest

is that some people

who call themselves

Christians

and maybe really

even are Christians

have acted

in this way.

God is on their side.

The godless,

therefore,

are worthy of death.

So let's just look

a little bit here

at the Bible

and see

do Christians

need to be corrected

by modern academics,

by secular culture?

Do we need to be

corrected?

Because if we get

too serious

in the Bible

it's only going to

cause deep problems.

Muslims.

I just read a very,

very fascinating book

by a former Muslim

and one of the things

that he says

is that part of the problem

right now going on

in Islam

it's by

Nabil Qureshi

and

is that

in Islam

there's the Quran

then there's the Hadith

and then there's Sharia

with fatwas

that go along with it

and all three of them

sort of govern

how Muslims

sort of understand

themselves

and that when people

are asking for Muslims

to go underneath

a reformation

the problem is

that the Quran

is vastly more

murderous and bloody

than the other two sources.

In other words

he says

ISIS

is the reformation

and that for Quran

for Muslims

we need to hope

that the other sources

which are far more humane

end up governing

and historically

have governed

how most actual Muslims

that you'd ever meet

actually would live

that those become

more powerful

but for Christians

is it that as we get

more closely into the Bible

that this will be true?

Well let's look

we stopped at verse 3

let's continue at verse 4

and while staying with them

that was Jesus

and by the way

one of the words

for staying

that little simple sentence

could be translated

in three ways

by the way

in Greek

and one of the ways

to translate it

would be that he was

eating with them

like yet another proof

that he was actually

physically alive

he ordered them

not to depart

from Jerusalem

but to wait

for the promise

of the Father

for which he said

you heard from me

for John baptized

with water

but you will be

baptized with the Holy Spirit

not many days

from now

and you know

it might very well be

that for the apostles

they think

whoa

we're going to really

have power now

now we're going to be able

who knows what they thought

then verse 6

so when they had come together

they asked him

Lord will you at this time

restore the kingdom of Israel

now when they're asking

in this question

they're basically asking

God are you going to come

is Jesus

are you going to become

the head of Israel

and is Israel going to

basically take over

the world

that all of the world

will bow the knee to Israel

and by the way

when they're asking

this question

if you read the gospels

you know that they thought

they would all have

they weren't thinking

they would be on the top

they weren't thinking

they'd be the top dog

they were thinking

that Jesus would be

in the top chair

but guess who would be

in the chair

just underneath them

them

and then Israel

and then the world

so that's how they think

they're asking him

that question

verse 7

and if you think

about it for a second

isn't that question

like this

that's implicit

in the question

something like that

God's on our side

those who are not

are godless

and how does Jesus answer

he said to them

verse 7

it is not for you

to know times

or seasons

that the father

has fixed

by his own authority

now just pause here

for a second

he basically ignores

the question

basically he's saying

that's not what's

going to happen

and the other thing

which is really

really significant here

is that it's not

just that people

people who think

that God is on their

side

they also

you know

the most of the death

in the 20th century

that's been caused

by tyranny

has been by people

who think that utopia

is on their side

that they've understood

the flow of history

and because they know

how history is going

to go

the workers

the peasants

the educated

that the people

who are Chinese

if you're in Vietnam

or whatever

the wrong groups

they can be put

to death

and Jesus here

is completely

rejecting

any type of

millennial

utopian knowledge

given to his people

Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton

Bernie Sanders

the person

who will serve you

coffee at Tim Hortons

and the next street

person

and me

all equally

know the future

as well as

the philosophy

faculty

and sociology

and psychology

and political

science faculty

and MBA faculty

University of Ottawa

and Carleton

we all equally

know the future

which is zero

the one thing

that Christians

know

is that Jesus

will return

beyond that

nada

that's

that's all we know

so you see

right here

that the biblical

text is starting

to cut the legs

out from that

human desire

expressed in that

quote

but it gets

even more

look at verse 8

but

okay

so we want

they want to have

political power

and they want to have

knowledge of the future

Jesus says

you're not going to have

either of those things

but

and I don't know

maybe they're going

okay but

there's going to be

something better

there's going to be

something better

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 end

of the earth

let's be honest

folks

for many of us

when we hear

that rather than

getting lots of

power and superior

knowledge

we just get the

Holy Spirit

we say we just

get the Holy Spirit

oh dang

I was hoping

for something

a bit better

let's just be honest

but Jesus

is giving us

something better

if we trust

him

in verse 9

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

their angels

and said

men of Galilee

why do you stand

looking into heaven

this Jesus

by the way

this is going to be

really significant

because it introduces

a phrase

that's going to be

all the way

through the rest

of the book of Acts

and all the way

through the book of Acts

constantly

the apostles say

this same Jesus

whom you crucified

it's tying it

to the entire

book of Luke

this Jesus

okay I'll explain

the significance

in a moment

this Jesus

who was taken up

from you into heaven

will come

in the same way

as you saw him

go into heaven

could you put up

the first point

as the next point

Andrew

here's what the

Bible's trying to teach

this is one of the

reasons why this

deep fear that we

have in our culture

that the Bible

the Christian faith

that what Jesus does

it completely

undermines it

because you see

the cultural

expectation we have

in our culture

is that if

if I was like God

people would die

that is so deeply

rooted in our culture

that if

in what it means

to be a human

that if I was God

if I was like God

if I had God

in my pocket

if I could walk

around and God

was right with me

and he would do

whatever I wanted

because he is my ally

people would die

and we cannot

understand

that the God

who really does

live and exist

and he saw human

beings like you

and me

and he decided

he would die

out of love

for us

and what we're

seeing here

with the end

of the ascension

is we see this

one powerful

act of grace

by one person

to redeem

every person

who receives him

by faith alone

what we have to

understand

is that it's all

just one mighty

act of God

Philippians 2

5 to 11

puts it all

in a very very

wonderful way

and it's God

the son of God

and he sees

profound human need

he sees the murder

in our hearts

he sees the desire

for us to be God

in our hearts

and seeing who we are

as we really are

he sets aside

his glory

and divine prerogatives

and it's one mighty

act to save us

created in the womb

of the virgin Mary

taking into himself

our human nature

even such unbelievably

frail and weak

human nature

as what a human being

is like in the womb

of a woman

taking that into himself

without giving up

being God

and going through

the process of birth

and living as a child

and living as a lower

working class person

in an oppressed

people group

and doing his three

years of teaching

in his sinless life

it's all one mighty

act of God

and his death

upon the cross

where God himself

dies for humanity

that wants to be God

and he sees

we cannot leave ourselves

and he dies

for us

God himself

as Jesus

as man

dies

for you

and me

and then

he tastes

all there is

to taste of death

and then he rises

from the dead

on the third day

and then he ascends

into heaven

it is one

mighty act

of grace

one mighty act

of God

to redeem

any

who put their faith

and trust in him

and it completely

subverts

to use modern

post-modern language

it completely

deconstructs

and subverts

the fear

and desires

of our heart

if we are but

willing to recognize

that they are there

within us

the other day

and that's by the way

that's why we don't need

secular philosophy

to improve

Christianity

what we just need

is to be gripped

by the gospel

Jesus calls us

to be witnesses

not rulers

and by the way

that's a wonderful

wonderful comfort

so I've shared

with you

there are many times

too many times

for me to share

with you

when I've tried

they know I'm a Christian

and people

it's almost as if

some people

this is not a bad thing

it's a good thing

it's almost as if

they're waiting

for me to come in

because they've got

an objection

to the Christian faith

that they don't think

I'll be able to beat

and sometimes

I am not an apologetic ninja

I don't go

oh yeah

and then karate chop them

and just

aha beat them

I am

Bible here isn't saying

I am going to make you

apologetic ninjas

who will destroy

every single argument

that ever comes your way

no it doesn't say that

the power comes

from the Holy Spirit

that's where all the power

comes from

I just want you

to be witnesses

not ninjas

witnesses

the word is martyr

the word is martyr

now just the other day

I was coming into

I have to

I have to be careful

here at my time

I came into

one of my favorite

coffee shops

and

a person was telling me

about their

I guess their latest theory

and

and she has a

science degree

and

completely non-Christian

really really

you know

a nice young woman

and

and

for some reason

she wanted to share with me

that the only value

that human beings have

is that the energy

that is within them

and

and that when they die

the only value we have

is the energy

that we release

back

when we die

and

here's the thing

Andrew could you

let's read verses 9 and 11 again

and when he had said these things

as they were looking on

he was lifted up

in a cloud

took him out of their sight

we'll just read verse 9

Jesus is taken up into heaven

body and soul

let's put this next point up

Andrew

the human person

body and soul

matters to God

so the person

body and soul

should matter to God's

redeemed people

I mean the fact of the matter

is it's actually sort of

very sad and tragic

and I didn't do a very good job

responding to

to this young woman

but it's sort of

very sad and tragic

to think that

the only way we can

could conceive

from a scientific point of view

the value of a human being

is the energy

value in the body

and

we don't really live that way

because the fact of the matter

is if somebody

had slapped her

I'm sure she'd say

how dare you treat me that way

if somebody had

you know

taken her wages

she'd work the hours

and then somebody else

had taken the wages

or taken all the tips

she'd say

how dare you treat me like that

and on one level

we have this very fundamental sense

that there's a dignity

and importance to human beings

and there's a dignity

and value of human beings

but for people increasingly

in our culture

we have no way of grounding

that in anything

like one of the saddest things

about the conversation

between the atheist

and Os Guinness

last Sunday night

in this room

was that he had no way

to actually account

for the value

or dignity of human beings

or even their freedom

but look at this

this text

of the ascension

it's so wonderful

Jesus

body and soul

goes to be with God

outside of space and time

it shows that the body

and what it means

to be a person

that it matters

and that's why

Christians throughout the ages

as they've been gripped

by the gospel

not only do they want

to go to the ends of the earth

to share the gospel

but we

that as you're gripped

by the gospel

you know that being a person

matters body and soul

and that's why

historically Christians

they want to

they want to start hospitals

they want to start hospices

they want to start schools

they want to

people who don't have

have language

but no writing

they want to give them writing

they want to give them

the gift of books

and the gift of learning

and they've been at the

and it's why Christians

you know Martin Luther King

and the whole civil rights movement

and William Stringfellow

and the abolition of slavery

and how Christians

and you know

the birth of some basic

social care issues

in Canada

which came out of the

you know

out of the

you know

out of the

Manitoba

and Christians

it's

there's a concern

for justice

for treating people right

for treating people well

for the abol

the body matters

the person matters

and because of that

justice matters

and feeding people

matters

and it's rooted

in Jesus

it's rooted in the gospel

as we're gripped

by the gospel

we will have

a greater concern

for the integrity

and the value

and the importance

of a person

body and soul

and in fact

as well as that

like you know

the well-meaning people

who try to say

that Jesus didn't ascend

bodily into heaven

and didn't

in 1 Corinthians 15

Jesus had a spiritual body

and they're

they're very well-meaning

but sometimes

they're often very well-meaning

sometimes they're not

sometimes they're just

being troublesome

and mischievous

but they're potentially

well-meaning

and they don't understand

that the 1 Corinthians 15

isn't saying

that somehow

Jesus' body

became just spirit

yet the spiritual body

means

you know

my body

and my spirit

and my mind

often don't work together

like I wake up

in the morning

and I'd like to be

a go up

get up

and get them

but my knees

just don't agree

I used to be

when I was young

I could get up

in the morning

go for a run

I need to be up

like for an hour

and a half

two hours

just to get the

things moving

you know

my mind

wants to do

something

my soul

wants to do

something

my body

just doesn't

agree

gets in the way

and the spiritual

body is saying

that the actual

body is so

completely at one

with God

with a redeemed

spirit

and so

when a spiritual

body

is being taken

up into heaven

it means that

Jesus is triumphant

not only over

all evil things

but creation

itself

which no