Ascension

Today's reading is from Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 11.

Acts 1:6–11

So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?

He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the 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 Judea, and in 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, and 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 is 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.

Thanks be to God.

Good morning.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

My name is James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.

And it is a joy to gather together with you on the day after a great victory.

So here's my joke.

This is the joke that you get that I've told like 15 times this morning.

Because you know what happened was we crushed their head, but they bruised our heel.

Quick, let's pray before something else happens.

Holy Father, thank you for bringing us together.

Lord, we thank you that you ascended into heaven, you sit at the right hand of the Father, and you reign today.

You reign right now.

Lord, I pray that you would work this truth into our hearts.

That you are sovereign Lord over all things, that you are in control of all things.

All things that happen in our lives, all things that take place in the biggest scales of government and the small scales of our own family and in our inner thought lives, Lord, you rule.

Of what you have accomplished on our behalf, of your life, death, and resurrection, which means our salvation, of your ascension, which means your rule and reign presently, Lord, that we would look forward to the hope that we have of your return, as you will return just as you left, Lord, you will descend from the heavens.

Lord, to make your rule and reign present with us.

Lord, all of these things are true.

They really happened.

We really have them to look forward to.

We can't grasp them without the enlivening of your Holy Spirit.

So, Lord, we ask that you would enliven our hearts today to be able to see the truth that you've revealed in your word.

Lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So the ascension.

This is a uh uh it's something that we confess each week uh when we gather together in the Apostles' Creed that he ascended into heaven.

And here we get to look at how it is that Luke in Acts connects the ascension directly to the mission of the church.

If we're to grasp the mission of the church, then we need to understand the ascension.

The ascension is used by Luke in both his gospel and in uh this book, Acts.

Luke is the author of both, and it acts, it functions as an ending and a beginning.

So we're going to look at how the ascension is both an ending and a beginning.

It's the end of Luke's gospel, the gospel of Luke.

And so we'll start there, and then we'll move into our text this morning, which is in the beginning of Acts, and we'll see how the ascension functions as this beginning of the new covenant age, this church age.

So in Luke 24, verses 50 through 53, it says, And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

Luke 24:50–53

While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven, and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, blessing God.

That is the end of Luke's gospel, the description of the ascension.

The disciples are gathered together with Jesus in Bethany, and Jesus blesses his disciples, and then in that, you know, the very plain language that the scripture writers often use, and you have to read it again, and it's like, wait, did I just read what I thought I read?

It says, which he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

I probably would have spent at least a paragraph on that if I were the writer.

But in the you get, you know, half a sentence.

He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

Now we have to have this understanding of uh it's sort of like the this missing part of Jesus' story often in our own conception of Jesus.

Like the ascension is the central doctrine of our faith and of the narrative of who Jesus is, how we know who he is.

And we talk about his life, we talk about his death, we talk about his resurrection, but the ascension often gets neglected.

The other gospel writers don't include it.

Luke includes it twice.

He makes up for that deficit, effectively.

And it answers this most important question.

You know, in the in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, if Jesus rose from the dead never to die again, then there's a question that should come up in your head if somebody told you that story.

And the question that you would ask is, okay, cool, where is he?

You know?

He rose from the dead and never to die again, and be like, okay, well then I probably could go find him somewhere.

So we have to have an answer to that simple question.

And the answer to that question is the ascension.

That Jesus, in his body, rose into the heavens.

He ascended to the throne room of God.

And we know it because it's recorded here, and it didn't take place in a corner, it took place in the view of the disciples.

That those whom he had tasked to bear witness to his whole story, so that they might be the ones who served as eyewitnesses for the world of his story, he ascends into heaven in their view, so that they might continue as witnesses, as this essential part of their story as well.

In Luke, we learn that the uh ascension takes place in Bethany.

Bethany is two miles outside of Jerusalem, which now with like cars and modern conveniences, like lime scooters and things, two miles is nothing.

But that would be like a whole separate area, not too far, but uh it's a whole separate area.

And Bethany is the hometown of Mary and of Lazarus.

Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

Martha and Mary and Lazarus are brothers and sisters.

Lazarus is famous because he died and then Jesus brought him back to life.

So Bethany is like a resurrection sort of place.

It's a place of uh ascending, you might say, ascending into life.

And Bethany is also, it's sort of like the green room of Jerusalem.

You know, Jerusalem is like it's the Colosseum, you know, that's where the action happens.

That's uh what Jerusalem is like in the biblical narrative.

But Bethany is like just outside of Jerusalem.

This is the staging area.

So the triumphal entry takes place in Jerusalem.

You know, when Jesus moves into Jerusalem for that first uh uh beginning of holy week, and they're saying, Hosanna and the highest, so here's the son of David, and there's a celebration at his entry, that triumphal entry, he enters as as as a king would enter.

Jesus enters Jerusalem.

Well, he enters from Bethany.

Bethany is the place where the triumphal entry is staged.

It's the place where, okay, this is, we're gonna gather here together, and then I'm going to go into Jerusalem, which is the capital city, and I'll take my kingly office.

It's the place where you stage the taking of the kingly office.

That's that's Bethany.

That's what it's like.

And so the disciples are gathered with Jesus outside of Bethany, or excuse me, outside of Jerusalem in Bethany.

And as it's described in Luke, this is the place of his ascension.

This is the place where he does, in a sense, make a triumphal entry from Bethany, just like he made a triumphal entry before, but it is a more magnificent triumphal entry than entering Jerusalem.

It is a higher throne than merely taking the throne of the king of Israel in Jerusalem.

He is ascending to the throne room of God, where all authority in heaven and on earth is given to him.

It is the highest possible throne.

And so Christ's ascension in the Gospel of Luke is met with the worship of Jesus.

It says they see him carried up into heaven, and then they continually worship him.

They worship Jesus as God.

And then the disciples will return to Jerusalem, and they return to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

They're blessing God for what had taken place.

Now, this is like the bookend, this is the end of the Gospel of Luke, because there is a true end that the ascension represents.

This is the end of Christ's physically present earthly ministry.

You cannot go visit Jesus anymore.

You can't hear, you can't catch word that he's sailing across the Sea of Galilee and get your friends together and say, we're gonna wake up early, we're gonna read first in line, and we're gonna last time I heard that there was tons of bread and fish.

And you get we'll get to be a part of that.

Maybe we'll we'll get to be a part of that.

It's not like that.

It's not like that anymore.

It's not the way we encounter Jesus anymore.

So there is a real end here, an end of Jesus' first coming that is marked by the ascension.

But what Acts pulls us into and shows us is that this truly is a beginning.

This is the beginning of Jesus' heavenly rule and reign, of the church age, in which he will subdue all nations and all peoples and tribes to himself, showing that he is the one who reigns over all things, the Lord of lords, the king of kings.

And so he leaves physically, but he commissions his church, empowers them by the Holy Spirit to be witnesses to his present rule and reign in the heavens.

You can think of it like this Jesus is no longer physically present.

But his physical absence is not a diminishment of his power.

If somebody if there were uh what's our mayor's name?

Johnston.

Mike Johnston, right?

So if Mike Johnston is uh you know, and in now the way it is with Mike Johnston now is we can all go see him whenever we want.

You know.

Kind of.

Like if you wanted to see him, you could just go hang outside the mayor's office or the city and county building or something and be like, hey Mike, Mike, you know.

And that's what it's like.

And so we have Mike Johnston present with us now, and it's great, you know, to have him present with us now.

It's it's great.

And if he were to then become president, he wouldn't be present in Denver anymore.

He'd he would he would have ascended to a higher office in Washington, D.C.

But we wouldn't think, oh Mike, you know, he used to have all the power, but he's not present here in Denver anymore, and now he's that pitiful president of the United States type of thing.

You know, this is not a diminishment of his power, as he's no longer physically present here in Denver.

We would think, yeah, Mike Johnson, I can't, it's tough to get an uh appointment with him.

It used to be easy.

We'd just see him downtown all the time.

But now that he has ascended to this higher office, he's no longer physically present.

Oh, but his power is more present than ever.

The shape of his of his rule and reign is more expansive, more complete.

It's more powerful, he can make more things happen than he possibly could here as just the local mayor.

This is the shape of Christ's ascension.

His absence, his physical absence, is not a diminishment of his power.

It is his stepping into the fullness of his reign.

The fullness of his reign, because he ascends to the throne of God.

And that is what this is the beginning of.

This is the beginning of the fullness of the reign of Christ over all things, as he ascends to the throne in heaven.

And that's what we are walked through here in Acts, as we recognize the beginning of Christ's heavenly reign.

That's where the story of the church begins.

Acts 1.6 says, now this is a this is Luke retelling the same story of the ascension, but with fuller detail here at the beginning of Acts.

In Acts 1.6 it says, So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

When they had come together, this is the same thing, so we know where they are, because this was relayed to us in Luke, they're in Bethany.

That's where the ascension takes place.

And so Jesus gathers together with his disciples in Bethany.

And here in Acts we learn that the conversation and the events surrounding his ascension are sparked by this conversation with the disciples, and they have a question.

They asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Now, John Calvin famously says of this question, he says, There are as many errors in this question as words, which is uh what a take.

Calvin is not known for his like moderate takes, which I appreciate.

You want a take, you know, it's like soup.

You want it hot, you know, if you're gonna have a take.

It's my take on takes.

There are as many errors in this question as words.

Now, the question is, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

But now that we know where they are, that the disciples are asking Jesus this, they're at Bethany.

What happens at Bethany?

Triumphal entries into the capital city as a king.

That's what happens at Bethany.

Last time we were here, Lazarus rose from the dead.

That really got the crowd going.

And at Lazarus rising from the dead, they, Jesus is like, We got we only got a couple of things to take care of.

There's a donkey, and you're gonna have to go bring me the donkey.

Once you bring me the donkey, we're rolling into Jerusalem.

And they roll into Jerusalem, and he enters like the king of Jerusalem, like the son of David entering into the capital city.

That's what you do at Bethany.

You make kingly entrances into the capital city.

You make something like an ascension to the throne.

So for the disciples to say, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel, do you hear how sensible it is?

You've gathered us together in Bethany.

Last time this happened, things did not go as we expected them to go.

In fact, you ended up crucified at the end of this week, and we were all really down about it.

But now that we know that our king who we're entering in with this time is invincible, seems like we should we should try that again.

It's an utterly sensible question.

It's a completely sensible question for the disciples to ask.

Let's do another triumphal entry.

This time, have you seen my guy?

They would say when they're walking in.

Remember last time, that triumphal entry, you guys thought you had one over on us.

Now check out my guy.

You know, that's what they were probably imagining, chomping at the bit.

Yeah, let's get in there.

Let's get in there.

Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

But Calvin is right in his assessment of this question.

There are as many errors in this question as words.

We'll look through a couple of them.

You know, just the question itself reveals that the disciples do not understand the shape of the kingdom's coming, the nature of the kingdom itself, and the extent of the kingdom.

So, first of all, we can look at it in at this time.

There, the beginning of the question is, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Their expectation is that the restoration of the kingdom will be immediate.

It will be like a quick little coup.

They'll just walk in, and Jesus will announce, I'm the king, I'm the son of David, I'm the rightful heir to the throne.

And then what they're expecting to walk in and witness when they walk into Jerusalem is they'll all be gathered around together, and Jesus will be ready to take the throne, and they'll all the hobbits will be up front, you know, and then the all the other Gandalf and the other folks that were a part of this grand adventure, and it's like, wow, that was a pretty wild story of getting the right king to the throne that we got to bear witness to here, and then they'll and then they'll have a ceremony, and Jesus will be made the king.

And all of the enemies will think, well, there's not much we can do about this because it turns out we can't kill him.

Because he comes back from the dead, the last time that we did that.

That's the expectation.

That type of ascension.

It will be immediate at this time.

Walk in, merely declare it, he is the king, Jerusalem is his, that means Judea is his, the kingdom is restored.

But they don't understand because Jesus himself described the coming of the kingdom in a very different way.

The coming of the kingdom, as Jesus had already told it to them in his parables, of what the kingdom of God is like, is not something that takes place immediately.

In fact, it's it's he describes it like this in Matthew 13, 32, Jesus said, It is the smallest of all seeds.

But when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

That's what the kingdom of heaven is like.

It's like a mustard seed.

And so it will not just it will not just appear.

That's not the way trees work.

Instead, it will be planted.

And it will be planted, and then as it is planted, it will grow.

And it will grow with something like it how organisms grow.

It will have an organic progressive growth.

That is the shape of the coming of the kingdom.

It is not something that can merely be uh declared and then realized in its universal scope.

That's not the way the kingdom will come.

And so they miss it when they ask at this time.

They don't understand what's taking place.

The second way we see that they misunderstand what's happening is in their use of the word restored.

It says, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

They think that they already know what the kingdom is going to be like.

What it's going to be like is like how the kingdom was under David and under Solomon.

Under David and under Solomon, it is a united kingdom.

The north and south are united together.

It is, and they're under one king.

And all of Israel is united under this one king.

And then under Solomon, they become the great empire of the world.

All of the other nations of the world are coming in to just check out how Solomon is leading such a wonderful united kingdom that he was leading.

The farthest reaches of the world come to visit and are and are pouring in.

And so their expectation is that kingdom, which we lost after just two generations, that that kingdom will be restored.

And Israel will once again grow to the heights of glory that it was meant to be.

It'll be like the exile never happened.

It'll be like Rome's conquest of Jerusalem never took place.

And we as a people will finally be restored to this place.

What they misunderstand is that this is not a restoration of the kingdom.

There is no return happening here.

There is only something new.

There is a new covenant.

This kingdom is not a return.

This kingdom is an advance.

It is not a return to the old kingdom under David and Solomon.

It is an advance beyond all the kingdoms of the world.

And so they misunderstand what can happen.

You know, you could go and you could uh uh take over Jerusalem and say this this now belongs to us, and then you would rule it.

I've read that you can just go take leaders of countries and then that country's yours.

Have you guys read them?

And if it's one, if it's the size of one nation, then yeah, that's the way things work.

That's the way nations have heads, and then if you're the head, then it then it's your nation.

That could be restored.

The true king is here, it's restored.

That's what happened with David.

That's the way things happen, but that this kingdom is not like that.

This is not a just Israel big kingdom.

This kingdom will go to the ends of the earth.

The ends of the earth.

Lastly, what we see is they describe it as will the kingdom be restored to Israel?

This is related to that restoration idea, but what they miss here is the scope of the kingdom.

They think that there is the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God will be restored to Israel, so that Israel will be the seat of the kingdom of God in the world.

That is not the shape of this kingdom.

The shape of the kingdom of God will not look like the kingdom being restored to Israel.

It will look like Israel being brought in with all of the other nations into the kingdom of God.

Do you see?

It's perfectly opposite.

God is going to restore all nations under his rule.

You know, remember, that's what a kingdom is.

It's where the king rules.

God in Christ, Christ is the rightful king of all nations, king of kings, lord of lords.

Israel is a nation.

Israel will be restored, just like all the other nations, to the kingdom of God.

They will take their place in the kingdom of God with all the other nations.

It is not that the kingdom will be restored to Israel.

That is not the shape of this.

It is that Israel, along with all the other nations, with the cosmic reign of Christ, will be restored to the kingdom.

So you see how the disciples misunderstand this.

They misunderstand the shape.

Their expectation is the restoration of a kingdom that is the same shape as the kingdoms of David or the kingdom of Solomon.

A united Israel, no longer under the yoke of Roman oppression, because their new king, who is the promised Messiah of the Jewish people, will has proven himself invincible, and so we're in Bethany.

Let's go make another triumphal entry.

But their question shows that the kingdom is not an immediate declaration, because it is not going over one nation, it is going to all nations.

It is not immediate, but it grows progressively, organically.

The kingdom is not a return, but it is an advance.

It is not a return to the reign and rule of Solomon.

It is an advance into something that nobody has ever seen before.

We haven't seen it yet.

God is doing new things, new songs.

God is like you.

He likes new stuff.

That's one way to think about it.

And so he likes to do things new.

You haven't seen it before.

A whole new shape of the kingdom.

You're going to usher it in with new songs.

That is what the ascension of Christ means.

Kingdom is not a return but an advance.

And the kingdom transcends the nation of Israel.

It is not a restoration of the nation of Israel.

It is a transcending of the nation of Israel.

It's going into all nations.

I think this will shock and stun the disciples when as this that's this will be the central theme of Acts is the gospel just crossing another border, crossing another border, seeing more people from all nations and tribes and tongues brought into the kingdom of God.

And the the the extent of the power of the gospel will continue to fascinate and amaze the apostles.

So Jesus, of course, hears this question, and he corrects their thinking in his answer.

He does that thing where Jesus does, Jesus is not the, he doesn't, he cares what you ask, but he doesn't care so much about what you ask as to not tell you what you need to hear.

You know what I mean?

He's like, that's a great question.

Okay, here's what you actually need to hear, is the way Jesus often answers questions.

And we see them correct their thinking in this answer.

In Acts 1.7, Jesus answers their question.

He said to them, Firstly, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

He immediately corrects their thinking.

He says, This is not like a at this time.

You're not going to be able to know when the culmination of the kingdom of God has arrived, where Jesus comes in as the true king at his second coming.

You won't know when that will happen.

Those times and seasons have been fixed by the Father.

They belong to him.

They are under his authority, and he does not give them to you.

You know, this is important to know in our own just like consideration as Christians and as creatures of God.

There are things that He reserves for Himself that are only His to know.

And so you won't be able to pin down at this, you can't pin down the future.

It is not the church's responsibility to pin down the future.

What the Lord gives us is not times and dates.

He doesn't say, mark your calendars because I'm coming back at this exact time.

He says, I don't know, it could be whatever, whenever I feel like it.

So get to work.

That's the posture that we have.

That means we live by faith in his promises.

He doesn't give us us, he doesn't give us timelines, he gives us promises.

Promises for how to live by faith.

We know he will come.

We don't know when it will be.

Those are fixed by his own authority.

He continues on, 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 end of the earth.

This is the thesis statement of the book of Acts.

So we'll spend some time here.

You will receive power, Jesus says, 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.

The first promise.

The promise is that the disciples will receive power to be witnesses to God.

And this power is in their receiving of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus will ascend into heaven and then he will give to his church, he will pour out his Holy Spirit onto the church, so that the whole of the church will be Holy Spirit-empowered witnesses to Jesus Christ.

Now consider that.

Consider how much better this is.

Jesus doesn't say to them, He's, there's one way that Jesus could do it, where he could say, Yeah, yeah, you're right, let's go get the kingdom.

I'm gonna make a big announcement in the sky.

And when I announce it in the sky, then you'll just live in the kingdom.

And everybody will know I'm king and I'm Lord, and you'll have the kingdom, and it will take place immediately.

He could just give them the kingdom, is what I'm saying.

But what is better?

Here's a this is like a little riddle, you know?

Who is given more?

The person who is given a kingdom or the person who is given the power to establish a kingdom?

What would you rather have?

It's like a it feels like a fairy tale riddle, doesn't it?

What would you rather have if you were given the option?

Would you rather be given the kingdom?

Or would you rather be given the power to establish a kingdom?

Now you can hear, you can just think about it for just a you know a couple of seconds or whatever.

And you start to realize, you know, the power to establish a kingdom, that's that's even more glorious.

It's even more wonderful.

Where doesn't that work?

There are there are no there are no borders, there are no boundaries to the power to establish a kingdom.

It can work in all places, all tribes, all tongues, all nations.

This is the glory of what the church receives in the Holy Spirit.

The power to bear witness to the kingdom of God.

And the Lord brings his kingdom by the churches, bearing witness to him.

The people of God are given the power by the Holy Spirit to bear witness to him.

And he calls them, he commissions them, you will be my witnesses.

And then he lays out this geographical shape of that the book of Acts will take.

You'll be my witnesses first in Jerusalem, that great city just over there.

You might remember only 40 days ago, it's the place where I triumphantly entered and was killed.

It's a dangerous city.

It's a strong city.

It's like Jericho.

It's the gateway to the promised land.

But it's also the gate to the promised land.

It's the one thing you don't want to have to go through.

The last place you want to go, witnessing to Jesus, is Jerusalem, the city that just killed him.

But that's where it will begin.

You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and they would probably understand it.

Okay, Jesus is establishing his kingdom.

I know what the kingdom of Israel is like.

He's the promised Messiah of Israel.

So of course, it will begin at the capital city.

That's where you would accomplish this sort of a kingdom transfer.

That's where he would ascend to the throne.

But they will go in to Jerusalem, and then they'll go to all Judea.

And the disciples might think, I'm still with you.

This still makes sense.

Jerusalem is the seat of power for the region of Judea.

And so we will rule over this region.

And then Jesus says, and Samaria.

And they think, okay, all right, Samaria.

I guess if we get our momentum really going, Samaria kind of makes sense because we're they're they're a half-tribe.

They're they're they have uh Jewish lineage and gentile lineage.

And so, yeah, we'll go in and they're they're half in, they're half out, which has been sort of the main thing to us in the past, but they're half in.

We can emphasize that about Samaria.

So yeah, we'll go in there.

And then Jesus finally says it, and at the end he says, and to the end of the earth.

And then it would click.

This is a different, this is a different rule.

This is a different rule in reign.

And they might it they might even have thought then, I don't think Jesus is going into Jerusalem.

If he were to go into Jerusalem, I I I don't think this is, I think they might have started to think something like there, he's going to ascend to the throne.

He brought us to Bethany, triumphal entry.

This feels like it seems like ascension sort of time, Messiah, you know, they're putting all this stuff together.

The closest throne is just two miles that way.

But after describing the shape of his kingdom, that throne doesn't seem high enough.

Let's say he ascends to the throne of Jerusalem.

That's not the seat of power for the ends of the earth.

That throne won't accomplish it.

You see, that it's starting, they're starting to get it.

Well, what throne do you sit on that rules over all creation?

What throne can he ascend to by which all authority in heaven and on earth might be given to him?

By what throne can he give them the power to bear witnesses, to bear witness in such a way that it establishes the kingdom of God?

What throne has the scepter which can bear that type of power, which can place that type of power upon its citizens?

This is a high throne, far higher than the throne in Jerusalem.

This is the throne of God that Jesus will ascend to.

You know, they were right.

They were going to see something like an ascension, where a king ascends to the throne.

They were wrong because they couldn't imagine the heights of the throne that Jesus is ascending to.

You know, there's a question in this that I that I want to address or entertain for a bit, and that is why doesn't Jesus, you know, he has he has all authority in heaven and on earth.

That's a lot.

And he could do something like instantly transform the hearts of his people and rule over all the nations of the earth just by in the same way that he made light from darkness.

You know, just by declaring it.

But he doesn't do that.

Instead, even in the shape of the extent of his power that's going to be described in his kingdom, he describes it progressively.

You start in the capital city, you'll move to the surrounding region, you'll go to the borderlands, and then all the way to the ends of the earth.

There's this progressive conquest of the kingdom of God.

Now, why does Jesus structure it like this?

Well, we know why he did this for the conquest of the land of Canaan in the Old Testament, when the Israelites were commissioned to go into the land of Canaan and conquer the whole land.

Moses teaches the people that God is not going to give them the whole land at once.

He doesn't just give them the whole land of Canaan.

Instead, he requires them to progressively conquer the land.

And he tells them why.

In Exodus 23, verses 29 through 30, Moses says this.

Exodus 23:29–30

He says, I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you.

Little by little I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and possessed the land.

See, the driving out is directly related to the increase of the people.

And it is the Lord's desire that when he moves into a nation, that the Lord conquers the hearts of the people in that nation so that they become citizens of the kingdom of God.

Their hearts are conquered by the proclamation of the gospel.

The gospel of forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ, our true King.

This message of the forgiveness of sins moves through the whole of the world, the whole of a nation, so that the hearts of the people are established in Christ.

And then as those people grow, then the land is possessed.

The land is had by them.

You know, but now we're not thinking of the land as like this, you know, niche territory on the east side of the Mediterranean.

In the Great Commission, we see that it is the whole world.

The whole world.

It has to be progressive because this is the restoration of what the mission was from the very beginning.

Think of the mission of Adam and Eve.

You see, you have to have more people in order for the kingdom to grow.

It's the way the kingdom of God is.

If Canaan was driven out and there was a bunch of uninhabited Canaan space, that doesn't really count as kingdom space.

It's just, you know, greater uninhabited Canaan.

Nobody takes care of the roads in greater uninhabited Canaan.

You have to have people there.

Because the kingdom of God is where God rules in the hearts of his people.

And what was the mission from the very beginning?

Do you remember what Adam and Eve were tasked to do from the very beginning?

Be fruitful.

Multiply.

Take dominion over the earth.

Subdue it.

You know how hard it is to take dominion over the world when it's just the two of you?

It's very hard.

I always say that by the time you finish weeding it, you have to start all over again.

And just keep when you're just walking around in circles around the whole earth, just weeding it, you know, to make it a garden.

With just two of you, ugh, it's exhausting.

You have to make more people.

There can't be a kingdom without the citizens of it, without the people of it.

And that is the way that the Lord intends for his kingdom to grow.

It will grow out and people will be brought in.

And those people will multiply.

Do you see how just as it was at creation, so is the pattern of redemption.

We are spiritually born again.

And then we live in the rule and reign of Christ, to take dominion as we were called to in the beginning, under the banner of Christ, as he takes dominion in our hearts by his grace.

Now the question is: why, here's another answer to why didn't Christ just do this immediately?

Why is the book of Acts this progressive movement of the gospel through peoples?

And why is the story of the church still to this day the progressive movement of the gospel?

Like it has this organic shape to it where we share it and then one person is saved, and then they share it, and then another is saved.

Why does it have this progressive shape to it?

In 2 Peter 3, verse 9, I want us to consider why is it, why was it not done instantly?

2 Peter 3:9

Is God just slow?

Is he neglectful of his establishment of the kingdom?

In 2 Peter 3, verse 9, it says, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

So here's something to consider.

Why is it that Christ did not immediately establish the full extent of his cosmic rule and reign in the hearts of all the people in the world for whom he had died, for whom he had chosen, right after the ascension?

Why didn't he just make it happen?

Why does he have this church age of this long organic growth?

Well, one thing you might consider, perhaps it was so that you might be saved.

Perhaps it was so that you might live an eternity with the Lord.

Because on the cross he knew I died, I died for you.

I bought them with my blood, they are mine.

Perhaps it is for your grandchildren.

You haven't even met yet.

The Lord is not slow, but he is patient.

He has his number.

He has his number of those whom he will save.

And he is willing to be patient on their behalf.

You know, this week, I'm just gonna share this because it was so exciting.

This week I had a phone call with a friend of mine, and we've been close friends since fourth grade.

And he just moved out of state and he's settling into a new area, and he's a super talented guy, and he's he's uh um uh he's he's he's a great guy.

And I I so we've always been close friends, but he texted and was like, I'm having a tough time.

Can we talk soon?

And so I called him and Uh we I was talking through you know, he's like, well, this contract that I had fell through and it's this new city and uh he's having these health issues that have been really, really frustrating, and uh it's just like surrounded by you know, his life is a series of doors in his face.

For those of you that have to watch Frozen all the time and I've been praying for this guy for probably 15 years, probably longer.

And I finally really got to share the gospel with him.

You know, I was like, you know what I think this is?

I think this all these losses that you're experiencing right now, this is actually God's pursuit of you.

Because he's backed you up into a corner where nothing you're doing works.

And it all, from the outside looking in, seems like it basically should.

It seems like it basically should work, and it's not.

And I know that there's something that you haven't tried.

I know you haven't turned to the Lord.

I explained that our our hearts are explained that even a very good life, even one very good life, is too much for any person to bear.

Because we were not meant to bear our own life.

It was meant to be born by God for us.

He is the one we must know our creator.

We must be able to cast our burdens upon our creator.

And it was one of those times where it was just like hitting, you know?

You know, the spirit was just working in him and in what I had to share.

And he he's going to church, he's reading his Bible, he's he's coming to the Lord.

He's coming to the Lord.

Fifteen years is nothing, you know.

Fifteen years is to the Lord, it's like a thousand years is like a day, you know, and a year is a day is like a thousand years.

Whatever that means, you know.

Fifteen years is nothing.

The Lord is patient.

He's calling people to himself.

He desires his people to be saved.

He will save them.

I just wanted to say that.

If you if there are people that you're waiting on in your life, the Lord is on the throne now.

Continue praying for them.

Continue praying for them.

Okay, the ascension.

Acts 1-9.

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.

Acts 1-9.

So this is it, this is the ascension itself.

And there are so many things that we can talk about with this.

There's so many insights to be had.

But first of all, we we have to recognize there is a man on the throne of God.

Jesus in his resurrected body is ruling in heaven now.

Jesus ascended into heaven and he rules and reigns on the throne of God now.

The very Jesus who you read about in the Gospels, that man is ruling and reigning in heaven now.

He is advocating for you.

He is advocating for his people.

He is ruling right now.

The way that it happens, what this tells us about heaven is that it's not some misty, floaty thing.

It's not some ghostly, spirity thing.

I think it's like how Lewis describes it in the Great Divorce, where it's even more substantial than our lives now, that we will look back on our lives now and this will look ghostly as compared to our resurrected, glorified bodies.

So Jesus is in heaven, ruling and reigning right now.

We have to see the details of it.

They were looking on, they see it happen, he is lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Now, this is just, this is no meteorological accident.

The cloud taking him out of his sight is calling to mind all of the ways in which the Lord has shown himself in the glory cloud.

It is the glory cloud which goes before the people of God at the exodus.

It is the glory cloud which inhabits the temple so that they know that the glory of the Lord lives in the temple.

It's the glory cloud which is above Mount Sinai.

And so he's being pulled up into the glorious cloud of God, this demonstration of the Lord's glory, this typical manifestation of the Lord's glory throughout the scriptures.

And then there was a cloud in the way, so they couldn't see anymore.

That's not what's happening.

What's happening is the disciples are seeing Jesus is in the throne room of God.

That's what's being shown to the disciples.

Jesus is in the throne room of God.

The one who laid his life down for sinners is in the throne room of God.

Then it continues on, and w the disciples are standing there looking up.

Which makes sense.

And in verses 10 and 11 it says, 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.

So gazing up into the heavens, there are two men that are standing beside them in white robes.

It's just like the two angels, which are also described as these two men, these are angels, two men in white robes showing up nameless.

That's angels in the Bible.

And when they show up, these are I refer to these two angels as the he's not here guys.

Because right after the resurrection, uh Mary comes to the empty tomb, and there's two angels sitting there, and they say, What are you looking for?

He's not here.

And then I think it's those same two who have this very particular role in the council of God, which is when people are looking for Jesus and He's not there, they're the ones that show up and say, What are you looking for?

He's not there.

Quit looking.

They're the he's not here guys.

That's my insight, fairly a theological insight.

But what they're pointing out, what the what their intention is, is that these are like the angels that say, like, you're looking in the wrong place for the story.

And then they draw their eyes to where the story is developing.

God sends them these men to say, like, hey, hey, I know why you're looking for.

Look over here, something better.

Something better is happening over here.

And that's what he does.

He says, 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 teaches us our posture is not to just stand gazing.

Our posture is to move our eyes down towards the mission that the Lord has given to us, knowing Christ reigns.

He reigns now.

And he has given us a mission which he has empowered us by the Holy Spirit to accomplish.

So let's move in obedience to that, knowing that just as he left, he will come again.

That means the mission will be accomplished.

He will return.

So their job now is to go to Jerusalem.

Do you see what's starting to happen?

They're in Bethany.

Now they go into Jerusalem.

What's happening is they will receive the Holy Spirit in the very same ministry that Jesus did, Jesus will still do by the same Holy Spirit that he did it, but now by his body, the church.

Just as Jesus left Bethany and made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem, now the church leaves Bethany and makes a triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

And we will see this throughout the whole book that all that Jesus did, the disciples will do, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And so Jesus will make himself present by the Holy Spirit to the world through his people, the church, and his kingdom will continue to grow and continue to expand.

And that's what he does to this very day by the power of his Holy Spirit.

So this is where we are.

We're poised now for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And here's what you need to know about the world that you live in.

How strange the world that you live in.

Here's something that's very important for you to know.

You live in a world in which God became a man.

He died for your sins.

He resurrected on the third day.

He ascended into heaven.

He now sits at the right hand of the Father.

He rules and reigns today.

He will have his people.

Let's hope for his return and move on the mission that he's called us to.

All right, let's pray.

Holy Father, I pray that you would work into our hearts the reality of your present rule and reign.

Lord, that we would have confidence of your power working in the world, that we would not give up hope on people that we have longed for their salvation for for a long time, but we would trust that your Holy Spirit is still working, that you are still ruling and reigning.

You haven't come back yet, and that is not some negligent slowness, Lord, but it is patience because there are still people who you desire to bring into your kingdom.

Because the rule and reign that you have now, you desire a more glorious one.

Lord, may that be true in our own hearts as you drive out the flesh and sin that remains, and may that be true in your world as you draw more and more people to yourself.

Lord, let us trust your reign and the presence of your Holy Spirit in our hearts, that we might declare you as king in the glorious news of your gospel, and that your kingdom would come and your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.