Warmest greetings to you, my friend. We are In Search of the Lord's Way of becoming a Christian and living the Christian life. And, you demonstrate an interest in such a study, too, by choosing our program at this time. Today our message is about "The Ascension of Christ"-- to heaven of course-- and what that means to Christians. We pray we'll both be blessed.
We are so glad you've invited us into your home today, either by your TV set or your radio to study the word of God. What an encouragement it is, too, to hear from you about how you have been blessed-- or helped in some way by some of our programs. No, we're not asking you to send us money, and we won't add your name to a list to receive appeals for money. We are here because we love you, not for the monetary gain there is in it. We're sponsored on this station by some Christians-- all members of churches of Christ in the area that is served by this station. It would be a great encouragement to them to have you attend their Bible studies or their worship assemblies, too. Why don't you just do that? If you need help locating the nearest church of Christ in your area, call us-- or write us.
There are turbulent days ahead in American religion. Some of them we are experiencing right now. All churches are experiencing some measure of insistence to change. Some of what are sometimes called the "old line denominations" were begun during a period of church history known as "the reformation" in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Churches of Christ have been known for our efforts at-- not a reformation of an apostate church-- but a restoration of New Testament church. We believe Jesus Christ established His church, and was given to be head of it as we read in Ephesians 1:15-23, as He sits at the right hand of God in heaven. To us that means that the New Testament not only describes the character of a true disciple; it also means those same Scriptures describe the church which He bought with His own blood. We also believe that by following His teaching in the New Testament, we can reproduce the same kind of church as His prototype anywhere and anytime. And, any attempts to "modernize" what He did is only a step toward another apostacy.
Well, I've said all of that to identify us in the religious community, and, also, to introduce today's message. It has been said by some who seek to modernize churches of Christ, that we should preach Christ-- not His church. So! The two programs prior to this one were about "The Death of Christ," then "The Resurrection of Christ." And today is titled, "The Ascension of Christ." And other programs to focus on Jesus Christ are to follow. If you think you might want a free printed copy or a CD or an audio cassette tape of this one, please mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. Our toll-free telephone number for your use is 1-800-321-8633. Our website is searchtv.org. Visit us there. There's a lot more of interest there than just the programs, friend. Ken Helterbrand's going to lead us now as we sing, and then I'll be back.
We are reading today from the book of Acts, chapter 1, beginning at verse 6. “Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the Earth. Now, when He had spoken these things, while they watched He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” And we read through verse 11. Now let’s go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we are so thankful to You that You have revealed to us so many of the details about Jesus and His life, His mission, the accomplishment of that mission in His death on the cross; and then His ascension back to You in heaven. And we are thankful for these passages that we have today. We pray Your blessings on us as we meditate on them, and on the events which they describe. In His name we pray. Amen!
I was inspired to do this program in this series by a superb article in the March 2008 Gospel Advocate; and this is an excellent and well-known national magazine among churches of Christ, now in its 150th year of publication. The article was written by Dennis Loyd, Associate Editor, and it was titled "The Ascension of Jesus." Now, I'm not saying this is a verbatim, word for word reading of the article. But you see I'm in the process of doing a series of programs about Christ. We have already had one titled "The Death of Christ," and another "The Resurrection of Christ," and we have others like "The Return of Christ and "The Memorial of Christ," and some others in the planning and production stages of this ministry. Then comes Dennis Loyd with this excellent and inspiring article about "The Ascension of Jesus." into heaven. Well, I just had to interrupt the announced schedule of programs to insert this one on "The Ascension of Christ." I must confess that this is a subject on which in all of my sixty-nine years of preaching, I had never one time (to my memory at least) preached about. Oh me! Neither can I remember ever having heard a sermon about it. How could I-- and other gospel preachers-- have missed this so very important and truly inspiring central idea about our Savior? Dennis Loyd asks, "Why don't we pay more attention to the ascension in our study, our teaching and our preaching?” Good question! “Is it because we feel such joy in His resurrection that we want the accounts to end there?" Well, it isn't that alone-- at least it isn't in my case anyway. It just hadn't occurred to me how important to the Christian's faith is the ascension story of the Savior.
Many of the essential events of the earthly life of Christ, the Savior, the Son of God, some of which were even beyond His personal choice or control, are the subjects of Old Testament prophecy. Yet Jesus fulfilled them. For example, Isaiah, the prophet of God, announced seven-hundred years before, that He was to be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). About the same time, God's prophet, Micah announced the place of His birth in Bethlehem (Micah chapter 5, verses 2 and 3). His exile in Egypt to escape the massacre of Herod's decree to kill all the Hebrew boys two years old and under, and His return to Nazareth was prophesied in the book of Hosea chapter 11, verse 1. Likewise, even His ascension to heaven to establish His reign over His kingdom-- His church-- is all prophesied in the book of Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. His fulfillment of these and many, many other prophecies that were written of Him hundreds of years before, establishing an agenda for Him, are strong evidences that He was, indeed, the Son of the living God.
Then come Matthew and Mark and Luke and John to tell us about His earthly ministry. During His time here, He performed many miracles which ably confirmed His Messiahship. John says of that: "Truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." And that is John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31. It seems to be true as Loyd points out, that although Jesus reminded His apostles frequently that He would be leaving them to go to the Father, at no point in His ministry did He give a detailed explanation of when or how He would leave the physical realm and return to heaven. And that may be one reason I, and perhaps others, have failed to see the importance of His ascension in the Divine scheme of redemption. With the fact that He came from the Father, it seems to be taken for granted perhaps, by some of us at least, that He would return to Him in heaven when His earthly mission was finished.
John wrote about His washing the disciples’ feet: "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet..." That is John 13, verses 3 through 5. It's likely the disciples didn't understand what He was saying for their ears. However, it is certain that He did.
Then, there's that beloved and familiar passage that we often hear at funerals in John 14:1 to 6 in which Jesus says to the disciples, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know."
In this, perhaps His longest discourse (the 14th, 15th and 16th chapters of John) in chapter 16, verse 16, He said to His apostles, "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father." Well, after Jesus' resurrection, before His ascension, He appeared to His friends and disciples at different places and times. And one of those appearances was to Mary Magdalene. At first she looked at Him, but didn't recognize Him. Later she did and she may have made an attempt to touch Him because He said, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father, but go to My brethren and say to them. I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." That is John chapter 20, verses 11 through 17. Well, these are but a few of the many references our Lord made to His ascension to the Father; yet there's no announcement of the time or the details.
Neither Matthew or John relate the story of our Lord's ascension. Mark says very succinctly, "So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19). Luke says, "And He led them out as far as Bethany, and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven" (Luke 24, verses 50 and 51). However, Luke enlightens us a bit more in the first chapter of the book of Acts. There he says, "The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up..." Then follows the passage that serves as our text today: "...while they (and that would be the eleven), while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, (angelic beings undoubtedly) who said also, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven."
The return of Jesus to heaven was surely as miraculous as any of the events surrounding His birth, or that fulfilled those hundreds of years of prophecies, or any of the miracles that He did proving He was, indeed, who He said He was-- the Son of the living God. Furthermore, the apostle Peter declared that one of the requirements for the one who would be chosen to replace Judas, who had fallen from the apostleship, was that he must have been one of the followers of Jesus "beginning with the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us" (Acts chapter 1, verse 22).
Later writers, such as the apostles Paul and Peter and the author of Hebrews, made reference to His ascension in such a way to let us know that the ascension of Christ was a vital part of the teaching and the faith of the early church, and early Christians. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, for example, Paul cites what some thought might have been an early hymn. And he says, "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, (and) Received up in glory" (1 Timothy 3:16). Peter wrote of Him in his first epistle chapter 3, verse 21 and 22. He says that eight souls saved by water in the great flood of Noah's day, "There is also an antitype which now saves us-- baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him." The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews says, "Christ has not entered the holy place made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24).
So, the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven where He now makes intercession for us (Romans 8:34), was obviously a vital part of New Testament preaching. I'm still learning to preach. Yes, I am! If you continue to hear and see these programs, you are going to hear me say more about the ascension of Christ, the Savior! Oh! How faith in the ascension of Christ adds strength to any person's attempt to live the Christian life. Because you see, He said that He was going to prepare a place for the redeemed souls of men, and He promised He was coming again from heaven to take us where He is.
My friend, are you a Christian? Do you really believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God? Or, did you just join some church for the fellowship-- or for business purposes-- or political purposes? Let's not even try to deny it. Most people's belief system is created by what they hear preached in their church’s pulpit. So I ask you again, do you really believe Jesus Christ is the risen Christ, seated in heaven at God's right hand? Do you believe Him strongly enough that you would give up whatever sin there is in your life? The Bible has a word for that-- it's "repentance." "And God commands all men everywhere to repent." Why? Because He (that is God) will judge the world by Jesus Christ (Acts 17, verse 31). Then, are you ready to be baptized? Ah, you may ask, "Must I be baptized to be saved and go with Christ when He comes for me, into heaven? My preacher says I don't need to be baptized to be saved, must I?" Friend, I'm not going to respond to that question with hear-say? I'm going to answer you with a quotation from Jesus Christ, by whom God will judge you-- and me. Are you listening now? These are the words of the Savior: "They who believe and are baptized will be saved." That is in your Bible at Mark 16, verse 16. Do it today, will you? Oh, I hope so. Let us pray. Holy Father, thank You, thank You for the blessings of this study. Help us to know that as Jesus ascended to Your right hand He is coming again to receive His own. Help us to keep this always in our memory. In His name we pray, Amen!
If you would like a free copy, either in printed form or on CD or audio cassette tape, simply address your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73013. Or our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633.
I hope you will be profited by having been with us today. We are so glad you were here and we appreciate your interest in things that are spiritual. I hope you will be back with us next time. God bless you now. We love you.
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