HE ASCENDED TO GIVE
WE REMAIN TO RECEIVE . . .
This morning we began a brand new week, and we did so in the right way. (Give yourself a big pat on the back!) So that whatever else
WE REMAIN TO RECEIVE . . .
This morning we began a brand new week, and we did so in the right way. (Give yourself a big pat on the back!) So that whatever else
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| We began this time of worship the right way: in the only way that Christians can: with this profession! |
happens this week, and whatever else we do, at least we made a very good beginning: in our prayers, our confessions, and in our litany we confessed together that Jesus Christ is Lord. We did it more than once! And when we did it, we spoke the truth in the presence of God!
But there's a problem with that -- a problem for you (and me)! For as soon as we make such a profession of faith, then immediately some things will remain true for us and others not so. The Bible itself implies that a great dividing line passes through our lives when that profession of faith becomes our own. Jesus Himself says as much in places like this passage from the Sermon on the Mount: “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24).
When we confess and believe Jesus the Son of God to be Lord of all, then there will always be some things we may do; and others we may not (because Jesus Christ is Lord!)
And with the profession of faith, it also means there are going to be some things we may have and hold, and use, and manage as stewards of God; and other things we may not have, or use, or manage. (And all because Jesus Christ is Lord!)
But there's a problem with that -- a problem for you (and me)! For as soon as we make such a profession of faith, then immediately some things will remain true for us and others not so. The Bible itself implies that a great dividing line passes through our lives when that profession of faith becomes our own. Jesus Himself says as much in places like this passage from the Sermon on the Mount: “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24).
When we confess and believe Jesus the Son of God to be Lord of all, then there will always be some things we may do; and others we may not (because Jesus Christ is Lord!)
And with the profession of faith, it also means there are going to be some things we may have and hold, and use, and manage as stewards of God; and other things we may not have, or use, or manage. (And all because Jesus Christ is Lord!)
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| If Jesus is Lord there are some things we may no longer do! |
Likewise there are some things we may seek out and search out and know; but other things we may never know. Again, because Jesus Christ is Lord.
And his own first disciples learned that right on the spot of His ascension up to the sky. They asked the question that any good Jewish disciple of the Messiah would ask:
“Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
And in asking that they all ran smack dab into one of those things which a believer in Jesus may not know. For the Lord’s answer to them was this:
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority."
1. And that remains true today.
Because Jesus is Lord, we may not know what I call
“Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
And in asking that they all ran smack dab into one of those things which a believer in Jesus may not know. For the Lord’s answer to them was this:
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority."
1. And that remains true today.
Because Jesus is Lord, we may not know what I call
THE ‘WHEN’ OF THE KINGDOM!
And to me it is incredible that this kind of thing should still preoccupy so many Christians and yet it does so in every generation. In our own time here comes another, with his recent pronouncement that NOW is the time when Jesus is going to establish the Kingdom of God for the people of Israel. We all just lived through May 21 mostly with our limbs and lives in tact, and quite apparently the only thing accomplished by such an announcement was the further discrediting of the Christian church as a whole by a hostile secular media.
But too many ordinary believers like you and me are also, tragically, over-preoccupied with the “when of the kingdom”! If we put the word ‘kingdom’ in the lower case, look at what we do several times a year: we ask life itself if not God about “when” all the time:
When will I get a job; when will I get a promotion; when will I get a raise; when will I get to retire! When will I get sick again; when will I get well? When do I get to have elective surgery? So many other things; so many other goals become a sort of lesser kingdom for us. And we ask in our own way as they did: Lord, is it now that you will establish the Kingdom to Israel?”
And to me it is incredible that this kind of thing should still preoccupy so many Christians and yet it does so in every generation. In our own time here comes another, with his recent pronouncement that NOW is the time when Jesus is going to establish the Kingdom of God for the people of Israel. We all just lived through May 21 mostly with our limbs and lives in tact, and quite apparently the only thing accomplished by such an announcement was the further discrediting of the Christian church as a whole by a hostile secular media.
But too many ordinary believers like you and me are also, tragically, over-preoccupied with the “when of the kingdom”! If we put the word ‘kingdom’ in the lower case, look at what we do several times a year: we ask life itself if not God about “when” all the time:
When will I get a job; when will I get a promotion; when will I get a raise; when will I get to retire! When will I get sick again; when will I get well? When do I get to have elective surgery? So many other things; so many other goals become a sort of lesser kingdom for us. And we ask in our own way as they did: Lord, is it now that you will establish the Kingdom to Israel?”
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| If you live in the present, then you get His 'present'! The Kingdom of God. |
And we commit the sin of living far too much in the future, when the One whom we have just named Lord of all has said so clearly to live in present, even one day at a time. To quote our Lord from the Sermon On the Mount:
Matt. 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
No: with our profession that Jesus is Lord we do not get to know “the when of the Kingdom.” But we do get to live for this Lord in the present!
So with His Lordship there are some things we cannot know; but there are some very big and important things which we get to receive.
2. SO BECAUSE JESUS CHRIST IS LORD WE GET TO RECEIVE THE WITNESS OF THE KING.
For as soon as Jesus told them they were not to know the times and the seasons which the Father had fixed by His own authority, He told them this:
8 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.”
Matt. 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
No: with our profession that Jesus is Lord we do not get to know “the when of the Kingdom.” But we do get to live for this Lord in the present!
So with His Lordship there are some things we cannot know; but there are some very big and important things which we get to receive.
2. SO BECAUSE JESUS CHRIST IS LORD WE GET TO RECEIVE THE WITNESS OF THE KING.
For as soon as Jesus told them they were not to know the times and the seasons which the Father had fixed by His own authority, He told them this:
8 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.”
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| To receive the gift of witnessing that Jesus Christ is Lord means anywhere at any time. |
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
That’s the other big thing that the Lordship of Jesus Christ must always mean for me:
the WITNESS OF THE KING.
That’s the other big thing that the Lordship of Jesus Christ must always mean for me:
the WITNESS OF THE KING.
This is both the witness from the King to me that He is alive; and He gives to me, to us, the gift of "telling forth His life story" to others. It is also a witness about the King, as we live and learn to tell others specifically what Jesus has done for us.
That means our personal and corporate witness for the King. And that’s why we all need the gift of the Holy Spirit. In and of ourselves, in our complete weakness, we could not be effective witnesses for the King. We would never quite find the words or the testimony to convince others that Jesus is Alive, that He is the Savior who went to the cross for our sins, and that He is Lord. Let’s be honest: some of us could not even find the courage to do that! We might instead be like those same original disciples. Remember them? A mere few weeks before the Ascension of Jesus, those same disciples were hiding inside of an upper room, locked away, for fear of the Jews.
But when we profess Jesus Christ as Lord, we get to receive the witness of the King. We open ourselves, as we must, to receive the power that comes with the Holy Spirit’s arrival. And suddenly we find ourselves after that unable to sit still in fear and complacency: Jesus becomes our life; the Church becomes our Home; His people become our family and friends; and the world, as another famous Episcopalian once said, “becomes our parish!” (I speak of John Wesley . . . .)
This week that follows the Ascension of Jesus Christ is and must be for us a week of receiving. That’s hard to do isn't it? Hard for you, hard for us all, to learn to receive from God what He so longs to give to us.
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| Picture yourself receiving with open hands. Then open your hands |
“my hands are open, my life is open for the coming of your Spirit. You have said I get to receive the witness of the King. Send then your Spirit to me; and make me into your witness.”
In Jesus' name. Amen and Amen.
BIBLE TEXT TO READ, USE, AND LOVE!
ACTS 1:6-14
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
8 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.”
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
11 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.”
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey.
13 And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James.
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
LBC
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