Well, good morning. I bet you can't wait till Thursday, huh? I got you, didn't I? You don't know what Thursday is?
What is it? Okay, Thursday's the national day of prayer. How many knew that? National day of prayer. So that's one reason why you might not can't wait until Thursday, huh? Wouldn't it be a great thing for our nation to all gather together? Humble itself upon its knees and prayer. Wouldn't that be a good thing? You know, especially if what that means is is that as a nation and as those of us who are believers and those of us who are Christians, those of us who are followers of Christ who are called by His name, wouldn't it be a great thing if we gathered together as one people under God and prayed, especially if that means that that would be a time and a season of confession and of repentance for the sins of this nation. Wouldn't that be a good thing? Wouldn't that be an exciting thing? Wouldn't that be a needful thing? Do you think, huh? Does our nation not need prayer? Does our nation not need praying people? Can somebody just say, yes, Pastor Fitzgerald, amen. It needs praying people. It needs prayer. Oh, well, there we go. We got one live one here. Got a live one back there. All right. Usher is good. You handle that guy back there for me. Just keep an eye on him now because he's a little bit live this morning. But you know, that's not why I can't wait for Thursday. You know, prayers are a good thing. Our nation needs prayer, but that's not why I can't wait for Thursday. Thursday, whether you know it or not, is the 40th day after Easter, which is the day in which the church recognizes that Jesus ascended into heaven. Thursday is ascension day. Now, that's a great day to have the national day of prayer because ascension day recognizes that we have a king, that we have an exalted one, we have a high and lofty one. We have the king of kings and the Lord of Lords who rules and reigns not only over this nation, but over every nation on the face of this earth bar none. There is none mightier than he. There is none more exalted than him. There is none higher than him. He is the most high God, and he is our king. And that's what we celebrate. When we celebrate the ascension, now typically in the church that follows the Christian calendar, ascension Sunday is the Sunday after ascension day, this Thursday. But I thought it might be good to talk about that today, and then maybe next week I'll talk about the session of Christ. That is when Jesus has seated on the right hand of the Father because it seems to me, beloved, that we've forgotten these things. That we neglect these things. What is the last time that you heard a sermon on the ascension of Christ, or the session of Christ? We do a great job in talking about Christmas, right? The day that we think about the incarnation and the birth of Christ, the day that we think about God coming in the flesh, God made man. We think about the person of Christ when we think about the incarnation. We think that he is fully God and fully man, and that these two things have come together in one person, one person with two natures born of a virgin as we confess this morning. We do a good job with that, I think in the church, and we recognize the importance of that Christ event, that Christmas event in the incarnation and the birth of Christ. We do a pretty good job with Holy Week. We recognize both in the birth of Christ and in Holy Week, when we look and emphasize the suffering of Jesus Christ, that in this respect, his whole life at this point in time is about humiliation. It's about God coming down, taking on flesh, suffering as you and I suffer only, suffering beyond even our comprehension to grasp what it was for him to empty himself, become a man of no reputation to hang on across, to be mocked as cruelly, as any human being has ever been mocked, and to die a death with all of our sins upon him, so that he feels like no other human being before or after him, the full weight of the sin of the people of God upon him, the most hideous and heinous things imaginable, things that you and I, and all of these other people that he has rescued and saved and redeemed, since that you and I have committed, since that we confess this morning, both things that we have done and the things that we have left undone, he has died for them, things past, things present, things future, he has died for them. Taken that sin upon himself and on Holy Week we emphasize that, we pay attention to that, we note that with an exclamation point on Good Friday when we get a glimpse of what it was for him to be in complete darkness, to have his own father, the father in heaven, the maker of heaven and earth as we confess this morning, and Jesus says in response to his forsakenness, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We do a good job of emphasizing that in the church, Christmas, Holy Week and then Easter, right? Where Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, the chosen one of God, rises from the dead and all of the newness of life, he comes out of the grave, he triumphs over darkness, he triumphs over sin, he triumphs over death, we do a good job with Easter, don't we? But beloved why is it that we do such a good job with Christmas and such a good job with Holy Week and such a good job with Easter? And then we sort of neglect the ascension and the session of Christ, we neglect the finishing off, if you will, of his exaltation, of his being lifted up and seated on the right hand of the power of Almighty God. Why is it we leave that out? And I want to suggest to you this morning that in the leaving of that out we do ourselves no favor in the church. One of the reasons I think that the church lacks power today, one of the reasons why you may sense in your own spiritual walk that you lack power today is because we leave out emphasizing paying attention, honoring the ascension and session of Christ, the finishing off if you will, of the exaltation of Christ, we do a good job in talking about his humiliation and we should talk about it, Christ coming down, but we also ought to be talking about Christ going up as it were, not up as in terms of some physical space or location, you know, I always get a kick out of it, let me tell you, let me just tell you this, beloved, if you want to understand the work of Christ, if you want to understand the work of the Holy Spirit, if you want to understand the work of the church that is our work, your work and my work, you must understand the importance, the necessity of the ascension, you cannot understand the work of Christ and its importance, you cannot understand the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit and you cannot understand the work of the church unless you grasp the necessity of the ascension, the exaltation of Christ, that's what Luke is talking about in the book of Acts, especially in chapter 1 and verses 1 through 11, which is our text this morning, beloved, I want you to see this, look what Luke says, Luke is saying if you want to understand the work of Christ in all of its dimensions, then you must understand the ascension, okay, and my former book he says that is in my gospel that I wrote, what we commonly call the gospel of Luke, he says in my former book Theophilus, oh what a great name, Theophilus, you ever known anybody named Theophilus before, how many of known somebody named Theophilus, how many might now that you've heard the name, name one of your children after Theophilus, all right praise the Lord, I got one, I got two, Carol knows a brother by the name of Theophilus as I do, from Kenya, it's a great name, it's a compound name and what it means is lover of God, two Greek words put together and it means lover of God, my former gospel he addresses to Theophilus, my former gospel lover of God, are you a Theophilus this morning, are you a lover of God this morning, are you one who loves God? Amen, I know you are, I'll choose you get your eye on that guy back there, I might get out of control a little bit, my former book Theophilus I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day that he was taken up into heaven, I believe it, I want you to understand this, Luke is talking about all that Jesus began to do, that's what he was writing about in his gospel, that's what he's writing about in his old book, but he's writing a new book now, and what he's saying is that this book is not, the one I'm writing now is not about what Jesus began to do, it's about what Jesus continues to do, and you know listen beloved, that is to say that Jesus is working now, Jesus is working today, yes he has ascended, yes he has been seated on the throne, but he is working today, the ascension doesn't mean that Jesus disappeared and therefore has stopped working, the ascension means that Jesus disappeared and is working in even a greater way than he was here on the earth walking the earth, because now he is the exalted one, all power and authority have been given to me he said,
we don't have less of Christ as a result of the ascension, we have more of Christ if you will,
and so what this means what Luke is saying is that this this book is about the continuing work of Jesus Christ, my last book was about all he began to do, all he began to do, you know so often, especially in our circles, Presbyterian and Reform circles, we talk about what Jesus did and I'm thankful for that there's great value in talking about what Jesus did historically in the past, we recognize that the living God who is not bound by time, the eternal God became flesh and invaded time and space history and we recognize that in the past, in the historical past, as a real historical being that he lived the life that we could not live and he paid the penalty in his death, a penalty that we could not pay, a debt that we could not pay, we recognize that and we recognize that by that past cross event in real time and space history that we now have life, that we are no longer dead in our sins but we have been reborn, we have life and forgiveness and redemption, so we appreciate the past, we appreciate what Jesus did but sometimes I think we appreciate what Jesus did in exclusion to what Jesus is doing and there's a whole other group of people over the last 10 years you can encapsulate it in that Christian evangelical marketing movement, you know what would Jesus
do, so you have that you have these real you know sort of deep thinking, theologically correct people who are emphasizing what Jesus did and then now you have these people asking this question and the sort of current and the present, the moment, the instant asking what would Jesus do? See whenever I, it's sort of an ethical question whenever I encounter something, whenever I go through something, whenever I find myself in a particular situation, you see the question that I need to ask is what would Jesus do? Now what most people don't understand is that both of these traditions share something in common, they often critique one another, the what Jesus did people over and against what Jesus, what would Jesus do people, they often critique one another but what they sometimes don't realize is that they both have something in common and what they have in common is they both overemphasize Jesus past work, now that would be when I say overemphasize please forgive the phrase because it would be hard to overemphasize the work of Christ in the past because what he did was insurmountable, incomprehensible, inexpressible but beloved you can't just stop there as if when Jesus went up that he disappeared that suddenly he's no longer working and so it's not just about what Jesus did, it's not a matter of what would Jesus do, it's a matter of what is Jesus continuing to do, what is he doing that is a continuation of all that he did in the past? Do you need Jesus doing something in your life right now? What is Jesus doing in your life? What is Jesus doing in your marriage? What is Jesus doing in your work in your vocation in your school? What is Jesus doing in this community in which we live? What is Jesus doing in this church? What is Jesus doing in this state in this nation? What is Jesus doing in the world in the cosmos? I don't know about you but I need Jesus doing something in my life because I will ruin it, I will destroy it, I will be my own undoing, I will bring myself down with my own flesh, with my own hands, with the thoughts that are in my head, I will destroy my own life, I need a Jesus that is exalted, I need a Jesus that is on the throne, I need a Jesus that is working today in the way that he worked in the past and so Luke says the former book I wrote, Otheophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach, it's not about Jesus in the past, it's about Jesus bringing the future right then and there, Jesus began the future and you and I live in that future. I love it if you learn to think like that, then you will learn one of the keys to understanding the work of Christ, the work of Christ, what Jesus is doing in conjunction with what he has always done and what he will do and if you begin to see your life through that lens, if you begin to see whatever problem or circumstance or difficulty or challenge or failure that you're going through right now through that lens, if you begin to see your marriage, your relationship with your spouse through that lens, if you begin to see and understand how you're raising your children through that lens and you begin to understand what you're doing with your life and with your hands and your vocations through that lens, it will transform the whole way that you live for the glory of God and the good of His people. What would Jesus, the work of Jesus continuing on? I noticed we know this whole thing about after until the day he was taken up,
what does that mean? Taken up where? Where is he right now? You got any idea? You know, sometimes I think we've lost Jesus because we've put him someplace that he's not. Sometimes I think the reason why we don't experience the presence of Christ in the way that we should is because in our minds and in our theology, we have put him in a place that he's not. Where is your Jesus? Where did he go? What happened to him? He disappeared, we know. He was taken up, we know, but where he went, we don't. And I think in our Western minds, we have taken this language of taken up and we think that, oh, he was taken up and he went a long way away. Jesus is so far away now. He's way, way up there in heaven. Who? Man? How am I ever going to have any communication with Jesus and heaven? He's way up there. He's so far up there that he must have a space suit on right now. You can laugh. You didn't think that was funny? You need a sense of humor? You know, I wonder directionally speaking, if Jesus was in Israel and he went up, what does that mean for the people in the opposite hemisphere? Which way was he going then? Do you ever think about that? If Jesus went up from Jerusalem, which way was he going for people in the, was Jesus going down? If I'm in the opposite hemisphere? If you ever thought about that before? See, that's why I'm the pastor, okay, because I think about those things, all right? But I think it's important for you to think about them, because too often we think Jesus went up and he just kept on going up and up and up and up and up. He went through the first heaven and then he went through the second heaven and he went through the third heaven and he's way up there and that third heaven someplace, right? Way, way, far away. But what I want you to understand is the heavens a lot closer to earth than you think. The language that we use of heaven being up and hell being down and all that kind of language is sometimes unfortunate for us in the West because we take it too far. What that language is trying to tell us is that there's an invisible realm, there's an invisible world, there's a parallel reality, if you will, an overlapping reality. Heaven and Earth are overlapping realities. Yes, Jesus disappeared, but he will appear in the same way that he disappeared. It's talking about a different dimension, a different reality, an overlapping reality. He's not way far away up there where he needs oxygen and a space suit. He's right. Heaven and Earth are overlapping realities. I was having dinner with some folks last night who were telling me about some encounters that they were having with people involved in the occult. Look, folks, when you start dealing with people in the occult, you have no problem realizing that the spiritual dimension is not real far away. How many times have I talked with you, Mary, about Little Joseph? If you've been coming to this church, you know about Little Joseph who's been fighting and battling in leukemia who we've been praying for for the last two years. We've got it when he was two. He's now four. We're still battling and praying and fighting for this little boy's life. I've had several conversations with Mary, but I would say, you know, Little Joseph told me yesterday that he's been seeing angels. It's a four-year-old boy. You're thinking he makes this up? His eyes have been opened up to the spiritual realm where he's seen things that for us or for others at other times cannot see. There's another realm there, beloved. For eyes were opened. We could see it. It's there. It's real. Even though it's invisible. Physicists believe in invisible things, don't they? This isn't so weird. This isn't so way out there. Physicists believe in invisible things. Has anybody ever seen energy before? You ever see energy before? I don't believe you have. Scientists to find energy is the ability to do work, right? That's our little eighth grade definition of energy. The ability to do work. We know it's present because while it's working it produces heat. Great. So what you're telling me is, is you know energy exists because you feel the effects of it. Well, guess what? I can say the same thing about our God who is also invisible. Yes, I believe in invisible realms. Yes, I believe in the invisible God who is the creator of heaven and earth. It's powerful. It's more powerful than all the energy that you think exists because you've felt its effects. I believe in energy, but I believe in Almighty God too. If you want to understand the work of Christ, you've got to understand the ascension, the exaltation, and if you want to understand the work of the Holy Spirit, you've got to understand the ascension because that's what Jesus was doing. Look at what he says here. He says that he was taken up to heaven. After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles, he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to those men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God. There's that other reality. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John, baptized you with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
You see, if you want to understand the work of Christ and you want to understand the work of Holy Spirit, you've got to understand what Jesus was doing in the ascension. How many times in the gospel of John and chapters 14 through 16, did he say, I will send the Spirit? Be a good exercise for you to go back today and read 11 John 14 through 16 and read how many times Jesus says, I will send the Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Comforter, the counselor, I will send him to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, right? That's how chapter 14 starts. Don't let your hearts be troubled. I'm going away. See? But then in chapters later on in 1456, but I will send another. If I go away, I send you the Spirit. This is what Jesus was doing. George Speedon, one of the great scholars, theologians said that the sending of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the crowning work of God. It's what everything else Jesus was doing was for. It's what everything else Jesus was doing was about, the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's what it's all about. That's what
your justification is about. That's what your adoption is about. That's what your sanctification is about. You're growing in Christ. That's what it's about. It's about the gift of the Holy Spirit. In fact, he goes so, one writer goes so far to say that in any real work of God, that the people of God, whenever a real work of God was going on and manifested that it was at a time when the people of God believed that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit was every bit as important as their doctrine of justification and atonement. Now, that will take a reform guy and stand him right on his head, that in the same way that our faith stands our falls on the doctrine of justification, as Luther and Calvin said, some of these goddess theologians are saying that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, that our faith stands our falls on what we believe about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
It's the crowning achievement, he says, of all that God was doing in Christ.
And if that is true, believe it, either to the extent that I say it is, but that these theologians have said it is. If that is true, if it's only half as true, then why do we so neglected? Why do we so ignore it? I say that we do so to our own peril. We do so to our own impotence. We live a mediocre Christian lives. And I'm the first in the chief and sinner in that regard. We live mediocre Christian lives because we have no power in them. We don't have no power because we don't understand what was going on with the ascension because we don't know, we don't understand that the ascension has everything to do with the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. His crowning achievement is the gift of the Holy Spirit. He saved you to give you that gift.
We believe that if you're born again by the power of God, that you have new life, we believe that at that moment you are baptized with the Holy Spirit. We do not believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is some special work of grace, some second work of grace. We believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit happens when you are born again, when your spirit is regenerated by the power of God. When you move from darkness to light, from death to life, we believe you're baptized by the Holy Spirit. Other denominations believe it's the second work of grace. We deny that. I love my brothers and sisters, my Pentecostal and Charismatic brothers, but we would differ on that. One thing I do not differ is how important the Holy Spirit is to the work of God through the church. And while I do not believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a second work of grace, I do believe in fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit. I want to be filled, the new with the Holy Spirit. Every day, I write that in my prayer journal every day, fill me with your spirit. I need a fresh filling, a fresh anointing. I need an anointing every day with the power of God running through my veins every day. I want the fruit of the Spirit manifested in my life every day. And I want every gift that God has to give me in the list of the gifts of the Spirit. Whatever He has for me, I want it. And so it's necessary for the work of Christ, the ascension. It's necessary for the work of the Holy Spirit. And it's necessary for our work. Look at what he said. After they asked him the question, they met together. And they asked, I'm Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know the time, to the days the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. The Holy Spirit is necessary for the work of Christ, necessary for us to understand the work of the Holy Spirit and necessary for the work of the Church. That's what the ascension was about. It was about the work of Christ. It was about the work of the Holy Spirit and it's about the work of the Church. If you and I are going to be witnesses at home and abroad, we cannot do so. We will fail, no matter what it looks like, no matter how much we think we are doing, whatever we do outside of the power of the Holy Spirit will crumble. It'll be of no value. We have no eternal worth.
To love it, to delight in it, to joy in it, or in the Holy Spirit. We confess today that we believe in God Almighty. We confess today that we believe in Jesus Christ. We confess today I believe in the Holy Spirit and I ask myself when I confess that this morning, I said, do I believe it? Or do I just believe I believe it? Beloved we need to believe in the Holy Spirit in the same way we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven, do you believe? Heavenly Father, maker of heaven and earth. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior of sinners, Holy Spirit, the one who empowers us and enables us to live lives that are glorifying to God, to be witnesses for his sake at home and abroad. Oh, how we need you. Lord, open our eyes to the value and the worth, the importance, the necessity of the ascension of Christ, his exaltation, and how important that is for our lives to understand the work of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of the church. What if there are those here today who have never received you as their Savior, open their eyes, open their hearts, open their ears so that they may see and hear and receive and be saved, convince them, convict them and convert them, we ask in the power of the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Let's stand together as we sing and reflect on just what God has done and what he is doing.