Ascension of Christ Part 1

Preacher:

Main Scripture: Acts 1:6-11

Ascension of Christ Part 1

After where Luke left off in Part 1—the gospel of Luke—Jesus was going to continue His ministry, but this time, it would be by His Spirit, through His apostles, and from a place of glory in the throne room in heaven. Christ had prepared the apostles for this work—prepared them by proofs, preaching, and power.
Looking at this Ascension passage under three headings:
QUESTION
Acts 1:6 [So when they had come together, they asked Him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”]
The Jewish hope was understood in a political way. Israel had not been a single independent nation for centuries, and Judaea was currently a Roman province.
We get hints about how politically charged the atmosphere was, in the gospels.
- In Matt 22:15-22, we read about the time when the disciples of the Pharisees questioned Jesus about the lawfulness of paying taxes to Caesar. They were asking Him a dangerous question; almost any answer would have been politically incorrect. The Jews were under Rome and they hated the taxes that they had to pay to Rome. Jesus answered them with clarity and wisdom, saying, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” This answer has stood believers in good stead to this day.
- In John 6:15, after the account of the feeding of the 5000, we are told, "Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself." This shows how much the Jews were yearning for a literal kingdom and a literal king.
Any Jewish person at that time, reading an Old-Testament prophecy like Zeph 9:9, would have understood it to mean that the Messiah would come, defeat their oppressors, grant them freedom, and be their king. ["Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! / Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! / Behold, your king is coming to you; / righteous and having salvation is he, / humble and mounted on a donkey, / on a colt, the foal of a donkey."] This scripture would be ultimately fulfilled, but it would not be by military conquest, rather it would be through the Great Commission—through missions.
We see Jesus in the gospels speaking about the spiritual nature of the Kingdom that would be restored.
- In Luke 17:20-21, we observe that the Pharisees asked Jesus about when the kingdom of God would come, which is practically the same question that the disciples asked before Jesus' ascension. To the Pharisees, Jesus answered: “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Jesus indicated here that the fulfillment of the prophecy was different from what they were expecting.
- So also in John 18:36, we see that Jesus answered Pilate saying, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
After having been with Jesus for so long, we see the apostles asking the same question as the Pharisees had done. At first glance, it looks like the apostles are being obtuse. But Jesus does not appear to think that their question is unreasonable at all. After telling them that they cannot know the timing (of the restoration of the kingdom), He went on to tell them about their imminent empowering and their mission, without a hint of rebuke. Jesus seemed to be agreeing with the premise of the question, but at the same time, He made it clear that it would not happen in the kind of timing they were imagining.
'ISRAEL' has TWO DEFINITIONS, which are overlapping and related but distinct and different. FIRSTLY, Israel can be a POLITICAL nation with a physical king ruling over a physical land. SECONDLY, Israel is also a SPIRITUAL people of God, including not just ethnic Jews but also all Gentiles who are saved through the Name of Jesus, as we read in Gal 3:7-9 [Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith]. And Paul described the gentiles, as branches from a wild olive tree being grafted into a cultivated olive tree, in Rom 11:24 [For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree].
So if Israel can be defined in two different ways, then we can understand Jesus' answer to the disciples in two different ways. In Acts 15:16-17, we see how the elder James clearly interprets the prophecy in Amos 9:11-12, which Jewish believers hitherto would have understood as being about political Israel, as being fulfilled by the Gentiles—by the restoration of spiritual Israel.
We can disagree about what Jesus words in Acts 1 mean for the future of physical/ethnic Israel, but here, Jesus' answer to the disciples is to do with spiritual Israel. Would Jesus give an answer about spiritual Israel when the questioners have political Israel in mind? We read in Jn 2:18-19 of Jesus doing something quite similar when when the Jews demanded a sign from Jesus to prove His authority, and Jesus replied stating: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” We know that the Jews would have understood this to refer to the physical temple, whereas in fact Jesus was referring to the temple of His body.
COMMISSION
Acts 1:7-8 [He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or 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 all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”]
I am not going to give you the timing of the restoration of the kingdom, but I will give you the method. The method comprises you going to the ends of the earth and gathering in the true sons of Abraham. And even for us, at this point in time, we can all agree that the timing is not for us to know. We are simply called to obey. We do not know when the night will be over and morning will dawn, not just with His second coming but with respect to any aspect of our lives. Another analogy that may be helpful is that of a map and compass. As it were, God does not give us a map; He gives us a compass. We are simply pointed in the direction in which we have to go. We don't know how long it will take and what the obstacles are. But we know by which way to go and that we will reach our destination. Moreover we have no reason to be afraid, even though we have no idea where we are on the journey.
CORONATION
Acts 1:9-11 [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. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 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.”]
We will look at this next time.