Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever been commissioned and sent out to accomplish something
We presume they were meeting in Jerusalem when Jesus was explaining to them that He was soon leaving to return to heaven, but He’d send the Holy Spirit who would empower them. Then Jesus predicted: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
This was their final commissioning from Jesus. They would become powerful people as the Holy Spirit of God would lead them to speak words of God’s bold truth and hope found in Jesus. They’d speak those words to people living in despair and darkness and hopelessness. They would become powerful people as the Holy Spirit would lead them to challenge those things which were destroying marriages and families and cities! Empowered by the Holy Spirit they would serve the needs of our world, needs created by those who have rejected God, God’s Truth and God’s ways!
They would begin there, in Jerusalem and move out in all directions. So how far from Jerusalem do you live, my friends? Has the life transforming, city changing, power of the Holy Spirit yet reached your extended family, your neighborhood, your city? How did that happen and how strongly has that power been working in the generations of your family, and in your city?
You may recall yesterday we were discussing the evidence of the impact of the Holy Spirit empowered people in any city around the world in any generation. We looked at the words of Isaiah the prophet who wrote about such people: “They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” (Is. 61:3,4)
If you and I look at our cities, our extended families, through the lenses of these powerful words written by Isaiah, here are some key questions we need to ask ourselves:
1. What are the major causes of family, community and city devastation?
2. As families, neighborhoods and entire cities implode, leaving little but ruins behind, how do you describe the despair, the hopelessness which envelope the people living in those ruins?
3. As governments or social agencies or even religious organizations attempt the rebuilding and renewal of such devastated places, what have you seen to be the results? What methods or resources have they brought into the ruins?
Do you see what Jesus did as He brought God’s answers into the ruins and devastation of our world? Do you see God’s strategic plan for renewal and rebuilding of devastated families, communities and cities as Jesus sent out His followers, empowered by His Holy Spirit, to bring hope and help to the devastation of our world?
Do you see that God’s answer, God’s strategy, is normal people, like you and me, who have turned from their sin and placed their full trust in Jesus Christ to rescue them from their sin bondage and sin condemnation, and then they have been transformed by the power of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God… these people are God’s answer!
For as these people of God, rescued by the resurrected Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, bring to the people in these ruined places God’s Truth, God’s Word, God’s design for living life, the light of God will penetrate the darkness of evil in our world. As the devastated people in those ruined places trust in Jesus and reject the bondage of darkness which has held them, rescue, deliverance, redemption happens and lives are powerfully changed.
Then marriages are changed, and families are changed, and soon schools and businesses and health care and even politics change, and a great momentum of transformation cleans up a community bringing hope and confidence for a new future! Have you ever seen that happen? Have you ever been part of such renewal of a ruined family or community or city?
It seems Jesus drew the conversation to a close that day and the disciples walked out of Jerusalem with Jesus, across the Kidron Valley, up through the Garden of Gethsemane to the ridge of the Mount of Olives. As they walked, I presume others joined them, especially other dear friends of Jesus, so that by the time they arrived on the hilltop there was a little crowd, and they paused looking at that famous view of Jerusalem, the City of David, with the great Temple towering over it all. Oh, what a beautiful view!
It had been almost exactly 6 weeks since Jesus had said and accomplished so very much in that city that famous Passover/Easter weekend. Now…the time had finally arrived. The earthly mission of Jesu Christ was complete. We have no record of exactly how Jesu said His goodbyes, but Luke writes this to describe the departure of Jesus from His friends: “After He had said this, He was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid Jesus from their sight.” (Acts 1:9)
We use the word “ascension” to describe this event. In full view of the disciples and other friends, the resurrected Jesus simply began to elevate from the hillside, up into the sky, and soon the clouds enveloped Jesus and He was no longer visible. No one has ever seen such a sight. They stood there speechless, gazing up into the sky, trying to wrap their minds around what they’d just seen.
Suddenly they were not alone! Luke writes: “They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee’, they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:10,11)
How long they stood there looking up at the sky, looking at each other, and how long these two angels, who appeared like men, were with them…we don’t know. Luke tells us they eventually concluded Jesus was permanently gone, and they walked back to Jerusalem where they met together with many other friends of Jesus to reflect on what they had experienced this day and discuss what was next for them.
Do you notice these two men made it very clear Jesus was ‘taken from you into heaven’? Do you see how this completes the earthly life and mission of Jesus? John 3:16 tells us God the Father SENT Jesus into the world and now God the Father recalled Jesus back to heaven for His redemption mission on earth was complete. Do you also see these angels predicted “This same Jesus… will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven”? Now, 2000 years later, we and all authentic Christians around the world, still await that glorious return of Jesus to earth.
But as we close today my friends, do you see that God’s people do not aimlessly wait for the return of Jesus. Today, as every day since the departure of Jesus, we, God’s people, transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, have the commissioned privilege of being God’s strategic response to the needs of our world.
Paul wrote it this way: “If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come. All this is from God who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ… we are therefore ambassadors of Jesus Christ, as though God were making His appeal [to the world] through us!” (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)
Do you see our God commissioned purpose in those words my friends? Those disciples and friends of Jesus met together for those next 10 days discussing, praying, planning and waiting for the arrival of the Holy Spirit Jesus had promised. When the Holy Spirit did come, as Luke records in Acts 2, those friends of Jesus were transformed and the powerful promise of Isaiah 61:1-4 did happen in Jerusalem and as they went out from Jerusalem, lives were transformed throughout Judea and Samaria and the Galilee, and from there around the world, eventually to the city where you and I live!
As we close today, my “Walking with Jesus” friends, my questions for you and me are these:
1. What do you think is God’s great desire for your city, your extended family yet in 2023?
2. What would give God the greatest glory and honor, that the Holy Spirit could accomplish through God’s people, in your extended family and city yet this year?
3. What is your personal part in that my friends?
Those questions give us daily purpose that will be fulfilling now and for all eternity! So here’s another wonderful worship song to help us consider this our commissioning as we look forward into the months and years out ahead of us, and the great needs of the world where you and I live.
Today’s Scripture is Acts 1:8-11.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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