It is a privilege to be with you this morning. Unfortunately, Della and Pippa are watching online. I think we had an earache in the middle of the night last night. They're getting their sickness out of the way to prepare for the snow day coming up on Monday, as I'm sure, I see that smile. He knows, he's ready. Thank you, Fix, and thank you, Session, for inviting me to be with you to open up God's Word. If you have a Bible, I do invite you to turn to the book of Acts. We're going to be in the first chapter, reading the first 11 verses. You can find this on page 909 in the Bible in front of you. And today we're gonna look ahead at the world to come. So we're gonna peer across the horizon and look into what the future would have for us. Many of us do that each year as we celebrate the new year and think about what all God would have for us. One of my mentors, James Forsyth, former senior pastor at McLean, loved to say, the future is so certain it can be written as history. And that really resonated with me as I was preparing for this message. As we look forward to 2025, as you know, we just celebrated Advent, celebrating the incarnation of Christ. And what we're gonna look at today is the ascension. These bookends of Jesus's dwelling among his people, his coming as a baby and his ascending up into heaven. These great bookends of his life and story and the fullness of time. He came into this world to be with his people, even though he knew everything that was gonna come, everything that he was going to face, all the suffering, all the trials, even his death on the cross. He did so willingly for us, for the joy set before him. That was you, that was me. And there will be parts of our future that will be scary, just like there were for Jesus, but there's joy as well. So whatever the future would have for us in this new year, we can say with confidence, we know that God is with us. And I wonder if we had a vision of not just a possible future, but if we knew a specific future that God had for us, would we think of that as a blessing or as a curse? Just think about that for a few minutes as we begin to unpack these verses. There's a lot here we're gonna focus in on verse eight in particular. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. These words bring with them great certainty. This is not a possibility, this is a certainty. No might be, can be, but will be. And if we can get this vision, then we can take anything that 2025 throws at us. So I don't know what's waiting for you in the new year or me, but whatever it is, we can face it with the Spirit with us. So let's read these verses, these first 11 verses of the book of Acts. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it's not for you to know the 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 all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. 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. And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes 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. Let's pray together. Merciful and loving Father, we submit ourselves to you and to your word this morning. And we ask that you would give each and every one of us the humility to acknowledge that we all too often don't know what is best. We don't know what the future holds. So we ask that you would give us courage to admit that we need your help. that we need insight from you, our creator, to be able to live and walk in joyful obedience in our daily lives. We need you, our loving Heavenly Father, to open our eyes that we might see the world the way that you see it. Would you help us, Spirit, not only to understand what it means, but what it means for us today, for our lives. Would you do this by your grace and for your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So today we're gonna be asking questions about the future, not unlike the disciples in this passage. What does it look like? What is our mission on this side of the cross? Can we be certain? plans that God has for us. And we'll find in this text that Jesus answers their questions and ours, but not exactly in the way that we might expect. I think that we'll find that our plans for 2025 are too small. and that our vision for this next year might not be all that God has intended for it to be. So, our passage is gonna talk about three truths that we need to face 2025 together. It's direction, power, and hope. So those are gonna be the three headings that we're gonna look at this passage today. Direction, power, and hope. Before we get to those headings, let's set the context a little bit to make sure we have the lay of the land. I have no doubt that some of you maybe binge watched a little bit of content this past week, so maybe if it's helpful to put it like this, chapter one and chapter two of Luke are like season one, episode one, okay? And now we're in the book of Acts, chapter one, which is like season two, episode one. So we're gonna continue in this story, which would be helpful to know about who this story is written about, why it was written, and what it's about. So if you go to Luke's first book, season one, you read about, we see the summary of what it looks like here in these first couple of verses. All right, summary, in the first book, that's Luke, I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up after he had given commands to the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. So this second work then, the book of Acts, is about all that Jesus continues to do and teach from his position in heaven, his reigning in heaven. over all things. And so, as I mentioned earlier, Christians, we call the birth of Jesus, the incarnation, when he is made flesh, and Jesus' return to heaven, we call the ascension. Why? Because he's taken up into the clouds. It's glorious, if you really think about it. And I love this quote from Pastor Tim Keller, who said, the ascension is not the absence of Christ, it's the increased. and heightened presence of Christ. And I wonder if you've thought about it like that. Sometimes when we think about Jesus being taken up into heaven, we think about him being distant, far away. But what if the absence is, it's not that, but it's more about the increased and heightened presence of Christ. Because the risen Lord ascended not into absence, to authority. where he is ruling and reigning over every molecule of the cosmos. He is still sitting on the throne. And that assures us that there's no pain, there's no trial, there's no uncertainty that will separate us from his triumphant return. So that's who this book is about. It's about Jesus, who's ruling and reigning in heaven. But why was it written? were told very clearly that this book was written so that the readers of this gospel and this story and acts would know the certainty of the events. Record it. This is not a fake news story Luke intends for us to read this with historical accuracy. Now, you are the media now, Luke is saying, taking a page out of Elon's book. You are the media now, so we can read these stories with confidence. because of the resurrection, because of the proofs that Jesus gave His disciples in the days even following His resurrection. So verse three says that he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And again, it's one of those things where we, at least for me, I don't often think about, we think about the three days where Jesus is in the grave and he rose on the third day, but then what did he do after that? Well, he spent 40 days teaching his followers about what he is going to continue to do through this kingdom building that he is about to charge them, right? We think about the great commission that Jesus gave his disciples. Well, he's telling them about the plans. And it's really remarkable if you think about it. The book of John, if you look actually just for my Bible, it's the page before. Chapter 21, verse 25, John writes, now there were also many other things that Jesus did, and were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. So we have a lot of stories that we're gonna uncover one day about what Jesus did and taught. Now we can have confidence that these are the words that He intended for us, that He revealed to us by His Holy Spirit, but there's so much more for us to explore one day in the new heavens and the new earth. The world couldn't even contain all that was taught in that intervening time, those 40 days. What an incredible thing that that must have been as He spoke about the kingdom. And that's one of those phrases that we hear often throughout the New Testament, the kingdom of God. And so it's helpful to define it. John Frame, who was one of our professors at RTS, defines the kingdom of God like this. It's God's work in history by which he overcomes all his opponents and establishes his righteousness on earth. So God's work in history by which he overcomes all his opponents and establishes his righteousness on earth. So Jesus is teaching his followers about everything that he's going to do in history. As we heard read in Isaiah earlier, how he will conquer, how kings will arise and kneel before him. He will rule and reign and He will be the one who will bring peace and make all things right. And it's into this context, into the resurrected teaching of Jesus, the ascended Christ, as He is teaching them about the kingdom of God, that the disciples ask the question that we see in verse 6. Look with me there. All right, they're ready, right? They've been prepared for this moment. They still don't get it. Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And you can almost just picture Jesus shaking his head again. They're not quite there. But you can hear, and we can even understand the impatience behind their question, right? All right, you've resurrected. He's not yet ascended. All right, they don't know this is happening. But when is the inauguration coming? All right, the stage has been built. Maybe you've driven around Washington D.C. and seen, basically, they start building the stage every two years for the next inauguration. But no one thinks more about an inauguration than people inside the Beltway, okay? There's a lot of work that's being done behind the scenes, preparing for all of the balls and the transition of government in a few days. People are already drafting executive actions to put in place on day one. And like the disciples, our minds often go to the future as well. And we need to pause and hear the answer that Jesus gives to his disciples, because it's unexpected. Because the first truth that we see Jesus' answer provide for his followers is direction. It's not exactly the direction that they would have expected and perhaps not us either. But Jesus says to them in response to their question, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the end of the earth. The apostles have asked Jesus When are you going to inaugurate this kingdom? And he turns and faces them with the great and awesome truth, no, you are the ones. You are the ones who are going to take this gospel to the ends of the earth. He says in verse eight, actually, this power is gonna come from the Holy Spirit and I'm gonna use you. And that should really humble us. Because God didn't have to use us in that way, but he invites us to be a part of this kingdom building. But again, the disciples are only concerned with their national identity. When are you gonna restore the kingdom to Israel? It reminded me of one of my favorite Christmas movies growing up, Ben-Hur, anybody? I promise you, there's a manger scene, there's wise men, you see Jesus growing up. Ben-Hur, it's more Christmas than Die Hard, okay? It's the story about the Jewish prince who is a contemporary of Jesus, enslaved by the Romans, eventually becomes a charioteer, right? There's a great article in Slate, secular magazine, about Ben-Hur. I love it sometimes when non-Christians can understand and distill some of these great truths, but it says this about Ben-Hur. Ben-Hur was a Jewish William Wallace bent on freeing Judea from its Roman oppressors. But when he arrives in the Holy Land, he encounters a rabbi from Nazareth, a man promising not an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly one. And if you've actually read the book, it's like 1,000 pages. I think a Confederate general wrote it. It's a great book. It's a crazy story. And it's even more vividly pictured in the book, as Ben-Hur amasses a militia, an army, throughout the story, and is actually on a hill outside of Jerusalem, and sees Jesus on the cross, and is ready to go in and rescue him. And he realizes that that's not the type of kingdom that Jesus came to inaugurate. It's not about a physical restoration of Israel or a physical restoration of the land of political national identity Israel. It's bigger than that story. So back to our story, as we hear this great commission, you're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth, these concentric circles moving out. When it comes to the future, you have a mission, and I'm gonna be at work through you, is what Jesus says. You're gonna be my witnesses to the world. These are your marching orders. to bring my gospel to these places. And so these places, let's consider them for just a brief moment. It's expansive, Jerusalem, which was of course the epicenter of the religious community. And then Judea, moving a little bit further out, the place that rejected Jesus. Samaria, it's those spiritual but not religious folks. And then of course, to the ends of the earth, every other place, every other worldview, every nation, every tongue, every tribe. Jesus is saying to his disciples, your vision for the future is too small. I'm going to use you to expand this kingdom more than you could ever imagine. And that's an amazing thing that we're called to a calling that is so immense that it shakes the foundations of our small ambitions and expands our hearts into mission for God and for his kingdom to spread throughout the earth. And I love the certainty of this expansion too. It's not hopeful, it's not possible. It is certain you will be my witnesses. It'd be great if you'd consider this. This is not optional. You are either doing this or you're not doing this. So it's a great diagnostic question for us to consider is how are we doing? How am I doing personally to expand this kingdom? Even thinking about it in concentric circles like this. Do our actions testify to this? At home, at work, in school, wherever God has called us, that we are witnesses to the watching world. But the truth is, if we're gonna be faithful witnesses, we need something more than we have in and of ourselves, right? So we hear these marching orders, and what you should be feeling now is I don't have what it takes. I'm not equipped. To do that, that's a great place to start. Because Jesus' answer to his followers' question about the future gives them direction, yes, but more importantly, it gives them power. So look with me at verses four and five, where we see that while he was staying with them, he ordered them not to depart. Okay, so he's just giving them this great commission, but don't go anywhere yet. because you're not ready. You need the promise of the Father. You've heard about it, the Spirit's coming, Pentecost in just a few days. Jesus orders them not to depart until they receive the Holy Spirit. That's amazing because it reminds us that apart from the Spirit, we have no power to do this thing that God has called us to. We need the Holy Spirit's power to be able to move in us. Because in and of ourselves, we don't have what it takes. And we DC people, we don't like to hear that, right? We prize ourself on our competency, our abilities. We control the things, our environment around us. But here we're told that the best place for us to start is to admit our powerlessness. unless the Spirit is with us. 2 Corinthians 4.7 says this, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not us. The power that we have to be able to be witnesses in this way is the Spirit in us. And that can be offensive to our uber-competent, overachieving city, that we don't have what it takes, that we need something more than what we bring to the table. That's a great place to start. The bad news is you don't have what it takes. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus, the Father, sends the Holy Spirit, and Jesus says, it's gonna be better for me to be gone. It's gonna be better for you when I'm gone, when the Spirit comes. And I wonder if we actually believe that that is true. I was reading this quote on the Gospel Coalition. Great question. If I were to ask you whether you would rather have Jesus beside you or the Spirit inside you, what do you think that you would choose? And I wonder if the answer to that question shows us how far we are from grasping what it is that we have been given in the power of the Holy Spirit. We don't have to live in fear or uncertainty because Jesus says it's gonna be better for you when the helper comes, the Holy Spirit. The ascension is a powerful moment. in Christian history. And we all have, since Pentecost, those who put their hope and trust in Jesus, the spirit inside of us. The spirit which helps us grow deeper in our relationship with God. The spirit which speaks to us through his scriptures, helping us to discern God's will. The spirit which points us to Jesus as the model for our character and godliness. The spirit which helps us to discern paths before us with great wisdom that He would have for us. And wherever we are, whatever place we find ourself, the Spirit is who helps us to rest in God's grace. The good news that was promised to us in the incarnation, that God would be with us, is proclaimed as well in the ascension when God is with us through the power of His Spirit. You have everything that you need in the gospel is the good news. And since you have everything that you need, since you have all the power and direction, then you can have hope. Whatever the new year has for you. How can we be certain of that hope? The answer comes in verses nine through 11. When he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up. That's he, Jesus. And a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in robes 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. In these last few verses of this passage, a startling scene unfolds. This is totally unexpected. Jesus has been telling them, I'm gonna go, it's gonna be better for you, I promise, but stay, wait until the Holy Spirit comes, that's coming in a few days, just imagine. And then all of a sudden, Jesus ascends into the clouds. And so, they're just looking up. which we can understand their reaction as they're gazing into heaven, the angels come and say, why are you looking up? Because he's coming back the same way that you saw him go. Now, if I were there and the angels asked me that question, I might just be tempted to say something like, with all due respect, Mr. Bright and Shiny Angel Man, we just saw something pretty remarkable. Like Jesus, who was just resurrected, that was crazy enough, but then he just, Okay. But what the angels are saying to the disciples is, stop looking up. These are southern angels, they'd be saying something like this, go on now, get. You have now your direction and your power and you have hope. And the certainty of Christ's reign means that we don't have to look up waiting, that we can go through the fires and the challenges that would come and face us with unshakable joy, knowing that the King of King holds the universe, which includes us in the palm of his hand. Jesus is in heaven ruling and reigning, and he's coming back. He's given us direction, power, and hope. And these truths lead us to two consequences for our lives today. The first is this, it's to get to work. Second is to enjoy your rest. So the first, get to work. By the way, this happens all throughout scripture. Jesus has no problem calling us to inherent tensions. to paradoxes, because in dying we find life, in giving we receive, and here we see, get to work and enjoy your rest. This passage reminded me of that famous quote by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, aim at heaven and you'll get earth thrown in, aim at earth and you'll get neither. And the good thing is, you guys have defined your work as a church. So I did a little website perusal, okay? So here's what your work is. You are a local expression of Christ's church, all right? That's the where, you're here in Bowie, that exists to glorify God and enjoy him forever by embracing his word. That's the why, all right? We're here to do that, which Fix reminded us We're most like Christ, we're most like God when we're doing that, when we're glorifying him and enjoying him, embracing his word. Okay, that's the why. Worshiping him in spirit and truth, that's the how. Okay, you can't do that apart from the spirit. And bearing faithful witness to the good news of Jesus Christ through evangelism, discipleship, and a loving community. That's the what you're about. That's what you're called to do. That is your work as a church. Do you desire to do this, to live out your calling in this way, to make a difference in your community and in your world? Don't just aim for Bowie, aim for heaven and you will be amazed that everything else will be added unto you. Get to work. It's a good thing that God calls us to in this new year. But the second is to enjoy your rest. Because you have everything that you need as you face 2025, you have the power of the Holy Spirit who gives us hope for the future. May these words in 2025 ring true from Paul in the book of Romans. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. It's not up to you. It is up to that great and faithful witness, the book of Revelation 1, verse five, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, Jesus. And in his grace, he invites us to be a part of this incredible journey. He invites us to be a part of his ruling and resting. For those who believe in Jesus, rest, because He's taking care of everything else. But if you're feeling uncertain today, uncertain about 2025, if you're feeling restless, then this is God's call to put your hope and trust in Him. Would you invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you through His word even now? If you are feeling in any way drawn to this word, to the certainty and hope that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ provides to His people, then speak to one of your elders. Come and speak to us after the service, so that when we take this meal later on in the service, you could join us the next time, perhaps. Put your hope and trust in Him. We have a certain future because of the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's ruling and reigning. If you're someone who makes resolutions, here's one that I would add to your list. Would you be resolved that you will rely more on the Holy Spirit in 2025 than you have in the past? the rest and the finished work of Jesus. The future is certain because Christ reigns, and the Holy Spirit empowers, and the King is coming again. So church, arise. Arise and work, for the light of Christ shines upon us. Arise and rest. for the victory has been won. And in 2025, may our lives rise, resound with the anthem of eternity because Christ reigns, Christ empowers and Christ returns. Sermon in a sentence. The future is as certain as the throne of Christ is unshaken. And this certainty frees us. to labor in joyful obedience and rest in unshakable hope for the God who commands our direction, supplies our power, and secures our hope. Would you bow your heads, let's pray together. Dear Jesus, as we prepare to leave here later today, we ask that you would empower us by your spirit to do more in the midst of our circumstances than we might dream or imagine. We do thank you for giving us direction, for not leaving us to aimlessly wander, looking up at the sky. Would you help us to see what it means to see you ruling and reigning in heaven at the right hand of the Father? Help us to have direction in this new year. Help us to have the power by your Spirit and help us to have hope that we can face anything that this year would throw at us. We know that in you we can face anything in this life and our future. We see you high and lifted up, Jesus, and pray to you that you would sink these truths deep into our souls, that we could arise and get to work and to enjoy your rest. We pray this all in Jesus' name.