Alright, grab your Bibles out, turn to the Book of Acts, chapter 1. This will be the last message I preach in the Book of Acts this year, unless I decide to preach something from the Book of Acts on New Year's Eve. We will be having New Year's Eve Watch Night service. I've not decided what we're going to do for that service. You will find out. You won't find out when I do because. I'll probably find out when I'm. In the middle of the ocean, but. What's that? No, no, we waited till midnight and we went home right after midnight last year, so I would love to go home before midnight this year, but I don't. I don't know, we'll see. I'm considering possibly like a. sing a song, a bunch of singing and praising the Lord, and maybe take a break, go eat some stuff, maybe come back, do some prayer, maybe some singing again, I don't know, maybe I'll preach a little bit. No live stream that night probably so And if you come from the mission service starts at 7 After we break for food after we eat if you're going to get a ride back and you're not able to stay till You silence your phone You're not able to stay Till midnight or whenever it is we decide to leave which will not be very much longer after midnight But you can, you can, yeah, if you have permission to stay, you can stay and we can take you back after. So I think that's happened in years past. Brother Sims, do people stay till midnight here? Okay. Alright, so. I think it was Brother Brian Kaler. He had to get back because he had to be there for like the final lights out thing and whatever. Yeah. So, Acts 1. Verse 9. We're going to read 9-11. You can remain seated for this. In verse 9 it says, And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up. and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, bless you, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the opportunity to open it tonight. And we pray, Lord, that you'd meet with us and you'd have your way in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Four points tonight. They all start with D-A. So the word D, and then letter A for the first. Alright, so we're going to see here. I will give you a sneak preview, I guess. So the ascension of Christ is one of the most triumphant moments in Scripture. It's an amazing thing. Not quite as great as His return, but His ascension is one of the most triumphant moments in Scripture. And this passage shows the end of Christ's earthly ministry and the beginning of His mission during this age. So, the four points are the ascension accomplished, the angelic announcement, the announcement of His return, and the aim for His people. Alright, so we're going to cover it in that way. So the ascension accomplished. In verse number 9 it says He was taken up. He was taken up. The manner of His ascension, it was bodily, it was visible, it was literal. It wasn't just spiritual or symbolic. He wasn't just spiritually and symbolically taken up. bodily visibly literally was taken up and literally meaning actually not meaning like I don't know what is it the the Millennials say today they'll say literally about everything like like you know if you're giving them a hard time they'll say you're literally killing me like Pretty sure that you're not correct. But when we say literal, we actually mean it. It means really, actually happening. It was noticed in the text, it says, while they beheld. While they beheld. This wasn't like invisible stuff. They watched it happen with their own eyes. He wasn't disappearing in spirit or ascending, but rather He was ascending in His own body. Make sense? Make sense? Man, I feel like I need to put a podium down there. Anyhow. So, we looked at the manner of His ascension. Now how about the meaning? The meaning of His ascension. His earthly work was finished. Turn over to Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1. We've got extra folks over at Red Sea Baptist Church tonight due to the weather. Next week, the services will be at Red Sea Baptist Church on Sunday evening. Morning service will be here as usual. Hebrews 1, verse 3 says, "...who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." That's a big deal. He finished, right? He was the expressed image of His person. Jesus was the expressed image of His person. You know what? I love how Hebrews starts. I'm going to start over in the first verse. It says, God, who at sundry times and divers manners spake in time past unto us Yeah, I don't know why I keep skipping stuff. Spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things, by the Word of His power. Man, that's good. Think about that. Think about what it's saying here about Jesus, about the Son of God. The Son of God is the brightness of the glory of the Father. The Son of God is the express image of the person of the Father. The Son of God upholds all things by the Word of His power. And He, by Himself, purged our sins. That's a completed work. He made everything. He showed the glory of the Father. He holds it all together. And then He purged our sins at the cross. So He finished the meaning of the ascension is that He finished. He went to heaven and now He's seated. He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. So His earthly work is finished, but His heavenly work continues. Look at Hebrews 7. Look at Hebrews 7 and verse 25. Yeah, we'll just read verse 25. Just to kind of recap, paraphrase, get you in the context here. Jesus Christ is greater than Aaron the priest, the high priest. Jesus Christ is greater than the Levitical priesthood. He's greater than all priests. He's greater than all. You're going to see that throughout the book of Hebrews. He's better than Aaron, better priesthood, so on and so on. In verse number 25, it says, Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an High Priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those High Priests to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins and then for the people's. For this He did once when He offered up Himself. For the law maketh men high priests, which have infirmity, but the word of the oath, which is since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated forevermore." He finished His work on earth, and He continues to intercede for us. His ascension proves His deity. It proves His victory over death. It proves His acceptance by the Father. And it proves His authority as the head of His churches. Amen. Nobody's taking notes, so I'm not telling you the points and stuff. Well, maybe my wife's back there taking notes. I don't know. That was all letter B, the meaning of His ascension. Letter C, the majesty of His ascension. We have the manner of His ascension, the meaning of His ascension, the majesty of His ascension. It's almost like point one is like a three-point sermon all by itself. Spoiler alert, they're all that way. All the points, all the main points. The majesty of His ascension. He was received into the cloud. Now this is something that's an interesting thought. I spent a little time digging on this a little bit. And that is the Shekinah glory. That's a real often-used phrase. Though shekinah is not actually in the Bible, shekan is. And shekan is usually a Hebrew word, and it is referring to any time that God's dwelling presence His dwelling glory, His presence is with His people. And the term Shekinah came from Hebrew rabbis, Jewish rabbis. who later, when they were writing about God showing up in the tabernacle, and God showing up over the mercy seat, and God showing up in the pillar of fire, God showing up in the pillar of smoke, God showing up in the rock in the wilderness, God showing up at the side of the mountain where Moses is covered in the cleft of the rock, God showing up again, Many, many times God's showing up with Abraham, his presence being there. God's showing up in his presence being there to wrestle with Jacob. God's showing up in his presence being there when he was there with Elisha on Mount Carmel and then later again. in the cave, in the wilderness, God's presence showing up. And they said, what do we say? What do we call this so that we're not constantly using the name of God? Because they typically would avoid using the name of God. In fact, when they write it in English, They put a dash in the middle there instead of the O so that they're not actually writing out His name. And so they wanted to show reverence to God and not to use His name in vain or use it in a flippant way. And so they came up with this term. They talked about His presence or His glory or His dwelling. or hovering among them. Man, it reminded me also of His presence in the temple there with Isaiah. When he says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Right? He's there. And it says that the priests couldn't come in to do anything. And He falls down on His face and He sees the angels. crying, holy, holy, holy, right? And the rabbis wanted to have something that they could just simplify and simply say, that God's there. And so they came up with the word Shekinah. It was based on Shekan which was God's dwelling presence or God's dwelling glory. And so they would actually, you know, in English we often say the Shekinah glory. But you don't have to say that because technically Shekinah encompasses it. And so they would actually say the Shekinah filled the temple. Or the Shekinah showed up. And what they meant by that was God showed up in His presence and in His glory and it was known. It wasn't just an understanding that God was present. It was an overwhelming sense of His presence. And today, you know, overwhelming sense of God's presence. By the way, if you read the book, How to Help Your Pastor, there's a point where it talks about presence. And I was actually going to write another book on the presence of God and having the presence of God in church and how you do that. How do you have God's presence in church? Well, I'll give it away before I write the book. You have God's presence in church by having God's presence in your personal life. You see, God is everywhere. But His Shekinah is where you have Him. If you'll have God's presence in your morning devotions, in your evening devotions, in your daily prayer life, in your daily worship of God, if you'll have God's presence in your life personally, you don't have to go to church to find His presence, you come to church bringing His presence. And that's the point, right? When we come to church, when visitors come in and they say, I know God is there, it's because God came with His people. That's how it works. Anyhow, the majesty of His ascension Imagine seeing Jesus rise up into the clouds and being overwhelmed with the truth and the sense of God's presence as He ascends into heaven. Man, what a thing. It's the same glory that led Israel. Right? As I mentioned already, it was the same glory that filled the temple. The same glory that will return with Him. You can look at that in Revelation 1. In verse number 7, it says, Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him. And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen." What a thing, the presence of God. And that same glory will be there and will return with Him. Number two, the angelic announcement. I may lose my voice before I'm done. The angelic announcement. He said, what did the angels say? Ye men of Galilee. Letter A, their question. What was the question? Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This was not necessarily a rebuke for looking. But rather it was a reminder to get moving on the mission. Get moving for the mission. The mission that Jesus gave in verse number 8, right? They were caught in the wonder and the angels reminded them of the work. It's good to be caught in wonder with God. But at some point, you've got to be reminded of the work. It's not just about the wonder of worship, but the work. Or maybe we could say the worship of work. Not worshiping work, but worshiping God by work. By working for Him, right? Let her be their comfort. They said, why stand you gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus. Not another Jesus. Not a spirit. Not an idea. Not a politician. Not a government. This same Jesus. The same one who walked with them. The same one who died for them. The same one who rose for them. The ascended Christ is the unchanged, living, reigning Christ. And He's the same One who's coming back. Their clarity. So their question, their comfort, their clarity. Christ's departure was not failure, but fulfillment. He wasn't quitting. He was fulfilling His work and then furthering the work through His people. after that. His absence is not abandonment, it is His exaltation until He returns. Number three, the announcement of His return. This is not like a normal Sunday morning sermon. It's broken down into an outline, but it's quick. Lest I elaborate. The announcement of His return. What did the angel say? Shall so come in like manner. So letter A, the certainty of His return. Shall so come. This is a divine guarantee. God said so through His messengers, through the angels there. He said, this same Jesus, whom you've seen, right? Taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you've seen Him go into heaven. This is not a might. This is not a may. This is a shall. The return of Christ is as certain as His ascension. You know, people have all kinds of funny ideas about the return of Christ. About it being mystical, something different than what the Bible says, but the Bible gives us very clear indication that His return is certain. That it's going to happen just like His ascension. And so that takes us to the next sub-point, the character. Let her be the character of His return. They said, "...shall so come the character in like manner as ye have seen Him go." Just like you saw him go, he's going to come bodily, literally, visibly the same way he left. Not a secret coming, not symbolic, not spiritualized. It's going to be for real. Right? He's not going to sneak in the back door somewhere. He's going to come just like he went up. The King is coming back in glory just as He ascended in glory. Let us see the connection to His churches. So we had the certainty of His return, the character of His return, now the connection to His churches. His return motivates evangelism. Remember in verse 8, He said, You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. His return motivates evangelism. It also motivates purity. Turn to 1 John 3. 1 John 3. We'll look at verse number 2. We'll start at verse number 1. 1 John 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." And here's the key. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law." I'm sorry, I'm continuing on. For sin is the transgression of the law. But what we really wanted to focus on there was verse number 3, that every man that hath this hope, the hope of his return, the hope that we're going to be like him, he's going to appear. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." So his return motivates evangelism, purity, and the third thing that his return motivates is faithfulness. And this is all in his churches, right? So that's a connection to his churches with evangelism, with purity, with faithfulness. In Luke 19, And verse number 13, He said, and He called His ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said unto them, Occupy till I come. Occupy till I come. This is a responsibility that we have to be faithful, to occupy, to be faithful till He comes. The church is not just to stare at the sky, but to serve until He appears. And number four, The aim. This is the last main point. The aim for His people. So we looked. Main points. The ascension accomplished. The angelic announcement. The announcement of His return. And the aim for His people. Why stand ye gazing? There's a purpose for us, right? Letter A, not to gaze, but to go. Not to gaze, but to go. Now wonder is good, but work is better. Their calling was not contemplative paralysis, but rather Spirit-filled obedience, right? It's great to wonder at the Lord and wonder at His goodness and wonder at His mercy and wonder at His holiness and wonder at His glory. And it's good to worship in wonder, but it is better to continue to work. We can worship in wonder, but that worship in wonder ought to motivate us and spur us on to work for the Lord. Not just to gaze, but to go. Letter B, not to wait idly, but to witness actively. Not to wait idly, but to witness actively. Just as we saw there in verse number 8, right? You shall be witnesses. The promise of His return fuels the urgency of the mission. He could come back at any time. Who needs to hear the Gospel that you know? Someone you know needs to hear the Gospel. And so it ought to motivate us to tell them because Jesus is coming back soon. Everybody needs to hear the Gospel, right? And so it should motivate us to go and tell before the time is up. Letter C. Not to fear, but to follow. Our aim is not to fear, but to follow. The ascension reminds us that Christ reigns, that Christ intercedes, and that Christ returns. Therefore, we witness, we worship, and we work. So, concluding, it kind of recaps some of the main things here. The reigning Christ, He is ascended, He is exalted, He is interceding. The returning Christ, this same Jesus, shall so come. The literal Christ is literally coming again. And the ready church. Not staring upward, but serving outward. Not idle, but obedient. Until He comes, we witness, we work, we wait with expectation. Amen. And we're done early. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your ascension. We thank You, Lord, for Your return. We thank You, Lord, that we have work to do. We pray, Father, that You'd just bless Your people, bless Your work. Lord, help us to be faithful. Lord, I pray that You'd bless the time of fellowship and the food. Lord, we just pray that You would help us this week to serve You as we ought to. Lord, make us very productive and help us to get the things done that we need to get done. Thank You, Lord, for the privilege of being able to be Your servant. In Jesus' name, Amen.