Beloved, this is God's word. So, when they had come together, they, speaking about the apostles, asked him, speaking about Jesus, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the 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 of 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 sights. 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 to heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into the heaven. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come before you, I pray first and foremost that it would be your word that sets itself upon the hearts and the minds of your people. May your Holy Spirit move through the words of my lips and apply these words. May you be glorified in their lives. May you build them up in their faith. And if there are those here who do not know you, may you draw them to faith in you. And as your people are built up, I pray that you would build them up in such a way that they would draw others to faith in you. And may everything that we do, and may everything that we think, may everything that we reflect upon honor you. These things I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. It's Mother's Day. And, uh-oh, as you look at the bulletin, gross close his sermon title that he's preaching on is Jesus' Father's throne. Now he's done it. Darn that preacher guy. Doesn't he know that the third chapter in the book of Hallmark reads, "...that thou must honor thy mother, and not thy father, come the official Mother's Day gathering in church." What is he doing this morning? I ask you to bear with me for a moment and follow along, because though the start may seem a little bit odd and awkward, the finish hopefully will be less so and make some sense once everything is said and done. Because this week not only marks the week in which we honor mothers, but it marks, at least on the Christian calendar, though I don't think the Hallmark calendar has picked up on this yet, so maybe we shouldn't advertise it too loud or there'll be a whole other string of cards for sale in the store, though Joy, I guess, might like that. But at least according to the Christian calendar, this is the week that marks the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whereupon, as we would say in the Apostles' Creed, to use the language that most of us grew up with, he sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And our church fathers, not speaking about the ancient church fathers, but speaking about the church fathers of our congregation here at Bury's Church. When they were establishing this church 177 or so years ago, they considered this particular celebration, the celebration of the Ascension, as being so significant in the life of the church that they elevated it to the level of Christmas and of Easter and of Pentecost and of Good Friday by saying, this is one of the primary celebrations of the church of Jesus Christ. And they did so in such a way that they made it a constitutional mandate. that we are to mark this in our celebration of the Christian year. Now most of us as we go through life know Christmas and we know Easter and we know the celebrations and we're used to the celebrations around those days. And most of us probably recognize the significance both of Good Friday and the Pentecost. But what is it that makes this celebration of the Ascension so important, and so important that, again, our fathers would say, it's as important to us as Christmas is, or as Easter is in the church year. Jesus' death on the cross, marked by Good Friday, was Jesus', in a very real and in an absolute way, substitution of Himself into our place. a place of judgment, judgment that we had deserved and earned, though he did not deserve. And by taking not only simply what we see in the movies as the whips and the scourges of the Romans and the horrors of the cross, but by bearing up more importantly against the eternal wrath of God the Father for the sins of all men that would trust in Him as their Lord and Savior. And I say that generically as men and women. Throughout the ages, both from the beginnings of Adam and Eve to the very day that He determines to come again. That's what took place on Good Friday. And that's why Good Friday is marked by us as Christians as so important. It was the day that the Lord of Life was placed in the grave. And all of the irony that goes along with that statement goes along with that day. And then on Easter, on Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate the raising of our Lord from the dead. He had spent the three days in the grave, and He had promised that on that third day He would rise, and the grave could not keep Him. and that His rising from the dead was a confirmation to us of His promise, that not only would He raise from the dead, but that we too, though we may see the grave as He saw the grave, would also not be left to the grave if we're trusting in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and that He too will promise us a resurrection, and that we will rise with Christ. But this ascension, if you will, finalizes the deal. It's God's signature on the dotted line, if you will, of the covenants of life. See, it's not good enough that Jesus simply rose from the dead and then kind of remained on earth to establish a kingdom somewhere. It's not good enough. That would be a wonderful thing. But that would fall short of what it is, or all that it was, that Jesus came to do. You see, this is the question that the apostles are really kind of struggling with here. They spent the last 40 days kind of talking to Jesus, and He's been working with them and living with them, and kind of confirming in their minds that He really is alive. And He's been talking to them about the Kingdom. But as the apostles are processing that, they're beginning to ask him, okay, is this the time? Is this the time when you will restore? And notice the language here that they use. Restore the kingdom to Israel. You see, they can't get beyond the lenses of their contemporary glasses. They say, aha, this is the time. This is our understanding of what it means to be a kingdom. Let's overthrow these Romans and establish Israel as a nation once again. And move forward as victorious kings and leaders amongst the world. Let us establish this nation. They just can't get their head wrapped around anything bigger than themselves and their place in this world. You know, frankly, I don't know that that's that much different sometimes than we as Americans, as Christian Americans sometimes do. Because we sometimes get so tied up between kind of the establishment of America as a nation and the health, if you will, of our nation, and the health of the Church. Now, it is very true that our church and church in America has benefited and has made its life very much easier because of the blessings that God has poured out upon our nation. And arguably the church in the world with all of the missionaries that we send forth is worked because of the freedoms that we have. But do understand something and never forget something. that the Church of Jesus Christ existed a long time before America exists. And the Church of Jesus Christ will exist a long time after America falls to the wayside, like so many of the other nations that have gone before us have done so. Their worldview, their definition, the apostles' definition of success and failure at this point is bound up in the rise and the fall of human empires. But for Jesus, victory is not about sitting on a throne in Solomon's palace, but instead is about sitting on the throne on his father's side. Victory is about dimensions and about kingdoms that exhaust the cosmos. And that covers all of time, both recorded time and time that is yet to come. And Jesus himself emphasized this when he was before Pilate and said, My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my people would be rising up to protect me, but it's not. My kingdom is of heaven. Jesus says to his disciples, as they're asking and pondering this question, he says, look, it is not for you to know the time and the place, the appointed season. One of the translations renders this. Literally, he's kind of saying that the things that God has put into place by His own authority and by His own power is not for you to know these things. Translation perhaps into English, chill out folks. Trust God to do those things that He rightly controls, those things that fall into His realm and are of His providence. Your focus, your focus needs to be on the tasks that I have given you already. Now, He's already given them the Great Commission. We've seen that already take place. But here he kind of reiterates that. He wants to engage them back to this work. So he reiterates it and kind of reinforces it, though, by using a little bit different language. He says, you need to go first to Jerusalem. You're going to wait there until the Holy Spirit comes down upon you in power. That power will be the power by which you go and take the gospel to all of these places that I'm about to tell you to go. If you're doing it in your own strength, you're not going to be successful. But if you're doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit, then success, by human terms, won't even begin to measure what it is that is about to take place. You know, folks, it's not that different today. The things that we try and do in our own strength, by our own power, by our own plans, by our own might, always fall short of the goal. But the things we trust into the hand of the Holy Spirit and trust in the prayer will leave us dumbfounded. But so often times we have a tendency to work in the former and not the latter. Jesus says that when that Spirit comes upon you, when He descends upon your life, He says, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. That's the city right around them. You'll be my witnesses in Judea." That's the region around that city. He says, in Samaria, that's that area that nobody really liked to go. That's the next door neighbors that everybody really kind of, well, those were the folks that were unclean. And we shouldn't, if we're good, respectable people, go talk to. And then he goes into all of the world. You know, we have our own Jerusalem around us in our community. And we have our own Judeas around us in our state and in our nation. But then we also have those places that nobody wants to go, even within our nation, and then throughout the world. He says there's no point, there's no place, there's no part of this creation that God has given us that you're gonna leave untouched. You're gonna start something and then others are gonna continue through this and it's gonna be done in the power of the Holy Spirit and this world is gonna be transformed and changed because of what is about to happen right here and now. Because of what it is that you're witnessing. The argument is, if we're not seeing the world transform, then we're not doing our job. Or perhaps we're trying to do our job with the best intentions, but not doing our job in the power of the Holy Spirit. One concept, one way or the other, something is tending to fall short. And then, after he says this to them, comes to really the defining events. Jesus does right there what nobody who is standing right there expects him to do. He raises and ascends into the air. No camera tricks, no false backings and lightings or things that magicians might do to give you an optical illusion, but literally, physically raising into the air. So much so that the apostles do exactly what we would expect them to do. They stand dumbfounded. They just stared upwards, amazed at what was going on, probably slack-jawed with a little bit of drool coming out the side going, did you just see what I just saw? You know, just kind of rubbing your eyes a little bit and things along those lines. So much so that God sent them two angels to stand in their midst and said, Guys, why are you looking that way? Didn't He just tell you what you were supposed to be doing? And you're just kind of standing there looking up to the sky going, What's we supposed to do, George? What's supposed to happen next? Don't you understand, they continued with them, that He's gonna return the same way He left you, He is going to return in His own time, in His own way. And even today, as Christians, nearly 2,000 years after this event, we still keep the vigil. We have a task at hand, and that is to be witnesses through our actions, through our works, through our words. But at the same time, while we are being witnesses in the world, we also kind of have one eye looking up at the sky, wondering when it is, when that day will come that our Lord and Savior will come as he once left us. And I think that that is the reason that our church fathers decided or believed that this celebration was significant for us. Because it kind of balances us out. One foot that we, in terms of the life that we live, is lived in this world, but the other foot that we live is lived in the spiritual realms. You see, if we lose that balance, we really kind of lose our usefulness to Christ in the world. If we place both feet in this world, we get so busy that we lose sight of the eternal realities that we have been marked to live out and to speak of. People will say, oh yeah, that sounds good, but you don't really live like you really believe that you're talking about. I had a friend of mine, when he was teaching, once used this as an illustration, and I thought it was a healthy one. He was talking to the kids and said, you know what, I'm really getting a bad headache. Can any of you guys help me out here? And he said, immediately, the kids said, well, I've got a little bit of aspirin, or I've got some Tylenol, or whatever. And he said, he looked at them, he said, well, Why is it that we're going to these worldly things, the aspirin, the Tylenol, and stuff like that, and the first thing that we don't even think about is praying? Why is it that your first response was to simply say, I'll pray for you? As Christians, don't we believe that prayer is supposed to minister to us in those ways? Shouldn't that be our first response? Shouldn't that be our foot, if you will, in the spiritual realm? And if God isn't working through prayer, God may work through Tylenol, who knows? and both of the world in which we live. But you know, at the same time, if we get both of our feet stuck in eternal things, we're not going to be very useful in being able to interact with the world around us. You know, people call folks like that pietists, and don't want to have anything to do with them, because, well, they're never down to earth. They can't relate in any way, shape, or form. Our feet are in both worlds. That's both biblical, but I think that is what our church fathers in our congregation were trying to do by saying, look, This is one of those celebrations that needs to be held as a big deal in the life of the church. Because the king that we serve is not simply a king of the earth, but he's the king of the universe. And he's promised us that he is coming back. And we're looking. And we're waiting. Because that will be a good day when he chooses to return. So, for now, we wait. We go about our task, and in doing so, we fulfill the Great Commission. And in doing so, we celebrate the good gifts that God has given us, even in things like our mothers. I told you I'd come back to that, didn't I? We can celebrate Mother's Day because mothers are one of those gifts that God has given us. that in turn is designed to point us directly back to Himself, to glorify Himself. They give us guidance, they give us wisdom, they give us and demonstrate for us sacrifice so oftentimes. And again, I'm speaking not only of our biological moms, but I'm speaking of all of those ladies that have placed themselves in our lives. to be a blessing to us. A number of years after my grandmom's death, a lady from our congregation came up to me and said, I don't know whether your grandmom ever, ever told you this or not. She said, I just wanted you to know that during those years of yours where you were in wild rebellion, your grandmother organized a group of us ladies to be praying for you every day. Beloved, I am thankful to my grandmother and all of those other mothers in that church who had chosen to follow suit and pray for this very rebellious young man. We continue and we consecrate and dedicate missionaries to go into the field of service. We send them out with our prayers, knowing that they take the gospel on our behalf to a, not our Judea, but to the ends of the earth for us. Because not all of us are able to do just that. Not all of us are able to commit to going. And if that were the case, because if all of us did go, then nobody would be back here. It's got to be an and both. and week in and week out as Christians. We gather for worship. We gather to encourage one another. We gather to be taught God's word so that we can live a life that is better honoring to our Lord and Savior and serve our Lord and Savior more faithfully until that wonderful day that our Lord has chosen before the foundations of the earth. that he will come and say to us, well done, my good and faithful servants, for the work that you have done here in this earth, in your Jerusalem, wherever that may be, of leading and pointing others to salvation that we know as believers can only be found in the person of Jesus Christ. Beloved, as we gather this Ascension Sunday, may we be encouraged and reminded that our Lord Jesus is King and that His Kingdom is not limited by the reigns of real estates or by bordering nations, but that His Kingdom extends to all of creation. the millions and billions and trillions and however many light years from here to there, from one side of the universe to the other side of the universe, all is His. God says that the heavens are His throne and the earth is but a footstool. May we indeed work in that footstool to bring honor to our King. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do praise you and we come before you knowing that oftentimes we lose sight of the dual citizenship that you have given to us. Help us to be quick to always be at work in the work of the Great Commission, both through what we say and what we do. May we be active in making disciples of all the nations. The Father also remind us that we are to live as spiritual creatures as well, setting our hearts and our lives in you, setting our treasures in heaven, that indeed where our treasure is, our heart might lie. May you be glorified. May you be honored. May you be praised and proclaimed in this church, in our lives, in our community, in our world. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Beloved, hear the words from Peter. Stand firm in the grace of God. Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. Amen.