What Would You Do

This sermon is about the Ascension as we read it in Acts 1:1-14. This includes the great Commission, Commands Jesus gives the disciples, the Ascension, and details we often miss in the verses.

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What Would You Do? 

Today we're looking at the ascension of Jesus. What led up to it, and reactions to it. We'll be using three different texts. Our primary text is Acts 1:1-14, but we will also look at Mark 16:14-20, and Luke 24:50-53. 

Acts 1 

1 The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when He was taken up to heaven , after He had given orders by the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen. 3 To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of things regarding the kingdom of God. 

If we are going to talk about the ascension of Jesus, Luke gives us this short overview in the beginning of Acts. He tells us that Jesus was taken us to heaven at the end of His ministry. He tells us that He gave orders to the apostles, and he says that in the 40 days following Jesus’s resurrection, He presented proof that He was alive. 1 Corinthians 15:6 records that 500 people saw Him during this time. And… people argue this story is unbelievable. Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus, both Roman historians, mentioned Jesus, yet both doubted His resurrection. Tacitus even called it a “Mischievous superstition” 

Skeptics and progressive theologians frequently argue that the narrative reflects an obsolete pre-scientific cosmology, lacks corroborating eyewitness documentation, and contains conflicting details between the gospel accounts. The narrative of the ascension exists in the context of those who were there, but it also defines who we are as believers. It is contextual to the Old Testament promise, and It is contextual to the New Testament fulfillment. And it is command to the Christian mission. Let's look at how mark begins this story 

Prelude 

The Disciples Commissioned - Mark 16 

14 Later He appeared to the eleven disciples themselves as they were reclining at the table ; and He reprimanded them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen from the dead. 

What are the disciples doing? They are by themselves…… away from others. Reclining at a table…. In no hurry to go anywhere. They are just chilling. “It has been a tough few days” And Jesus shows up and reprimands them. Reprimand ….translates to rebuke, criticize, or reproach. Like a parent, He gave them a loving tongue-lashing. Reprimanded for unbelief - a willful refusal to accept spiritual truth; Hardness of heart - spiritual stubbornness to divine truth. Why? They did not believe the witnesses of His resurrection! Even 40 days later? Even after they had seen Him? It is possible that the clear contradiction of someone who is clearly dead coming back to life could cause our brain to alter the memory of the event. It is also possible that emotional trauma caused them to black out the memory of the traumatic event of the crucifixion. Either way Jesus has returned and He is with them now. 

A series of commands - Acts 1  

4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said , “you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 

The first command is: Do Not Leave Jerusalem 

This command seems odd. What did it mean to them? Like all good Jewish boys they would have been taught 1) Jerusalem is where the Glory of God had dwelt in the Old Testament 2) Deuteronomy 32 says - God is the owner/possessor of the Hebrews, - God will reclaim the disinherited nations

This communicates to us that God has come to take back what is His There is some excitement and expectation in this command It isn’t Jesus is sending them to their rooms to think about what they’ve done He is speaking covenantal language which they understand He is saying, “Don’t go anywhere” 

The second command is: Wait For The Promise Of The Father 

We might think this is like saying, “Keep doing what you’re doing.” Because the Jews have become exceptionally good at waiting. But He asks them to remember the things He has taught them. 

The Holy Spirit is Coming 

This can be found throughout the narrative of Jesus in the Gospels Matthew 3:11 - the baptism of the Holy Spirit. John 14:16-17 - the promise of the advocate. John 16:7 - the coming of the Holy Spirit. He asks them to remember those things that they know already. 

Old Testament prophesy is being fulfilled 

Sometimes we call this Eschatological foreshadowing, or, a look towards the future.

• Jeremiah 31 
  • (31) A new covenant will be made with - The house of Israel - The house of Judah
  • (33) I will put my Law within them
  • (34) Everyone will know God 
  • (34) Our sin will be forgiven 
• Ezekiel 11 
  • (13) the whole house of Israel (all believers)
  • (17)I will call you out from the countries where you were scattered
  • (17) you will have a new heart and a new spirit
• Ezekiel 36 
  • (25) I will sprinkle water on you and you will be clean 
  • (26) I will give you a new heart 
  • (27) You will receive His Spirit 
• Ezekiel 37 
  • (15-23) Israel and Judah will be reunited 
  • (24) David will be king over them - Reference to Jesus
• Amos 9 
  • (11) The fallen booth of David will be restored 

Let’s look at verse 4 again 

Acts 1 

5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 

John the Baptist baptized people into repentance. But this baptism did not change a person's heart. It was only temporary and symbolic. Through the Holy Spirit people are baptized into restoration, we receive a new heart like it was promised in Ezekiel. We are transformed and receive forgiveness as promised in Jeremiah. This is something permanent. 

Now verse 6 

Acts 1 

6 So, when they had come together, they began asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 

This is such a great question from the disciples. It is also the last question recorded that they asked Jesus. The Jews were so desperate for the restoration and Jesus’s death had been great and all but Rome hadn’t fallen, and there hadn’t been any heavenly hosts riding in to save them. So this question reveals the heart of the Jewish people. What we know is that from an historical perspective, from a Jewish perspective, and from a Biblical perspective, the restoration is coming in Acts 2. 

However, Jesus chooses to answer them in this way: 

Acts 1 

7 But He said to them, “It is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the Father has set by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.” 

“It is not for you to know…” I think this would be upsetting to me. I can imagine the Jews saying, “Look I need to know this… We’ve been waiting for 600 years… It’s about time for something to happen.” However, Luke is reminding them, It isn’t important to know all the details, this is the authority of the Father. God has often told us that we don’t need to know all that He knows. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "the secret things belong to the Lord". Ecclesiasties 11:5 says, "you do not know the work of God". Matthew 24:36 says "concerning the day and hour, no one knows". 

Jesus is asking them to trust Him. And to answer the question of the apostles, there is an “already here, but not here” feeling to the Kingdom as we move further into Acts 2 and beyond. He says that they will become His witnesses. They will spread the baptism of the Spirit to the whole world: To the Jews - This was the ministry of the disciples, To the Gentiles - This was the ministry of Paul. This calling appeared to be achievable to them because they thought they could see the finish line. And it created a sense of urgency and excitement in them. But the world is a lot bigger than they assumed, and so, this is the task that we have inherited 

This verse in Acts is known as The great commission statement. We are told to become the witnesses. Mark records the Great Commission in MARK 16 

15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison , it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 

You know what is missing in this command? We aren't told to preach entertainment. We aren't told to teach the latest psychological theories. We aren't told to homogenise our beliefs into popular worldviews. So often we repeat the first statement but we ignore the rest because they are controversial: If you don’t believe you are condemned, These signs will accompany believers, Demons cast out, Speaking in tongues, Picking up serpents, No harm from poison, Healing the sick. 

Isn’t it funny how each of these signs has been distorted? Let’s look at one of these - Healing the sick. Distorted by faith healers who say healing comes from monetary investment. Distorted by Charismatic feelings peddlers who say you don’t believe enough to be healed. Distorted by salvation through works theology which teaches an expression of gifts is necessary to confirm salvation. And the church has become an entertainment venue. Should we consider buying a smoke machine? Would it make our worship more holy? 

We open our doors to progressive thought - I watched a sermon on Friday from a Mother's day sermon, where the pastor was encouraging his congregation to return to worshiping Ashera as God’s female companion. We are asked to tolerate those things which cannot be holy. 

A missional church is one that preaches the gospel. 

The Ascension 

Let’s move on now to the Ascension itself. Let’s follow the disciples as the last act of Jesus happens in their sight. I’ll sew this together from all three accounts in the Gospels: 

LUKE 24

50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 

ACTS 1

9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were watching, and a cloud took Him up, out of their sight.

MARK 16   

19 So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 

ACTS 1

10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, then behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them, 11 and they said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

Have you ever watched a rocket launch? How long did you watch the rocket disappearing? A Model rocket gone in the blink of an eye but the Space shuttle is more majestic, slower. Where was your attention being held? When does the wonder cease?

Jesus foreshadowed and predicted his ascension during his ministry, framing it as a necessary return to the Father to prepare a place for his followers, send the Holy Spirit, and enter into his glory. These predictions occur primarily in the Gospel of John, pointing to his return to heaven. In John 6:62, Jesus asks, "Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?" In John 14:2-3, He reassures his disciples, "I go to prepare a place for you"  John 16:5-7, is where He explains that he is going to the Father and that his departure is necessary for the Comforter (Holy Spirit) to come. Then in John 20:17, after the resurrection, he tells Mary Magdalene, "I have not yet ascended to the Father... I am ascending to my Father and your Father". In Mark 14:62, He speaks of the "Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power," referencing the purpose of his ascension. 

The ascension is depicted as the final step of his earthly mission, shifting His presence from a local one to a universal one. Now we come to the pivotal act, the change of momentum. And I think we often stop this story at the last verse. Luke says this: 

Acts 1 

10 then behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them, 11 and they said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” 

Do you sense what just happened? Two angels appear and they make two powerful statements. Why are you standing here? I can’t help but hear the question Jesus had asked them earlier when He rebuked them in Mark 16. But this time the question is more like a gentle push It’s more of a question, “What are you going to do now?” He is coming again! What a phenomenal promise. Can you feel the excitement in this statement? The restoration of Israel is imminent! 

The Bible hides little nuggets and I came across this one during my research. 

Luke 24 

52 and they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 

But Luke adds one extra detail 

Acts 1 

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 

Jesus ascended to heaven from Mt. Olivet, your Bible might say the Mt. of Olives, it’s the same place. And the disciples are told He will return the exact same way that He went. The Mt. of Olives is east of the Temple Mount and in Ezekiel 44 there is a Messianic prophecy which says, “1 Then the man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east, and it was shut. 2 The Lord said to me, “This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered through it.” 

This is a foreshadowing of something to come. If you were to stand on the Mt. of Olives today and look at the East Gate you would see that it is bricked up. Sultan Suleiman conquered Jerusalem in 1517 and the Islamic leaders feared that the Messiah would come because of this specific prophesy. But in Zechariah 14:4 we read, "4 On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west forming a very large valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and the other half toward the south.” 

In 1964 a hotel was proposed for the top of the Mt. of Olives, and when the geological survey was done a fault line was discovered which runs from east to west and splits the Mountain right in half and it stops at the East Gate. Then, if we read Isaiah 13:13 it says this, “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the L ORD of armies In the day of His burning anger.” 

This would suggest that the prophecy will be fulfilled when Jesus returns, and He will return exactly as He left. Jesus will enter Jerusalem through the gate that has been closed, and the Kingdom will be restored. 

Here is another thing that comes from Luke, He says that the Mt. of Olives is a Sabbath’s day journey from Jerusalem. If you look on a map, the distance from the Mt. of Olives to the East gate is 1Km and, at the time of Jesus, a 200 year old Pharisaic tradition, created from Rabbinic laws based on Exodus 16:29, restricted your movements to 2000 cubits on the Sabbath, which is 0.6 miles, or, 1Km. That just gives me the chills. 

Why did Luke add these little details? Because he knew of the prophecies. 

Response 

The disciples are motivated 

Luke 24 53 

and were continually in the temple praising God. 

Mark 16 

20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. 

The Upper Room Acts 1 

13 When they had entered the city , they went up to the upstairs room where they were staying, that is, [the eleven*] 14 All these were continually devoting themselves with one mind to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. *Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 

The disciples responded immediately. They stopped waiting and acted on their commission. Praising God in the temple, preaching everywhere the gospel message. They devoted themselves to each other. How do we respond? 

In a recent interview the actor Shia LaBeouf was asked, “what would you do if Jesus were here right now?” His response was, “I would get on my knees and kiss His feet.” Jesus is coming back and we are reclining at the table. We are looking in the sky and we are not responding to the promise that Christ will return. We should be praising God in the temple, we should be preaching the gospel message everywhere, we should be devoted to each other. How is it even possible that we are in possession of such a great commission and still have people stop believing, and leave the church? What would you do if Jesus was here right now? It is not too late, but He is coming soon.