“The Ascension” (Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:1-13)
Sermon Notes
Sermon Series: Encountering the Risen Jesus
Sermon Title: The Ascension
Passage: Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:1-13
Preacher: Ashley Herr
Introduction
Two questions: Where is Jesus? What is Jesus currently doing?
5+1 reasons why the ascension is neglected
The Bible speaks little of it
It seems like a bad plan
The implications are unclear
The event is abnormal
The resurrection subsumes the ascension
The liturgical calendar is often overlooked
Their Question (Luke 24:50a, Acts 1:1-8)
Jesus corrects their misunderstanding of:
when the kingdom of God will come
power in the kingdom of God
their role in the kingdom of God
His Ascension (Luke 24:50b-51, Acts 1:9)
Their Response (Luke 24:52-53, Acts 1:10-13)
They responded by:
worshiping Jesus - recognizing who he is, remembering what he had said
obeying Jesus
Close
Seeing the significance of the ascension
The Bible speaks of it extensively (references from sermon noted below)
Jesus: John 6:62, John 16:5,7
Paul: Ephesians 4:8-10, 1 Timothy 3:16, Colossians 3:1
Peter: 1 Peter 3:22
The Author of Hebrews: Hebrews 4:14, 6:19, 9:24, 12:2
It was an incredible plan
The implications are becoming more clear (John 7:39, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Ephesians 5:23)
The event is abnormal
The ascension was a critical turning point
New City Catechism: Question 49, Question 51
Reflection
Reflect on Christ’s presence, here with us, through his Spirit (John 14:18-20, 26-29)
Reflect on Christ’s presence in heaven, with the Father (Romans 8:31-39)
Sermon Footnotes
“Five reasons the ascension is neglected” - Patrick Schreiner (The Ascension of Christ, p2-6)
“It is the nature of liturgical spirituality itself - the attempt to live the Jesus life over and over again all the years of our lives - that is the essence of this book.” - Joan Chittister (The Liturgical Year, p-xvi)
“The liturgical year is the process of slow, sure immersion in the life of Christ that, in the end, claims us, too, as heralds of that life ourselves.” - Joan Chittister (The Liturgical Year, p13)
“In every age, the liturgical year exists to immerse its world in the current as well as the eternal meanings of the Christian life. Then, after years of repeating the messages of the feasts and probing their meanings for our own lives, we come to a point where we look back over the decades and realize that little by little the slow drip, drip, drip of the Christian ideal has insinuated itself into the deeper parts of our psyches.” - Joan Chittister (The Liturgical Year, p11-12)
“The ascension must be thought of as an ascension beyond all our notions of space and time, and therefore as something that cannot ultimately be expressed in categories of space and time.” - Thomas Torrance (Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ, p286 - taken from The Ascension of Christ by Patrick Schriner, p32)
“We now know, however, that space is such that heaven is not merely upward from the earth, and it also seems likely that the difference between earth and heaven is not merely geographic. One cannot get to God simply by traveling sufficiently far and fast in a space vehicle of some kind. God is in a different dimension of reality” - Millard Erickson (Christian Theology, p710)
“As we find in many passages of the New Testament, Jesus is not far away; he is in heaven, and heaven is not a place in the sky, but rather God's dimension of what we think of as ordinary reality. This is an essential feature of biblical cosmology, and the failure to grasp it leaves many Christians puzzled about how to put together the biblical picture of eschatology. The point is that Jesus is presently in God's dimension, that is, heaven; however, heaven is not a place in our space-time continuum, but a different sphere of reality that overlaps and interlocks with our sphere in numerous though mysterious ways. It is as though there were a great invisible curtain hanging across a room, disguising another space that can be integrated with our space; one day the curtain will be pulled back, the two spaces or spheres will be joined forever, and Jesus himself will be the central figure.” - NT Wright (Surprised by Scripture, p96-97)
Recommended Reading:
The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life by Joan Chittister
Christian Theology by Millard Erickson
I Believe: Exploring the Apostles’ Creed by Alister McGrath
Exalted Above the Heavens: The Risen and Ascended Christ by Peter Orr
The Ascension of Christ: Recovering a Neglected Doctrine by Patrick Schreiner
Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year by Robert Weber
Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by NT Wright
Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues by NT Wright