The Ascension and the Apostles: A Sermon on Acts 1

The local church where I worship has just started a short sermon series on Acts 1–8. I happened to be given the preaching slot for the opening sermon, which not only had to introduce the series, but also deal with Ascension Day and the apostles to cover the lectionary passages. Here’s my effort.

John 17:6-19; Acts 1:1-26

Of all the strange events and happenings recorded in the Bible, the ascension of Jesus is one of the strangest. Think about it: after leaving some brief instructions to the eleven apostles about what to do next, Jesus takes off—perhaps like a rocket, perhaps like a hot air balloon—and disappears. Indeed, this is surely one of the strangest events recorded in the Bible. What should we make of it?

Are you ready to imitate Christ?

First of all, however strange we may find this story from Acts 1, it’s in line with how the Gospels present Jesus, especially Jesus after his resurrection. He comes and goes, appears and disappears, breaks bread and eats fish. Even though he is resurrected a man of flesh and blood, there is something . . . different, very different, about Jesus after his resurrection. It’s as though his body is no longer limited to the physics of this world but follows the physics of the world or the age to come. When we keep in mind that the Jesus of Acts 1 is the risen Jesus of the Gospels, his ascension really doesn’t seem all that unusual. It’s all part of the same package.

That said, Jesus doesn’t seem to ascend by using his own skills or abilities—Acts 1 says ‘he was lifted up’. Someone else did the lifting. We can assume this was God the Father, drawing his Son to his side by the power of the Holy Spirit. The mention of clouds and heaven in this passage indicates that the resurrected Jesus was entering the presence of his Father. Whatever we think about this passage, whether we take it to be heavy in symbolism or not, we should keep in mind that this is something the eleven apostles claimed to have seen. The apostles saw Jesus ascending, saw him moving into God’s presence before their very eyes. Like the resurrection, the ascension of Jesus was a strange event—but an event nonetheless; something that happened.

But the significance of Jesus’s ascension doesn’t lie in how it may or may not have happened; it lies in the fact that the risen and ascended Jesus now sits at the right hand of God his Father. The ascended Jesus has power and authority over all the nations; he is sovereign. The ascended Jesus has made it possible for us to enter God’s presence for ourselves through him without the need for fastidious rule-keeping or elaborate blood rituals. The ascended Jesus sympathises with our weaknesses and prays for us in the presence of God his Father. And the ascended Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit, pouring out the Spirit over the whole earth, drenching us all with the presence of God himself. So while the ascension is undoubtedly a strange event, it is also highly significant for the Christian faith—because without the ascension of the risen Jesus, there would have been no giving of the Spirit at Pentecost; and without the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost, there would be no Church; and without the Church, there would be no Holy Trinity Beckenham. There would be no us.

But there is an us. There is a Holy Trinity Beckenham. There is a Church, the Church, the body of Christ. There was a Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given. And this same Spirit of Jesus is still with us, giving us Jesus through bread and wine, equipping and empowering us always to be faithful to the Son who sits at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus sends each and every one of us to walk in the steps of the apostles—of Peter, James, John, and the rest—and follow their lead, even as they followed the lead of Jesus himself. This is what we see in today’s Gospel reading from John: just as the Father had sent Jesus into the world, so now Jesus sends his apostles into the world. Acts fleshes this out even more: the apostles are sent into the world—first, Jerusalem; then, Judea and Samaria; and then to the ends of the earth—to tell anyone and everyone who’ll hear: Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

This task which Jesus sent the apostles to do was not an easy one. The apostles would face all sorts of difficulties and hurdles arising not only from those who didn’t believe, but even from their fellow believers. They would be mocked, tortured, imprisoned, slaughtered. But they would know that the risen and ascended Jesus, who himself had suffered and died while staying faithful to God—they would know that the risen and ascended Jesus was praying for them, praying for their protection from the evil one, praying that they would continually tell the truth about the strange things they had heard and seen. And with the Holy Spirit working within and among them, the apostles would do just this.

And let’s be honest: little has changed! In the same way as the risen and ascended Jesus sent the apostles as witnesses to him, so he sends us now to declare with confidence the same message: Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

You see, even though we are separated from Peter, James, John, and the others by two thousand years, we are still the same Church. And because we are the same Church, there shouldn’t be any need for us to long for a return to some mythical golden age of Christian evangelism and mission—the book of Acts shows us there never really was such a golden age. The Church just had a good start. Far more important is that we tell others about the good end God has planned for the world when the risen and ascended Jesus returns in glory.

I started by saying that the ascension is one of the strangest events and happenings recorded in the Bible. But let’s be clear: the story of the Church is stranger still. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be going through the early chapters of Acts. We’ll see how the Spirit came and transformed the apostles’ witness. We’ll see how the apostles healed both the sick and those afflicted by so-called unclean spirits before being thrown in prison by the authorities. And we’ll see how the apostles dealt with issues of corruption and segregation—and even bad administration. But more than this: we’ll see how the Spirit inspired the apostles to declare the good news of Jesus, so much so that the number of believers grew from 120 to 3000 to 5000 and countless, countless more in Jerusalem and beyond.

It’s an exciting story—and it will be good for us to listen out for what God has to say to us over the coming weeks. But let’s keep one thing in mind: the book of Acts is not just the apostles’ story. Nor is it simply the story of the beginning of the Church. No, the book of Acts is our story, too—and our story, however strange or wonderful or tedious it might be at times, is fundamentally the story of Jesus, our risen and ascended Lord, who rules over all. Let’s tell the world all about him, as often as we can, until he comes again.