The Friendly Skies -- United
Sermon
The Vine and the Branches
Eight Sermons For The Easter Season
It simply was unthinkable that the appearances of Jesus should grow fewer and fewer after Easter until they finally 'petered out' and melted away. That would have effectively weakened the faith of all people who had seen him. There had to come a day of dividing -- when Jesus of earth became Christ of heaven.
The Ascension must always remain a mystery to us, for it attempts to put into words what is beyond words and to describe what is beyond description. Something like this had to happen. It was just essential. One way God had related to us had to stop and a new way had to begin.
Luke tells it this way: 'Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God (vv. 50-53).'
It had been 40 days for the disciples, 40 extraordinary days! Jesus was crucified; Calvary was an ugly experience. He came out of the grave on Easter and came to them in the upper room where they had cowered together hiding from the Temple authorities. Then, 40 days of fishing and talking and eating and just being together. Now he was going to leave; -- the Scripture puts it: 'When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight (Acts 1:9).'
Until this day, the skies were not friendly. The Old Testament told of a God who wanted to punish and get even. People lived in terror of the Creator. Jesus told of one who is love and who was so concerned for their guilt and shame he would give his Son on the cross. So they came to this hill outside Jerusalem and it was there that he ascended.
The battle had been won against sin and death. The great example of what God is like had been lived out in Palestine. A ministry had been done around Galilee. So he ascended; the Scripture says up. That is not important; what is important is that he returned to make it possible to now be with us.
We can be sure the skies above are (like United Airlines calls them) friendly skies now. That is -- we have a Savior who worked out a way to be our advocate and helper, to be with us now. No longer need we feel alone, or ever afraid. The skies are friendly. He is there and here. And that's the nice thing about God. After Jesus came out of the grave and was again alive and with the disciples, the whole thing just couldn't peter out. And so there was a definite end to this method of being with his people and a start of a new way of existence, --
a new presence of God in our lives. The Jesus of earth becomes the Christ of heaven.
On this Ascension Eve, let's look at what the Ascension meant to the disciples.
It was an ending. One stage was passed and another had begun. The day when their faith was faith in a flesh and blood person, and when it depended on the presence of that person's flesh and blood, was ended. Now they were linked to someone who was forever independent of space and time.
It's the same with us. It would be hard for us if Christ had not ascended. Now we have the spirit as well as the Christians in Jerusalem. Now we don't have to travel halfway around the world and back 2,000 years to find God with us. This makes him more than a Bible hero! It also moves him from long ago and far away to here and now.
The plan of Emmanuel of Christmas is complete. God is indeed with us and here. So we see the end of one way God related to human beings whom he had created, and the brand new beginning of another way.
A while ago, I heard a pastor tell of burying the son of a father and mother who had become estranged and divorced and now lived in separate cities. It was a very difficult funeral. The pastor claimed that he selected his words carefully at the funeral home. The father and mother rode in separate cars to the cemetery. After the committal service and genuine expression of a lot of grief, the pastor walked away from the grave back to the funeral coach. He turned to see the father and mother holding hands at the graveside. He returned to the graveside and they spoke these words: 'It took the death of our son to bring us together again.'
God saw that it was going to be necessary to come in human flesh, be a son, and die on the cross in order to rejoin us with him. He had accomplished that in the person of Jesus Christ. Now that time had come to an end and that plan had been worked out and completed. All the possibilities are now there that because of the death of his Son, you and I can have forgiveness and be rejoined with him and belong to his family.
This was also, and equally, a beginning as well as an ending. The disciples did not leave the scene heartbroken; they left with great joy… 'they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.' They left that way because now they knew that they had a Master from whom nothing could separate them anymore.
I know not where his islands lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond his love and care.
In A Treasury of Sermon Illustrations, J. C. Mitchell writes: 'Anton Reicha, the great conductor, was rehearsing his choir for a production of The Messiah. The choruses had sung through to the point where the soprano takes up the refrain, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth.' The technique of the soloist was perfect -- faultless breathing, accurate note placing, splendid enunciation. When the final note died away, all eyes turned to Reicha for his approval. Instead he walked up to the singer with sorrowful eyes and said quietly: ‘My daughter, you do not know that your Redeemer lives, do you?' She flushed and replied, ‘Why, yes, I think I do.' ‘Then sing it,' cried the conductor. ‘Sing it so that all who hear you may know that you know the joy and power of it.' And he motioned the orchestra to play again. When the singer finished this time, the old master approached, saying, ‘You do know, for you have told me.' '1
We need to live out our lives in worship and service in such a way that it is obvious we are convinced a new relationship to us has been begun by God. Sometimes it doesn't look like it in the way we worship.
Mark Twain used to tell the story of a person who had been in prison for five years. When they finally unlocked the door so that he could walk out, he remained for two more days without noticing. That's just the point. God has given us a new relationship to him which ought to free us up so that we live our lives, order our priorities, and relate to other people in a different way.
'For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).'
That's important to us, isn't it? No military, no ruler, no husband, wife, or sister or daughter, no thing of being or pressure can take him from us now. Everything else is very temporary. We can lose it all, but not our relationship with God. He has worked it out to be with us here and to see us through whatever we must face.
Christians can rejoice that God has ended the time when he was Jesus of Nazareth in Palestine so that he might go to the cross and come out of the grave. Christians can rejoice even more that God has begun a new way to be with us after this Ascension. He is here and close to us and gives us the support and strength and encouragement necessary for each day that we live.
One of the vital signs of a live Christ, out of the grave, up to heaven, and back with us here, is his presence now. A sure sign he did come out of that grave and is alive is the present help he gives us here. If we are worshiping a dead martyr, that's one thing. But, if he is alive, a vital sign which proves this to us is the help he is to us now:
When a loved one dies;
When our children disappoint us;
When a spouse is found unfaithful;
When friends hurt us;
When it just doesn't seem like it's worth going on any longer.
The skies can be friendly. God does want to comfort and give peace. Solace and encouragement are available.
Paul found him an ever-present help. Martin Luther sensed profound encouragement from him. Kathryn Koob, that deeply spiritual hostage in Iran, knew his support during her 444 days of captivity. All the great spiritual heroes of the past haven't been such perfect people; but, rather, they have known the friendly skies -- that magnificent, loving, strong, support of the ever-present, risen Christ.
It's a great vital sign, our risen Christ helping here and now.
Still further, the Ascension gave the disciples the certainty that they had a friend, not only on earth, but also in heaven.
I find great comfort in this fact. For those who have lost loved ones, for those who grieve over people very dear to them, there is a definite promise that in heaven there awaits us that selfsame Jesus who on earth was so kind and so sensitive and so concerned.
To die is not to go out into the dark alone, but it is to go to him. He reminded his disciples shortly before this in John 14:2… 'In my Father's house there are many dwelling places,… I go to prepare a place for you.' This Ascension night he is on his way to the united skies to make them friendly for us when we must also dwell there.
I think we could say it is correct to claim that most do not regard heaven as some local place beyond the sky. We regard heaven as a state of blessedness when we will be forever and inseparably with God. It is this heaven that God is preparing on this Day of Ascension.
When I had a student pilot's license and then got permission to haul passengers as I flew a small Cessna airplane, I took my six-year-old son up above 7,000 feet. It was always a magnificent experience to fly through the clouds and go up on top where the sun was shining. I'll never forget the first time he saw that beautiful heaven. He looked puzzled for a minute and then asked, 'Where's the angels and the harps?' We now know that heaven is more a state of being than it is a place. Nevertheless, the Ascension was a visible thing that God acted out through Jesus so that those who 2,000 years ago believed in a flat earth with a place called heaven just beyond would be confident that God dwells there and was ready to care for them at the time of their death. Wherever heaven is, and however it is, you can bet your life and death on this fact: It's going to be friendly and a place has already been selected for us.
If Jesus was to give his followers unanswerable proof that he had returned to his spiritual state, the Ascension was just absolutely necessary. If we carefully read the description of the Scripture, we do not need to think in terms of a countdown and a launch like a Gemini rocket. Rather, we can see a changing into a spiritual relationship instead of a local and physical one on that mountaintop outside the city of Jerusalem.
Notice that the Scripture tells us that the disciples went back to the temple in Jerusalem praising God. Luke's gospel began there in the temple with Elizabeth and Zacharias. Now it ends in the same temple, a full witness of what had come out of those believing members of that holy place.
To have a friend in heaven and to know the skies are friendly is a magnificent fact of assurance while we live out the reminder of our physical life here.
'How do you know your mother is upstairs?' inquired a man of his nephews who were studying their church school lesson. 'The Ascension. I saw her go,' answered one of them. 'You mean you saw her start upstairs,' said the uncle. 'Perhaps she did not get there and she may not be there now even if she has been there.' 'I know she is there,' said the youngest child, 'because I went to the foot of the stairs and called her and she answered me.'
The disciples said they saw their Master ascend into heaven, and they knew he was living. That is not as strong a proof as that he speaks to me and I know it is his voice. It is a friendly voice. Yes, Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. We believe it on the testimony of the gospels. But we believe it especially because we hear the voice and see the works of the living, reigning Christ here. We feel his real presence in this fellowship.
United Airlines calls for us to 'Fly the Friendly Skies, United.' That is another element in this ascension story: These disciples were united. Because of what they had witnessed, they could now unite for one common purpose.
It ought to be that way for us disciples, too. It ought to be one of the vital signs of the Christ alive body. United Christians working together, and worshiping one Christ, is a potent vital sign that he is alive.
What other cause could unite such a diverse people as we? Who else could hold together such sinners from such varied backgrounds as ours? Only an alive, risen Christ. We, as we work and worship, study and serve, make a great witness (a vital sign) to all who see us that he is alive.
When we come to a full realization that we, of all people, have Almighty God here with us, that that same God gave his Son on a cross for our sins, that he came out of the grave, that he worked it out to come here and be with us, that makes us different.
Our priorities change. Our church membership changes. Our marriages change. Our friends change. Our very life changes. The skies are no longer unfriendly. Nor are we any longer unfriendly.
Differences in race and sex and origin melt away. Contempt for the poor and unfortunate leaves. Hostilities disappear. The skies are friendly and because of that -- so are we.
Those things which seemed hopeless take on hope.
Those circumstances that drag us down now look different.
We can love the unlovely.
We can celebrate when everyone else wants to mourn.
We
can manage depression and inflation and depletion and competition.
Our lives are lived under friendly skies with an alive God present.
We give thanks tonight that Jesus is no longer one person in one city. As we extinguish the paschal candle which represented his physical presence on earth after coming out of the tomb until tonight, we also light other candles in our hearts because he is here now. We rejoice that our risen Savior is a spirit that is among us and especially with us as we worship together.
To help all of us who are weak and not sure, he gives us:
this fellowship and experience,
this joy which we feel,
this equipment to face and live life now.
So we see the Ascension was an ending -- one stage had passed and another had begun. It was a beginning; a new spiritual relationship with God is now possible. And it gives us a certainty we have a friend in heaven.
There's no doubt about it, we celebrate tonight the fact that the skies are again friendly. And we are united.
It says at the end of this Ascension story: 'And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God (Luke 24:52-53).'
Let that be a description of us tonight. Amen.
The Ascension must always remain a mystery to us, for it attempts to put into words what is beyond words and to describe what is beyond description. Something like this had to happen. It was just essential. One way God had related to us had to stop and a new way had to begin.
Luke tells it this way: 'Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God (vv. 50-53).'
It had been 40 days for the disciples, 40 extraordinary days! Jesus was crucified; Calvary was an ugly experience. He came out of the grave on Easter and came to them in the upper room where they had cowered together hiding from the Temple authorities. Then, 40 days of fishing and talking and eating and just being together. Now he was going to leave; -- the Scripture puts it: 'When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight (Acts 1:9).'
Until this day, the skies were not friendly. The Old Testament told of a God who wanted to punish and get even. People lived in terror of the Creator. Jesus told of one who is love and who was so concerned for their guilt and shame he would give his Son on the cross. So they came to this hill outside Jerusalem and it was there that he ascended.
The battle had been won against sin and death. The great example of what God is like had been lived out in Palestine. A ministry had been done around Galilee. So he ascended; the Scripture says up. That is not important; what is important is that he returned to make it possible to now be with us.
We can be sure the skies above are (like United Airlines calls them) friendly skies now. That is -- we have a Savior who worked out a way to be our advocate and helper, to be with us now. No longer need we feel alone, or ever afraid. The skies are friendly. He is there and here. And that's the nice thing about God. After Jesus came out of the grave and was again alive and with the disciples, the whole thing just couldn't peter out. And so there was a definite end to this method of being with his people and a start of a new way of existence, --
a new presence of God in our lives. The Jesus of earth becomes the Christ of heaven.
On this Ascension Eve, let's look at what the Ascension meant to the disciples.
It was an ending. One stage was passed and another had begun. The day when their faith was faith in a flesh and blood person, and when it depended on the presence of that person's flesh and blood, was ended. Now they were linked to someone who was forever independent of space and time.
It's the same with us. It would be hard for us if Christ had not ascended. Now we have the spirit as well as the Christians in Jerusalem. Now we don't have to travel halfway around the world and back 2,000 years to find God with us. This makes him more than a Bible hero! It also moves him from long ago and far away to here and now.
The plan of Emmanuel of Christmas is complete. God is indeed with us and here. So we see the end of one way God related to human beings whom he had created, and the brand new beginning of another way.
A while ago, I heard a pastor tell of burying the son of a father and mother who had become estranged and divorced and now lived in separate cities. It was a very difficult funeral. The pastor claimed that he selected his words carefully at the funeral home. The father and mother rode in separate cars to the cemetery. After the committal service and genuine expression of a lot of grief, the pastor walked away from the grave back to the funeral coach. He turned to see the father and mother holding hands at the graveside. He returned to the graveside and they spoke these words: 'It took the death of our son to bring us together again.'
God saw that it was going to be necessary to come in human flesh, be a son, and die on the cross in order to rejoin us with him. He had accomplished that in the person of Jesus Christ. Now that time had come to an end and that plan had been worked out and completed. All the possibilities are now there that because of the death of his Son, you and I can have forgiveness and be rejoined with him and belong to his family.
This was also, and equally, a beginning as well as an ending. The disciples did not leave the scene heartbroken; they left with great joy… 'they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.' They left that way because now they knew that they had a Master from whom nothing could separate them anymore.
I know not where his islands lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond his love and care.
In A Treasury of Sermon Illustrations, J. C. Mitchell writes: 'Anton Reicha, the great conductor, was rehearsing his choir for a production of The Messiah. The choruses had sung through to the point where the soprano takes up the refrain, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth.' The technique of the soloist was perfect -- faultless breathing, accurate note placing, splendid enunciation. When the final note died away, all eyes turned to Reicha for his approval. Instead he walked up to the singer with sorrowful eyes and said quietly: ‘My daughter, you do not know that your Redeemer lives, do you?' She flushed and replied, ‘Why, yes, I think I do.' ‘Then sing it,' cried the conductor. ‘Sing it so that all who hear you may know that you know the joy and power of it.' And he motioned the orchestra to play again. When the singer finished this time, the old master approached, saying, ‘You do know, for you have told me.' '1
We need to live out our lives in worship and service in such a way that it is obvious we are convinced a new relationship to us has been begun by God. Sometimes it doesn't look like it in the way we worship.
Mark Twain used to tell the story of a person who had been in prison for five years. When they finally unlocked the door so that he could walk out, he remained for two more days without noticing. That's just the point. God has given us a new relationship to him which ought to free us up so that we live our lives, order our priorities, and relate to other people in a different way.
'For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).'
That's important to us, isn't it? No military, no ruler, no husband, wife, or sister or daughter, no thing of being or pressure can take him from us now. Everything else is very temporary. We can lose it all, but not our relationship with God. He has worked it out to be with us here and to see us through whatever we must face.
Christians can rejoice that God has ended the time when he was Jesus of Nazareth in Palestine so that he might go to the cross and come out of the grave. Christians can rejoice even more that God has begun a new way to be with us after this Ascension. He is here and close to us and gives us the support and strength and encouragement necessary for each day that we live.
One of the vital signs of a live Christ, out of the grave, up to heaven, and back with us here, is his presence now. A sure sign he did come out of that grave and is alive is the present help he gives us here. If we are worshiping a dead martyr, that's one thing. But, if he is alive, a vital sign which proves this to us is the help he is to us now:
When a loved one dies;
When our children disappoint us;
When a spouse is found unfaithful;
When friends hurt us;
When it just doesn't seem like it's worth going on any longer.
The skies can be friendly. God does want to comfort and give peace. Solace and encouragement are available.
Paul found him an ever-present help. Martin Luther sensed profound encouragement from him. Kathryn Koob, that deeply spiritual hostage in Iran, knew his support during her 444 days of captivity. All the great spiritual heroes of the past haven't been such perfect people; but, rather, they have known the friendly skies -- that magnificent, loving, strong, support of the ever-present, risen Christ.
It's a great vital sign, our risen Christ helping here and now.
Still further, the Ascension gave the disciples the certainty that they had a friend, not only on earth, but also in heaven.
I find great comfort in this fact. For those who have lost loved ones, for those who grieve over people very dear to them, there is a definite promise that in heaven there awaits us that selfsame Jesus who on earth was so kind and so sensitive and so concerned.
To die is not to go out into the dark alone, but it is to go to him. He reminded his disciples shortly before this in John 14:2… 'In my Father's house there are many dwelling places,… I go to prepare a place for you.' This Ascension night he is on his way to the united skies to make them friendly for us when we must also dwell there.
I think we could say it is correct to claim that most do not regard heaven as some local place beyond the sky. We regard heaven as a state of blessedness when we will be forever and inseparably with God. It is this heaven that God is preparing on this Day of Ascension.
When I had a student pilot's license and then got permission to haul passengers as I flew a small Cessna airplane, I took my six-year-old son up above 7,000 feet. It was always a magnificent experience to fly through the clouds and go up on top where the sun was shining. I'll never forget the first time he saw that beautiful heaven. He looked puzzled for a minute and then asked, 'Where's the angels and the harps?' We now know that heaven is more a state of being than it is a place. Nevertheless, the Ascension was a visible thing that God acted out through Jesus so that those who 2,000 years ago believed in a flat earth with a place called heaven just beyond would be confident that God dwells there and was ready to care for them at the time of their death. Wherever heaven is, and however it is, you can bet your life and death on this fact: It's going to be friendly and a place has already been selected for us.
If Jesus was to give his followers unanswerable proof that he had returned to his spiritual state, the Ascension was just absolutely necessary. If we carefully read the description of the Scripture, we do not need to think in terms of a countdown and a launch like a Gemini rocket. Rather, we can see a changing into a spiritual relationship instead of a local and physical one on that mountaintop outside the city of Jerusalem.
Notice that the Scripture tells us that the disciples went back to the temple in Jerusalem praising God. Luke's gospel began there in the temple with Elizabeth and Zacharias. Now it ends in the same temple, a full witness of what had come out of those believing members of that holy place.
To have a friend in heaven and to know the skies are friendly is a magnificent fact of assurance while we live out the reminder of our physical life here.
'How do you know your mother is upstairs?' inquired a man of his nephews who were studying their church school lesson. 'The Ascension. I saw her go,' answered one of them. 'You mean you saw her start upstairs,' said the uncle. 'Perhaps she did not get there and she may not be there now even if she has been there.' 'I know she is there,' said the youngest child, 'because I went to the foot of the stairs and called her and she answered me.'
The disciples said they saw their Master ascend into heaven, and they knew he was living. That is not as strong a proof as that he speaks to me and I know it is his voice. It is a friendly voice. Yes, Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. We believe it on the testimony of the gospels. But we believe it especially because we hear the voice and see the works of the living, reigning Christ here. We feel his real presence in this fellowship.
United Airlines calls for us to 'Fly the Friendly Skies, United.' That is another element in this ascension story: These disciples were united. Because of what they had witnessed, they could now unite for one common purpose.
It ought to be that way for us disciples, too. It ought to be one of the vital signs of the Christ alive body. United Christians working together, and worshiping one Christ, is a potent vital sign that he is alive.
What other cause could unite such a diverse people as we? Who else could hold together such sinners from such varied backgrounds as ours? Only an alive, risen Christ. We, as we work and worship, study and serve, make a great witness (a vital sign) to all who see us that he is alive.
When we come to a full realization that we, of all people, have Almighty God here with us, that that same God gave his Son on a cross for our sins, that he came out of the grave, that he worked it out to come here and be with us, that makes us different.
Our priorities change. Our church membership changes. Our marriages change. Our friends change. Our very life changes. The skies are no longer unfriendly. Nor are we any longer unfriendly.
Differences in race and sex and origin melt away. Contempt for the poor and unfortunate leaves. Hostilities disappear. The skies are friendly and because of that -- so are we.
Those things which seemed hopeless take on hope.
Those circumstances that drag us down now look different.
We can love the unlovely.
We can celebrate when everyone else wants to mourn.
We
can manage depression and inflation and depletion and competition.
Our lives are lived under friendly skies with an alive God present.
We give thanks tonight that Jesus is no longer one person in one city. As we extinguish the paschal candle which represented his physical presence on earth after coming out of the tomb until tonight, we also light other candles in our hearts because he is here now. We rejoice that our risen Savior is a spirit that is among us and especially with us as we worship together.
To help all of us who are weak and not sure, he gives us:
this fellowship and experience,
this joy which we feel,
this equipment to face and live life now.
So we see the Ascension was an ending -- one stage had passed and another had begun. It was a beginning; a new spiritual relationship with God is now possible. And it gives us a certainty we have a friend in heaven.
There's no doubt about it, we celebrate tonight the fact that the skies are again friendly. And we are united.
It says at the end of this Ascension story: 'And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God (Luke 24:52-53).'
Let that be a description of us tonight. Amen.
