MAY 16, 1999

Seventh Sunday of Easter

Sermon:

ELEMENTS OF EMPOWERED MINISTRY

ACTS 1:6-14

Worship Theme: We can live with confidence because of Christ's power and presence.

The Scripture:

If you look at the Book of Luke, you will find Jesus telling his disciples that he is going away and he is sending them back to Jerusalem to wait after the experience they are about to have. Luke is the writer of the Book of Luke and also the Book of Acts. We are picking up now in the Book of Acts 1:6 -14. This will give us a view or a background of what we are going to be speaking about this morning.

The second reading of the morning comes from 1 Peter 4:12 -14, 5:6-11.

The gospel reading for the morning comes from John 17:1 -11. And if you wish and can, please stand with us as we hear the gospel.

God=s word for God=s people. Thanks be to God.

The Sermon:

If you stand on the Mount of Olives and look west, you can see the dome of the mosque where the rock is supposed to be, on which Abraham was offering Isaac when the ram=s horn was caught in the briar and the angel instructed him not to slay his son, Isaac, but to look for the ram that was caught in the bushes. If you look down on a clear day like today, it is beautiful. Jesus had gone with his disciples this little distance to the east of Jerusalem and they were on the top of the mountain. Apparently the disciples didn=t know exactly what he was doing, but they followed him to this spot. You see, if he had continued on eastward in the direction they were going from Jerusalem, they would have gone over to Bethany, to Mary and Martha=s house down the slopes to the east. But he stopped on top of the hill, on top of the ridge, on top of the mountain.

And as he was stopping, there was a group with him and there was a kind of anxiousness in the group. They didn=t know what was going to happen next. For forty days he had been with them in person and he would come and go at his own desire, and they didn=t know when he was with them and when he was not. One of the things, though, of which they were certain was the fact that the Kingdom of God that he had preached to them was different from the Kingdom of God as they had at first thought of. In my mind I can picture that this day we are describing was similar to today with fluffy clouds floating through the air, and they had gone with him on a walk to the east of Jerusalem. And as this peak there was some conversation and all of a sudden there was a kind of vacancy in the conversation, there was a sense of anxiousness about it, there was something that was unique, something was about to happen. And somebody said, ALord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?@

You see, that was the burning question that they had. They=d had that question from the beginning because Jesus as the Messiah, the promised son of God who was now with them, had begun taking up the theme from John that the Kingdom of God was at hand. That they should repent. For these years he had spoken in that direction and had told them before they passed on, before they died, they would see the kingdom of heaven come on earth; and that question of when was burning within them. They wanted to know, sensing that something tremendous was about to happen, they wanted to know, AIs this what=s about to happen? Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?@

Jesus was quite clear in his answer. It=s not as though he said, AIt=s none of your business!@ He just said, AIt=s not for you to know when the Father is going to do that. So don=t ask that question. That=s not the question to ask.@ But you see, that=s the human desire. We want to know. We want to know what=s going to happen and in this tense moment, they really wanted to know what was going to happen.

Jesus then takes them in another direction. He said to them first, AIt=s not for you to know the time or the seasons when the Father has fixed by His own authority, but -- but -- you shall receive power.@ The question of the kingdom is really a basic question about power: What kind of power are we going to have? The mother of James and John had asked Jesus, AWhen you come in your kingdom, could my sons sit one of either side of you?@ It was a question of power. The one who sits on his right hand was supposed to have more power than the one who sits on the left hand.

Power. The disciples were asking a question about power. AHow are we going to be empowered to do this thing that you want us to do? Oh, we have a better view of what it is the kingdom is going to be, but are you going to restore it now so that we can see it in full and we=ll know what power we have?@ And Jesus said, AYou don=t need to know the time and it=s not for you to know the time, but you will receive power.@ That power was to come. AYou will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.@

They had watched Jesus walk the earth. They had listened to him speak. They had been absolutely astonished and amazed, had been overjoyed with the way that he could answer his critics on the spur of the moment. Seemingly without any thought, he answered the Pharisees and the scribes and Sadducees and anyone who would challenge him. To everyone who challenged him, he had a ready answer. He came with power and with dignity and with conviction, and they knew that power and they knew that he had a relationship with God that was special and unique. They knew that he spent a lot of time alone praying and communing with God, listening to God. So Jesus said to them, ADon=t worry about the time -- don=t sweat the time -- but the point is you=re going to have the power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

He had said to them earlier just prior to this scene that they should return to Jerusalem and wait and pray for the Counselor to come, so now he=s reinforcing that. He=s saying to them again, AWhen you receive the Holy Spirit, you will receive power. That power will come upon you and when that power comes upon you, you are going to do some things. The first thing that you=re going to do is you=re going to be my witness.

Well, if you are a faithful witness, you tell the truth about the person on whose behalf you are witnessing. If you are called to be a character witness -- a character witness is supposed to tell the truth about the person they are witnessing for -- and Jesus was saying to his disciples, AYou are going to be my character witnesses in the world, and the thing that=s going to make it unique is you=re going to tell the truth and you=re going to be able to do that with such power and conviction that other people are going to listen to you and respond to you. You are going to be my witnesses in the world. You=re not going to witness to what might be or could be or has been, you=re going to witness to me. You are going to be my witnesses.@

As to that mission, he said, AYou are going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem.@ Jerusalem was not exactly an easy parish. Teaching and preaching in Jerusalem, they had already discovered, was quite tough. In fact, Jesus= teaching and preaching in Jerusalem ended up with him being crucified, and now he is saying to his disciples, AYou are going to be my witnesses there. You are going to go back and tell my story and tell my reasons for coming. You are going to tell my connections with the Heavenly Father and you=re going to tell that in Jerusalem.@

Stephen, who we spoke of recently, was one of those character witnesses for Jesus in Jerusalem. He ended up being stoned. Now the reason that Stephen was able to be such a witness is because he was empowered by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit moved within him and he had the courage and the power to stand, and the power to kneel and die as a witness to Jesus Christ. Power to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea!

Some other towns around Judea were not exactly friendly to some of those teachings of Jesus either, for they were hard put. Caesera where the governor lived, Jericho, other places, other towns, all of those places where these people were going to be witnesses -- all over the country or the state as we would call it. And then you shall be my witnesses up in Samaria. Jesus taught his disciples about Samaria. He brought them through there. Many of them had probably not been to Samaria before Jesus took them there. Samaria was sort of a mongrel type of half-breed place that they didn=t go to very often if they could keep from it. It was the wrong side of the state, of the nation. ABut by going there, you will be my witnesses there. You=ll talk to those people there about me. Not only in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, but you=ll go everywhere. You=ll be my witnesses all over the world, even to the ends of the earth.@

With these words ringing in their minds, that was the answer they got to the question, AWill you now, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel?@ Interesting the wording to their question. AWill you restore it now to Israel?@ Not, AWill you restore the Kingdom of God in Israel?@ but AWill you restore it to Israel.@ Will you give it to them?

ANo, not to them, but to those persons who are filled with the Spirit who are empowered to the ministry that God has given to each one of them.@ That=s where the Kingdom of God is going to be restored.

So while they are thinking about this and looking and watching, all of a sudden Jesus just starts going up, just sort of there he goes. As they stand there watching, their mouths fly open or fall open and they are continuing to watch as he is caught up in a cloud that is passing by. The cloud moves on and they=re still looking. AIs he going on up still higher?@

They=re standing looking into heaven, and all of a sudden they realize there are two people there in white robes and these two are saying, AMen of Galilee.@ You know, these men who are looking up are strangers in this section, they are not from Judea. They are not from Jerusalem. They were from up north. They had come down for the Feast of the Passover and now they were there for the Pentecost season. They were strangers and so these fellows addressed them as though they are foreign to this area, AYou guys from up in Galilee, what are you doing just standing on this hill, looking up into the air? What are you staring at? This Jesus that you saw go into heaven is going to come back just like you saw him go up.@ Now they saw him going up and they saw him caught by clouds, so later in the scriptures in the expectation of the church, we have this image, AAnd he shall come again on the clouds, descending from heaven to be on earth, and will gather us up to be with him.@

I don=t know why it is, but I always think of Jesus going up to heaven, going straight up; but when I think of him coming back, I see him coming at an angle. I see him in the east when he=s coming, making a good glide-slope landing. Just coming right in. That=s the way I see it. I don=t know why I do that. The scriptures say, AThe same way you saw him go, you will see him coming back.@ That theme runs through the history of the church=s teaching. AHe will return from the east, riding on a cloud, and descending to get his things.@

The thing I want us to remember about all of this is that whenever we are sent -- as all disciples are sent, all the apostles were sent -- when we are sent on the mission of God, we have the promise that we are going to be empowered, and our empowerment comes from having the Holy Spirit work within us. That is the source of our power. We are not misdirected by some other source of power, and we understand that the source of power for the Christian to do whatever it is that God wants us to do, is because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. That empowerment is there for a special ministry. Whatever is that ministry God wants you to do, you are empowered by this presence and the power of the Holy Spirit to do that ministry. That power is going to be everlasting. In Matthew, Jesus is quoted as saying, AIf you will do this to the end of the earth, I will be with you always.@

We, as followers of Jesus Christ, must discipline ourselves and make ourselves available for the presence and the power that comes from the action of the Holy Spirit. When we cut off, when we seal off -- or as Tony Campolo says, when we put a lid on the Spirit within us by sin -- we lose the power that God has for us as Christians.

So we remove the lid of sin with our confession. We give away our sins and let the Holy Spirit loose within our lives. When we do that, we are -- indeed -- empowered for mission. Amen.