When It’s Hard to See Jesus
Acts 1:6-11
Dr. Larry D. Thorson
This sermon was adapted from
a sermon written and delivered by Dr. M. Craig Barnes at the Shadyside
Presbyterian Church in
Acts
1:6-11
6So when they met
together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the
kingdom to
7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or
dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you
will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in
9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes,
and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going,
when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men
of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky?
This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the
same way you have seen him go into heaven."
New
International Version
Forty days after the resurrection,
Jesus gathered his disciples on the
So it is not surprising that, as soon
as the disciples realized that they were back on the
Jesus told the disciples, “It is not
for you to know when things will be made right. But you will receive the power
of the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses in
We are told that the disciples were
so stunned they just stared up into the blank, blue sky. They must have looked
like puppies who stare up at the door when the master leaves — you know how
they cock their heads when they get confused and think, “Well, surely he’s
coming back. You don’t think he meant to leave us in charge of this place, do
you?” Of course, that is when the trouble begins.
Suddenly two angels appeared next to
the disciples. These angels say, “Hey. Hey! Why are you staring into heaven? He
said he will come back. He will. He will return.” For 2000 years the followers
of Jesus Christ have been waiting for his return to earth when he will fully
establish his kingdom of peace and justice.
Now I am fully aware that 2000 years
seems like a long time. But God’s vision of time is different from ours. When I was at the
the wall. It was 85 feet long, and it
represented the five billion years of earth’s history. Do you know how much
space the human race takes up on that 85 foot time line? Half an inch. Now, I don’t know what God was doing for the
other 84 feet, 11½ inches. The dinosaurs
alone took up 100 million years. What
was that all about? And the ice age? Why did we need that? How does that play
into God’s plan of salvation? Beats me. But as I stared at that time line, it became
very clear to me that God is not in a hurry. So when we start talking about the
2,000 years we’ve been waiting for Christ to return, well, from the perspective
of heaven, it isn’t really all that long. It has only taken up a couple of
millimeters. And when you talk about how long you
have been waiting for God to answer
your prayers, or how long you have waited for a broken heart to be healed, or
how long the world has waited for the broken nations to be restored in the Middle
East — as God sees, it’s not that long.
But that doesn’t offer hope. What does offer hope: the things that we are
waiting for God to do are important. But no
less important are the things that he
is doing in our lives while we wait. Waiting
doesn’t have to deplete us. We can choose to become stronger through it.
Waiting creates the room for faith to develop. If Jesus had immediately
established his kingdom, there would be no reason for us to have faith. We
would have simply seen with our own eyes this new world. But waiting allows us
to see with our hearts, to envision, by faith. And faith is what changes our
lives.
Since we have faith in a Savior who
is coming, we don’t have to pretend to be the savior. That means we have too much joy to live with
anxiety and cynicism. We have too much humility to act like gods. And we have
too much gratitude for the blessings we have to waste our fleeting years
searching for more. Gratitude, humility, and joy. That is how we change our
ends of the world. And it was the faith in the coming Savior that gave us these
powerful gifts. But it was the
waiting that gave us the faith.
Remember, however, not only did Jesus
tell us we have the power to wait. He also told us that we would receive the
power of the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. Now I have to tell you this is possibly the
most frightening text in the Bible to me. When Jesus was born, I was delighted
because God was with us. When he conducted his ministry, I was taught and
challenged to be a follower. When he died on the cross, I was overcome with
God’s
love for us. And when he rose from
the dead, I was surprised with the hope of eternal life. But when Jesus
ascended into heaven, like the first disciples, I am terrified to discover he
called us to
bring his kingdom to every corner of
the earth.
The angels don’t tell the disciples
just to sit tight
while they wait for Jesus. No, they
remind us that we have a job to do in the meantime. You have a job to do! This is what Paul meant
when he said, “Creation waits with eager longing for what the children of God
will reveal” (Romans
told his disciples they would do even
greater works than he did (John
Now lets get this straight: the
Savior of the world has left, and all creation is eagerly longing for you and
me to do greater works than Jesus. Think
for a minute about the week you just completed. To tell you the truth, it
doesn’t really sound like a greater work than Jesus did, now does it?
So on Sunday, we come back to worship
where we take our place in the pews next to the other disciples. We gaze up
into the heavens thinking “Surely, Jesus has something better than us
in mind. He just has to get down here
and straighten this out.” But what we hear instead are the words of the angels
who remind us that we have the power. Remember,
though, the power you have is just to be a witness. A witness doesn’t make something
happen. Witnesses merely speak about what they see. This means that it is not
your
responsibility to bring Jesus’
kingdom to the world, your family, or even your own life. That is the job of
the Savior. Our responsibility is see Christ by faith, and to love him so much,
to long so deeply for his appearance, that any glimpse we get of him we
recognize. This is our mission even if
he comes wrapped in another’s life. Especially then.
According to Matthew, near the end of
Jesus’ ministry his parables all take on the common theme of his departure. In
one of these parables an absentee landlord puts his servants in charge.
In another, a bridegroom arrives
later than expected. In still another, a master distributes talents to his
servants and then departs on a long trip.
But Jesus’ last story is the most
powerful: “When the Son of Man does return,” he said, “he will separate the
sheep from the goats.” To
the sheep on his right side, he will
say, “Come you who are blessed and inherit the kingdom prepared for you....
When I was hungry, you gave me food. When I was thirsty, you gave me something
to drink. When I was stranger, you welcomed me. When I was naked, you gave me clothing.
When I was sick, you took care of me. When I was in prison, you visited me.”
And the righteous will say, “Lord, when did we do all of that to you?” He will
respond by saying, “When you did it to the least of these, you did it unto me.”
And the goats who on his left will say, “Lord, if only we had known it was you
who were hungry, sick, and in prison, we would have taken care of you.” But the
Lord will respond, “It was me. And because you couldn’t see that, you’ll never
enter the kingdom.”
If you are looking for Jesus, don’t stare
up into heaven. You have the power to witness, to see him among us. In the
words of Mother Theresa, “Anyone who has meditated upon Jesus, must
then go out and look for him in
disguise.”
Benediction: Jesus is not gone. He is here among us. And the joyful people
are the ones who use
faith to see him, even in
disguise. Amen.
.
Copyright ©
2006 by Shadyside Presbyterian Church.