Acts 1:9-11

The 1960s were an incredible time in the United States that would change the course of history forever. There’s a lot of things that happened that were negative. The 1960s saw the assassination of a president, a civil rights leader, racial chaos, but also racial integration like never before. But it’s also a time when the gaze of man and the ambitions of man took on full flight. President John F Kennedy said at the beginning of the decade that it was going to be our goal to put a man on the moon before the end of this decade. So, it was the golden years of NASA where they tirelessly worked to try to be the first to beat the Soviet Union and to be the first to achieve that unimaginable task of putting man on the moon, or to even orbit around the Earth.

This was not an easy task. See, because it is not an easy thing to go to another world from the world that we live in. Surely, for many centuries before then, man had wondered what was up there, seeing the moon up in the sky and the stars and the horizons rising above. They probably wondered whether it was ever possible. But it was beyond what anything they could dream of. But amazingly, man was on the brink of doing just that until tragedy struck in January of 1967. See, the Apollo 1 was supposed to be the first capsule to orbit around the Earth and three men had labored tirelessly for many months and years training for that event that would take them, just in a few months, to orbit around the Earth. But on January of 1967, while they were doing a test of the launch pad and all three of them were inside the capsule, tragedy struck. There were 31 million miles of wiring inside the capsule and one of the pieces of wiring was exposed and the insulation had worn off. It got exposed and got too close to a cooling line that had gone through the capsule. At the same time, the sliver of the wire got too close to the ethylene glycol that was pouring out through the cooling line, sparking a single spark that made a fire burst out inside the capsule. At 6:30 PM, words came from the capsule, “There is fire in the cockpit,” the words of Roger Chaffee, pictured there in the middle. And what happened in a matter of minutes, all three astronauts were dead. Many people said this is too dangerous of a mission. We should never try to do what we tried just now. And everyone was so grief-stricken over the lives of these three men who had paid the ultimate price for human innovation and adventure.

But as you know, two years later, on July 20th of 1969, three men would ultimately make it to the moon. Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong. When these three men landed on the moon, there were only 30 seconds of fuel left on the lunar capsule. But they stepped on the Sea of Tranquility and for the first time ever in the history of mankind, Neil Armstrong’s feet touched down on the gray sandy surface of the moon, in which he uttered, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Man had finally reached another celestial body. At the time, the president of America was President Nixon, who was a pessimist at heart, especially when compared to somebody like Ronald Reagan, who was eternally optimistic, always thinking about the brightness, Nixon was very much inherently a very pessimistic person. So, what he did is that as these three astronauts were making their way to the moon, he had columnist William Safire write a speech that he would say to the nation because he didn’t think they would make it. So, the speech was written to tell the nation that the three astronauts did not make it, but that they had gone to the presence of the Lord and that they had done everything they could do to make us progress but unfortunately, tragedy had struck.

But you know what happened? These three men made it to the moon, and he had to shelve that speech. Not only that, when that capsule landed back in the U.S Pacific, President Nixon was there aboard the USS Hornet to welcome these three men back to Earth. And here’s the picture of him standing there welcoming these three men. What happened in the next few days was just absolute celebration all of America. Parades were held in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. A giant dinner was given in honor of these three astronauts who had made it to the moon and were welcomed back. 44 Governors attended that dinner. All the members of Congress were there. The president was there. A grand dinner was given, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor that America gives to citizens, was given to these three men, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and Neil Armstrong. And forever, they had become the heroes of American space journey. We had defeated the Soviet Union and we had landed for the first time on the moon. Why did I tell you this story? Well, remember this story as we go to God’s word.

In Acts 1:9-11, after he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? The same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

We went through verses 6-8 last week of Acts 1. We talked about the promise that he gave to them, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, starting your hometown in Judea and Samaria, to the north and the south, and then eventually to the uttermost parts of the earth. And the Bible says, after he said those very things, which means that we can assume that these were the final words spoken of Jesus to them, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight. He was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight.

I want you to picture and imagine this for a moment, living in the 21st Century. Here is Jesus in his resurrected body speaking to the disciples like it almost done for the last 40 days and suddenly, there is no crane coming from Heaven, no magical elevator appearing, no chariots of fire like that took Elijah into the skies. Nothing of that sort. Suddenly, the Bible says he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight. You know, they would keep on staring into the sky, probably thinking, “In a second now…” Why is this important that Jesus was taken up into heaven? That he ascended into heaven? 

In fact, in our natural way of thinking, don’t we want Jesus to be here on Earth? What if Jesus was here right now? What if we could talk to him at any time? Wouldn’t that be better? Wouldn’t that be better that we could just go to him with any problem that we have? You know, all we would have to do is book a flight to Israel or ask him to come and speak at our church and he could explain to us difficult passages of scriptures, settle disputes in the church. After all, if Jesus comes and tells us, all the disputes of the church will be gone. When we need something, we can go and see him. Maybe he can have an office in Jerusalem. Would it be better if Jesus was here on Earth today? Why was he taken up into heaven? That’s what we will be talking about today. 

First of all, Jesus was taken up so that the Spirit can come. How do we know that? Look at John 14:16-17. Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever.” I want you to pay attention to how the Holy Trinity is so involved in all this. Jesus is asking on behalf of us for what He will give you, another Advocate to help you and be with you forever. I’m going to ask the Father and I will ask you for the best gift you could ever get, the one He promised to them in verse 8. The Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. This is the difference, the biggest difference between believers and unbelievers is in this verse right here. The world, unbelievers, do not know the Holy Spirit, nor can they see the Holy Spirit, nor can they feel the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not live in the life of the unbeliever. 

But the believer is able to experience the Holy Spirit. The believer is able to have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The believer is able to pray to the Holy Spirit. Tthe believer is able to be led by the Holy Spirit. These are all things that are unique to us as believers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because look at the next words, “But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.” God is going a little bit more into your life than you ever seen before.

See, Jesus remaining on the earth is a wonderful thing. But when Jesus is remaining on the earth, He is in a glorified body but He is in his fully man, fully God state. I’m able to converse with Him and He is able to talk with Him. But look at verse 17 of God’s word. God says, “I don’t want you to just converse with me. I want to come and live with you. And not only that, I want to live in you.”

If I were to tell you that Jesus would be wonderful to have walking on the earth with us today, you would all be excited. But God wants you to experience something deeper of God. He does not want to be walking among us, He wants to be living inside of us. Now let me ask you something, do you want God to be across from you or do you want God to be living inside of you? Do you realize what is happening in the new age, what is happening in the New Covenant? God is living inside of us. God cannot get any closer to us than that, and in order for that to happen, He has to be taken up so the Holy Spirit can come. How do we know that very clearly? 

John 16:7 says, “Very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, The Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” And isn’t it wonderful that He did not make them wait very long. Just in a matter of a few days, not many years, He sent the Holy Spirit to them just as He had promised. So the Holy Spirit would only come into the church, come into my life, your life, and be able to live in us, walk with us, counsel us, guide us in all truth, unless and until Jesus has taken up. The Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ is a good thing because when He was taken up, He gives the Holy Spirit to come and live within us.

Secondly, taken up so that he can be the mediator of his church everywhere at all times. Even in his glorified body, during the 40 days of Jesus on the earth, his ministry was restricted to the region of Galilee, Judea, the region of Palestine. The Bible doesn’t mention anything about Jesus going to India or Africa. It could have happened, but the Bible doesn’t say that. Jesus is no longer limited by space. The Bible doesn’t really fully say that in his glorified body, he could be at two places at the same time. What is happening in the New Testament is this: once he is taken up and he becomes our mediator, he is able to intercede for us not only in Africa, India, or America but all of these places simultaneously at the same time, by being our perfect mediator for the entire church. His ministry during those 40 days was primarily to the disciples who were walking with him. He would appear to them, an external group, maybe up to 500 of them were able to experience and see him, but today the moment that I speak to you, millions and millions of believers all around the world cry out to him and he intercedes for them in every circumstance, every situation. He is not limited to Earth anymore, he is up in the heavens, he is able to see everything, know everything, and he is able to be my perfect high priest because he was taken up. And thank God for that.

Look at Hebrews 4:14-16: “Therefore, we don’t have an ordinary high priest, we have a great high priest who ascended into heaven, Jesus the son of God. Let us hold firmly to the faith that we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.”

Any time, anything that you need, you can go to him because in his fully human state, fully God state, he understands you better than anyone else in the universe. This is not to say that the Father doesn’t care about you. A lot of times when we talk about these passages, people have this misunderstanding about God the Father that they think that God the Father is a very mean person and we need Jesus to go and kind of be like our mom when we were little.

You know how your dad won’t give anything to you and so who would you go to you would go to your mom. “Mom will you please talk to Dad so I can go here? Mom will you please talk to Dad so that I can get this?” And that’s what you guys do this all the time because generally speaking, most of the time, mom has a much more tender heart and understanding heart. Now that’s not always the case, that can be different too, but most of the time that’s the case. So we have this perception that somehow Jesus is nice; God the Father is this person that you can’t even approach, you can go to so you need that’s not the ways. The Bible, Jesus, have said your Father in Heaven is a Good Father. Your Father in Heaven wants to give good gifts to us. And also the Holy Spirit, the Bible says, intercedes for us. So the Father loves to give good gifts, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, but primarily the most important way intercession happens for us today is through the ascended work of the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. Why? In a way that we don’t fully understand, Hebrews tells us, he understands better because he walked among us. He was tempted just like us, he did not sin. Every weakness he understands it better, every grace he knows how much we need it, every mercy request he understands it better, he has become our perfect high priest

Look at Hebrews 7:25: “He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” You thought that Jesus ascended so that he can sit down and rest and wait for the next assignment? The Bible says no, he is constantly praying for you, he is constantly interceding for you. Do you know that even this afternoon even if no one prays for you , the Bible tells you Jesus is praying for you? What a comforting thought! What a comforting thought that he cares for you so much that he lives to intercede for you. Sometimes parents say I only live for my children. The Bible says Jesus lives to intercede for us. His main purpose today is intercession. What a comforting thought!

1 John 2:1, the Apostle John writes the same thing: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.” Without that advocate, without him standing in the courtroom of God and constantly advocating for you, without you paying a single penny to hire that lawyer, the best lawyer in the universe is advocating for you, is pleading on your behalf. He’s saying, “He is my son, he is my daughter, you cannot give up on him, you have to forgive him because I died for him, I bled for him, I suffered for him.” You and I will not be able to stand here today unless and until this was true in our life. It is not your holiness, it is not your righteousness, it is not your holy living that has made you worthy to stand in the presence of God. What gives you worth is the advocate who pleads on your behalf and stands in the presence of a holy God where I have no access to.

Romans 5:10 reminds us, if you thought Jesus’ death was good for you, think again. Jesus living for you on the right hand of God is even better. “If, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, that is our reality, how much more now, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life.” This is Christian Living. Every single day, the ascended Lord pours out his life into us through the Spirit of God that is living in us, equipping us to live a victorious Christian Life. The Apostle is making a very profound magnificent statement here: if his death brought us reconciliation, how much more will his life do? If you thought his dying was great, his living today is even more wonderful because you are enriched, equipped, and strengthened beyond any human ability to live a cictorious Christian Life through the living of the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into the right hand of God, interceding for us, being a faithful advocate for us.

Thirdly, Jesus being taken up was a good thing because he has gone to take his rightful place as the name above all names. Being taken up was good, because now he is sitting at the very place where the Father always wanted him to sit. Look at Hebrews 1:3, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” When he sat down, what happened? According to 1 Peter 3:22, “who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand, when that happened, Angels, authorities, and powers are now in submission to him.”

Why did I tell you the story of the Apollo 1 and then again of Apollo 11? Why did I tell you about the astronauts going to space and coming back, and the president going to greet them there? Why did I tell you about a lavish dinner that was given in honor of men who had gone to the moon and back to the earth? I want you to imagine the reception that the Lord Jesus Christ got as he defeated the gates of hell and returned back to Heaven. If going to the moon and coming back to Earth was such a magnificent thing and the world would throw all kinds of honors at him, I am here to tell you the reception and the welcome that the Lord Jesus Christ got in heaven as he came back victoriously, ascended, and sat at the right hand of God. As angels and angels came to see him, now in his glorified body, sitting down in heaven, what a grand reception that was!

Look at Revelation 3:21, the words of the Lord Jesus, “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.” When he sat down, everything is done. All the enemies are waiting now to be under his footstool. This is the waiting period. No more enemies are above him, death is defeated, the enemy is defeated, the devil is defeated, the gates of Heaven have been sprung forward, the head of the serpent has been crushed by the seed of the woman. He has faced every single sin head-on and not given into sin. He has been tempted in every way yet he did not sin. People threw hatred at him, he threw love back at them. People threw jeers at him, yet he did not retaliate, even though the temptation was there.

He willingly obeyed the Father, went to the cross fully, did everything the Father told him to do, did not think a single thought that was unholy. Did not do a single action that was unholy. Did not even have a single inclination that was not in accordance to the will of the Heavenly Father. He did everything the Father wanted him to do, said everything the Father wanted him to do, went to the cross, gave his last drop of blood on the cross of Calvary, gave his life, took upon sin on the cross, defeated death, sin, and the powers of Hell forever and ever. Now he comes victorious into the presence of his Heavenly Father. The Lamb, slain before the foundations of the Earth, had finally accomplished everything that had to be done, and he comes marching into the Thrones of Heaven. 

I wish there was a verse in the Scripture between 1:9 and 1:10 that tell about the reception the Lord Jesus Christ got when he ascended into heaven. The Bible is absent about that. I can only imagine, but I’m here to tell you, more than what President Nixon gave to the astronauts, more than what any human beings can give to any man, when the Son of God left Heaven, came to Earth, accomplished everything, and returned to Heaven, the welcome he received was the most grandest welcome the world had ever seen.

I often tell myself, don’t get so loud in preaching, don’t go so fast, don’t get so passionate, tone it down. I can’t when I speak about something like this. Can you imagine what a reception he got? The angels are seeing him for the first time like this, in a fully glorified body. For the first time ever, a person who looks like a human being had entered the courts of Heaven. Wow, wow. Can you imagine? Maybe Daniel 7:13-14 is a picture of what happened when he ascended into heaven. This portion in the context probably is talking about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I’m imagining maybe it is possible that this is talking about the Ascension of Our Lord.

Daniel looked at night, I looked, and there before me was one like the son of man coming with the clouds Of Heaven. In fact, NASB translated these words as saying ‘coming up from the clouds of Heaven’. Remember what Acts 1:9 says, the cloud covered him and they hid him from the sight, maybe that’s what’s happening here. He approached the Ancient of Days, which is the Father, and was led into his presence. Look at the next verse, he was given authority, glory, sovereign power. All nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. Jesus is becoming King of kings and Lord of lords as he’s ascended into heaven, sitting at the rightful place that has been given to him by the Father at the right hand of God. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that he is Lord forever and ever because of his Ascension, finished work on the cross.

RC Sproul Theologian in writing about Ascension, says this, ‘The Ascension of Jesus was a supreme political event of world history.’ Just a few days ago, Prince Charles, who can barely walk, was crowned as the king of England. God bless his soul, but all of this crowning and celebrations are nothing compared to the counting of my Lord. He says it is the supreme political event of world history. He ascended not so much to a place as to an office. He departed from the arena of humiliation and suffering to enter into his glory. Then he continues, ‘He in one moment leapfrogged from the status of despised Galilean teacher to the cosmic King of the universe.’ Can you imagine? One moment he went from being a teacher in Galilee to being the king of the universe, jumping over the heads of Pilate, Herod, and Caesar Augustus. The Ascension catapulted Jesus to the right hand of God where he was enthroned as King of kings and Lord of lords. What an amazing event in the history of the world. He was taken up to the Holy Spirit can come, he was taken up so he can be our perfect mediator, he was taken up to occupy his rightful place at the right hand of God.

Then comes verse 10. One of the more curious statements you will find in verse 11. The Bible said they were looking intently up into the sky. The original translation says they were staring into the sky, gazing into this. Would you be doing it? Yes, absolutely, as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. And then they asked the question, ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky as if there’s anything else to do?’ If I were to answer them, I say, ‘Well, we have never seen traffic like this before. One went up, two went down. We have never seen this before. Out of all the things we could be looking at in the world, I think this is the most amazing, astonishing thing. Why are you here looking into the sky?’ But I’m glad they came, because look what they said to us, ‘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.’

What does that mean? A lot of things, very quickly, secondly, here is this, his second coming, unlike the Rapture, will be a public event. Just like the disciples saw him go into the sky, many people will see him come back into this world again on Mount Olive. Just like he had a glorified body by which he was taken up into heaven, even today my Lord sits at the right hand of God with a body just like mine. The only difference is that it is not subject to death or decay anymore, a glorified body, he looks like me, he’s there.

But you know what else this means? One day, this is also the route that we’re going to take. The same way he ascended into heaven, at the Rapture of the church, those who are alive will be caught up with the Lord in the air. It’s a precursor of things to come. He went into heaven as the first fruits. Now he is waiting for other souls and saints from all the ages to have a body just like this and to come into heaven. Isn’t it wonderful that when you walk into that place, finally, there’ll be at least one person already there that looks like you?

Everybody loves to walk into a place and to see other people that looks like us. How many of you have ever walked into a place where you felt we were underdressed or overdressed? We all want to look like other people in the room. Jesus has already gone ahead, he’s already sitting there, he looks like a Jewish man, but fully God, fully man, and he is waiting for us to join him.

The Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Anglican Creed, I’ll end with this, there’s a quote. This is oftentimes that we don’t usually quote this, but in the Anglican Creed, they have this court that talks about the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says this, ‘Christ did truly Rise Again from death, and took again his body with flesh, bones, and all things pertaining to the Perfection of man’s nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there he siteth until he returned to judge all men in the last day.’ 

A lot of people think that the body that the Lord Jesus Christ took was just to live on this Earth. No, see the Incarnation was an eternal event. When he took on that body in the womb of Mary, there was a permanent transformation in the second person of the trinity. He will never give up that body, even for all eternity, he will never give up that body. The reason I’m telling you that is that the price that your Lord paid to make you like him was an eternal transformation of his entire being, of who he was. He took on my form, not just for 30 plus years, he took on my form, even today he has my form, and even for all eternity he takes the form of a lowly human being, so that I can become just like him. Oh, what grace, oh what love, oh the mystery and the wonder and the power of incarnation, forever he lives to intercede for us.

I pray that we will be filled with hope, that soon, very soon, the verse of Acts 1:11 will come true. Church has been taken up, the Lord will come back again just like he was taken up into the clouds. Thank God for his word. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you were taken up so that we can receive the Holy Spirit, we thank you that you were taken up. We thank you that you were taken up and you can be king of kings, Lord of lords with the name that is above all names. And we thank you for your promise that you will come back again, that you will walk on this Earth again, that you will rule on this Earth again. What a glorious day it’s going to be. I pray that we will live for you, for you alone are Lord, you alone are worthy, and you alone are worthy to be praised forever and ever. In the name of the Lord Jesus, that we pray, Amen.”