Scripture reading: John 17:1-11.

Sermon text: Acts 1:1-14.

I have an assignment for you: Go into all the world, to every nation and ethnic group, and make disciples of Jesus wherever you go. Teach them and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit —

But before you do, go to Jerusalem and wait for 10 days.

Most Americans believe we could handle the first part of the command. We love to go places, and we love to do things. Americans definitely define the term “restless soul.” We look at inactivity as the worst sin imaginable. Most of us, presented with the task above, would have begun planning the venture: Assigning duties, gathering supplies, and providing for contingencies. By the end of the 10 days, we would have completely mapped out the process and the procedures to accomplish Jesus’ mission, down to a specific timeline and completion date.

Yet, that’s not what Jesus told the disciples to do. Jesus gave the disciples specific commands that would help them accomplish the mission of redeeming humanity, commands that built on His crucifixion for humanity’s sins and resurrection for humanity’s eternal life. Jesus knew the way the process would work, and His commands would help the disciples to accomplish the process.

Following Jesus’ commands today will also help us to play our role in the mission of the Church. The sermon passage will help us to proclaim the message of the gospel and lead others to salvation as well.

St. Luke clearly described to Theophilus, the recipient of his book, that Jesus “resented himself alive after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” Remember that St. Luke was a Greek physician. While first-century physicians lacked much of the knowledge possessed by that current medical professionals, they knew this much: The dead stayed dead. However, St. Luke clearly believed in Jesus’ resurrection; he understood that Jesus had convincingly presented Himself as a real human, raised from the dead, and had spent 40 days with the disciples.

During this 40 days, St. Matthew tells us that Jesus had met His disciples in Galilee and given them the command known as the “Great Commission” (Matthew 28). In the time between the meeting in Galilee and His ascension, Jesus had led His disciples back to Jerusalem. Now, Jesus told the disciples “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.” Regardless of their desire to tell others about Him, and regardless of any plans they may have formed during those 40 days to accomplish the Great Commission, Jesus’ command to remain in Jerusalem brought the disciples back to a key point we cannot forget in the Church.

Jesus remains in control.

Anyone who forgets that Jesus serves as the Head of the Church will find himself floundering in his service to the Church. Any command that Jesus gives must be obeyed without question.

Jesus didn’t prohibit the disciples from leaving Jerusalem for no reason. As God, Jesus knew the difficulties of the task He had given the disciples. Jesus knew the Great Commission would never happen without lots of help; it would fail without divine help. Jesus told the disciples to wait for the “promise of the Father,” the Holy Spirit. As God the Son prepared to leave earth, God the Holy Spirit, the omnipresent Person, would come into the earth to empower the disciples to achieve the success of the mission.

The disciples, unfortunately, still had misgivings about Jesus’ departure. He had told them He would leave (cf. John 16:5-7) and that He would send the Spirit at that time (John 14:16-17; 16:7). The disciples still clung to the traditional interpretations of the Messiah; they expected Jesus their risen Lord, to now raise and army and defeat the Romans and all the other Gentile nations that had oppressed Israel. Surely a man that defeated death could defeat the Romans! “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Would Jesus now do what they though He would do when He rode into Jerusalem only 47 days before?

Jesus gave the disciples the words that we need to remember even more given the fiasco of the past couple of weeks [another Camping prediction of the “Rapture”]: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” Jesus will return, and never doubt it. Jesus will defeat all enemies of the Church, and never doubt it. Jesus will restore the “kingdom,” but He will establish an everlasting kingdom that will encompass not only Israel, but all of Creation, seen and unseen. Think of the farthest star in the farthest galaxy of the universe; Jesus’ reign will stretch beyond that star.

Instead of worrying about “times or seasons,” Jesus encouraged the disciples to await the coming of the Holy Spirit: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” The power of the Holy Spirit would enable the disciples to overcome and defeat any attempts by the forces ruling the earth in contradiction to Jesus’ reign. The Holy Spirit would enable the disciples to perform miracles, cross racial and ethnic boundaries, and even speak new languages (cf. Acts 2). The Holy Spirit would give the disciples the power to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth and beyond.

Jesus’ next words told the disciples how the gospel would spread: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” This phrase should have told the disciples plenty, and it still speaks to the Church today.

First, the disciples would start in Jerusalem, the city in which they resided while awaiting the Holy Spirit’s arrival. The disciples had no problem with Jerusalem; nor would they have a problem with Judea. After all, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea were all Jewish. The Jews understood that a Messiah would come; the Jews knew the Old Testament, and they knew about the God the disciples would proclaim.

Jesus didn’t stop with the Jews, though. When the disciples heard “Samaria,” some of them probably wished Jesus had! Many of the disciples would have retained ancient tribal animosities against the “half-breed” Samaritans. Those disciples would rather that Jesus skip the Samaritans and go straight to the Gentiles. Better to preach to Gentiles, these Jewish disciples would have thought, than to have to degrade themselves by intermingling with Samaritans.

However, Jesus’ words reminded the disciples of His own mixed experiences there. The disciples would have remembered a village that accepted Jesus as the Messiah, an acceptance that began with a very unlikely conversation with the village slut. (Don’t let that word offend you. Read the woman’s story in John 4, and then you tell me what you’d call her.) The disciples would have remembered another village that refused to let them pass, and Jesus’ words of warning to James and John, the “Sons of Thunder” who wanted Him to call fire from heaven to destroy the village (Luke 9:51-55). Now, Jesus had just told them they would carry His gospel to these people, a people despised by Jews and who had never forgiven the Jews for the bloody history between the 2 nations.

Then, Jesus continued by saying “to the end of the earth.” The disciples understood this to mean the Gentile nations beyond the ancient boundaries of Judaism, including the nations who had oppressed the Jews for centuries. This command would require the disciples to risk ceremonial uncleanness as they entered predominately Gentiles cities and interact with Greeks and Romans, not to mention the barbarians beyond the borders of the Empire.

Having said this, Jesus “was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Don’t misunderstand the significance of Jesus’ action here. Jesus ascended into the sky, but that doesn’t mean that heaven exists in the atmosphere or even beyond. Jesus went only so far as necessary before stepping through the “veil” that separates the spiritual world from the physical world in which we live. Anyone looking for the place we call “heaven” will never find it in the atmosphere or beyond.

The disciples, needless to say, gazed dumbfounded “into heaven as he went.” Don’t think badly of them; you’d have done the same (and so would I!). Two “men” told them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Again, one day, Jesus will “descend” from heaven, but He will not come from a physical location in the atmosphere.

The disciples then “returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.” After they returned to Jerusalem, the disciples “with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” The next 10 days would see the group come together and unite around a common love for their Lord and a common desire to accomplish His command to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and beyond.

This passage still speaks to us today, even though we approach it from the other side of the Holy Spirit’s arrival on Pentecost, an event we will celebrate next week.

For one thing, Jesus’ command still holds true. We cannot allow anything to distract us from the necessity of spreading the gospel. False prophets notwithstanding, the Church must proclaim the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I passionately believe we must cease all the nonsense about guessing the timing of Jesus’ return and instead focus our energy on demonstrating the gospel’s power in our lives.

We must also understand the power we have within us, the power that comes from the Holy Spirit, God Himself. It has occurred to me lately that Christians have access to a power beyond anything we can comprehend, yet we so often seem surprised when the Holy Spirit allows us to use this power. We pray, and then we act surprised when our prayers are answered. Why? Jesus promised the disciples, “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).

Something else occurred to me lately. I think we throw the word “miracle” around a little too freely. Remember that a miracle, by definition, will not occur on a frequent basis. However, given Jesus’ promise above, I believe that miracles probably happen far more frequently now than before the Holy Spirit’s arrival on Pentecost. I’m beginning to realize that answered prayers still point the world to Jesus, as the Holy Spirit will always do when He uses believers in the lives of unbelievers. If you pray for something in the Holy Spirit’s direction, don’t be surprised when something indescribable happens.

We also need to realize the importance of Jesus’ commands to fulfill the Great Commission. We all have our Jerusalems and Judeas, those areas and peoples where we feel comfortable witnessing and working. We all have our Samarias, the areas and peoples we’d rather avoid. We also have our “ends of the earth,” those people we don’t think about because we don’t know of their existence. Jesus clearly knows about those people and expects us to do our part in their salvation. We participate in the salvation of others — regardless of their race or location — through our examples of godly living, through prayer, and through support of the efforts of the Church to reach everyone with the saving gospel of Jesus, Our Lord.

Lastly, and just as importantly, I see a major lesson in the disciples’ actions between the Ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This lesson ties well with the morning Scripture reading. Let’s focus on the phrase “with one accord.” In the Scripture reading, Jesus prayed, “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” Although Jesus specifically referred to His original disciples in this part of John 17, He also prayed for the unity of their successors in this chapter. Jesus desires the unity of the Church, so much so that He later stated that our unity would witness His presence in the world:

1. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:20-23).
   

I’ve recently participated in an online discussion about dissension in the Southern Baptist Convention. In my last posting, I said, “Unless the ‘opposing theological thoughts’ involve clear heresy (e.g. denial of the Trinity, denial of the divinity of Jesus), I see no reason why Christians cannot coexist in the same congregation. In fact, I see no reason why we should separate from one another for any reason other than heresy…. [B]ut I have perfect confidence in human nature (especially among my fellow Southerners) that someone, somewhere will find something they think more important than Jesus’ desire for our unity.”

I believe this. Unless we literally cannot agree on a key doctrinal issue clearly believed by the catholic Church and stated in the Creeds we all hold common, we must passionately desire to fulfill Jesus’ prayer for our unity. We look at the world’s response to our witness today and wonder why we’re so ineffective. The fact that we have several thousand denominations, most the result of an inability to humble ourselves and unite in the common desire to spread the gospel, has much to do with our lack of success.

On the other hand, we see the results when believers unite in congregations to proclaim the gospel. We see the results when congregations unite, even across denominational lines, to minister in their communities and proclaim the gospel. We see the results when believers and congregations refuse to allow human pride and bigotry to prevent them from fulfilling Jesus’ desire for unity and instead proclaim the gospel in word, deed, and sacrament.

I believe it’s time for the Church to unite again and carry the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. People of God, it’s time — and past time — for us to fulfill Jesus’ desire for unity and show the world that the Father sent Him into the world for the salvation of humanity. It’s time, and past time, for us to call on the Holy Spirit to unite us, to work through us, and to fulfill our prayers for the salvation of humanity. I invite you to join us as we proclaim the gospel of a risen Lord to a world in desperate need of peace with God, a peace possible only through the gospel of Our Lord, Jesus the Christ.