May 27, 2001
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
In the church year, today is a special Sunday. Do you know what it is? Today is when millions of Christians around the world remember and celebrate the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. Jesus rose from the dead, gave convincing proof for 40 days to his disciples, and is now enthroned at the right hand of God.
We read in the Scriptures that Ascension Sunday is when Jesus departed from earth through the clouds. The disciples stood there on Mt. Olivet gazing up toward heaven. The clouds took Jesus out of their sight and the disciples were caught gazing into the empty sky.
Private Preview
As vital as our faith claims the ascension is, it has never caught on outside the church the way Christmas has. There are no TV specials on the true meaning of ascension! And if you go to the mall after church, you won’t see huge signs for Ascension season specials. Ascension is, in many ways, an inside story. It was like the disciples had a “private preview” of what is about to happen.
If you were to stop someone in the checkout line and ask if they’ve heard about the heavenly messengers who spoke to the crowd on Mt. Olivet, the likely response that you might get is, “Oh, was that in the National Enquirer or the The Star?” The ascension story is not for everyone; it is for people of faith.
In all three accounts of the Ascension found in Matthew, Luke, and Acts, only the followers of Jesus watched him disappear through the clouds, or heard angel voices. During the period between the resurrection and the ascension of 40 days, the risen Christ appeared to the followers many times, but not to the Scribes or to the Pharisees, not to random crowds who may be curious by Jesus, the wonder worker.
The risen Lord taught his little band of followers—men and women—things about the kingdom. He got them ready to serve in his name. It was a select group, not the general population, who was ordered to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of God. This inside group was going to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and become witnesses for Jesus to the world. It makes sense that at the end of the 40 days, Jesus passed out tickets to his followers for a sneak preview of what is to come. Only the insiders were eyewitnesses to his earthy departure.
Today, we have something in common with that small band of disciples. Like them, we have gathered to hear the words of our Savior, to bring our questions to God in the name of our blessed Redeemer. We worship the same God they did, through our prayers and
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praise. We, too, believe in Jesus Christ and hunger to know him more deeply, to enjoy unbroken friendship with him. And, like the disciples after the ascension, we do not see Jesus face to face. We know him only by faith rather than by sight.
Gazing into the Sky
After Jesus was lifted up into heaven and clouds took him out of the sight of the disciples, they stood there gazing up toward the heavens trying to still find him.
I can remember when I was a little kid and on those many hot, hazy, lazy days of summer like a Memorial Day weekend, we would go to the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston for a picnic. Lying on the blanket my Mom laid out on the grass, we would try to imagine what faces and figures the puffy clouds look like. Sometimes they did look like Mickey Mouse. But soon, as the wind currents were constantly moving the clouds around, we stop seeing Mickey Mouse. Although we wanted the image to stay still for a bit longer, it was gone.
According to verse 11, angels said to Jesus’ followers, “Why do you stand gazing into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” The disciples were looking intensely at that distant spot in the sky where Jesus was, now fading from their vision. They didn’t want to lose that physical, face to face encounter with their beloved Lord, Jesus.
The angels were telling the disciples to stop living off the sweet memories of the past, as though God has nothing for you in the future. It must have been hard for the disciples to see Jesus disappearing, after all that had happened. They’d been his followers for a long time, known the anguish of his passion and death, the joy of life when he rose from the dead. Now he was leaving them, and they were uncertain what the future held. It was like Jesus was playing peek-a-boo with the disciples and when they opened their eyes, Jesus was gone!
Gazing in the Past
All of us feel safer when we look backward rather than forward: back to a time or an event when the love of God seemed most real and vital in your life—a time different perhaps from the present.
Many people during this time are graduating from high schools and colleges. Family and friends gather to celebrate your achievements. There’re parties, dinners, and best wishes. But when it comes to the question of “What’s next?” Yesterday looks better than tomorrow. We want to harken back to those good and fun days of high school cafeteria or college dorm life!
In the recent economic downturn, many people have been lay-off. Those who became overnight millionaires are now returning to work. They may be the more fortunate ones. They still remember how great it was to be able to drive BMWs and bid for million dollar homes. Without warning, financial security, collegial friendships, and dreams for their
children’s future vanish. The future is still uncertain so we look backward rather than forward. We don’t want to give up on that faint memory of how good it used to be.
And on this Memorial Day weekend Sunday, we participate in “ching ming” to pay our respects to our loved ones who have passed on. We bring a picnic lunch to the cemetery and spread out the blanket to remember the memories of family members who meant so much to us. When we look backward, life feels safer.
Perhaps you have some other memories of a better day, a relationship with a friend or family member now separated from you. Maybe it’s a spiritual leader or mentor you treasured who is now gone. Perhaps a sense of purpose that’s now absent. You want to preserve such memories, hold on to them tightly, not let them vanish for what seems like forever. You feel like you are standing gazing into the empty sky!
Not Standing Still
God does not forbid us from remembering the past with thanksgiving and joy. But the angels warn against standing still, as though the work of God is over, the glory is in the past, and there’s not much ahead in the future. The ascension of Christ marks the conclusion of a chapter, not the end of God’s story.
The angels said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” They questioned the disciples for lingering on the hillside after Jesus vanished from their sight. They said Jesus will come back.
One day when I was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge going home, I noticed how beautiful the bridge was against the deep blue sky. Not a cloud in sight. Evidently other drivers were noticing how beautiful it was too. Suddenly, the driver in the car in front of me jammed on his brakes leaving me with little room to stop in time. I jammed on my brakes too only to ram squarely on his rear bumper. We were both fortunate and happy that neither of us was hurt and our cars only had little dents. Some people practice their faith like us who were preoccupied in gazing up on how beautiful the bridge is against a blue sky that we stop noticing that there are other people and cars around them.
Beyond clinging to the past at the expense of the future, there is a real and present danger in standing and gazing at the sky. If we are fixated on our own patch of ground on Mt. Olivet, on our own perspective of the ascending Christ, it is impossible for us to see Christ dwelling in someone else. When we are so focused on that image of what we think and believe is Christ, we begin to think that our perspective is the only truth. When we look at church history, we can see that Christians have caused untold pain and damages to others whom they never really saw as brothers and sisters. They think that their own view of Christ is the only distortion-free perspective. They trample on one another or stumble themselves in their zeal to maintain their point of view, never realizing that those around them are also striving for Christ too.
On Monday and Tuesday of this past week, Dr. Chuck, Pastor Mak, and I attended a Chinese Pastors Retreat when 20 church leaders gathered. We represented 12 different churches. We had a great time with each person taking a few minutes to share his or her call to ministry today. All of us at one time witnessed in faith Christ ascending into heaven and we could have stood our ground and insisted that the Presbyterian perspective or the Lutheran perspective or the Episcopalian perspective or even the Baptist perspective is the only truth. We would have trampled on one another and stumble ourselves in our zeal to maintain our own point of view. Sometimes people get hurt as a result of standing still.
We realized that all of us are striving to see clearly the Lord we love. As Christian people, we must not lose our connection to one another—a connection essential for discipleship. The Lord’s presence is to be found in the midst of two or three gathered in Christ’s name.
Standing still and remaining on Mt. Olivet, or at whatever place we think we last encountered Christ, presents another danger to our faith. It is disobedience. Those first disciples were commanded to go somewhere: into Jerusalem. They were told to do something: wait for the promise gift of the Holy Spirit—so that they could be someone else: effective witnesses to all the world.
We just can’t stay on top of Mt. Olivet gazing at that fading spot in the sky and not obey God’s commissioning of us to be his witnesses. Go has given us obedient hearts and serving hands to do what our Lord is calling us to do. This is the reason why we have brothers and sisters in our church going on short-termed mission trips this summer. They are not gazing into the empty sky. They are obeying God’s command, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
The world says to us, “Set down, servant!” But we cain’t set down because our soul’s so happy dat I cain’t set down!”
Come Again
Before Jesus’ ascension, he reminded the disciples on what he taught them about God’s kingdom. He said God has promised that when he leaves, the Holy Spirit will come. While John baptized with water, they will be baptized with the coming of the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
Particularly when we are facing times of change and uncertainty, we need the reassurance that promises made will come true. The disciples were devastated and feeling desolated when the sight of the Lord was fading behind the clouds in the sky. So like the disciples, we find ourselves fixated on the Mt. Olivets in our lives fearing what the future might hold.
The words of the angels are not only a gentle rebuke and instructions for the disciples; they are also a promise to all who follow the Savior. He will come again. The angels promised that Christ will return in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
Although this is a mystery to us on when Christ will come again, we must not be dismayed but encouraged with the hope that God always fulfills his promises. I know that many of you have these Palm Pilots. They are wonderful inventions of almost having the whole world in your palms. But the risk of these innovations is that at times we get the feeling that we can retrieve information about Christ’s return as quickly as we can find out when is our next appointment. In our Palm Pilots, we can’t schedule in when Christ comes back. We don’t and will never have God in the palms of our hands.
Christ’s return is marked only on God’s private calendar. It is not for us to know the times or dates of Christ’s return. It’s God’s sovereign secret—not available on the internet. God is never in a hurry and he is never late. God acts in the fullness of time. He makes all things beautiful in his time.
Before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, he prayed to God for his disciples. In John 17, Jesus prayed that he wanted us to all be one like the way he and his Father are one. Jesus said,
“As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the
world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me when I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:21-24)
We all journey throughout life with many moments when we wished we can return to the past—we want to use our go-back computer program—to relive the times when life was easier and there were no mistakes. We stand gazing into the empty sky.
Jesus prays to God for us not to be desolated and disillusioned. We are one with one another as we are one with Christ. Jesus Christ, our great high priest who appears in the presence of God for us, will gather all the people of God to himself.
Remember the ascension story was an inside event only known by the disciples– something that we only know about and not the rest of the world? But when they received the Holy Spirit, the ascension stopped being an insider’s story anymore. The ascension, the resurrection, the cross, the miracles of Jesus, the incarnation are now the stories to be told to the whole world! When we receive the power of the Holy Spirit, we are witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We who were once insiders must now go to the outside and be witnesses of the ascension!
By his mercy and goodness, we shall not be caught standing still gazing into empty sky, but we shall someday see his face, and praise him joyfully forever and ever.
Let us pray. Lord, we invite you into our lives so that we may be transformed as witnesses of your love and grace. Lead us not to gaze into the empty sky but gaze into the hearts of people that we may be one with you. Amen.