Title: IT’S ALL ABOUT INFLUENCE
Focus: The ascension of Jesus is all about influence—in our lives, homes, schools, places of employment, culture and world.
Function: To move the people to influence the world for Christ, in particular through Christian education and schools.
Text: Acts 1:1-11
I have a hunch that if I ask the children here what day it is, they will say: “Mother’s Day” Yes, today people world-wide celebrate God’s gift of mothers. But that’s not why we assemble together as a church to sing songs and to praise God.
Again, if I should ask some of you who looked closely at the liturgy what day it is, some of you might say: “Christian Education Sunday.” Yes, today we acknowledge God’s powerful tool of Christian education to make this world a better place. But that’s not why we assemble together as a church to pray and proclaim the message of the Bible.
Today, the Christian church marks and celebrates Jesus’ ascension into heaven. On this Ascension Sunday, Christians declare with great joy that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. That’s why we worship God today. We gather in the name of Jesus because he is the all-powerful King, Ruler of the heavens and the earth.
I wonder if you can see a common thread running through these themes today: Mother’s Day, Christian Education Sunday, and Ascension Sunday? You might say: “Jesus rules the roost in heaven: my Mom rules the roost at home, and my teachers rule the roost at school. It’s all about rule or influence.” You are on to something. The ascension is all about God’s rule or influence in our lives, homes, schools, places of employment, culture and world.
This morning I want to open the Scriptures before you, and help you think about God’s rule in our world. For you see, the ascension of Jesus into heaven is about the coming and the spread of God’s kingdom in our world. And I want you to see how God provides us with a powerful tool called Christian schools to influence the world. I pray that you will get excited and serious about God’s kingdom and about God’s tools to spread his rule or influence in our world.
About two years ago, I watched a documentary on t.v. about radical Muslim Imans or religious teachers setting up all kinds of schools where children are being indoctrinated in the Koran. These religious teachers (and they are still around in many Muslim countries) radicalize their students by cultivating in them a hatred for Jews and any non-Muslim or so-called “Infidels.” The result has been the rise of radical Islam in many forms--the most visible and horrible one in the shape of terrorism.
I know that I am giving you an extreme example, but it underscores the point I wish to make: schools train and shape the next generation—for better or for worse. Schools influence. So do fathers and mothers, and so does Jesus Christ. But whose influence shall we spread? You see, the ascension of Jesus is all about influence.
It’s been 40 days ago that God raised Jesus from the dead. During those forty days, we learn from the text, Jesus has been busy doing a number of things:
We also learn that
These instructions, it turns out, relate to that notion of God’s rule or kingdom. For you see, the disciples thought (and they were hoping) that perhaps now the time had come for God to restore the nation of Israel to its former political glory and power—like that of King David and Solomon. But Jesus makes clear that the kingdom of God is not about the national glory of one particular nation; it’s about God’s influence and glory and majesty spread all throughout the world. That’s why Jesus said: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (vs. 8). The kingdom of God, then, involves people, the disciples—people, you and I included, who witness or testify of what God has done, is doing and will do as yet in and through Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God involves people who seek to influence the entire world for Jesus Christ.
The kingdom of God also involves the coming of the Holy Spirit in power. Empowered by the Spirit of God, people declare the good news of Jesus. The teaching and preaching of that good news or Word of God, along with the powerful workings of God’s Spirit, results in God’s influence being felt and seen in people’s lives, homes, schools, workplaces, cultures and world.
The ascension of Jesus marks Jesus’ kingship in heaven and on earth. The ascension of Jesus marks our time as a time of influencing the world for Jesus, where we seek to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded us. The task of the church and the task of all Christians is to influence the world in such a way that God’s rule, his glory, and his majesty, his Word and his way become visible and felt by all people.
Take Saul, for example. He was a zealous Jew, devoted to do God’s will as commanded in the Law. When the Jewish people stoned Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Saul was right there. Saul persecuted Christians; he was known for his terror and fanaticism. And Christians feared him for his zeal. But then Jesus’ influence overpowered Saul. Blinded by Jesus’ glory, Saul came to his senses; radically changed by the Holy Spirit, driven by a new understanding of God’s Word, Saul became Paul. And the world has never been the same since. For Jesus, the King, used Paul to influence generations of people even until this day.
You see, that’s what happens when God’s influence takes control in our lives: teenagers who live without hope in the midst of broken homes and false promises of happiness become young men and women with a purpose. When the rule of God breaks through in a rebel child, that child finds peace. When the rule of God penetrates the heart of an abusive husband, that husband will change and find ways to spread the peace of God in his life, his home and in his workplace.
Do you remember Chuck Colson? He was president Richard Nixon’s right hand. Chuck Colson, driven and blinded by power and political prestige, broke the law of the land. He landed in prison. But then the rule of God broke into Chuck Colson’s life:
He confessed his sins; he humbled himself with tears before God; he embraced the forgiveness of Christ Jesus. Chuck Colson asked forgiveness from his friends; he yielded his life to Christ; he heard the call to spread the influence or rule of Christ in the lives of prisoners. And thus he began a prison ministry in the name of Jesus—a ministry that has transformed thousands of prisoners all over the world. Chuck Colson has inspired many with thoughtful, Christian writings and speeches, calling the Church to live up to Christ’s mandate, to make disciples of all nations, to spread the influence of God’s rule so that our world may become a better place, a place claimed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ ascension marks the spread of God’s influence. So it was in the days of the disciples; so it is still for us today.
Why am I passionate about Jesus’ ascension? It’s because Godly mothers and fathers have a responsibility to influence their children to make this a better world, to spread the fragrance of God’s rule, his love, his Word, his Spirit, his shalom in our homes, communities, cultures and world. Christians have a mandate: make disciples! Be Jesus’ witnesses! Be ambassadors of Christ the King; Make his rule felt in the entire world!
It’s in this context that I want to say some things about Christian education and schools. For more than 100 years the Christian Reformed Church has promoted Christian schools as a way to influence the world for Christ and declare with joy: “Jesus is King.” Jesus is Lord of all facts and figures, of arts and crafts, of culture and science, of politics and any other human activity. Jesus is King. Nowhere else in North America but in the Christian home and church and school can we declare, explore, and teach this message.
In a world of moral confusion, Christian schools have an opportunity to help the next generation to think biblically, to act justly, and to make this a better world with their God-given skills and abilities. In a dog-eat-dog business world, where profit is king, Christian schools can teach young men and women to pursue careers while always keeping in mind to spread the influence of Jesus: how can we use our profits to make this world a better world? How can we apply our resources so that our neighbors can flourish, the poor can advance, the sick find healing, and the disadvantaged find dignity?
I do not get excited about Christian schools as a tool from God to spread his influence because
I do not get excited about Christian schools because
To declare good news, let there be a people of God--the church! To live a wholesome life, let there be Christian homes, with fathers and mothers who spread the fragrance and rule of Christ in their families and neighborhoods. To bring justice, peace and shalom in a world that longs for peace and justice and prosperity, let there be Christian schools who teach the next generation how to spread the influence or kingdom of God in every sphere of knowledge and life.
It’s all
about the influence of God! That’s why Jesus has taught us to pray: “Our
Father in heaven…your kingdom—may it come!”
You know
what? It has come; it is near; it is visible here and there, and it will come
in all its fullness when Jesus comes again. For as the disciples gaze into the
sky, looking for the ascended Lord Jesus, two angels, “men dressed in white”
said to them: “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.”
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.