Focus: Jesus’ ascension challenges our thinking about heaven.
Function: To move the people to celebrate the surrounding, heavenly reality as part of the Christian faith and our world.
Text: Acts 1:1-11
In the 1960’s the Russians rocked the world by successfully blasting a rocket into space. The successful launch marked the subsequent race between America and the Soviet Union to land a human being on the moon. Early on in this race for recognition, a Russian cosmonaut rocked the religious world by his comment that he looked for God in heaven out there in space, but he had not seen God nor heaven, so all this talk about God and heaven is, obviously, sheer nonsense. The Russian cosmonaut’s remark was fuel for the arguments of atheists; it was an embarrassment for many believers.
The ascension of Jesus is for many Christians today, likewise, an embarrassment. Numerous Protestant churches in North America and elsewhere in the world pay very little or no attention to Jesus’ ascension. Many of my evangelical students work in churches where, on the one hand, Jesus’ lordship is sung and praised profusely, but where nothing relevant is said about Jesus’ ascension. More and more people today don’t seem to know what to do with a Jesus who is lifted up from the earth into the sky.
I think that it is fair to say that Jesus’ ascension challenges our thinking about heaven. And that’s good. For there are many Christians today who have strange notions about heaven—notions that are not necessarily biblical. One of the most common notions about heaven among Christians is that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will spend eternity in heaven, separate from this earth. There is very little appreciation for this earth, for obviously, they say, this earth will vanish, and we will spend eternity with God in heaven. Such thinking, however, is not biblically-shaped thinking. Surely, Jesus’ ascension challenges our thinking about heaven.
In his gospel, as well as in his Book of Acts, Luke introduces us to the story of Jesus’ ascension. Luke closes his gospel by referring to it. And Luke opens his book of Acts by giving us a detailed description of Jesus’ ascension. There are a number of things Luke wants us to observe with Jesus’ ascension:
By referring to this cloud and these two men (they are angels), Luke draws us into the biblical world of heaven where God dwells with his angels and many others. And when we consider the Bible’s teachings on these things we learn that heaven and earth are connected. Heaven influences earth.
For example:
-When Moses and the Israelites leave Egypt, being pursued by Pharaoh and his soldiers, God leads his people by means of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The cloud points to God’s very presence with his people on earth.
-When Solomon dedicates the temple in Jerusalem, God fills the temple with his glory. The priests brought the ark into the Holy of Holies, and the Scripture says: “When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.” The cloud at Jesus’ ascension is the cloud of God’s glory. It points to God’s presence in heaven as well as on earth.
-When Jesus talked with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John observed a cloud enveloping them. They became terrified—for they knew they were in the presence of God—and they heard a voice saying: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” You see? Jesus’ ascension forces us to come to grips with heaven and with God’s presence in our midst. The cloud is one example; the two men dressed in white, another.
-When the Russian cosmonaut went up into space, he looked for God in heaven. But he missed the boat, so to speak, for he was looking for God somewhere “out there” in space, while he should have looked for God in heaven “right here” on earth. Take Jesus’ disciples, for example. Astonished by what they see happening to Jesus, the disciples are looking up, gazing into the sky, seeing Jesus vanishing from sight behind a cloud. Where is he going? they must have thought. Well, he’s is going to heaven. But where is heaven? Heaven is everywhere. In fact, heaven is even right under our nose. Heaven is “up there” as well as here. How do we know? The text tells us: “They were looking intently up into the sky as (Jesus) was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.”
These men “dressed in white” are angels. They are ministering spirits who, in the likeness of human beings, work in our midst. They serve the King of heaven and periodically they come to us here on earth as messengers or representatives of heaven. As Jesus ascends into heaven, two representatives from heaven make their presence known to the disciples. And we should not be surprised. Such heavenly appearances here on earth have happened before. Consider:
Should we then be so surprised to see two heavenly messengers speaking to the disciples while Jesus is ascending to heaven? No. At each of these critical moments—Jesus’ birth, Jesus’ temptation, Jesus’ hour of betrayal and death, Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ ascension, and yes also at Jesus’ final return to earth at the end of time—we notice that heaven and earth are connected; we notice that God makes known his heavenly presence, his divine power, and his awesome glory.
Surely, Jesus’ ascension challenges our thinking about heaven!
CHALLENGES OUR THINKING ABOUT HEAVEN
It takes careful Bible study to sort out the Scripture’s reference to and use of the word “heaven.” Sometimes, the Bible uses the word “heaven” to indicate special distance. Jesus, for example, was lifted up; he ascended into heaven.
This example would lead us to believe that God’s heaven is somewhere “up there.” Other times, however, the Bible uses “heaven” or “heavens” to indicate the physical world above our heads. In Gen. 15:5, for example, God tells Abraham to look “toward heaven and count the stars.” But when you take the entire Scriptures—all 66 books, written by the Spirit of God—over a long period of time, we notice that the concept of heaven is rich, deep, and wondrously exciting.
Here are some things that we may say with clarity and confidence in light of the Scriptures: (cf. David Lawrence, Heaven…It’s Not the End of the World!)
1. Heaven is an invisible reality. Heaven is real, just as real as the world in which we live. When God made the earth he also made the heavens. The earth is visible to the naked eye. The heavens are invisible. Both, the seen and the unseen are real. Both the material or physical and the immaterial or spiritual are real. We must never lose sight of the reality of heaven. Paul says (II Cor. 4:18) “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Heaven is an invisible reality, a clear, yet invisible dimension of the world created by God.
2. Heaven is God’s home. Ecclesiastes 5:2 puts it very plainly: ‘God is in heaven, and you are on earth.” And the psalmist says: (Ps. 115:16) “The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to man.” In such verses, we tend to put distance of space between heaven and earth. We think “geographically.” Just as China or Australia is far from the U.S.A, so God’s heavens must be far from the earth. The Bible, however, resists such thinking. When the Lord Jesus walked on earth, his heavenly Father was never far removed from him. The Father and the Son share a deep, intimate, personal relationship. For Jesus, heaven is an invisible dimension where God dwells.
Heaven is NOT a Grand Canyon that cannot be bridged. Jesus learned that very truth in the O.T. from the Psalmist when he says (Ps. 139) “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths (i.e. Sheol), you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” Heaven is an invisible reality, a solid dimension of existence in the created universe. Heaven is God’s home.
3. Heaven is a world at war. This may sound strange to you. Theologian David Lawrence makes clear, however that while “…it is true that heaven is presented in the Bible as ‘the dwelling place of God’, this is not the whole picture. God is presented as King of the spirits; the supreme Creator and Ruler of heaven and earth, owner of the heavens, and the one seated on heaven’s throne. Yet in this exalted position God is not pictured as dwelling in splendid isolation. Heaven buzzes with activity; it is filled with other equally real, yet invisible, creatures called angels.”
-There are angels who actively worship God in heaven (Rev. 5:11-12)
-There are angels who are in charge of helping God unfold human history. (Rev.) They blow the trumpets, carry the scrolls, wield the sickles, pour out the bowls, and they bind Satan in the pit. God uses angels, and they act under God’s authority to be wardens (stewards) of the heavenly acts which shape human destiny. The work they do “in the heavenly places affect the unfolding drama of human history on the earth.”
-And then there are angels who must do battle (Rev. 12:7). They war against Satan and all other angels who, at one time, began to rebel against God in heaven. Ever since that rebellion began, these rebels have been warring against God’s purposes in heaven and on earth. These rebel angels are God’s enemies; they are also ours. They draw us into spiritual warfare.
This is why Paul says in Eph. 6 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ” Though shocking it may sound, heaven is also a world at war.
4. Heaven is also the world of the dead. Heaven is the world in which all spiritual beings have their current existence: God, angels and the spirits of human beings who have died. When a human’s body dies, a part of him or her—that part called spirit (or soul), lives on. It lives on in the world of invisible reality called heaven. Those who die in Christ, are with Christ in heaven. Those who die apart from any hope in Christ are separate from Christ, awaiting the final judgment on the last day. We learn this from Jesus’ story about Lazarus and the rich man; we also glean this truth from the O.T. concept of Sheol, and the N.T. concept of Hades.
When you search the Scriptures for heaven, you run into a wondrous world that’s real, invisible, the home of God; heaven is also the warring ground for rebel angels to launch their attack against God and his people here on earth; Heaven is also the place where the saints wait for the day of Christ’s final return when he shall raise them physically from the dead and make all things new; it’s also the place where the condemned—those who have died and who are outside of Christ—await the final judgment day.
We do well to celebrate Jesus’ ascension into heaven. And we do well to take note of the words of these two heavenly messengers: “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.”
I can hardly wait for the day when God will live in our midst, when he renews the present heavens and the present earth, when there will be no more tears, sickness, sadness or death. Christ’s ascension assures us that that day will surely come.
We have not seen anything yet! In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.