Becoming Like Jesus

By Pastor Samuel Chess

Grace Emmanuel Church

Port St. Lucie, Florida

 

 

Every wonder what life would have been like

if Jesus Had not risen from the dead?

 

Initially the disciples would have eventually recovered from the loss of their teacher. They would have probably preserved his teaching in some form perhaps like our gospels today. Perhaps Peter would have erected a monument memorializing the life of the great teacher from Galilee who had such a unique perspective on the world. Slowly his influence would have waned. People would have mentioned some of his more pithy statements much like today we might read Confucius says…

Much more sadly; there would never have been a solution for man’s sin problem. All mankind would have been destined to live on in their sins and die without any atonement for them. From history we learn that in those places where sin has reigned unchecked in the hearts of people, civilization has moved to more perverted and violent forms of living. Our world…our country is the place it is today, only because of the influence of Christianity on our morals, on our laws. Because of the times of reformation and revival when God’s spirit transformed whole regions, whole countries, by His power and brought the horrible effects of sin and Satan to a standstill.

If Christ had not risen, nothing would have stopped the flow of sin through the lives of humanity and this world we live in, if it even still existed, would be a very different place.

But Jesus did rise from the dead! He brought deliverance from the power of sin and Satan for all who would believe! ….but…Because of Easter I don’t have a choice whether or not I will accept his claims. If his bones were dust in a tomb you could choose what you were going to believe, Since he is out there very much alive… that overrides your privilege of making choices on how you are going to lives and what you will accept and not accept of what he taught. If Jesus overcame the power of sin by defeating Satan’s power and rising from the dead, then the only hope any of us have to overcome the sinfulness in our own lives is to throw ourselves at his feet and submit to his Lordship over our lives.

If Jesus had stayed in the tomb it would have seemed such a tragedy that the life of one who had such impact was snuffed our so soon. Even after his resurrection he only remained on the earth another 40 days then ascended back to heaven. Obviously what he came to do was completed…He had paid the price for the salvation of the sins of the world…and then he went back where he came from????

Has that ever struck you as odd? Why would Jesus come to this earth (God in human form), live through 30 years of experiencing everything mankind lives with, go through the three year process of building relationships with a group of disciples, go through the obscene torture of dying with the weight of all the sins of mankind on his shoulders and in his heart, take on the evil one face to face and defeat him for all of time and eternity, rise from the dead an eternal victor. Present himself to his disciples and 500 other people so they would be totally convinced of what had just taken place.

After the stage was completely set for the transformation of the world to take place then the transformer himself says….I’m out of here….see you all again someday!

Is it just me or does that not seem quite logical?

 

I. Why the Ascension?

A) A view from Jesus perspective

None of us will deny that the ascension of Jesus back to heaven just a few weeks after the resurrection was seemingly part of God’s plan. God doesn’t do any thing accidentally…everything God does has eternal significance…so what was the eternal significance of taking the Savior out of the world he came to save?

1) From Jesus perspective it was a wonderful home-going … like a soldier returning home after a long and bloody war. This world was not Jesus home…as much as we may think W.Va. is almost heaven chances are it’s really not….nor is Alabama or Pennsylvania or Tobago or Fiji. This world is the birthplace of sin and the hotbed of evil and I’m sure that it was never a comfortable place for the sinless son of God. He came here only because of his love for us!

2) Notice his words to the Father in his Last Supper prayer:

(John 17:4-5) I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. (NIV)

Notice, he wants to be back in the Father’s presence and he is thinking of his state, whatever that was like when he was saying “let there be” and with a word from his mouth our whole universe splashed across the sky.

You know what it is like when you’ve been away for a long time and finally you are packing to head home. Now imagine you are the Son of God and you’ve been in a word wracked by sin, taking the sin of that world onto yourself, freeing it’s inhabitants from the power of sin and the power of it’s author and now the job is done and you can return home.

So maybe what spawned the ascension was that Jesus was tired, fed up, with being a servant to sinful mankind….He got the job done and now it’s “kick the dust off your sandals and get home time”. Maybe he’s hungry for the rush that comes with the angels all gathering around him singing “Worthy is the Lamb.” Maybe the food of Heaven is the manna God sent down to the Israelites in Egypt and Jesus mouth was watering for a heaping plate of “fried manna fritters.”

Looming Question in my mind is: “Why stay just 40 days after the resurrection when so much more could have been accomplished in 40 years or 40 decades or 40 centuries?”

B) A view from the disciples perspective

It’s very obvious that the disciples were caught completely off guard by the Ascension. What do we find them doing after Jesus ascends?

(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…. suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? (NIV)

The sky is empty…He’s gone. Their Savior, their Lord, their deliverer from sin, death, resurrection… and now “he just started rising above the ground and he went up and up and up and.. then he was gone!

Why did he have to leave?????? It’s not an illegitimate question…. Why did he have to leave?_______________________________________________________________

I again balance the question by assuring us that this was not something Jesus suddenly decided to do on the spur of the moment…. He had obviously come to this earth with the full intention of leaving right after Satan’s defeat. The angel’s scolding of his disciples could have very well been his own words…

Why do you stand here looking into the sky?

If you look at all of what Luke recorded in the first chapter of Acts it’s clear that this rising into the sky is part of God’s great plan:

(Acts 1:1-11) In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But 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." 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? 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." (NIV)

II. If the ascension was part of the plan then what is the plan?

We can learn so much by going back to that very last Passover meal Jesus shared with his disciples….the Last Supper. He spent so much time trying to explain “the plan” to his disciples. Some parts of the plan didn’t sound all that appealing. They weren’t understanding it…and I’m not sure if we still do.

(John 16:1-7) "All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you. "Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away…..

For our good??????

How can the absence of the Savior of the world be for our good?

1) Good would be having you here day after day teaching us more and more about the kingdom.

2) Good would be you fulfilling the prophesies of John the Baptist about you:

(Luke 3:16-17) "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (NIV)

I mean no offense Jesus, but how are you going to “gather the wheat into the barn” and go high-tailing it out of here all at the same time.

3) Our good would involve you being here to satisfy our doubts

4) Our good would be to have you on hand to answer our many questions

5) Our good would be having you solve our theological disputes which will certainly arise when we try to interpret your teachings.

Jesus you can do far more for us if you stay here than if you go away!

That’s not “The Plan”… If we finish the scripture we started in Luke 16 we can see clues to the rest of the story:

(John 16:7-16) But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. "In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me." (NIV)

Now.. We could shift gears here and talk about the role of the Holy Spirit now that Jesus is no longer personally present on this earth. That’s not the point of this sermon…

This sermon is about Jesus and the fact that he ascended and left us here…..If you look closely at John 16 and you focus just on what Jesus is saying about his relationship to those he left behind what other astounding mind bending truth do you pick up from this passage?

If the Holy Spirits function is to counsel, to guide, to make known Christ plan to us what truth should we be able to pull from that???????

Jesus actual work of transforming the world was left, not in the hands of the Holy Spirit….he is the helper; it was left in the hands of.

(John 17:18) As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

Jesus didn’t really leave us, He ascended in body, but he left us his Holy Spirit!

St. Augustine- “You ascended from before our eyes, and we turned back grieving, only to find you in our hearts!

When Jesus said:

…I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away.

He’s saying: Everything is going to change and nothing is going to change….

1) I’m still going to carry on my sin changing transformation through my Spirit within you

2) I’m still going to continue to transform the world around you, but I won’t be doing it through my physical body I will be doing it through my new spiritual Body.

3) I will live in you and I will continue to present myself to this world through you. The church will be my Body.

If I stayed here you would always use me as a crutch to keep from carrying our my plan through you. The only way I can get you to fully depend on my power to work in transforming ways through you to be a catalyst for change in this world is if I am not physically visible to you. The only way for you to develop faith in me is for you to believe in what you cannot see. Learning to walk by faith and not by sight means that you can’t be dependent on sight.

The Church is an extension of my incarnation…. As God incarnated in human form so my presence in you will become God to this world. They will only turn to me as they see me in you!

This has always been my plan. The Old Testament pointed to my coming like a laser and now I will act as a prism and refract the light of the gospel through thousands of extended points that make up my Body in this world. Those who try to snuff me out will have the effect of someone blowing on a dandelion.

1)You will have the power of heaven at your disposal…it will require that you learn the art of prayer.

2) You will have enormous power over the evil one…it will require that you be completely committed to the guiding of the Holy Spirit.

3) You will be able to take the message to the whole world faster than I myself could ever do it… it will require that you follow my leadership completely.