'The Ascension and Promise (Acts 1)'.

We have told the story of Jesus and then we went back and told the story from creation to the conquest of Canaan. We're now going to jump ahead to the story of the early church from the Book of Acts.  

Background Story: God called Abraham promising him a homeland and multiple descendants to bless the world. Abraham’s descendants multiplied in Egypt but were enslaved. They cry out and God called Moses to deliver them from Egyptian slavery. God bound Himself to Israel in covenant at Sinai forming them into a ‘kingdom of priests and a holy nation’. They begin to take possession of their land under Joshua but the chaotic period of the Judges showed that they would need a king to be a ‘light to the nations’. God found in David a king after His own heart and He promised David a ‘perpetual kingship’ over God’s people. David made plans, but David’s son, Solomon, built the Jerusalem Temple as a more permanent place for God to dwell among His people. But Solomon took many foreign wives which introduced an idolatry that split the nation. The ‘Northern kingdom’ would be scattered by the Assyrians and the ‘Southern Kingdom’ was later carried into ‘Exile in Babylon for 70 years’. The Persians, who conquered the Babylonians, allowed the Jews to return to their land. The temple was rebuilt but things fell desperately short of the ‘glories of the prophesied coming kingdom’. So Israel remained dominated by various Pagan empires. The OT ends with God’s people waiting for a ‘conquering king’ to come and restore the kingdom.  

Into this story Jesus was announced by John the Baptist. At his baptism Jesus was ‘anointed by the Spirit’ and declared to be God’s son (Luke 3:22). Jesus was then led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he overcame the temptations of the Devil, after which Jesus went around proclaiming the ‘Kingdom of God’ and ‘casting out demons by the Spirit of God evidencing that the ‘Kingdom had come’. Jesus formed a ‘new people (12)’ around himself and once his disciples recognized his Messianic identity he made his way to Jerusalem where he was enthroned as ‘KING of the JEWS’ on a cross. He looked like a false Messiah defeated by the Romans, but three days later Jesus was ‘declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead’ (Romans 1:4). This brings us to the ‘Story of the Ascension’ from Acts 1. Watch the story being told and read the comments below.

ACTS 1:1–26.        If Luke’s gospel is the story of what Jesus began to ‘do and teach’ then the Book of Acts is the story of ‘what Jesus continued to do and to teach’. Acts is the sequel to Luke’s gospel and it is based on the resurrection. If there was no resurrection then there would be no continuation to the ‘Jesus Story’ and no hope of transformation. But after dying on a Roman cross Jesus gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He also taught his disciples about the ‘kingdom of God’ over a forty day period. Both the resurrection of Jesus and his teaching regarding the ‘kingdom of God’ were central and essential. Now the next step for the disciples was to wait for the promised Holy Spirit. John had baptized with water in preparation for the Messiah (Luke 3:16) but they would be baptized with the Spirit who would empower them to testify about the resurrected Messiah (Acts 1:1-5).

The disciples wanted to know when Jesus was going to restore the kingdom to Israel. But they were not to know the ‘dates and times’. They needed to know that the Spirit would empower them to testify about Jesus throughout all the earth. The disciples, like many Jews of that day, believed that the Messiah would restore Israel as top nation (Psalm 72, 89) and bring God’s judgement on the rest of the world. But their concept of the kingdom of God needed to be transformed. Then Jesus was taken up into the sky and hidden from their sight by a cloud. They stood gazing into the sky when two ‘men in white’ said that Jesus would return in a similar fashion as he was taken up into heaven. King Jesus had ascended to be enthroned in heaven and the next big thing was that the Spirit would be poured out to transform the world. The ‘Story of Jesus’ would continue by the Spirit-filled Church making known by ‘word and deed’ that Messiah Jesus was the world’s true Lord.

After Jesus’ ascension into heaven the disciples returned to where they were staying in Jerusalem. There they gathered together constantly for prayer. Peter stood among the 120 believers and said that the words of scripture that the Holy Spirit spoke through David had to be fulfilled regarding Judas. Judas had shared in their ministry but he accepted money for guiding those who arrested Jesus. Judas bought a field with the money he received for betraying Jesus where he fell headlong and his body burst spilling his intestines (Acts 1:12-20). Peter understood through what was written in the Psalms, that another would have to take Judas’ place of leadership (Ps 69:25, 109:8).

The twelve apostles chosen by Jesus correlate to the twelve tribes of Israel. The twelve represent the restored people of God. So Peter reasoned from scripture that they would need to replace Judas and a twelfth would need to be selected as his successor. It would need to be someone who had been with them from Jesus’ baptism until the ascension of Jesus into heaven. This shows that these early Christians saw Jesus and themselves as Jesus’ disciples to the continuation of the kingdom and through them the ‘Jesus Story’ would continue. But how could such a motley crew play such an important role? They would do this through the Spirit of God dwelling with them and within them.

So they decided to replace Judas to be one of the twelve and to share in their apostolic ministry. He would need to someone that had been with them from Jesus’ baptism to the time Jesus ascended. Together they would be witnesses that Jesus was the resurrected Messiah who had ascended into heaven. They selected Joseph, called Barsabbas, and Matthias and they prayed that the Lord would reveal the one He had selected. Then they caste lots and Matthias was selected to join the eleven apostles. But how could they be sure of the Lord’s leading as they sought to do the Lord’s will? They were led by the Apostles who were directed by the scriptures and prayer within the context of the community of believers. They gathered in constant prayer and they sought the Lord’s guidance and they acted as informed by the scriptures (Acts 1:20-26).

Despite their flaws, they could be sure that God was directing them, after all even the selection of Judas was part of God’s sovereign plan. Soon, they would have an even greater sense of the presence of the Lord with them to empower them to do God’s will when the Spirit was poured out on them. The resurrected Jesus ascended but the Spirit would be poured out so that the ascended Lord would dwell among them by the Spirit (Revelation 1). They had anticipated Jesus reigning from a throne in Jerusalem but Jesus would now reign from God’s right hand over all creation. The resurrection proved that Jesus was Israel’s true messianic king but the ascension meant that same Jesus was Lord of all the earth. Jesus would empower them by the Holy Spirit so through the Spirit-filled Church Jesus’ Story would continue.