The Cost of Discipleship

  

Text: Matthew 10:24-39

Focus: discipleship

Function: to assure people of the power of the Holy Spirit in conflict

²⁴ “A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; ²⁵it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

²⁶“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. ²⁷What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. ²⁸Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰And even the hairs of your head are all counted. ³¹So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

³²“Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, ³³but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

³⁵For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
³⁶and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

³⁷“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, ³⁸and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Good morning to all of you, the beloved children of God.

Today, I am going to be dealing with a pretty difficult passage of scripture.

It is a call for us who have experienced God’s healing love through Jesus to live our that love for others instead of merely for ourselves.

He starts the passage talking about the power of criticism. He speaks of how they use name calling to minimize the wonder and power of his work among them. Jesus’ teaching and popularity threatened the way things worked in their society and instead of listening to Jesus and learning from him, they choose their own power and greed and tried to minimize his teaching with these insults.

It is the way of politicians to criticize those who oppose them with name calling. We see it played out to the extreme in our current political climate.

I think one of the saddest things about today’s political discourse is the way some Christians have sunk to the same level. We see it modeled by people we are supposed to revere and we fall back into the world’s ways instead of the way of love.

But we can take heart because Jesus told us to expect criticism for doing things his way instead of the worlds way of selfishness and greed. This passage warns us that there are those who are going to reject what we have to say and the way that we live. More than that, he goes on to talk about exposing the things that are covered up. He tells us to speak truth. He tells us to speak truth to power. Jesus tells us that worldly power is going to oppose what we are teaching as Christians. I guess it is somewhat comforting to know that the Lord understands when we are criticized for living the way we do.

And the comfort gives them the preparation for persecution.

I see Jesus introducing another theme in this passage. I don’t think the audience got it.

He tells them to take up their cross and follow him. This is new because up until then, he hadn’t talked about his cross and his eventual execution for standing up to the powers that be and exposing their greed for what it was.

I wonder how the twelve reacted to this revelation? He tells them to follow him and be like him and expect to be treated like him and then he tells them that they are going to crucify him. And then he tells them to take up their own cross and follow him likewise. I wonder if that scared these twelve special men.

He is giving them the call to discipleship. And he tells them that following him is a serious matter requiring faith, or trust in him.

That is why he tells them not to fear people, but to trust in God whose promise is to provide for us. God cares for us and desires that we walk in this life by faith.

And the faith we have is to work out in our lives this different way of living that Jesus is teaching.

The different way of living is through the promise that God God cares for all the living, especially us who are created in their image.

So, here is the passage so far. Jesus warns us that we are going to face persecution for living the way we are called to live. And then he tells us not to fear people but to rest in the provision of God. God is faithful.

Having said that to the disciples, and then us, since Matthew recorded it for us, he reiterates the command to be bold in the face of opposition.

And I see a formula for that boldness. He said when we confess him before others, we will be confessed into the presence of God.

By promise, God will give us the strength when we are opposed by the world for our values to speak the truth to the powers that refuse loving others and the command to care for them as well as we care for ourselves.

He goes on to tell us that the division between these two ideals is a cultural war that Christ began. I hate to use the word: war. But Jesus describes it as bringing a sword instead of bringing peace to the culture around us.

I read this quote from Thomas Merton: “I have come to think that care of the soul requires a high degree of resistance to the culture around us simply because that culture is dedicated to values that have no concern for the soul.”

This passage opens my eyes to remind me that living for Jesus is something that God is doing in us through the power of the spirit inside of us.

The battle between good and evil, between greed and love, lies right inside of us and Jesus calls us to live out the light of God by the way that we love others.

And he calls us to do it with boldness.

I wrestle with the political divide in this country. The rhetorical tactic of name calling and lying about those who disagree with us is sin. We must not lower ourselves to that level.

But, we must not be silent as well. Jesus calls us to boldness. Our most powerful speech is in our actions and reactions to people who are different from us.

May God give us the grace, love and mercy to follow Christ and welcome the stranger.

Finding the Kingdom

  

Text: Matthew 9:35-10:8

Focus: Kingdom

Function: to help people see that transformation is here and now

³⁵Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

10:¹Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. ²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; ³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, ⁶but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

Good morning to the children of God who are loved and will never be forgotten by God.

I titled the message this morning: “Finding the Kingdom” because the kingdom of God seems to be an elusive idea for us.

The word Gospel means Good News. And the good news, the gospel, according to Jesus is that the Kingdom of God is here and now.

He wasn’t talking about heaven.

I believe that the phrase: “The Kingdom of God” refers to the reign of God in the lives of people.

Jesus spoke often of the kingdom, especially right before he was murdered when Pilate examined him in John 18 and 19.

Jesus informed Pilate that God ultimately places people in power and does so to accomplish God’s purpose on the earth. Jesus told Pilate that Pilate was being used by God to fulfill God’s plan and that the guilt for his sentencing did not lay on Pilate’s account.

Jesus forgives him just as he forgave from the cross. He forgave those who killed him. And that forgiveness is inspired by the Spirit of God bringing God’s reign into our hearts. God’s kingdom in our hearts changes us.

Jesus informed Pilate that he was indeed the king of a spiritual kingdom and that he was sent by God.

Pilate believed him and was afraid to pass sentence, but gave in to the political pressures of the day.

Pilate’s acquiescence to their demands highlights the contrast between the kingdoms of men and the kingdom of God.

Pilate gave in against his own conscience for political expediency. And Jesus, who died for our sins, was actually the victim of a state execution to silence his alternative approach to economics by sharing and caring for people who are suffering instead of merely caring for ourselves. Jesus addresses the problem of greed and scarcity with a message that upset those in power who were getting rich off of the working class’s misery.

They killed him for taking a stand against greed. When I see the billionaires competing to see who can be the first trillionaire, I realize that we are worshiping money in this country. You can’t serve God and money. I realize we need the same kind of prophets today. But instead, our culture honors the uber wealthy as heroes of capitalism while billions of people live in poverty right under their noses and they don’t care.

They killed Jesus for saying this about the wealthy because he exposed their greed.

So, you might be wondering what this has to do with finding the kingdom. Well, these verses in John 18 and 19 describing in detail Jesus’ encounter with Pilate represent to me, a shift on the entire book of John.

On Palm Sunday, the crowd worshiped Jesus we believe because they thought that he would start an effective and miraculous military campaign against Rome and set them free.

And it isn’t really until the 18^th and 19^th chapters of John where according to John, Jesus exposes the true nature of the kingdom of God.

He makes it clear that God’s kingdom reigns in the hearts and minds and spirits and souls of those who trust Jesus.

It is a spiritual transformation that Jesus is bringing to us.

And in today’s passage, where Jesus gives the disciples power to do the same miracles that Jesus was doing, he tells them to proclaim that God’s kingdom is here and now.

God’s kingdom is already here.

When Jesus saved us, he saved us spirit, soul, mind and body. His salvation brings the power of healing through trusting his way of loving others and resting in the fact that God provides for us.

We are the kingdom of God.

And I heard a Brethren preacher foment a different idea based on the actual word: “Kingdom.’

She said, what if we dropped the G and called it the kindom. We are Kin. We are a family of God. We are the children of God and we are connected by the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Christ created everything and permeates everything. Nature, science, the arts, even we ourselves.

There is no where that we can go where we can get away from the presence of Christ.

And Christ wants us to live in a way that brings the Christ’s healing power to the broken world.

In our passage, Jesus gives supernatural power to the apostles and sends them out on a journey to proclaim that God’s Change for human culture is here and now.

And it is the positive, energetic power of God to transform. At this point, the apostles were still pretty green because it was the beginning of the ministry. And Jesus, even though they don’t know what they are doing, anoints them with power to do this short term mission. He is showing them what is possible when they trust Christ.

He is showing them the power or authority they have as members of God’s kingdom. We have the power to change ourselves and our culture.

We are the kingdom, the kindom, the family of God with God’s presence empowering us.

The Power of Mercy

Text: Matthew 9:9-13

Focus: Mercy

Function: To help people give up judging others.

⁹As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

¹⁰And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹²But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Good morning to the beloved children of God.

This morning we are going to look at Jesus’ attitude toward us and toward the people that at times we are tempted to judge.

I believe in the positive, encouraging, enabling and transforming power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We have access to that power at all times, especially since we changed our lives to follow the love and leading of the Spirit.

And that Spirit helps us to overcome the temptation to be less than loving towards others.

What I am saying is that I don’t like to focus on the negative, the sin that is sometimes prevalent in our lives because as we are living by faith and trusting that loving others, sometimes sacrificially, leads us to the place where God can use us to bring about the beloved community that Jesus preached.

And I find a lesson in this account from scripture about the calling of Matthew the tax collector.

Of the 4 gospels, only 2 were written by the apostles, Matthew and John.

All of the other books of the New Testament are written in Greek, the trade language of the Roman empire, except for Matthew, which was written in the language that Jesus actually spoke and then was translated into Greek.

Matthew was very familiar with the Jewish religion and customs.

And that makes him interesting because he was a tax collector. Tax collectors were generally hated by the Jewish population for two reasons. The first being that the Israel was occupied by the Romans who taxed them heavily so that maintain their domination over them. The people were suffering in slave like conditions. So, the Tax collectors were seen as collaborators with the occupying force. They were the reason why the people were miserable.

And then it got worse. The Tax collectors skimmed off the top of the revenue collected, so they collected even more than required and there wasn’t anything the people could do to resist.

Therefore, Tax collectors were set apart and hated by society.

And Jesus offends the crowd by sitting down at dinner with a group of them.

In the context of that hatred, Jesus comes along preaching righteousness. But the righteousness that Jesus preaches is different than the code of ethics that the religion dominating the land provided.

In the midst of their poverty and limited resources, Jesus comes along and teaches them to in faith share from their limited supply because God is the one who provides for them. They are called to rest in the love and provision of God in the midst of their struggles. We rest in God who provides for us.

I have seen that happen in Tijuana Mexico with Bittersweet ministry. It is a mission that helps displaced women with families by doing exactly what Jesus taught. The women live by gleaning recyclables off of the city dump site. So Bittersweet joined with a day care for the children while the women work the mountain of trash. The women take turns working and scavenging and share what they glean in common. It as what Jesus taught.

And this new teaching was powerful and it connected with the common people. It gave them hope.

But generosity with mercy is as important as generosity with resources.

When we live by faith we trust God to care for and lead others out of their own issues. It isn’t our place to judge others.

Jesus eats with the tax collectors who represent the epitome of the suffering that the Jewish people are experiencing. And in so doing he shows us the power of mercy.

I will jump to what is perhaps a familiar story from the NT. Jesus and Zacchaeus, another tax collector. This is when Jesus was famous and before the authorities tried to silence him. He enjoyed a huge public presence with crowds pressing in to see him. Zacchaeus a short man climbed a tree to see. And Jesus notices him and asks him feed Jesus.

Jesus asks him to serve Jesus. Jesus places himself at the mercy of Zacchaeus.

And Zacchaeus responds by changing his wicked ways and offering restoration of what he stole.

Jesus takes this sinner and asks him to serve Jesus while he is still a sinner.

Jesus asks him to be part of the movement before the man has a change of heart.

It is the request and the confidence placed in him without judgment, an act of mercy, that transforms the tax collector.

Before, I have mentioned Bittersweet ministry and Gilbert Romero’s conversion.

It is a modern day example of how mercy transforms.

Gilbert didn’t have any interest in Jesus when he met the granddaughter of a Brethren preacher in the Watts district of LA. He asked her out and she said, “Only if you come to church and meet my grandpa.”

When he did, she told grandpa that he was a musician. She didn’t mention that he was selling dope. Now Gilbert is an accomplished musician and has a very good band which we will hear at Annual Conference this year since he is on the ballot for moderator elect.

And Grandpa, hearing that he was a musician asked him to lead music in worship.

Just like Zacchaeus who didn’t know God, God reached out to him and used him with the Spirit and Gilbert was hooked on Jesus.

You see, when we give mercy, it is the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us to lead and call people into this place where they can know God and be healed by the Spirit.

 

Let us give up judgment for mercy.

Going With God

  

Text: Matthew 28:16-20

Focus: discipleship

Function: to remind us that God is always with us when we move forward.

⁶Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Good morning to you, children and disciples of the loving and living God!

Two weeks ago we looked at the ascension of Jesus and the promise given that we would be filled with the Spirit. Last week, we looked at the coming of the Spirit and what how the Spirit empowers us to serve Christ. This week follows the theme with the reason why we let the Spirit move in our lives: A command from Christ to “Go.”

Being raised in the Missionary Church. I grew up with this passage, it was one of the first passages of scripture that I was encouraged to memorize as a child.

We called it the marching orders for the church and it is officially known by theologians as “The Great Commission.”

We ar e commissioned by Christ to make disciples of Christ by teaching them Jesus’ teachings.

I don’t know if you notice, but most of the time, I like to focus on the gospel passage in the Lectionary text because of this verse and the command to teach what Jesus taught.

The focus of discipleship is Jesus’ teachings, not Patriotism or Christian Nationalism. There is a contrast to the teaching of Christ and a lot of what we hear being proclaimed as Christian values by politicians.

Jesus’ values are to love the stranger and welcome them or else risk losing our heavenly reward. Jesus values are to encourage the downtrodden and lift them up by sharing mercy and resources with them so that everyone can survive instead of merely watching out for one’s own self.

So when Jesus said: A new commandment I give you: Love one another, I find that it is important for me to remind myself and us of this truth since we live in a culture that mocks empathy as weakness.

I want to focus on Jesus here.

And, true to my upbringing, we also are given the command to be willing to go.

I wonder what it means for us to “Go.” Is he speaking of going elsewhere and leaving home and family? Paul speaks later of how impractical it is when everyone quits working to preach the gospel since the community then had no source of income, so I don’t think he means we are to leave.

So where do we go? I believe we step out of our comfort zone to love in ways with which we are not comfortable.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost and has given to us the directive to join him in this mission. Jesus referred to it as taking up our own cross, a symbol of a willingness by us to put ourselves at risk to be a part of the healing of this world that the gospel message brings.

It happens when God’s people step out in risk.

It can be a risk to get involved with the messiness of life that some people get into when they need love and care for difficult situations.

So Jesus gives to us the assurance that Jesus will never leave us in this process. This teaching from Jesus is also right before the ascension into heaven that we looked at two weeks ago. It was another promise about the coming of the Spirit and it told them what to do with the power of the Spirit that Jesus has given to us. Since the promise was given to all generations to follow, it means that the command to go and teach Jesus’ principles to the world fall on us as well.

But in 40 years of ministry, I have preached this passage several times and I never noticed a line in there until today. It is a line that I also noticed a few times during lent and Easter. The line is “some doubted.”

It is important to remember that Jesus’s physical appearance after the resurrection was different. We know that because people didn’t recognize him initially. Mary thought he was the gardener. The men on the road to Emmaus thought him to be a clueless stranger; Thomas needed to see the wounds.

I believe that Matthew includes these words “Some doubted” to remind us of the difference made when the Holy Spirit came into the crowd on the day of Pentecost.

After Pentecost, we see a different kind of boldness in the disciples. You can read the wonders of what happened in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

Now, I preach that since salvation is a completed work for all humanity through the cross of Christ, the Spirit of Christ is present inside of every single human. Even the most evil person in history we can think of has or had access to Christ’s spirit.

Those like us, who are called Christians, are those who are trusting in the teaching of Christ and are seeking the filling and the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

And I find comfort from God through this passage. The promise the Christ is with us is reassuring. The fact that the disciples were as human as me and had their own times of doubt reminds me of my own need to keep my connection to God active through prayer and meditation so that I too can be filled with the Spirit of Christ.

It isn’t that we have to work for it to be filled with the Spirit. I don’t mean that we have to pray harder to get the Spirit. What I am saying is that we need to place ourselves in a position whereby we can ignore the clutter distractions this world offers our vanity and focus on the love that God has to give the world through us.

I do that by focusing on the command to love and reminding myself that everyone is loved by our God.

For the Common Good

  

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:4-13

Focus: Pentecost

Function: To encourage us to use our gifts

⁴Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, ⁵and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

¹²For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Good morning to the beloved children of the loving and living God who created us to bless us.

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the Church.

We looked last week at the ascension of Jesus and his command for them to wait in Jerusalem for the coming Spirit.

It happened on the day of Pentecost, 49 days after Easter. During the event, while they were together in unity praying, a mighty sound like rushing wind was heard and tongues of fire descended from heaven and landed on them and they began sharing the gospel in the languages of the people who were visiting Jerusalem for the Pentecost celebration.

According to Acts 2, the noise was significant and the crowd became quite large and many people decided to trust in the work of Christ to heal and restore them back to God.

And the miracle became the birthday of the Church.

This was the disciples second encounter with the Spirit. This time they were filled with God’s love and power.

Their first encounter with the Spirit was right before Jesus ascended into heaven. In the book of John, we read that Jesus breathed on them the Holy Spirit and gave them power to forgive sins. I believe that we all have the Spirit now that Jesus said “It is finished” from the cross. All of humanity was forgiven.

But this time, although they had the Spirit, this time they were “filled up.” Pentecostals call it the baptism in the spirit. In a special way God did mighty miracles through them with this filling of the Spirit.

I am not seeking for us to become a group of people who depend on miracles to prove our faith. Our faith is deeply felt, a matter of the heart and it is inspired by the moving of the Spirit when we gather in worship, or spend our own personal time in prayer and meditation. The scripture calls it a still small voice inside of us.

But God used miracles to birth the church.

We love God and are grateful for restoration. Because of that, we want more of God, to be filled with God.

Being filled with the Spirit is God’s action. Not ours. Remember, it is God who calls us to prayer and then we respond. God initiates it. Prayer isn’t always a formal time with an “Amen” at the end, but it is simply a thought or a wish, or a hope, or a blessing, or a concern that is sent upward in our thoughts for God to consider and act of God so chooses. Sometimes prayer is walking with God, almost in conversation with God.

But although we find God in that way through our still small voices calling out to God, that doesn’t mean that at times God doesn’t or didn’t do spectacular things to demonstrate their love for humanity.

So let us look at our text for today.

Paul talks of the moving of the Spirit with these specific abilities or callings or passions that are given to us by the leading of the Spirit.

I am convinced that we here at Painter Creek are being led by God to be the blessing that God wants us to be.

So what does that mean for us?

Use your gifts, when you use them, you connect with God and you bring God closer to ALL OF US.

This list of gifts that Brother Paul gives us is known as the Charis gifts. The Charismatic movement was born out of that phrase. The Charis gifts are the showy gifts, or the ones that are used by God get the attention of people in a miraculous way. For example, in chapter 14 he talks of how the gift of prophecy can exposes a persons need for God’s healing in Christ.

There are other lists of spiritual gifts, activities and services that I see more evident here at Painter Creek. I believe we have seen miraculous answers to prayer here, I wonder if someone has the gift of faith and they don’t know it. It is the kind of gift that people don’t know they have, it just shows up in times of crisis. They are people who believe in the power of prayer.

I believe that Art, music and poetry are a forms of the gift of prophecy because they are inspired by the Spirit of God and they convey a truth that is appropriate for the moment.

The Church of the Brethren has always been about the service we can give for others. We practice a different way of living. We refuse to be greedy and hoard and we share mercy as well as resources with the least of these. Paul calls service a spiritual power.

Many of us are filled with the gift of helps. We feel inspired when we do service for others. It is the Spirit moving inside of us leading us to more and more love for others and giving us a reward for obedience to Christ.

I have touched on a few of the gifts and services we see here at Painter Creek.

I can’t end there because the rest of the chapter encourages us to let the Spirit move in us by telling us how we all suffer when we don’t to use our gifts and services for God.

He gives the analogy of a body in a rather humorous way. He points out that at times we may or may not feel needed or important. But the body can’t walk unless the feet move. The body can’t see unless the eyes work, or hear unless the ears function. You get the point. You are needed. And, God has given you gifts and talents to use, so be faithful and follow Christ with your talents.

And his point is that God has supplied the needs of the Church through the members of the Church. When everyone is doing their part, for the common good, God moves in mighty ways.

You Are Witnesses

  

Text: Luke 24:44-53

Focus: ascension

Function: to remember the promises.

⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

⁵⁰Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. ⁵¹While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. ⁵²And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, ⁵³and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Good morning to the beloved children of God. We live in a faith, with a God who describes their own self as Love and us as the children of the loving Father. Praise God! I want us to dwell on this truth because Romans 8 says that nothing can separate us from the Love of God.

Today we celebrate the ascension of Jesus.

Jesus dying, then coming back to life and then leaving again could have been a traumatic event, but the promises that Jesus made right before he ascended are relevant for us today and we will take some time to look at them.

The first promise is how the Holy Spirit will open our minds to understand the scripture.

After the Spirit came, we began to understand passages in the Old Testament that talked about a victorious leader who also was a suffering servant.

They could not reconcile those two different realities in their own mind. But the Spirit shows us the deep meaning behind the scriptures given to us.

They didn’t understand that God’s plan for humanity came through the agency of the suffering of the Christ.

Upon the Cross, Jesus forgave his murderers.

He showed them a different way of reacting. He showed them love and forgiveness.

The disciples understood that God’s kingdom resides in the heart of people and is not political. It is spiritual and it changes them into kinder and more loving people.

If love has not filled us and changed us, we are not listening to the leading of God’s Spirit inside of us.

The second promise he gives us the promise of the power from on high.

I don’t want to get premature with the celebration of Pentecost next week where we see how the coming of the Spirit affects the body of Christ.

Remember, I introduced the sermon with the thought that the disciples should have been concerned that Jesus was leaving them. But instead, the text says that they left the place rejoicing in what had happened.

That was a move of God to comfort them in the time of their loss.

And it came with the hope of a promise.

They were instructed to wait for the Spirit to come. Luke records it again in the book of Acts exactly the same way except he narrows down the place of ascension to the Mount of Olives with sat on the South side of the town of Bethany.

The promise given was that we will somehow have the ability to accomplish this monumental task of loving others as well as we love ourselves.

The promises of the Ascension are Understanding and the Spirit.

Then there is a call in the text.

That leads me to a transition. Many bibles include headings above groups of verses that describe the text so that people can find stuff easier. And almost every translation calls this passage; “The Ascension” because Jesus goes to heaven in the passage.

But Eugene Peterson, in his translation calls the passage “Witnesses.” And that is significant because the apostles were given the call to spread these truths to others.

We are witnesses for Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:27 says that we are the body of Christ, so we can’t be anything else. When we let the Spirit of God take control and we give in to the command to lay down our selfishness, ego and fear -three things that keep us from loving sacrificially- then Christ works through us to heal the world we are in with grace and mercy.

Without being negative, let us look at those three distractions, or obstacles, as we tell the men in prison at Kairos.

Selfishness is greedy living where we hoard what we can. We can hoard mercy and only give it to people who look and think like us. We can love only our own family, our own race, our own country, our own team and not care for the needs of others. God calls us to witness God’s love to the world entire.

Selfishness applies to money. I know people who still believe that they are measured by the money they have made. I believe we should be like Dolly Parton and be measured by the money we give away. Trust God to provide.

Then there is ego. Ego can cause an unwillingness to change course or belief when God shows us a better way by the Spirit.

One of the biggest areas that I personally contend with in dealing with my ego is forgiveness. I have to set aside my ego and lay down my pride to forgive someone who has harmed me when I know I am in the one who is right.

And finally we look at fear. Fear can control us.

Fear is not living by faith. Remember, God promises to provide. God called me to fight racism early in my life. And I used to allow myself to hate racists. Hatred of anyone is sin because even racists have access to Christ’s Spirit inside of them.

Then I realized that most prejudice comes from fear. I hate to say it but the majority of early TV programming trained me to fear black people.

And when we allow faith to flourish, fear dissipates and along with it, the prejudices that fear enhances.

For me, Christian discipline contains letting the Spirit reign in my heart because the Spirit fights those influences of fear, ego and selfishness.

Let the Spirit lead you in life. Jesus promised it right before he left us and the Spirit is here today. Praise God!

Peterson calls the passage “witnesses”

He left blessing them.

The holy Spirit makes us understand