May 20, 2007 Sermon Synopsis

Jesus’ Witnesses - Scripture: Acts 1:6-11

I have it on good authority that God is left handed. A child told me this one day. I asked him how he knew that God did everything with his left hand. He told me, “The Bible tells us that Jesus is sitting on the right hand of God.”

Thursday, May 17 was Ascension Day; it’s 40 days after Resurrection Day (Easter). It’s the day we remember that Jesus left the disciples to go to heaven. It’s also a day of promise – Jesus will return!

During those 40 days following Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus continued to instruct his followers. He appeared to a number of people. The Apostle Paul tells us he even appeared to a group of more than 500 individuals (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Jesus was all alive; all the words he taught, all the promises he made, must be true.

The scripture passage tells us about Jesus’ last meeting with his disciples. They were on the Mount of Olives.

The disciples were waiting for Jesus to establish God’s Kingdom. After all, Jesus had spoken at length about the Kingdom of God. It is a government that is fair, just, peaceful, good and equally looks after the benefit of all its citizens. We’ll all have enough of everything; there’s no crime, nobody will get sick, and nobody will die. Sounds good to me.

The disciples wanted to know if this was the moment they had all been waiting for. Is this the time when God’s Eternal Kingdom will be established?

What did Jesus tell them?

A. Jesus told them not to worry when he (Christ) will return. (Acts 1:7)

Many people have made predictions about when Jesus would return. Each time the day passed and Jesus didn’t show up. I think we can be pretty confident that Jesus will NOT return then.

One of the most tragic moments in Mennonite history has to do with such a prediction. Melehior Hofmann predicted that Christ would return in 1533, Munster, Germany would be the New Jerusalem. John Leiden and John Matthys let a violent revolution to take Mennonite control of the city. After 18 months of dictator like rule, the Mennonite revolutionaries were defeated and most all of them were killed in the process.

This was a defining moment. Some historians claim that this was a strong lesson for the Mennonite movement to fully learned that the Kingdom of God is not an earthly political movement.

An earthly kingdom cannot stand forever. Archaeologists study the remains of the once great kingdoms of Egypt, China, Persia and Rome. Someday, probably they’ll study the remains of the Kingdom of the USA.

Jesus taught his disciples, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It’s in the world, but it’s not of the world.

On the Mount of Olives, Jesus tells his disciples “Don’t worry about when I will return. Don’t worry when God’s Eternal Kingdom will come in power.” (RSV – Revised Steve’s Version)

The scripture says:
Jesus will return when you least expect it (Matthew 24), like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Nobody knows the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36)

B. Jesus told them not to worry about having the power or the will to do God’s work while we are waiting for the Kingdom to come. The Spirit of God will provide us with everything we need. (Acts 1:8a)

Jesus wants us to know that it’s not our struggle – it’s God’s struggle. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives to provide everything we need to live as Citizens of God’s Kingdom in this world.

I asked the children what happens at their house when they are going to have visitors. At my house we clean it up. There seems to be a relationship with the amount of cleaning and the importance of the visitor, the more important the visitor, the more thorough the cleaning. Jesus is coming back – is there anyone more important in your life than him?

God’s Spirit living in us helps us to get ready for Jesus’ return. We can be sure we’re ready for Jesus to come back.

When we invite Jesus into our lives, God’s Spirit takes up residence in us. Immanuel – “God with us.” Jesus want the disciples to know the God’s Spirit needs to be in control of our lives; we shouldn’t be trying to do things on our own.

C. Jesus wants his disciples to be WITNESSES. (Acts 1:8b)

This is what we should be concerned about! Don’t worry about when Jesus will return. Don’t worry about having what it takes to wait. Be witnesses!

What’s a witness? A witness is someone who tells what they have seen, heard, lived, experienced. If you don’t have Jesus in your life and you haven’t lived the Christian life in this world – you don’t have anything to talk about.

To be a witness means you have experiences with God to tell others about.

Being a witness can be dangerous. I talked about a man in the church who was in the federal witness protection program. There were people out to get him because of what he knew and because of who he might tell.

The powers of evil in this world want to stop us from being witnesses for Jesus. God’s Spirit is with us. It’s the heavenly witness protection program.

How did the disciples respond to Jesus leaving? They stood there staring into the sky. God had to send messengers to tell them, “Don’t just stand there looking into the sky – get busy for God!”

God calls this church, every individual, to be a faithful witness of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to do this so that when Jesus returns, there will be no surprises.

What’s the bottom line?
Are you being a faithful witness for our Lord Jesus Christ?