Forty days. That’s about six weeks. Tuesday, March 2 was 40 days ago from today. Do you remember where you were? What you were doing? How well do you remember what’s happened between now and then?

     Scripture is full of 40-day periods: Noah saw it rain for 40 days and 40 nights and flood the entire surface of the earth. Moses was on the mountain with God for 40 days. Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days before being tempted.

     As the book of Acts begins, the apostles are reaching the end of a 40-day period they will never forget. In just a little more than a month, they had seen Christ betrayed and murdered, fled into hiding, witnessed the miraculous resurrection of Christ, and then seen Him appear to them and others many times. Now they are faced with His departure, and they are wondering, where do we go from here? What’s next?

      In other words, they are asking Jesus: “So what?” Yes, we have seen you crucified and believe that you have been resurrected from the dead. But “so what?” What does it all mean? How does it affect our lives? What happens now?

      In one sense, “so what?” is one of the most important questions we ever ask about anything. It’s great to learn new things, to find out previously undiscovered truths, but if they have no relevance or significance to our lives, they don’t really matter. We have to seek to understand what any particular truth means for us. Saying that Jesus died and was resurrected is true, and there are people who believe it from a historical or even doctrinal standpoint. But unless you know what it means to say that Jesus died for you and what His resurrection means for you, then they haven’t registered in any sort of meaningful way in your life. No one is saved by their knowledge of Christ, they are saved by Christ. That is a very critical distinction.

      Today’s passage is going to teach us three things about Christ, but the point isn’t just to increase our knowledge or hold a review session of what we already know. Instead, the point is to say “so what? How do these things matter? What difference do these truths have for me when I get up and walk out that door in a few moments?”

      If we don’t answer that question, then all we have is a puffed up sense of knowledge. Of course, the Bible’s view of knowledge isn’t simply information, but right living based on that truth. We have imagined a separation between ‘biblical theology’ and ‘practical application’ but the Bible knows no such divide. Right belief always results in right behavior, and you can’t have one without the other. Proper doctrine that has no action attached to it is dead, as are moralistic works apart from faith in Christ.

      So our goal this morning is to uncover instruction from God’s Word concerning both belief and behavior. We want to see what the text says and lay out what it means, but then we also want to go deeper than the surface and figure out why it matters beyond a purely historical or informational standpoint.

      The first thing that we see from Acts 1:1-3 is the fact that:

1. Christ is ALIVE [1:1-3]

1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

      The single greatest truth in the universe is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without it, none of God’s promises can be considered true, and even the character of God is called into question since He claimed that Christ would in fact be raised. From a salvation standpoint, if Christ is not raised, our faith in futile and we are still dead in our sins. (For a fuller treatment of this important doctrine, please see 1 Corinthians 15.)

      Why is the resurrection so important? Because it teaches us that God has provided a means of salvation for His people. The resurrection shows that Christ’s sacrificial offering of His blood was accepted by God, who then raised Him from the dead and exalted Him to the highest place, the right hand of His throne, and gave Him the name above every name: Lord.

      The resurrection also shows us that death has been defeated forever. Christ died a very real, very horrible, very fatal death. He was dead. But now He is alive! And He will never die again. Death has been crushed, disarmed forever. All that physical death can do to us now is take us directly into God’s presence. And then we still have the promise of a resurrection body—just like Christ’s.

      And make no mistake: Christ has a resurrected body. Did you notice that Luke reminds us that Jesus presented Himself to be alive by many proofs? We know from Scripture what some of these proofs were: He invited the apostles to touch His wounds, proving that He had a physical body. He ate breakfast with His apostles, not something a disembodied spirit would have any need for.

      Certainly His resurrection body was different than before. He was able to walk through locked doors, and He was able to pass through His graveclothes, leaving them undisturbed for the apostles to find on that early Sunday morning. People seemed unable to recognize Him immediately, but once He allowed them to, they had no doubt that it was Jesus, the risen Lord.

      One thing that wasn’t different, however, was the fact that He had a body. That’s the point Luke is emphasizing here in Acts: Jesus proved that He was still a physical body through many acts and appearings to His people. We know from other parts of the Bible that He appeared to some of the apostles individually, that He also appeared to around 500 people at one time, and that He touched, walked, talked, and ate with them.

      So what? Why do we care that Jesus has a body? Would it matter if He was just a spirit? Well, to put it bluntly, if Jesus is just a spirit, we should all get up and go home right now because this is a waste of time. We should “eat, drink, and be merry” and then die, because that’s all there is.

      But if Christ is alive—bodily alive—then we have an entirely different truth about reality and an entirely different perspective on this life.

      See, if Christ has risen and if His words are true, then we too will one day be risen. In that day, we will receive a body that will be free from disease, free from death, free from heartache and misery. We will enjoy an eternal life free from suffering and pain and tragedy and confusion and despair.

      Why does that matter? How can it help now? Because in this life we do have disease, death, heartache, misery, suffering, pain, tragedy, confusion, and despair. These things seem to always be around us, either chipping away in small pieces or striking with a furious onslaught, but always present in our lives.

      The reason that Christ being bodily resurrected and alive matters to me in this very moment is seen in the fact that I have a life that often seems to be defined by the effects of sin and the curse of death. What Jesus’ resurrection tells me is that, while this pain is real, it is also temporary. Things are bad, and will perhaps get worse, but they won’t last one moment past my final breath.

      If my life gets worse every day; if every new morning is darker and more tragic than the one before, and if I live for another 50 years with daily increasing pain and suffering, what is that compared to eternity? My troubles will always be with me in this life, but then they will be with me no longer. One day they will end, and when they do, they will end forever. Our suffering may be intense and long and difficult here—just as Christ’s was—but when it ends, it ends for all time.

      If we don’t really get the resurrection of Christ, we’ll be tempted to let our circumstances influence us too greatly. Don’t misunderstand me: trusting in the resurrection doesn’t mean ignoring your pain or pretending like you don’t suffer. False optimism helps no one. But what trusting Christ’s resurrection means is that although your pain is real and your suffering hurts—sometimes very deeply and profoundly—it won’t have the final word. Pain won’t win. Suffering won’t destroy us. It’s exactly what Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 4:

8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; … 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence…16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

       The things that are seen and felt in this life can be painful. They can afflict us and perplex us, and strike us down. But they are temporary. To paraphrase Justin Martyr: Even if they kill us, they can’t really do us any harm. Why not? Simply put: because Christ is alive. There is eternal glory waiting for us. I can endure whatever this day brings, not because of my strength, but because of what Christ has done. He is risen and, if I share in His death, I will certainly share in His life. Troubles may come now, but they will end, and when they do, they will end forever.

      Christ is alive! Let that sink deep into your hearts this morning, and let it take root. The truth of the bodily resurrection of Christ is the only thing that will be able to sustain you when troubles come, so don’t be quick to get away from it. Think on it, dwell on it, pray on it, and ask God to use it to strengthen your heart for the days ahead.

      Turning again to the text at hand, the second thing we can learn from Acts 1 is that: 

2. Christ has ASCENDED [1:4-9]

4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

      A natural question to ask when we read this passage is “why did Jesus leave?” We know that Christ had the ability to perform many miracles and healings while on earth, and there were certainly many more opportunities for Him to do good here. So why didn’t He stay? Scripture tells us that Christ left for our good, that we might receive Holy Spirit. As both fully God and fully man, Christ could offer comfort to those around Him, but His body was limited in some of the ways our bodies are.

      Of course, we have to be very careful to use the word limited whenever we speak of God. But we understand that Christ’s condescension to humanity involved a voluntary setting aside of His glory and a willful denial of some of His Divine attributes. After taking the form of man, Christ had to eat and sleep like we do. He certainly possessed abilities that we don’t have, but He was fully man. He did not cheat by only pretending to be human; He genuinely was. And, in that respect, He self-imposed some limitations on Himself, one of those being that Jesus was only in one physical place at any given time. Because of this, and because the resurrected Christ is still in bodily form, He remains somewhat bound by these limitations.

      More importantly, the coming of the Holy Spirit was necessary to fulfill what God has prophesied hundreds of years earlier in Ezekiel and Joel: the hearts of His people would be changed from the inside out and His Spirit was come as a confirmation of this new covenant being enacted.

      So that is why Jesus left. Christ went in order for the Holy Spirit to come; the same Spirit that indwelt Him now lives in the hearts of His people. And this Holy Spirit, whom Jesus often refers to as the Helper, is going to do many things for His people. He is going to teach us new things, remind us of the things we have already learned, convict us concerning sin and judgment, and intercede for us in prayer (see John 15-17, Romans 8).

      So Jesus is going to return to heaven, and when He does, He has promised that the Father will then send the Holy Spirit to His people. But before He leaves, the disciples have one additional question for Him: are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?

      The apostles figured that Christ’s resurrection meant that it was the end of human history, that Jesus would establish His forever kingdom and once-for-all restore the heavens and earth. What they didn’t understand was what Paul would later call the mystery of the Gospel—that the message of salvation through Christ would first go to the very ends of the earth, to both Jew and Gentile.

      So Jesus tells the apostles that they will receive power, but not power to topple the Roman Empire or earthly foes. Instead, they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit to topple demonic forces by boldly proclaiming the truth of Christ to all nations, even at the cost of their own lives.

      When we think of the “so what?” question concerning this truth, we find ourselves on the receiving end of the same instruction Jesus gave His first apostles: the final inauguration of God’s kingdom is His business. We know that it is coming, and that is all we need to know.

      In the meantime, there are other things believers are to do: we are, by the very nature of our redemption, now His ambassadors. We have been given the ministry of reconciliation, and we plead with others to be made right with God through Christ. We do this both through our lips and through our lives (see Matthew 5:13-16, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 2:11-14, etc.)

      This means that sharing our faith, for example, isn’t optional. It’s a command of God. You know, you’ll often hear Christians make so many excuses for why they fail to do this: it’s not my spiritual gift; it’s not something I’m comfortable with; I wouldn’t know what to say, and so on.

      Have you ever noticed that you don’t see any of this sort of thing from the apostles? After Pentecost, you never hear them shy away from proclaiming the Gospel. In fact, you see them boldly going forth in the power of the Spirit to speak the Word in any and all places to any and all people. They had none of the trepidation that so often plagues our attempts at evangelism.

      And don’t think for one moment that the apostles were able to do this because of some special education they had received. Most of them were tradesmen, remember? They weren’t bold because of their skill or speech, but because of the Spirit within them.

      Remember that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. So as the Spirit empowers His people to share the Gospel, Christ is doing what He promised: He is building His Church (see Matthew 16:18). Through the transformed lives of His people, God makes His appeal to others: be reconciled to God through Christ.

      The way Acts ends, with Paul in Roman custody and awaiting death might lead us to think that the advance of the Gospel was about to come to a halt. But look again at what Luke says: “…[he] welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” [Acts 28:30-31]

      Paul, stuck in Rome, awaiting his death at the hands of the executioner, basically on death row for two years, welcomed all who came to him and shared the gospel will all boldness and without hindrance. His refusal to let his environment dictate his obedience to Christ’s command puts our feeble excuses to shame. In fact, Paul ignored any obstacle in his way for the sake of the gospel. Rejection? Hatred? Imprisonment? False accusations? Beating? Death threats? None of that shut him up.

      Compare that with most of us, who remain silent just because of the possibility of those things. For Paul they were reality—but there was a greater reality: the risen and ascended Christ. Paul absolutely knew that his Lord and Savior was seated at the right hand of the Father, and that the Lord’s Spirit was within his own heart, giving him both the commission to proclaim the truth and the courage to fulfill it.

      Paul was staring his own death in the face, and even then was unwilling to be silenced. He would rather preach Christ and die than stay quiet and live. We look at that and think “what an amazing faith!” and it is, but it is the exact same faith we are called to express, for we have the exact same Spirit that empowered Paul.

      But for most of us, martyrdom isn’t even a practical fear. It’s not even a possibility, because no one outside of these walls even knows that we are identified with Christ! Friends, Christ has ascended, and He has sent His Spirit to live inside those who are His. This isn’t because the Spirit needed a place to stay, it’s because we need the Spirit to do what the Lord has commanded us to do.

      Where is Christ today? He isn’t in the tomb, that much is certain. And He isn’t here on earth, either. No, He has ascended and in doing so, He sent the Holy Spirit to be the Comforter and Helper that we need in order to do the good works He prepared for us beforehand. If you truly believe that Christ has ascended, then you also believe that His Spirit is within you, and if that is true, then there is work you must be doing.

      So Christ is alive, and because of that we have hope. And Christ has ascended, and because of that we have help. Finally, this morning, we can learn from Acts 1 that:

3. Christ will come AGAIN [1:10-12]

10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.

      There are some things in Scripture that remain mysterious, like the appointed time for Christ’s return. But there are other things that are emphatically clear, such as the fact that Christ will come again. The day and hour are not known to us, but the testimony of God’s Word is powerfully clear on this matter: He will return.

      Again, this is an issue of trusting God. If He is truthful and trustworthy, as He has proven Himself to be, then we can be certain of Christ’s return. If we doubt that Jesus will come again, then we will inevitably doubt every word of God. And if He is lying to us about Christ’s return, then we should doubt everything else. One who lies on some things could just as easily lie about all things. But God does not lie. Christ will return.

      But what we must notice this morning is not only that He will come again, but notice that the angelic messengers in Acts 1 tell us that He will return “in the same way” He went. Well, what does that mean? To answer that, we must take a closer look at how He went, for that will hold the key to understanding how He will return.

      We see that Jesus is caught up in a cloud as He ascends to the Father’s side. Elsewhere in Scripture a cloud is often associated with a manifestation of God's presence—the glory of God. God’s glory can also appear as a bright light, or fire, or combination of any of these elements. We see examples of this in: burning Bush / Egypt / Wilderness / Mt. Sinai (Exodus 1-20); Tabernacle / Temple (Exodus 40) ; shepherds in the field (Luke 2); transfiguration (Luke 9:28–36); Heaven, no need for sun/moon (Revelation 21).

      And there are more examples, but you get the idea clearly enough: God’s glory is pure, radiant light, which is often manifested behind clouds. Why? Because the true radiance of His glory is too much for sinful humanity to take. Remember, the glory of God was hidden in a dark cloud on Mt. Sinai. And Moses, who was invited onto that mountain by God, was only allowed to see the trail end of God’s glory. Even then, Moses had to wear a veil over his face afterwards because it shone so brightly.

      When the High Priest went into the Most Holy Place each year on the Day of Atonement, he first had to burn incense to form a cloud of smoke that would prevent him from seeing the full glory of God hovering over the Ark of the Covenant.

      So when we read in Acts that Jesus was caught up in a cloud, we have to keep in mind that this was not an ordinary rain cloud but the cloud of glory that surrounds the very presence of God. Jesus, who the author of Hebrews reminds us is “the radiance of the glory of God” [Hebrews 1:4], is surrounded by the cloud. Just like the pillar that led the Israelites out of Egypt; just like the shekinah glory that filled the temple. His ascension was a profound demonstration of Jesus’ deity.

      We must also point out that there is also something significant in Scripture about Mount Olivet (or the Mount of Olives). It was a mountain located to the east of Jerusalem. From it, you would have a clear view of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. We first see the Mount of Olives mentioned in 2 Samuel 15, when David goes up to the mountain during a time of turmoil and conspiracy against him and his kingship. But the author of 2 Samuel tells us that God was worshipped on the summit of that mountain (see 2 Samuel 15:32) so it already had an important meaning for God’s people.

      Hundreds of years after the time of David, God gave the prophet Ezekiel a vision. In it, he showed Ezekiel how the people of Israel had profaned the Temple with idols. The Temple was the chosen dwelling place of God’s glory, remember? And God will not, under any circumstances, share His glory with another. So in this vision, God shows Ezekiel His glory leaving the temple. It goes out from the temple to the mountain on the east (see Ezekiel 11:22-25) – the Mount of Olives.

      Later, God gives Ezekiel another vision of His glory returning to a restored, renewed temple, and the glory returns in the same way it left (see Ezekiel 43:1-5) – from the east (Mount Olivet), accompanied by a great light, filling the temple. Then, centuries later, after the glory appeared to the shepherds and announced His birth and His divine identity, Jesus Himself sits on the Mount of Olives and says “all the tribes of the earth…will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” [Matthew 24:30]

      Do you see how God has orchestrated all of this? The same mountain in which Ezekiel saw the glory leave was the same mountain where Jesus ascended and the disciples watched the glory leave. But Ezekiel was also given a vision of the glory one day returning and the apostles were visited by messengers to tell them the same thing: Christ will come again, and He will return in the same way He left—in His full glory.

      And this time, when Christ comes, there will be no mistaking His identity as God the Son. During His first coming, He was despised and rejected. It was on the Mount of Olives that Jesus and the disciples went and sang a hymn after sharing in the first Lord’s Supper together. It was there Jesus prayed for the Father’s will to be done, and it was there He was betrayed and arrested, led off to the cross, and murdered. But when He comes again, He will not be despised and rejected, He will be praised and worshipped.

      The message of the angels in this passage is that Christ will someday return – in the same way He has left. What does that mean? It means He will come visibly, and He will come bodily. Jesus is forever God and man, and He will return in the same physical body He had when He left, and He will come in the full array of His glory. Every tongue will confess and every knee will bow (see Philippians 2:5-11), even the ones that don’t want to.

      So what does all this mean for us? Primarily, it means that we must be prepared for His return. God extends His offer to all, but it is a limited time offer. There is an expiration date: either at the moment of our last breath or His return—and both will come upon us suddenly, without warning.

      If Christ truly is coming again, then our eternal fate hinges on being prepared for that eventuality. Refusing to think about these things now is a useless illusion. It might appeal to you on some level to ignore thoughts of death and judgment and eternity, but each of those things is real. They are more real than the temporary amusements of this life, and when all of this has melted away like snow, only what is eternal remains.

      Are you prepared to face God? That should be a bit frightening to us, even those of us who are in Christ. For we know that apart from Him, we would have no hope. Even with Him, we will see the full glory and holiness of God and—perhaps for the first time—truly see the horrible, tragic depths of our sin and wickedness.

      Imagine for a moment that this day is your last. Perhaps you suffer an unseen accident or succumb to a fatal heart attack. Maybe Christ returns this very day. In any case, today is the Day of Judgment and you stand face-to-face with the Almighty God. On what grounds will you stand? Friends, Christ will come again. That truth is more certain than anything in this life. You must be ready. God is pleading with you to be ready; He has given His only Son so that you might be made ready to survive that day.

      Think about these things. Don’t let false notions of security or safety distract you. You may not be able to think about this later. You may not have any more time. If this were my last breath, and I awoke to face the Creator and Sustainer of my life, I would do so with hope—not in my self, but in my Savior. He has paid the debt of my sin, and He has given me the righteousness I could not earn on my own. It is because He lives that I will live forever.

      Christ is alive. His resurrection shows us that there is a greater reality than what we see and feel here, and that we will share in it with Him. Christ has ascended. He sits at the Father’s side, and He sends His Spirit to empower and encourage those who are His. Christ will come again. He will gather all of His brothers and sisters together and take us to live in His Father’s house forever—eternal life. But those who have rejected Him (or failed to consider Him at all) will face eternal death.

      Christ is coming again. Are you ready for His return?