See verse 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." This 40-day period is important for the disciples. It gave them the time and opportunities to see Jesus, to talk to him and listen to him, eat with him, share news of encounters with him. So they knew, Jesus is alive. No doubts at all in the minds of the disciples after these 40 days! He demonstrated that he was alive...with many convincing, clear proofs. It mattered for them and it matters to us, because we can rely on the factuality of the evidence. It wasn't just and idea. It wasn't just a rumour. It was based on 40 days worth of regular, physical encounters, including shared meals! And he spoke about the Kingdom of God. He re-enforced the teaching he had been giving from the beginning of his earthly work. The "Kingdom of God" means the sovereign, saving action of God through Christ - re-establishing God's rule, healing for the entire broken-ness of the created order.
However, in their continuing nationalistic enthusiasm, they asked whether now is the time when the Kingdom is to be restored to Israel. Jesus answer is firstly to say that nobody knows the day or the time (something we do well to remember whenever someone tells you they think they have figured out when Jesus is coming back!) and secondly to insist that they shall be his witnesses. In other words, what actually matters is not when things happen or even how they happen. What matters is the plaice of Jesus in all of it. You shall be my witnesses.
This is to be the theme of the Church. God is King, and how through Christ, God became King. How God's rule affects us now and how it affected the world we live in now and for eternity. That is a big theme. But that is the theme of the Church... That is the good news that the Church has to proclaim. The King has come and his name is Jesus. Through his death and resurrection, the King has triumphed, and his rule shall be established.
What Jesus showed, we know. This is our message. Through these meetings and conversations in these last 40 days of earthly encounter, Jesus shows us that he is alive and reminds us of our message.
The Going...
And then, having really worked that into their lives, he knows he has to go. The way they encounter his presence has to be transformed. They have to move from dependence on Jesus physical presence, to a new interior intimacy. The Holy Spirit will come. God on the move, will move into their lives. The breath of the risen Christ will infuse their lives... This is what they are waiting for. But even as Jesus says this the disciples are distracted towards by their hopes of the triumph of Israel over its enemies. So Jesus says it again. "You shall be witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes upon you...." Jesus has to go in order that the Holy Spirit may come... So Jesus is getting them ready for the big moment when he will be taken up into heaven:
So the time comes: Jesus promises the Spirit will come, and then he is taken into heaven. The clouds surround him and he is gone. But where was he going ? Does the way he ascended show that "Heaven" is up there somewhere, in the clouds? NO! We should understand that "the heavens" begin in the space that surrounds us. God is present everywhere. We are not God. Earth, rivers, trees and sky are not God. But He inhabits the space around us in an unseen dimension. He hears when we call him and speaks from the heavens - not necessarily from the sky but "out of thin air." That agrees with waht Paul says. Paul tells us that Jesus is "In the heavenly places, seated at the father's right hand". (Eph 1. 20) That is not "Up there" but "out there" - in a different dimension, unseen but near enough that we too can enter it. Paul says God has "raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus", (Eph 2:6)So there's a gap. Jesus no longer walks with us and eats with us physically - though sometimes, people like Paul have seen Jesus and heard His voice. Where two or three are gathered in his Name, he is there. So that gap isn't huge. We need to accept the gap and benefit from it. Because arcing across that gap, into our very hearts and spirits, Jesus wants to pour out his Holy Spirit - God in our lives.
The Growing...
What are we to do with the gap? We want to fill the gap. It's tempting to fill it: --
With wishful thinking, nostalgia, and sentiment. When Jesus had gone, the disciples were looking into heaven; staring after Jesus. They thought, "That's it. He has gone. It's the end of an era. Sure, we know he's alive; sure he promised the power of the Holy Sprit... but we'll miss him. Things will never be the same again!" Then the angels (looking like two men in white robes) ask them why they're standing staring into the heavens. Jesus will return. That's a wonderful fact; but it's not the thing they are to focus on.. Jesus has told them what they are to focus on - the coming of the Spirit with power to witness. Wishing the old times back again, or sweet and sentimental images of the future, are not what we are meant to fill the gap with.
With busyness and legalism. The disciples go back to their upper room, and they begin to pray - as Jesus had told them to. I wonder if the prayer meetings got a bit boring. Does that ever happen to you in a prayer meeting? What happened next was OK. In fact there were good things about the calling of Matthias. It was done in a spirit of mission.Ii aimed to ensure that mission to Jewish people would be done in a way that made sense to them. Jesus talked about being witnesses, and Peter wanted to make sure that there were the full twelve witnesses who had been with Jesus from the start. I don't agree with those who suggest that Matthias should never have been appointed, and if the Church had waited Paul would have become the twelfth apostle. Paul's apostleship was different from that of the twelve. No harm was done by the way Matthias was selected. But it simply wasn't what Jesus had told them to do, then. What he had told them to do was wait. And in appointing Matthias, they weren't waiting; they were filling the gap in their leadership and filling the gap in their experience; they were making preparations; they were getting busy. The Holy Spirit is more than capable of filling the gaps in any team, if we will wait on him. The Holy SPirit will come adn equip us if we wait on him.
It's a great temptation to fill the gaps. We can fill the gaps with sentiment, with sound, with noise, with little poems, with sermons, praise songs, solos, videos and films; and it's all about feelings, emotion, sentiment, nostalgia. We can fill the gap with right theology, with appointing the right people to the team, with the constitution and rules, with planning and resources, with spreadsheets and websites. There's nothing wrong with worship that offers the very depths of your heart to God. There's nothing wrong wit theology or planning or constitution. Just so long as we know that they are not designed to fill the gap. We need to avoid filling the gap.. We need to learn to wait. As we wait, and pray, and ask, and wait, God will answer. He will give us the promised Holy Spirit. © Gilmour Lilly May 2012
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