In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ?This,? he said, ?is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.?
So when they had come together, they asked him, ?Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?? He replied, ?It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.? When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ?Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.?

On our journey of life, we are walking through some of the stories in Acts about Paul and the happenings of the early church. Today, we are going to talk about the ascension, which is the even that is at the beginning of Acts, and the choice we all have because of the ascension. So let?s watch this video about the ascension so we are on the same page. I invite you to pray with me over the sermon titled ?The Journey of Life: Take Action.?
So we jump back to the beginning of Acts where the disciples have their final encounter with Jesus. It is also where the foretelling of what life for the followers of Jesus would look like. And these words ?you will be my witnesses to the end of the earth? and ?be baptized with the Holy Spirit? were said that would set the course of action for the disciples as well the decision about what action would be taken.
Wouldn?t it be nice if we had been told ahead of time that a path was set and a new journey would begin? Instead of consistently wondering and questioning and hoping we knew we were on the right path? I wish I had that more consistently for my life and for our congregation. Don?t you? In thinking about this passage for today, I realized this message has some important aspects for us today. The three that stood out to me are: patience, transition, and take action.
In the passage, there are many different things said about patience?something I know we are ALL good at having. They are patient with learning the teachings of Jesus, with one another (most of the time), they are willing to learn and wait for 40 days to know what is happening next, they are patient in gathering more understanding in what is to come, they are willing to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit-not having any true understanding of what that would mean, they continue to wait for the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, they wait for God to reveal in God?s time (not their own time), and they watch and wait for the return of Jesus. WOW! Now that my friends, is a whole lot of patience. I barely have enough patience for Emma to get dressed in the morning to go to school! And then the amount of patience that is require when healing from an accident or cold?nope, no patience there either. Yet, what is shared in the book of Acts is that the disciples were patient without ever fully understanding the journey they were on or knowing what the future would hold.
And boy, did the disciples and the gospel message experience many different types of transitions. In a three-year time period, they experienced Jesus alive, teaching, dead, resurrected and ascended. They learned the difference of being with Jesus to learning how to embodying Jesus within themselves through the Holy Spirit, they experienced the transition of being baptized with water to being baptized with the Holy Spirit, from being the disciples of Jesus to going out and disciplining other people, and by decided to transition from staying in Jerusalem when it was comfortable and familiar to going out to the ends of the earth to disciple and share the gospel with those they met. Talk about a lot of transitions! And the harder piece, they were in the 20s and 30s! Can you imagine experiencing all those different things in your 20s and 30s???
So we have patience and transitions that happen in the lives of the disciples that put them into a place of choices. It is during this time where they can go from being passive in their faith to making a decision to be active in their faith. And it happens in these words: ?While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ?Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?? The two robed men have questioned them and what they are doing. Gazing up and standing looking up. When questioned, I believe the disciples were wondering if Jesus was coming right back. The expectation at that time was that the second coming was coming right away. The fact that it didn?t happen during the lifetime of the disciples would have been baffling to them. So they were looking up waiting for Jesus to return instantly. But Jesus didn?t come right back. So a decision had to be made?.do we continue to wait or do we take action.
Do we wait or take action?how many times have we been put into that place in our lives? Where we experience something and in a quick second, we have to decide to wait or take action? In driving in Port Charlotte, we have to make those decisions all the time ?All joking aside, we have been in many places in our lives where we have had that choice. Sometimes we have made the decision to wait and it was the right decision. Other times we have made the decision to take action and it was the right decision. Other times, both of those decisions were wrong. We have all been in those places and wondered what it would mean in our lives if we took action.
So I am going to ask you to do a short writing activity. The first writing is being handed out to you by the children. With the ____ sheet, I want you to write on this now for you and take it home this week. Put it in a place where you can see it and pray about it every time you see it. Then by the end of the week, it is my hope that God has given you clarity on what you are to do?wait or take action.
On the second sheet being handed out to you now, is a wait or take action sheet for our congregation. I would love for you to write down some reflections for us to wait and take action on.