WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE?

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.  While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.  And while they were gazing up into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 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.”  And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

(Luke’s account of the ascension combining Luke 24:50-53 and Acts 1:10, 11)
 

Our small group at church has been watching R.C. Sproul videos and last Sunday we saw the one on the ascension.  I’ve been thinking about Luke’s accounts of the ascension ever since. 

Jesus had told the disciples he was leaving them.  They were broken-hearted but he encouraged them by telling them he was going to his Father’s house to prepare a place for them.  His departure was not unexpected.  Just before Jesus ascended into heaven he told the disciples that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.  Then they stood there, seemingly transfixed by what they had just seen.  They had not moved when the angels spoke to them and asked them what they were doing still there looking into heaven.  Wasn’t there something they were supposed to be doing?

We have all heard the saying, “He’s so heavenly-minded that he’s no earthly good!”  We know where Jesus is and we know what he is doing!  He is preparing a place for us!  But the time we have on earth is not meant to be spent waiting around for Jesus to return or waiting to die and “go to heaven.”  We have inherited the charge Jesus gave to the apostles!  We are to be witnesses!  Active witnesses!  Making use of the time we have been given to spread the good news of Jesus to whomever we can!  That is the reason we are still here and not taken up to heaven already!

It seems that the angels shook the disciples back to reality.  They began worshiping Jesus and made their way back down the Mount of Olives celebrating with great joy.  The Christian life should be characterized by deep, authentic joy!  Yes, we have all kinds of problems and troubles in this life.  Yes, we have sorrow and grief.  Yes, we have pain and sickness.  But in the depths of our redeemed souls there should be joy because we are certain of where Jesus is and what he is doing!  He is enthroned as King of kings and Lord of lords and we are his no matter what happens here on earth.  Our lives are meant to be full of worship and joy.

Then finally notice where the disciples went when they returned to Jerusalem.  They went to the temple!  Can you imagine these guys making their way into the temple that day worshiping and praising Jesus?  Talk about the persecuted church!  They walked right into the mouth of the lion and praised Jesus for being the Son of God and the messiah!  One might think they would retreat to the upper room and have their own quiet time of praise and worship together!  But no, they were drawn to the Father’s house and they would praise the Son in his own house!  It didn’t matter who saw them or who might have disapproved of their worship.  They had eyes and hearts only for their Lord.  They were continually meeting in the temple for worship!  Not just this once, but day after day!

I compare my life and my thoughts and my attitudes to those of the disciples and it seems I hear the voices of angels saying, “Moorhead, what are you doing sitting there?  Isn’t there something you are supposed to be doing?”

SHEEP AND COMPASSION

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.  Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by your selves to a quiet place and get some rest.”  So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.  But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.  When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  So he began teaching them many things.                 

                                                                                    Mark 6:30-34

 

This is the well-known passage that precedes the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.  It is the “set-up” for the gathering of the great crowds out in the wilderness.  But there are a number of things that give me pause before we get to that famous miracle.  Just a few reflections…

Jesus had sent the disciples out two by two and he had given them authority to heal the sick and cast out demons and proclaim the good news.  Their mission accomplished, the Twelve returned to Jesus to report on what had happened.  They were surely weary.  I know what it is like to be on a mission and being “on duty” all day, day after day.  And there isn’t even anything mentioned about the spiritual wear and tear of the mission.  Surely the Enemy had not left them alone as they went about proclaiming the Kingdom and planting the seeds that would eventually destroy Satan’s own kingdom.

So the disciples are trying to debrief Jesus but there is so much hustle and bustle around Jesus that they couldn’t even sit down to have a meal while they talked.  Jesus saw this and obviously was concerned for the welfare of his guys.  He could have said, “Buck up!  It’s like this for me every day!”  Jesus thought about the needs of the disciples and decided to take them off to a quiet place where they could retreat and rest.  Isn’t that what a shepherd does?  Doesn’t he lead his sheep into quiet pastures and beside still waters?

Off they went in their famous boat…off into the wilderness where they could be alone.  But people on the shore recognized them, or their boat, and spread the word that Jesus and his men were on the move.  Mark reports that people from all the villages hustled and ran ahead to the place Jesus was going.  The people got there first and were waiting for Jesus’ boat to land.

I try to put myself into that boat when it is still a couple of hundred yards from shore.  The size of the crowd is apparent.  There are thousands of people waiting!  There will be no rest here!  No retreat for the weary disciples.  I would have been thinking, “Jesus, give the order to sail on!  Let’s find another place!  Please!”

When Jesus saw the crowd he did not heave a deep sigh of frustration.  He did not consider sailing on.  He saw the people and had compassion on them!  Why?  Because they were like sheep without a shepherd!  Here is the shepherd heart of Jesus again!  How did the people resemble sheep without a shepherd?  What does a flock of sheep do without a shepherd?  They wander without direction.  They become hungry and thirsty because they cannot find food and water by themselves.  They are in constant danger from predators because they cannot protect themselves.  If there is hope of food they all run together to the source of that hope.  And so the people of the villages around the Sea of Galilee were like sheep without a shepherd.

The Great Shepherd is brought into contact with a shepherd-less flock.  He must shepherd them.  That is what he does.  How does he shepherd this flock?  He “began teaching them many things.”  The most important nutrition is teaching the truth of God.  That comes before anything else.  The very teaching is shepherding.  The still pastures and quiet waters would come later when the bread and fish were passed among them.  Jesus taught the sheep who had no shepherd!

A message for me and all other pastors/teachers and under-shepherds of the Lord.  Compassion might well include giving people food and drink.  But the Good Shepherd first taught the sheep and showed them they had a shepherd who was willing to set aside everything else to show them the way to the truth.

THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN

Things will never be the same again.

We had so many successes.  Everything went according to plan.  Even when that fool Pilate tried to release him we were able to get the mob to call out for the criminal, Barabbas.  Barabbas was a problem for us but better him than the carpenter’s son.  We got the crowd riled up and on the verge of a riot before Pilate gave in. 

Things will never be the same again.

A lot of us decided to make the hike out to Golgotha to celebrate our victory.  We had been working so long for this result that we didn’t want to miss the culmination of our efforts.  The Galilean was in such bad shape that they made some poor pilgrim carry his cross.  Some of us weren’t sure he would even make it to the place of crucifixion.

Things will never be the same again.

When the centurion and his soldiers finally had him nailed to the cross there was a real sense of relief.  We weren’t happy about the “King of the Jews” sign they hung over his head but I thought it was better to fight the battles we could win.  Some of us were practically giddy.  They were shouting things at him and mocking him.  Things like, “Hey, Son of God, come down off the cross!”  “You promised to save people but you couldn’t even save yourself!”  “If you come down we will believe in you!”  They were practically elbowing each other in the ribs in laughter.

Things will never be the same again.

That’s when it happened.  All of a sudden, around noon, the sun just disappeared.  It was blacker than night and I have to admit, I had chills running up and down my spine.  It was eerie.  I had a feeling like I never had before.  The darkness wouldn’t go away.  It lasted for hours.  There was something supernatural about it.

Things will never be the same again.

The rabbi called out for Elijah and then it looked like he just…died!  The ground beneath our feet started to rumble and shake violently.  I never felt anything like it in my life.  The rocks were tearing apart.  The very ground upon which I lived my entire life seemed to come alive in anger.

Things will never be the same again.

That’s when I noticed the centurion.  He was kind of a scary-looking guy.  Grizzled.  Tough.  Battle-hardened.  I had tried to stay out of his way all day.  But there he was, standing at the foot of the cross with a look of wonder on his face.  It was like everything around him had disappeared and he was transfixed.  I was close enough to hear him say, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Things will never be the same again.

Finally the sun came out again and we all hurried home to get ready for Sabbath.  The next couple of days were discomforting.  I wasn’t myself.  It was like there was a thought in the back of my head that wouldn’t reveal itself.  On the first day of the week I was with the chief priests when the guards who had been out at the tomb came rushing in.  They were terrified.  They had been at the tomb when the second earthquake hit this morning.  All they could remember was the appearance of a bright and glorious person.  When they woke up the tomb was open and the dead man was gone.  We bribed the soldiers to lie about what happened.  I went home feeling sick.  My heart was pounding and my head ached.  All I could think about were the words of the centurion, “Truly this was the Son of God.”  I drank some wine and lay down but nothing helped.

Things will never be the same again.

 

A RENEWED MIND

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I read this verse in my devotions the other morning and saw it in an entirely new light.  How can a verse that is so well known continue to reveal truth and wonder?  It is by the power of God’s living word that continues to shape us and show us new things.

Paul is talking about the process of sanctification, that work of the Holy Spirit whereby he changes the child of God from the worldly sinner he once was into the image of Jesus Christ.  The verse is more easily understood taken from the end.  The goal of the work of the Spirit in our lives is to bring us to a place where we are discerning and obeying God’s will.  What he wants us to do is that which is good, acceptable, and perfect (or holy).

It is almost impossible to imagine how God, through his Spirit, changes us so dramatically.  Before we come to faith we live in the world and the world is shaping us according to its own pattern.  That’s what the word “conform” means.  There is no resistance to this process of worldly conformation on our part.  We are passive recipients of the pressures of the world that shape us. 

But God intervenes in this process and does an amazing thing.  He gives us faith and we believe in the atoning work of Jesus on the cross.  We confess our sin and recognize that we have been shaped by the world.  God grants us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and he begins to go to work on us.  How does he do this?  He renews our minds.  I think Paul means more than just the way we think.  I believe he uses the word “mind” to refer to our inner being, our heart, our way of relating to God.

The renewing of our inner being is the work of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot renew ourselves.  Neither can we transform ourselves.  That is why Paul writes “be transformed” in the passive voice.  This is something that the Holy Spirit does to us.  However, we can resist the work of the Spirit through disobedience and rebellion.  That is why the passive verb is still in the command form!  It could be translated, “Continue to allow yourself to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

As the Holy Spirit transforms us (metamorphoses), we learn to discern the will of God in our lives.  We are tested in many different ways and as we apply our renewing minds to what we have learned from scripture and from our relationship with God we begin to see what the people who are still in the world cannot see, the will of God.  With the renewing of our minds, our new passion for God and his will, we see the good and acceptable and perfect that God wants us to do.

I continue to be amazed at the love and goodness of God who does not leave us on our own to become righteous.  He does the transformative work in us!  We can’t even change our own minds so he does that for us as well!

FEASTS AND HOLY DAYS

¹⁴ “Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. ¹⁵ You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. ¹⁶ You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. ¹⁷ Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God.  (Exodus 23:14-17)

The Hebrew nation was camped at the foot of Mount Sinai when Moses came down off the mountain and delivered God’s law to them.  Included in that law were directions for their three national religious festivals, the Feast of Unleavened Bread (including Passover), the Feast of Harvest (also known as the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost), and the Feast of Ingathering (Feast of Booths or Tabernacles).  This is not meant to be a theological study of the major feasts of Israel.  Rather, as I reflected on this portion of the Law I was struck with several realizations that apply to my life and the church.

God commanded the people to “keep a feast to me.”  God was meant to be the focal point of their festivals.  He was the reason for them.  Each of the festivals was a reminder of what God had done for his people.  Unleavened Bread and Passover reminded them of the fact that God had brought them out of bondage in Egypt.  The Feast of Weeks was to remind them that God gave them his law, that they as a people lived according to God’s good pleasure and according to his will.  The Feast of Tabernacles not only was a recollection of the time they lived in booths or tents in the wilderness, but that it was God who finally brought them into the Land of Promise.  It was a picture of the completion of God’s deliverance and pointed to the fulfillment of all his promises.  Three times a year the people stopped their routines and celebrated the works of their God with festivals.  The feasts were all about God. 

In the last part of verse 15 God says, “None shall appear before me empty-handed.”  Part of the celebration was bringing an offering to God.  Surely this helped the people remember that this was not just a party.  They were keeping a feast to God!  When they prepared for the feast they also prepared an offering to bring so they could not forget the significance of their celebrations.

The third thing that caught my attention is the fact that the people of God were meant to celebrate these feasts corporately.  It is true that there was a definite family aspect to Passover, but God says “Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God.”  All the men of Israel came together to present their offerings to God.  They were not merely individual followers of Jehovah; they were the family of God who were created by their God and called to live together as the people of their God!

So what?  It occurred to me that the church has two major holy days (holidays?) on our calendar, Christmas and Easter.  More liturgical denominations celebrate more holy days, but let’s just think of these two that we all share.  Both of them point to what God has done for his people.  Christmas, of course, reminds us of the incarnation; God sent his Son to live among us as a man.  Easter is similar in some ways to Unleavened Bread and Passover in that we celebrate Holy Week; Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and then Resurrection Day.  Jesus gave his life as a propitiation for our sins and on the third day rose victorious from the grave.  God is meant to be the focal point of our celebrations. 

Here is the “so what…”  Is God really the central person in these holy days as we observe them?  Do we make certain that he is the “reason for the seasons?”  While we spend amazing amounts of money on gifts and feasts that we share with one another, do we appear empty handed before God?  And finally, are we really intentional in recalling the corporate aspect of our celebrations?  Or is this just another example of how our faith has become private and individual in nature?  If we celebrate, should we not celebrate together, as the people of God for whom these days are so significant?  Is there something we should consider changing?  Just wondering…