He Was Lifted Up | Acts 1:1–11 | The Ascension and the Mission of the Church

Watch This Sermon on the Ascension

In this Ascension Sunday sermon on Acts 1:1–11, Pastor Mark Groen calls us to remember a powerful and often overlooked truth: Jesus was lifted up in glory—not as an afterthought, but as part of God's eternal plan. The Ascension is a historical reality, a heavenly enthronement, and a future promise that Jesus will return in the same way He ascended. This message explores what the Ascension means for our confidence, our calling, and our mission as the church today.

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Of the events that we as Christians celebrate, I think there's one that we probably forget more than the others. Often the Ascension is something that we maybe take for granted, but it is really an important part of the Easter season. And as I was thinking about the importance of this week, this idea of the ascension of Jesus, my thoughts moved to thinking about other major parts of the church year that we celebrate.

And we lament the commercialization of Christmas and Easter, for example, because it distracts from the true meaning of these moments in the church year. Well, I don't think that's something we'll ever have to worry about with the Ascension. First off, we don't celebrate it like we do the other two. I don't think we're going to be heading to the bakery to get Ascension cookies anytime soon.

But it also isn't something that the world would understand. They just wouldn't understand it. The ascension is difficult, even for us as Christians sometimes, to understand. But it's likely incoherent for someone who doesn't understand and doesn't rejoice in the fact that Jesus is reigning on high, seated at the right hand of the Father.

We should rejoice that this truth is ours, that it's what we remember, it's what we celebrate, because it is vital to our understanding of what Jesus has done for us. He didn't ascend just because he didn't have anything better to do. Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father and He sat down for you. He did it for His people.

And we understand that He is there right now, interceding for us. I don't think that there's been any one truth of the work of Jesus for me that I have grown to have a deeper appreciation for over the last few years. I've come to realize how deeply the Ascension is a source of our confidence and our comfort as believers. Because it means that our Lord and Savior is on His throne.

He is in control. It means that we have an advocate for us in the presence of God the Father. This is such good news for us. And so that's why every year we take a break from whatever else we're doing, whatever I'm preaching through, and we stop and we remember this important truth of the Christian faith. And as we come to our passage in the first chapter of Acts, what I want to do today is I want to draw out three important truths that we're going to see here.

And the first is that the ascension of Jesus is a historical truth. Jesus is actually resurrected. He is ascended, and he is at the right hand of the Father. This isn't some myth that has been passed down.

In the book of Acts, Luke is very deliberate to let us know that what he's telling us about isn't something that's been made up. He's reporting the details of a historical event. And secondly, we see that the Ascension serves a heavenly purpose. The Ascension was the plan all along, the eternal plan of the triune God to save a people for himself involved in arrival of the Son of God ascending into heaven to sit down at the Father's right hand.

And we rightly see the Ascension as a departure story. That's how we view it, because we're here, right? Jesus did depart from us. He departed from his disciples.

But we have to remember that more than a departure story, the ascension is an arrival story. This was the goal all along. This isn't plan B, where the Lord of heaven and earth said, well, my conquest of the universe has been thwarted. What will we do now?

That is not what happened. The plans of God cannot be thwarted by some religious leaders who decided to kill the king of glory. The unjust execution of Jesus did not stop the plan of God. It was the plan of God and the ascension was also.

This is not plan B. It's the consummation of the conquest of the kingdom of God. And lastly, we see the important and vital truth that Jesus will return. And while we are joyous that Jesus is ascended on high and interceding for us, we also acknowledge that our world is not perfect.

This is not the new heaven and the new earth. We are joyous of the truth of our ascended king, but we are also joyfully and joyously anticipating the end of history when Christ will return and deliver his kingdom to his father. And so with that in mind, we land in the first chapter of Acts and we see the story that Luke is telling us in this passage is a true story. We see that Luke is telling the second part of his story about Jesus.

Now in his gospel, he told Theophilus the details of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And he even gives details of the ascension there. But as he tells the story of the early church, as he starts his second book, he expands upon the details of this event for his audience. And Luke even acknowledges this about his gospel.

He says that he talked about what Jesus began to do and teach until he was taken up. All those details are in the book of Luke, and that was the end of his gospel. But now this is a second book and it's gonna tell the story of the church and how the gospel went out into the world.

And we see that Luke believes that all of this is true. All of this is the work of the Holy Spirit and God himself ordained the messengers that are being sent out. In our day, this is important too, because we hear a lot of people making statements about what the death and resurrection of Jesus means. Many people sound nothing like the apostles.

If you compare what some teach and believe about the atonement, they don't sound anything like the apostles that were chosen by God and blessed with the Holy Spirit. I will always choose an understanding of the work of Jesus that matches the teachings of the Apostles, that matches the teaching of Scripture. This is the testimony of God's Word. It's not the ideas of men.

As we see here, it's been ordained by God in history to be the revelation of Almighty God, and we see Luke continuing to make this point. He tells us what Jesus did. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs.

He appeared to them and he taught them. Clearly God understood that through history people would deny the physical nature of the life, death, resurrection of Jesus. And so what did Jesus do, according to what Luke tells us? He gave many proofs and then the apostles testified to it. Now this idea that maybe Jesus wasn't really resurrected isn't just new to our time.

It didn't come about with higher criticism of scripture in the 1800s. This has always been happening in the church. But we have been blessed by champions of the faith who have stood up and declared that this is the truth that Jesus is a Savior, He is the Savior, and He lived, died, rose again, and ascended in real time and space history.

And that's important because that means that you and I have a real Savior in real time and space history. And as you've heard me say many times before, this is a true distinctive of Christianity. We believe that our savior acted in the real world to really save a people for himself. In fact, later in the book of Acts, Paul tells Festus that the king knows about this stuff.

He knows about the Christian faith. And this is what he says, it's one of my favorite lines in the book of Acts, because none of this was done in a corner. None of it was done in the corner. It was done in the real world, where people could ask about it, where people could learn about it.

In fact, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul tells us that more than 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus. And so what we believe is attested to, not in the abstract, not in the someplace out there, someplace, but in the real, physical, actual world, because that's where it matters. And so in the words of Luke here, we see that the events that he is describing are real historical events. And because of this, they matter for us in the real world.

And as we continue through the passage today, we see that this ascension has a heavenly purpose. As I mentioned earlier, I have grown greatly in my appreciation of the ascension. I would say that for the majority of my life, I never really gave it much thought. You could probably sum up my previous thinking about the Ascension as in this way.

Well, Jesus isn't around here now, so the Ascension explains why that is. That's enough, I'm good to go. That satisfied me, I moved on. But the Ascension was not plan B.

This is not an improvisation by God. Plan A was not that God the Son would take on human flesh and if everyone on earth loved him a bunch, he would set up his earthly kingdom and everything would be peachy. The sovereign plan of God was that God the Son would take on human flesh and he would be persecuted. He would be reviled.

He would be betrayed. And he would suffer and die. That was not a surprise. Good Friday was not a surprise.

The plan was that he would bear the wrath of God for our sin and rise again to ensure eternal life. And that plan also included that he would ascend in his resurrected body to the right hand of the Father to intercede for his people. So what we have is Plan A. This was the plan all along and God accomplished it just as he ordained it.

And we see that plan right away in verses four and five. Because he told them to stay in Jerusalem. Now next week when we celebrate Pentecost, we're gonna see why. He's sending the Holy Spirit.

They will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in just a matter of days. Jesus has this all planned out. But what we see is the disciples still didn't get it, right? I think we've all had moments where we feel like Jesus must have felt talking to his disciples, and especially here.

After all of this, after all the teaching, you still don't know what's going on, guys. You know, we explain something really clearly. And for some reason, the person we're talking to has their own ideas so embedded in their heads and in their thought process that they can't understand what we're trying to tell them, no matter how hard we try to say it clearly.

We just are kind of talking past each other. We just are, we're lost. Jesus had made it pretty clear that his work was not to overthrow Rome. Yet what did the disciples keep asking?

Even now, even after the resurrection, even after he'd been teaching them, they keep on asking, when are you going to establish your kingdom on earth? Lord, is the time now, they say? Are you going to give the Roman soldiers and those authorities the boot today? We've been waiting, Jesus.

Is the time now? They so badly want an earthly kingdom, but Jesus is going to ascend to be an earthly, or to be a heavenly king. This is the plan, ladies and gentlemen. This was it all along.

They don't get to know the times or seasons that are ordained by the Father. Instead, they are going to be a part of something so much bigger than they can imagine. They will receive power from the Holy Spirit, and they will be witnesses of Jesus to the very ends of the earth. There it is, my friends.

That's the plan. The ascension of Jesus is about spreading the message, and that is where it involves the disciples, and that's where it involves you and I. We are the result of the gospel going from Jerusalem and Judea and to the ends of the earth. The message of redemption and salvation in Jesus Christ isn't limited to that one geographic plat of land that they were in.

They wanted Jesus to rule over one small area of the earth. But that wasn't the plan. The plan is the ends of the earth. He's a heavenly king because his kingdom has no limits.

It's not limited by time. It's not limited by size. It's not limited by ethnicity. It's not limited by language.

Jesus reigns. And that was the heavenly plan of the ascension. The Kingdom of God will go everywhere. Now, the movie The Lion King has been out now for longer than I care to believe because I can't be that old yet, but I think it's over 25 years that it's been out.

And so most of us have probably seen it and there's that famous scene where the young lion prince Simba is sitting with his father Mufasa and he's looking out over the kingdom and he says that everything that the light touches is their kingdom. But there's a dark place, they don't go there. But that isn't the case for the kingdom of God.

That's not the case for our heavenly king. He is the light, and his kingdom permeates everything and goes everywhere. It permeates the darkness.

It destroys the darkness. The word of God goes forth and where God brings people to faith through the power of the Holy Spirit, there is light. And that is where his kingdom is. His kingdom destroys the darkness and it brings life.

And that is the heavenly plan of the ascension. Yes, it is a departure story. But it's more importantly a story of the arrival of Jesus in the consummation of the plan of God to redeem a people for himself. And as we close up the passage, we're going to see our final point today.

Just as we saw the historical reality of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, there is a future historical reality. And it is amazing that Jesus was taken up. He told them these truths and then he left them. He was taken up out of their sight, but then two angels reveal an important truth to the disciples.

Well, two truths. Really, the first thing they do is they ask him why they're looking up into heaven. You're not supposed to be looking up into heaven. He said to go to Jerusalem.

You have work to do, disciples. Yes, it's an amazing thing to watch the Lord of heaven and earth ascend, but he commanded you to go to Jerusalem. They needed to get back. They need for their mission to take off.

And secondly, these angels, let them know how Jesus will return. He will descend just as he has ascended. And so it's not a private event. It was public when he ascended.

It will be public when he descends. It will be seen. It will be physical in nature. And we learn from the whole of Scripture that at the end of history, Christ will return to deliver his kingdom to the Father, and that is the completion of the plan of God.

Until then, the disciples, and us, have something important to do. There to spread the gospel of Jesus, there to proclaim his death until he comes, there to go and make disciples. In other words, through their proclamation and by the power of the Holy Spirit, they are going to be fruitful and they will multiply the kingdom of God. God's plan is for the advancement of His kingdom, and it happens through the work of the people of God going out and proclaiming the good news of the gospel.

That is in the future, His return, right? That is in the future, and it will be glorious. But we see here there's work to do. Would you and I, would you and I be here enjoying the glory of worshiping together if the apostles had stood and stared at the sky and waited around?

The disciples understood that watching the sky and waiting was not the plan. The plan was for the servants of God to obey their Lord and King and to take the message into the world. And this is what waiting for the end of history is all about. It isn't doing nothing and hoping Jesus descends soon because the world is just going crazy.

Being Christians who are waiting for the end is going into all the world as Jesus commands, knowing that he is going to use us to fulfill the purposes of his kingdom. And so the ascension gives us so much to get up out of here and to live with. It's a vital part of who we are as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want us to take from here today two important applications for our lives.

There's so many, but I want to focus on these two today. The first thing is that we need to remember that Jesus has truly ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Now I mentioned this last week also, but today I want us to think about this truth more deeply. He is the true ruler.

He is the king, the true king of the universe. His kingdom has no bounds, and we are blessed to not only be his subjects, but we are also his children and we are his heirs, heirs of his glory. And despite anything that is happening in the world, he is in control and he rules over every last bit of it. His ascension was plan A.

It was his destination after bearing the wrath of God for our sin and rising to guarantee our own resurrection from the dead. Whether the news in any given week is good or whether it is bad or whether it's in between, the truth of our good and gracious resurrected and ascended king being on his throne is gonna be good news every single day. He is victorious.

And so we can get up and we can live in confidence. And secondly, it is so vital that we are a people of action with a mind on the future. The disciples did not stay and dwell in the sky and wait for Jesus to return. They did what he commanded.

They were the vessels that God used to fulfill his purpose. And that's what we are today. We are his vessels for his purpose. Our mind needs to be on the future.

We're not to sit back and hope for the return of Jesus in our recliners with our feet up. Instead, we live in hope of the resurrection by our actions. Because if we believe he will truly return at the end of history to judge the living and the dead, then there is a gospel to proclaim. There are disciples to be made.

And we must do this with our minds on the future, just as the disciples did. And right now, for us, it's difficult to have our minds on the future because the future seems so uncertain. On top of it all, it seems like everything in our world is trying to get us to dwell on the past. You don't believe me?

Then why is every sports channel ESPN Classic? Right? That's all we can think about. Suddenly everything is what we're drawing on the past.

And I know that some of us enjoy watching some of these old games, for example. It's good to think about the past, but I'm guessing there aren't too many people here who would watch a Twins World Series game that wasn't played in the Metrodome, because they didn't win a one of them. You wouldn't waste your time with it. We need to be focusing, yes, on the good of the past, and looking at the past can be good, but we can't dwell on the past, even if it's positive and something that we enjoy.

And so as a body of believers, we are called to be a future-minded people. And the good news is that we know the results already. It's like watching something on ESPN Classic because we know who's gonna win. We can look it up in the book.

We know what the future result is. It is very favorable. It is victory by the Lord of heaven and earth. Christ will return in the same manner that he ascended.

And so we have work to do, just like the disciples did. And we step out into an uncertain future, but we have a certain result. Jesus will return to deliver his kingdom to the Father. And so may we be fruitful and multiply.

Let us go, to paraphrase the first chapter of Acts here, let us go into Edgerton and into Minnesota and to the ends of the earth with the proclamation of the gospel. Making disciples, making disciples is our future. And so may we be faithful just as those who came before us were faithful. And so we can depart from here today trusting that our great king is on his throne and he has empowered us for the future.

That is the plan A of the ascension. Amen.

Want to explore more about the reign of Christ?

In Receive Your King, Pastor Mark unpacks the glory of Christ’s ascension from a different angle, emphasizing the joy and hope His heavenly rule brings to the church today.
Watch “Receive Your King” from Psalm 24 »