Jesus is in heaven for now, today's ascension Sunday. We just kind of commemorate that day that he rose into heaven, that he ascended into heaven, but yet he's not finished. He's not done. Even though on the cross he said it is finished. He didn't mean he's finished.

He meant the work of salvation is finished. See, he's still working and he's working on our behalf, and that's what we're going to be looking at today. But I want to talk a little bit about something that Luke said. You can open your scriptures to acts, chapter one if you want. I'm not specifically reading that.

I'm just going to be talking about it a little bit because I'm kind of reading in between the lines just a touch. Luke doesn't just say, because Luke was the guy that wrote both the gospel of Luke and the book of acts. It's kind of part one and part two. And Luke doesn't just say, okay, well, hey, I'm just trying to keep you guys informed. He doesn't just say, well, I'm just trying to help you understand a little bit of history about this guy named Jesus.

Luke actually says that he wrote for a purpose, and he addresses the person that he was writing to. I don't know if you'll notice. It wasn't you. Luke didn't write this directly to you. He wrote it to a person named Theophilus.

Now, we don't know if Theophilus was like a real actual human being, then that was their name, or if he used that as a title that literally translates into one who loves God, the lover of God. We're not sure if that was the name of this person or just a title that he was giving someone. So if that's the case, then perhaps he did write it to you if you love God. And as such, what Luke says is that he says, in my former book, the first thing I wrote, I wrote to you about all that Jesus. And if you have your scriptures open or your mind remembers it, you know the next word, all that Jesus began to do and to teach.

In other words, Jesus didn't finish that work just because he ascended into heaven. And Luke goes on and describes that in the book of acts, chapter one, a little bit about what had happened. And both Luke and I believe Matthew had talked about the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven and what had happened on that day. But on the ascension day, it was 40 days after Jesus had risen from the dead. He ascends into heaven, and a couple angels are there, and they show up and they say, guys, why are you looking at the sky?

Was anybody looking at the sky last night or the night before with the. The Aurora borealis, the northern lights here in the southern latitude of Florida. Did anybody hear about that? Did you see that? Apparently they were visible.

Anybody see them? One. All right. I didn't. We drove last night up into this park in Dade City that I know is miles away from any lights.

And I'm like, I ain't seeing it. I've seen the northern lights in northern Michigan, like, over the Mackinac bridge. I've got some great pictures. I didn't bring any for the screen. Not screens, because only one's working.

I didn't bring any for the screen, but they're great. I took some great photos of that. I saw that for sure. I know it happened. I was there.

I don't know about seeing them here. I didn't see it. If somebody saw it. Amy and Emma said, oh, yeah, it looks kind of purplish pink. I'm like, look, all I know is if I had not been told about this and was looking at the sky, I wouldn't have said, oh, I bet that's the northern lights, you know, but we're sitting here staring up at the sky.

We're like, wow, okay. And it is beautiful. Like, just looking at the sky. We don't always do that. I lay down in the yard after we got home.

In my backyard. I just lay there looking at the sky. Almost fell asleep, you know, and it was great, but I still didn't see these northern lights. But these guys, jesus disciples, they're looking into the sky after he ascends up through the clouds, and they're like, huh? Wow.

And then I don't know what you do after that. Do you just keep looking? Do we wish we had tied a rope to him? You know, like, no, come back? I don't know.

But they keep looking. And finally these angels just say, go. He told you this was going to happen. He told you about all of this stuff. He had told you he was going to die, and you didn't seem to hear that very well, so he had told you this would happen.

He also told you that he will be returning. And so that's why I started out by saying, jesus is in heaven for now. It's not his. It's not where he will always be. He will return.

And so those angels told them about this. And so Luke, who was not one of those men that was there, he wasn't one of the twelve apostles. Luke has been told this story, though, and he has been told it from eyewitnesses, and he has written it down for this person named Theophilus. And the Holy Spirit of God has preserved that for us here today. So even though it wasn't written directly to you, it has been given to you, it has been preserved for you.

And so Luke tells us that Jesus, in his first book, he told us about everything Jesus began to do and to teach, which is setting up the stage for what the book of acts is going to be about. In the book of acts, he's basically saying, I'm going to tell you what Jesus is doing now. I'm going to tell you why the ascension was important, why the ascension was necessary. And so that's my purpose here today. Today's message is about three things.

This is a real pastor like thing to do. I'm going to say three things, and each of them start with a picture. Power, position and place. That's what today is about, power, position and place. Next week, when we look at, next week is Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Next week we look at the power that endued from on high by the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church of Christ. The Holy Spirit was promised by Jesus, and we're going to look at some scriptures in a few minutes about that. But the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost wasn't possible without the ascension of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ hadn't ascended into heaven, he would not have been able to send the holy spirit. You ask, why?

Why wouldn't he be able to do that? I don't know, but he's the one that said it. So I believe that Jesus is the one that said, if I don't go to the Father's right hand, I won't be able to send the spirit. I don't know why he couldn't. That's just the way they decided to work things.

Some things that God decides to do. We just need to take that and say, okay, God, this is the way it is. But Jesus said that it would only be possible for him to send the Holy Spirit if he had ascended to the right hand of the Father. When Jesus ascended into heaven, three different things happened. Three things happened.

First, he was able to send the Holy Spirit. The second thing is that Jesus is interceding for the Father on our behalf. And the third thing is that he's preparing us for us a place for all eternity. Now we're going to look at scriptures that by all means aren't exhaustive, but we're going to look at a few scriptures for those in just a few minutes. But I want to dig into this just a little bit.

And one of the things that I would like for us to do is to do something that we don't always do here in this church. But I'd like for us to read together the apostles Creed. It'll be on the screen. And the apostles Creed is, if you're not familiar with it, it's just something that the church has historically looked at as an agreed statement of belief. So if you'll just read out loud with me.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He ascended to hell. And the third day he rose from the dead.

He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

In the apostles Creed, we see a lot of things coming together, but all of those things show us that the church, whether it's whatever denomination or group we adhere to, we believe in those things. That's actually a rule or a measuring stake that we can lay out that says, if you're part of a movement that doesn't acknowledge these things, these are the things that are non negotiable. These things in the apostles Creed is something that the church many centuries ago came together and said, these are what we believe. No matter what other controversies arise, whatever doctrines come up, if it disagrees with these basic tenets of our faith in Jesus Christ, and each one of those comes from scripture, even though there's not little footnotes that annotate where they come from, those, each one, each line in that each item or clause in the apostles Creed is backed by scripture. And if there's somebody that wants to believe otherwise, the scriptures tell us that's fine, maybe God will correct you on this as well.

And so the apostles Creed is something that we can point back to as just kind of a creed that we can believe in as part of our faith. But the part where it says that Jesus both descended into hell and then rose again from the grave and ascended into heaven, a lot of times we miss out on a couple points of that. I don't think I've ever preached a message on the time where, where that part where it talks about Jesus descending into hell or into the grave, I don't think I've ever preached on that. And maybe I will someday soon. I don't know.

But the part about Jesus ascending is something that at least hits our calendar once a year on ascension Sunday. And I think that's for a very good reason. We need to be reminded that we're not just here on this earth walking along together, meeting every Sunday in this room or wherever it is that you attend and just kind of hoping that something good happens. We're not just going along and doing our daily devotions and having a little prayer time and saying, well, God, if maybe, if just maybe, possibly you could answer my prayers and move on my behalf. No, you see, Jesus Christ at least, if not, if not just for once a year, maybe is all we do.

But Jesus Christ has ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven and is working on our behalf. Let's go over some scriptures that we have this morning. The first one that we have comes to us from the gospel of John. John had told us the words of Jesus Christ, what we call for a few chapters, Jesus farewell discourse. I'm going away for a while.

Here's the last few things I want to tell you. And one of the things that Jesus said in John 15 was he was preparing them for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And he says, when the advocate comes, that's one of the words for Holy Spirit. That's one of his names or terms about him. When the advocate comes, who I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth, who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

You see, what Jesus is saying there is the advocate's coming. He says, I will send him to you, but he comes from the Father. And so the Holy Spirit's job is to testify about Jesus, both about who Jesus is and about what Jesus is doing still in the world today. Our next verse comes from that farewell discourse in John, chapter 16. And Jesus continues saying, he says, I tell you the truth.

It is to your advantage that I am going away. If I don't go away, the advocate will not come to you. But if I will go, I will send him to you. Now hang on a second. There's something really interesting that's going on in the world at that time.

Of course, the whole life of Jesus Christ is interesting, but one of the shifts that happens during this time is the shift from the age of people like the prophets in the Old Testament to now, this era where we have the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist was a great man. Not only did he have a great following of people, and his ministry was what we might call quite successful. He baptized a lot of people. And his message, his sermon that he preached was, you need to repent.

And now that's interesting to tell a whole bunch of people who are very religious, to tell them they are the ones that need to repent. And John had the audacity to proclaim that message. And he said he was doing it to prepare the way for the coming messiah. So as John is doing that, as John the baptizer is doing, that, what he is, what he is is functioning in the role of a prophet. Not only did the prophets speak to the people about what was going on in the world at their time, not only did they speak about things that they needed to hear in that moment, but the prophets foretold or spoke of or showed the coming messiah.

They all spoke of the messiah to come. And as such, John continued following in that role and in those footsteps. And what Jesus says about his cousin, John the baptizer, is that John was the greatest of the prophets, greater than Moses, greater than Elijah, greater than all of them, that John was the greatest of the prophets. But then Jesus says that the one who is the lowest in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. Now, John got to do something that none of the other prophets got to do.

He got to look at them and say, there he is, that man. He is the messiah. All the other prophets spoke about a day yet to come. John the baptizer got to say, that day is here. In fact, John spoke, and he says, the pleasure that I have, that pleasure is mine, and my joy is now complete.

He had the pleasure of pointing out the messiah, and his joy was made complete in that. But Jesus says that the lowest in the kingdom of heaven will be greater than John. Now, how can that be? Well, we have the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus has sent our advocate that is with us. And because of that, we are able to do greater works even than John was.

Continuing on in John, chapter 14. I know it's backing up chronologically in the chapters, but Jesus was telling us that, he said, I will ask the father, and he will give you another advocate to be with you forever. Now, Jesus had made his disciples sad because he was telling them that he was going to be leaving them. That made them sad. Of course it is.

He's not only their best friend. He's the best possible friend they could ever have. There's no way you could have a better friend than Jesus. And now Jesus is saying, I got to go. Of course they're sad.

Of course that makes them distraught. But he says, when I do that, I'll ask the Father. Now, he doesn't have to beg and plead with the Father. We already saw in the verses we'd read that come after this, that God, the Father, wants to send the HOly Spirit, but he will not do that until Jesus has ascended back into heaven. And so, because of that, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever.

His time isn't temporary. He's not just here for a period of time on earth. Holy Spirit is here with us forever. Now, when we get into the book of Hebrews, and I would encourage you, if you haven't read the book of HebRews in a long time, that you should do that. But the book of HebRews in chapter seven, it says that God is able to save completely everyone who comes to him, because those who come through him, Jesus, is interceding for them.

So we moved into our second point here, moving on from the Holy Spirit, which was our power, we move into the position that we have, our position before God, our standing before God. Now, do you understand? There are times in the Old Testament where there were interceders on behalf of the people. Moses was a famous one. Abraham was a famous one.

Moses would intercede on behalf of the people so that they would know, so that God would know that they had someone on their behalf. Moses would say to them, like, you know what? I know these people are sinful, God. I know that they've disobeyed you, God. I know that they have abandoned you and abandoned your laws and your precepts, but would you not destroy them today?

And God would listen to Moses interceding on behalf of them. Abraham interceded on behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah specifically, that there would be godly people who would stand in the gap, and that they would be the ones who, despite the wickedness of those cities, that Sodom and Gomorrah would be spared if there was enough righteous people to warrant that. And yet. And yet we have a great intercessor that stands in heaven before us on our behalf. Another verse in Hebrews, if you skip forward to chapter nine, it says that Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands.

He is the representation of the true sanctuary. We've read scriptures. We know that we say that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. A lot of times we said, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. And while that may be true, really what the scriptures are speaking of is that we, the church, the group, the gathering of believers, are the temple Holy Spirit.

He dwells in our midst, not in a sanctuary made with human hands, but in a body of believers. So Jesus, he is the representation of that true sanctuary, but now he has entered into heaven itself. In the old Testament, you have these models of the tabernacle, and then the temple that was built, and in the temple there was the holy of Holies. Only after a cleansing ritual could the high priest enter, and only could enter that once per year. No one else could enter into there because we weren't holy enough to enter into that throne room of God, so to speak.

But Jesus himself, the representation of the true sanctuary, has entered into heaven, and he now appears in the presence of God. For us, it's not a priest that only can once a year after a cleansing ritual, go into the holy of holies and offer atonement for us. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice once and for all. There's this beautiful verse in one John, chapter two, and it says this. John was an older man at this point, and he wrote to everyone and called them children.

I guess when you're older than everyone else, you can call them children. And he says, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. That's a goal of John, is that they just wouldn't sin. Like, I think every preacher has that goal, that somehow through our preaching of the word, we would say, just stop sinning. But John had a big goal, is that they would love one another.

It's written throughout all of his letters, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, over and over. But then he says, if anyone does sin, because he knows we will, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Wow. Amen. Jesus is interceding on our behalf, and I want to talk about this for just a minute.

Jesus. Jesus doesn't have to hold back. The father, the father isn't there, just raging against our sin. And Jesus is like, hold up there, hoss. Come on, dad.

Just hold back. Don't destroy them. Jesus doesn't have to do that. I want to get into a little bit of. A little bit of theology or a little bit of doctrine.

I heard a preacher say it this way, if you can learn, and some of you don't know what I'm talking about, but some of you do. If you can learn how to order a drink at Starbucks, you can learn some doctrine. If you can learn what the words on that menu means, we can figure this out, you know, so there's a couple things going on, and I want to describe to you the nature of God. The nature of God is this. God is love.

In his love, he has what we might call his mercy, his grace. But then, on the other hand, we've also got part of the nature of God. And that nature is the righteousness of God. And involved in the righteousness of God is justice. And because of God's justice, because of God's righteousness, we see this conflict that happens between the righteousness and the justice of God and the love and the mercy of God.

Now, it would seem almost, we could say, and I don't like this term, but this is kind of the way I see it, it seems like those are almost at war within God. Not that he's divided now, that he's in a conflicting nature with himself, but rather he wants both things. Both of these are the nature of God. Now, we might look at pictures in, say, the Old Testament and see where it seems like the wrath of God or the justice of God seems to be taking front and center where God says, if you're not holy, you can't be in my presence. Where he sent the Israelites to destroy the seven pagan nations in the land of Canaan.

That was God's land, his holy land, that was devoted to people that would worship him, but they had brought idolatry into the land. And when he sent the children of Israel in there, he says, you have to totally wipe out that land and destroy everyone that's in it and get them out of there. That land was to be a holy place. But then we see times where we see, it seems like God says, I'm not willing that anyone should be destroyed. I'm not willing to see the wicked destroyed.

And so we see this thing, and it almost seems like it's that conflict within God, because how can you have both mercy and justice? It's almost impossible. At least in our human eyes, it is. Now, this is why the Father put in action the plan for his son to die on the cross. Because Jesus is both the holy and righteous one.

His life is the embodiment of the justice of God because he is the sinless, perfect one. But then he dies on our behalf, so our sins are able to be placed on him in Christ, in his death on the cross and his resurrection, the mercy and love of God. Are fully at place and they fully are able to take care of the justice and righteousness of God. So when we say that Christ is our advocate, what we are saying is that when our sin comes before the Father in heaven, we have no righteousness of our own that we can stand on. We have no clean acts, no goodness in ourselves that we can say, Father, would you accept me my penance?

But because Christ is there, he can say, offer this to them, offer my life, my sacrifice to them. Because of Jesus Christ, because of his sacrifice, our sins are atoned for. He has made atonement for us, and he stands before the Father now as our advocate, to say, accept my death, accept my record, accept my righteousness on their behalf. And the Father, because this was his plan, willingly accepts that sacrifice. So Jesus doesn't twist the arm of his father.

This was his father's plan all along. This was the plan of God the Father, that his son would die on our behalf, the holy, sinless, righteous, perfect one for us, that we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. And our third point, the place, the place that we have is the one that Jesus goes to prepare for us. You see, Jesus didn't just go to heaven to sit back and not do anything.

Jesus didn't just go to heaven to not be active anymore in this world. Jesus Christ is gone to heaven, gone from this earth, to prepare a place for us. If we read in the end of revelation, it seems like he brings that place to earth where the new heavens and new earth come down, crashing to the place where we exist. And Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, you may also be. We got a few more verses to read that talk about this.

Jesus, continuing on in his farewell discourse in John chapter 15, says, do not let your hearts be distressed. You believe in God now. Believe also in me. There are many dwelling places in my father's house.

Otherwise I would have told you, because I am going away to make ready a place for you. And if I go to make ready a place for you, I will come to get you, so that where I am, you may be too. And you know the place to where I am going. Then Thomas said, lord, we don't even know where you're going. How can we know the pathway to get there?

And Jesus replied, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you have known me, you will know my father too. And from now on, you do know him, and you have seen him. See, death isn't the final place for us.

Death isn't something I think that we understand very well at times. Death is something that we mourn or we fear at times. So many times, we think that death just kind of is the end of us. And yet, at the same time, we know that something continues on. We talked about this last week when we talked about heaven and hell.

And there's two options in eternity, and that's it. Just two. There's no more. You don't get to party it up in hell, as some people say, like, oh, I'm gonna go to hell, and it's gonna be a great time. All my friends will be there.

That part might be true. You might have a lot of friends there, but there won't be kinship. There won't be friendship. There won't be camaraderie. There's agony, and there's misery.

You're outside of the presence of God, and that defines hell. And so when we think about death, we understand that there is both hell and heaven and that how we live here on earth, specifically, what we do with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf, whether we have received that and allowed him to plead it as our advocate before the throne of the Father in heaven and say, accept my record on behalf of them. See, we can't stand before God and say, accept me on my merits. Accept me on who I am and on what I am and what I've done. We can't say that.

We have to understand that we are only accepted before the father on behalf of the love of Jesus Christ, according to the plan of the Father. And so death isn't the end for us. We have an eternity. There is a place where we will dwell in eternity, and that place is up to you. But Jesus is preparing that place for us right now.

You see, there's already heaven that exists, where God dwells, where his holy angels dwell, where Christ sits at his right hand, where he sends the Holy Spirit from there to be with us, even right now. But the place where he's preparing for us is made specifically for us and for him to dwell with us. Just like King David had it in his heart, and his son Solomon built a temple to be the dwelling place of God. God chose to inhabit that place during a specific period of time. He said, I will dwell in this place.

I will put my name on it. And they saw the glory of God enter into that temple for a time. But that wasn't God's permanent dwelling place. That wasn't where he wanted to dwell with us and commune with us? Jesus is preparing a place for us right now.

But I wonder about us. Are you preparing a place in your life and in your heart for the Holy Spirit? Are you preparing, as we look at next Sunday being the day of Pentecost that we commemorate and celebrate, and that on Pentecost we have the Holy Spirit? The story of the Holy Spirit coming down and dwelling on the believers and living amongst the believers. And if we look at that next week, I wonder not, are we just preparing to receive that message next week, but I wonder, are you preparing for the Holy Spirit to be in your life daily?

Do you live each and every day with the knowledge that the Holy Spirit is here to give you power, that the Holy Spirit is here to work with you on your behalf to grow the kingdom of God on earth? I wonder if you live each and every day beat down and discouraged, or if you rely on the Holy Spirit of God to be with you and to be the presence of Christ here on earth. You know, when Jesus had said that the lowest in the kingdom of heaven would be greater or do greater things than John the Baptist, he meant that. He didn't mean that you'll have the power to just slug through it. No, what he was saying was, the Holy Spirit of God will embody you.

He'll be in you, he'll live in you, and he will be present in you. He'll give you the words to say whether somebody's accusing you or whether somebody is harming you or no matter what. The spirit of God is there. That doesn't fix every problem in our lives, but we have the power, the spirit of God in our lives for every situation. Amen.

I wonder today, in light of the ascension of Jesus Christ, if we live in that power, if we live with the presence of the power of the spirit in our midst, or are you content to just walk in your own power? If you're content to just walk on your own power, then you'll continue just trudging through life, barely able to pick 1ft up after the other. But if you're walking in the power of the spirit of God, there's nothing that can stop you. Because death itself has no bite. It has no sting.

And if death has no sting, then what are we worried about here on this earth? Amen. Amen. So, as we prepare for next week, as we prepare for the message in the series on the coming of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost Sunday, don't just leave here today and say, well, that was a good message, pastor thanks for that. It's only good if you open your heart and apply it to your life.

It's only good if you dig into the scriptures and see what is Christ doing today. You know, I have a dream for the church that we would sometimes just be able to gather in a circle and say, you know what? We don't need the lights, the microphone, all the tv screens to work. We don't need any of that stuff. What we need is to see where Christ is at work in our life and in our world today, and to see where is it that he's needed more.

Just in the circle that I live in, in the realm that I dwell in, where is it that Christ is needed most? And as such, where is it that I can carry the presence of Christ because the spirit of God is with me? And where can we carry the presence of Christ to a hurting and broken people around us? I wonder if you're walking in the power of the Holy Spirit today. You see, a lot of times we focus on that place that Jesus is preparing, and we miss out on the power that he has for us today.