A Decade of Dynamic Discipleship

              A Decade of Dynamic Discipleship A-Script:
Acts 1
Intro: Did your ears catch the unbelievable story from Scripture this
morning? Forty days after Good Friday, a group of men were convinced of
t he reality that Jesus lived. Each of those who stood closest to Jesus
believed that new power had entered his own life, a power that transcended
the ugliness of that black day of crucifixion, It was a continual experience
that confirmed over and again that Easter was real.
But what about this story? One can understand Easter. Love over-coming
the power of evil and hate. Life conquering the ugliness of death.
Hope victorious over despair. Joy winning its way over sadness. But
this story is something different. Is it not so ehhing one finds neatly
produced on Twilight Zone. Or possibly an experience that would interest
those enamored with ESP. Th is event could easily be taken up by Edgar
Case and used in his speculations about the continual existence of the soul
in newer forms of life.
The story sounds fantastic. It looks as though, as we read it with
20th century eyes, the writer would give us the impression that Jesus was
the first astronaut without benefit of a modern space suit and all the
propulsion necessary to be pushed into the orbit of the heavenlies. Is
this one of many events recorded in the Bible that tax the faith of
modern men? Is it simply another story to which we shrug our shoulders and
say, So what. So Jesus ascended into heaven. It doesn't seem plausible
to me, but it doesn't matter. Yet Dr. Luke a careful historian, and a
scientist in his time thought it important enough to include in history
about the church as he writes to a man named Theophilus.
And the church collectively seems to think it important too. In every
calendar that governs the church year this event today is called Ascension
Sunday, the time when Christ ascended into heaven.
After we have finished playing with this story, we have to face the
realities to which it points.
I. Jesus leaves them to continue in a responsible relationship to him by
faith.
A. He calls them to maturity from infancy.
1. They had the experience--together they had followed Jesus.
They had heard him speak, Blessed are you....They saw him in
conflict with the religious leaders, " 0 you hypocrites
They saw his tenderness with the needy
2. They had gotten the word. The callousness of their souls,
the cataracts on their eyes, the fogginess of their minds.
3. Now he leaves. He cannot even be sometime who simply retires,
and later may be called upon. lie physically leaves them.
4. Their relationship to this one is now by faith. They trust
what their eyes have seen, what their minds had come to know,
what their souls had experienced.
B. How many times this has happened in history.
1. Martin Luther King's death. Many who believed in non-violence
while he was alive turned to militancy when he died.