"Book II: The Story Continues" based on Acts 1:1-11
Ascension Day (Observed) -
Pastor Troy Slater - Our
This sermon was adapted from
a sermon by Rev. Carl C. Fickenscher II that appeared
in Volume 19, Part 2 of the "Concordia Pulput
Resources". Copyright
Concordia Publishing House - 2008.
Used with permission.
Our sermon
text for this morning is our reading from the first chapter of the book of
Acts. In fact these verses are the
opening verses of this book that Luke wrote to a man named Theophilus. Luke opens by saying, "In my former book, Theophilus, I
wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken
up to heaven …" The "former book" that Luke refers
to here is of course the gospel account that bear's his name. And of course in that book Luke described in
detail the Gospel of Jesus. Beginning with the account of the angel Gabriel
appearing to a virgin named Mary, continuing with Jesus' birth, ministry,
suffering, death and resurrection and even including a reference to His
ascension as we heard in our Gospel reading for this morning, in his Gospel
Luke described the life and ministry of Jesus.
And yet, as Luke himself writes, his Book I - the Gospel account - records
only what "Jesus began to do
and to teach." I guess like any
best-selling author, Luke left the plot open for a sequel.
And it is the book of Acts that is
this sequel. And to be sure, Luke wants
us to see these two books as a unit. In
fact we could even say that Book I - the Gospel of Luke - is required reading
in order to move on to Book II - the book of Acts. Book I gives us the essential facts without
which Book II would make no sense. If
Book I is the story of the Gospel, then Book II is the story of how that Gospel
message spread to the ends of the earth.
And so without the Gospel, there could have been no Book II. Without Jesus' life, suffering, and death, there
would be no message to proclaim. Without
Jesus' resurrection, there'd be no hope - the story would have been over with a
dead Jesus. Without the Gospel which
Luke records for us, the book of Acts could have only been a work of fiction -
meaningless. And
so yes, Book II, like most sequels, it is dependent upon Book I. …
But on the other hand, without Book
II, the meaning of Book I would have been forgotten centuries ago. Without the
events recorded in the book of Acts, the message of the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus would have ended with a small group of men and women in a
small corner of the world. And so with
Book II - the Book of Acts - the story continues; that is, the story of a resurrected Jesus continues. "In my former book Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and
to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions
through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to
these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty
days and spoke about the kingdom of God." For forty days a risen Jesus appeared to His
disciples. He proved that Easter morning
was no lie. He showed them again and
again that He was risen and alive. And
that good news, that Easter victory over death and the grave it became the disciples
motivation, it became their validation, it became their mission.
For Jesus would
soon leave His disciples - visibly at least as His presence among them would be
transformed. Jesus would no longer make appearances to His
disciples as He did over those 40 days. But
through the disciples His work would continue - His story would continue. In our reading Jesus says to His disciples, "Do not leave
Of course that
"power" they would receive when the Holy Spirit would come upon them
was delivered ten days later on Pentecost which we will celebrate next
week. The disciples would be filled with
the Holy Spirit and thereby be empowered to proclaim Jesus in all sorts of
languages. They would be emboldened to
journey to the ends of the earth with the good news of Christ crucified for our
sins and raised for our salvation. That
spreading of the good news of Christ, that's what Book II is about, that's what
Acts is about. The message of Jesus
didn't die with a small group of men and women in a small corner of the world, rather
by the Holy Spirit workign through the disciples, it continued - it spread to
the ends of the earth. …
It's kind of interesting that the
book of Acts leaves a lot of loose ends - in fact it's often considered to have
a rather abrupt ending. But I think Luke
meant it that way. For again the book of
Acts is the story of how the Gospel message of Jesus spread to the ends of the
earth. And so by not neatly tying up the
book of Acts, it appears that Luke is trying to say to his readers that the
story continues. For while Acts records
for us the story of how the Gospel spread from Jerusalem and then to Judea and
Samaria and even to the ends of the earth - at least to what in the first
century was considered to be the ends of the earth, that story, it did yet
continue, didn’t it? It continued with
Luke's first readers, a Gentile man named Theophilus
and those of Theophilus' household and then of his
town. It continued over the next couple
of centuries as the Gospel message spread and thrived over much of southern
The story it continued, and in fact
it even continues today. That's right,
Acts, Book II, it continues today. In
fact it even continues with us. It continues with you for you've been baptized
with the Holy Spirit, haven't you? Most of us probably as infants - baptized in
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You see baptism, your baptism was not just some isolated event in your own
personal history now confined to a scrapbook or a photo album; it's all a part
of the story of God's redeeming acts in all the world. The book of Acts, it is not just some story
back then, it's also your story now. … The story continues.
And in fact that story, it even
continues as together as the church we now proclaim the Gospel message of Jesus
to all the world.
Yes you are a character in Book II.
For certainly we have our Jerusalems and Judeas and Samarias that we are
to take the Gospel message of Jesus to as well.
They're our children. They're the
folks we work with, the neighbors we live by, the men and the ladies we play
golf with. There are hundreds of unchurched souls in our town, probably well over a million
in our state, 150 million in the
And of course that's a tall order,
isn't it? A very tall
order for the church to take the Gospel message to the ends of the earth AND to
our families and friends and neighbors.
But there is good news, for Jesus continues to be with us all through
Book II. Our Ascension reading tells us
that "Jesus was taken up before their very eyes,
and a cloud hid him from their sight." The disciples saw Jesus leave but yet He
wasn't gone - He was merely hidden from their sight. His presence among them was transformed. For at the ascension, Jesus took His seat at
the right hand of God's power, but that's not a distant place. In fact, it's not really a place at all. What it means is that He's constantly
exercising God's power on our behalf. It
means that He's now everywhere, always with us - not just His divine nature,
but His human nature as well. Jesus -
true God and true man - is right here with us.
All through Book II, He's right here with us - speaking to us and
empowering us through His Holy Word - forgiving us and strengthening us through
His Holy Supper. Book II, it continues. In fact Book II, it will continue until the
end of time. Christ's Gospel message
will continue to go out until He comes again in all glory to judge the living
and the dead.
But you know
it's kind of interesting that Luke in our reading for today, he suggests yet
another book that's coming - a Book III perhaps we can say. One that will complete Luke's story, or shall
we say shall complete Jesus' story. For
in our reading Luke records for us that, "they
were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men
dressed in white stood beside them. 'Men
of Galilee,' they said, 'why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you
into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.'" You see Book III will begin when this same
Jesus returns as the disciples saw Him go.
Christ has ascended into heaven as our Lord and as our Savior with the
promise to reappear and to take us to heaven.
And that book, Book III, it will never end. But that's another story, isn't it? But it is yet your story in Christ crucified,
risen and ascended. Amen.