Resurrected, but still not finished yet....

I heard about a small country church that was holding a revival in a packed building. It was so crowded that they had to put up chairs everywhere, right up to the pulpit. The evangelist was preaching about the second coming of Christ and had really warmed up to the subject. He was one of those fire and brimstone kind of preachers that marched up and down the pulpit. At one point of his sermon he leaned over toward the audience and shouted out Jesus’ promise: “I am coming soon” He marched up and down the stage some more and then leaned out again over the edge of the stage and cried out, “I am coming soon” Several minutes went by and again he shouted out, “I am coming soon” But this time, he got tangled up in the microphone cord and lost his balance. Tumbling off the stage, he landed right on the lap of a couple sitting in the front row of chairs. The husband looked at his wife and said, “Well, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. He warned us three times”
As Parents, we all raise our children with their well-being in mind. We tell them and tell them, and yet they don’t really listen! We make promises that they’re gonna get into trouble, and when it actually happens, they still act surprised. There are times when promises have to be made, sometimes kept sometimes broken. Have you ever had something promised to you that you weren’t quite sure what they were promising? When parents promise something to kids, most of the time they understand what is being promised…like McDonald’s. They understand that…Happy Meal…toy…yeah, they’re functioning on the same level we are. But sometimes we promise them things that they don’t quite understand…like when we tell them that we will do something later…their concept of time is much different than ours.

This is exactly what happened after Christ rose from the dead. Once Christ was crucified, they thought the whole thing was over…they hid and mourned the loss of their leader. They hid out of fear that they were going to be next. But once Christ rose again, they had a renewed sense of hope. The problem is, they really didn’t understand what had to happen in the next 40 then 50 days. Christ had been resurrected, but He was not finished yet. There was more to accomplish. Christ spent the next 40 days teaching them about various things.

Let’s read! Today’s Scripture is Luke 24:44-53.

Verse 45 to me, is the key here. It says that Christ opened their minds to the Scriptures. There is some controversy here among theologians. Some say that Christ merely explained and put together the pieces of the puzzle and taught them. Others contend that Christ literally “opened their minds” and allowed them to understand. Personally, I think it is a combination. I think that Christ taught them and instructed them on what the Scriptures say, but also, we know that Christ as well as the Holy Spirit has a profound effect on understanding and I do believe that is what happened. It was a taste of what the Holy Spirit was going to do with them later on.
Christ explains that repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in the name of Christ Jesus to the ends of the Earth, and the place it will begin…Jerusalem. Christ was telling the Apostles that they would be the ones who would carry the message of Christ to everyone. However, there was a promise that followed. They were told to stay in the city and God would follow through on the promise made at The Last Supper. We know that what was promised was the Holy Spirit…the Great Counselor. But take a second and think of this from the Apostles point of view for a second.

The man, a dear friend, you’ve given your life to the past three years is crucified…and then He comes back, Risen from the Dead. If that isn’t freaky enough, he tells you that once he’s taken up to Heaven, you will get another Counselor sent from God…which he explains in this way at The Last Supper in John 14:15 (read). He says that the world doesn’t see him or know him but yet we will. Then Christ says that they have to stay in the city until they have been “clothed with power from on High”. Can you imagine the confusion in their minds????? They were probably wondering what in the world he was talking about!

Talk about a promise that you don’t understand! To relate this to today, let’s think about the Book of Revelation and the End of Times that is revealed there. How many people fully understand what will happen at the End of Times? How many understand the Book of Revelation? Exactly. The promise within this is that good will triumph and we will be with Christ in the New Heaven and New Earth and God will dwell with us forever. What does that mean? How will we get there? It kind of seems like we’re the kids that the parents have promised something we don’t quite understand doesn’t it? Well…we are…we’re children of God, whom He loves more than we can ever imagine. We are his kids who he has made promises, kept them, fulfilled them, and will fulfill them in the future, but it isn’t quite time yet.

This is where the apostles are…it just isn’t quite time yet. However, Christ has been Resurrected, but Jesus is still not finished yet. There is more that has to be accomplished.

Jesus took the disciples out to the area around Bethany, Scriptures’ say. Jesus blessed them, and keep in mind that when we are blessed by God, Christ or the Holy Spirit, we are equipped to do something. In this instance, what were they equipped for? Worshipping Christ and prepared to receive the Holy Spirit. While Christ blessed them, He ascended into Heaven on a cloud according to Acts 1:9. Now…they were ready for what lied ahead.

So what does this mean to us? Well, first of all, we aren’t finished yet. Even though we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have a charge to take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. God expects much more of us than just coming to church on Sunday. To me, the reason Jesus told the Disciples to stay in the city until the promise came to me states that there are seasons in life. There are seasons in which we need to minister to others, but there are times when we need to step back and allow ourselves to be ministered to.

Life is full of seasons just like God created the four seasons. No, it’s not the restaurant in New York…the seasons of the year. You see, summer is a hot season, usually time for activity, vacations and family time. But then summer moves to fall, things start cooling off, activities change, sometimes lessen, sometimes get more hectic depending on what you do for a living and kids schedules. But then Winter comes…things are barren, desolate and a time when things hibernate and cool off. But what we don’t realize is that it is a time that is necessary because things are resetting for the coming season. Spring comes, things start to blossom again and come alive for the coming summer.

This is the way it is in our ministry. Summer is the time when we are on fire for God…we’re full of Him and doing His work. But Fall comes and the ministry that we partake in starts winding down, our activity starts to drop and things begin to cool. Winter comes and this is the time when it seems like nothing is going on, but God is hard at work ministering us and allowing us the time to rebuild ourselves for His work again. These seasons come and go, but we need to realize that they are vital to the big picture. We still minister and do work for God during this time, but there is more of a focus on rebuilding ourselves. That is when spring comes and we start to come alive again and our activities pick up in anticipation for the coming summer of activities.

The next 10 days for the apostles are that winter period for them. They are spending their time doing nothing but worshipping God. They are building up (even though they don’t know it) for the season they are going to be going through for the rest of their lives. Yes, they will have build up time, but after the Pentecost, they will be fully in their summer season on fire for God, spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ…helping to catapult it to the point it is here today.

So, what season of life are you in? Have you prayed about where you’re at? I want to suggest you take some time to think and reflect on what season you are in. Sometimes we just lose track of our seasons and get confused. There is a purpose, a promise and a time for us to do our work.

The work we have been assigned is just like the promise of the parent we talked about earlier. God has made us a promise. Sometimes we don’t understand, sometimes our season does not make sense. But we have the promise of victory as long as we live for Him. The road can be very unclear at times, but we must understand that our season at the time has been made that way by God for a reason.

Promises. God is full of them, and yet he ALWAYS follows through. Humans…we’re full of them…and yet we keep almost none of them. Focus on the promises of God. HE never fails. The word promise occurs in the entire Bible 128 times. My take is this: we should be VERY careful how we use the word promise.

There is a story told about Lincoln told by a guy named Martin Hyzer. It goes like this: one day, President Abraham Lincoln was riding in a coach with a colonel from Kentucky. The colonel took a bottle of whiskey out of his pocket. He offered Lincoln a drink. Lincoln said, “No thank you, Colonel. I never drink whiskey.” After a little while, the colonel took some cigars out of his pocket and offered one to Lincoln. Again Lincoln said, “No, thank you, Colonel.” Then Lincoln said, “I want to tell you a story.”

“One day, when I was about nine years old, my mother called me to her bed. She was very sick. She said, ‘Abe, the doctor tells me that I am not going to get well. I want you to be a good boy. I want you to promise me before I go that you will never use whiskey or tobacco as long as you live.’ I promised my mother that I never would, and up to this hour, I’ve kept this promise! Would you advise me to break that promise?”
The colonel put his hand on Lincoln’s shoulder and said, “Mr. Lincoln, I would not have you break that promise for the world! It is one of the best promises you ever made. I would give a thousand dollars today if I had made my mother a promise like that and had kept it like you have done. I would be a much better man than I am!”
When God promised the Holy Spirit, He knew what He was doing. He knew that once we had the Holy Spirit, we would understand a lot more than we did before. He knew that we would be better for keeping our promises. Our promises help shape who we are…make your promises good.

When we make the good confession of faith and receive the Holy Spirit, we start understanding more and more about God and how loving he really is. The main key is how we react to the promise of God…

This story is from a guy name Ray Comfort: Two men are seated in a plane. The stewardess gives one of them a parachute and instructs him to put it on “because it will improve his flight.” Not understanding how a parachute could improve his flight, the first man is a bit skeptical. Finally he decides to see if the claim is true. After strapping on the parachute he notices it’s burdensome weight and he has difficulty sitting upright. Consoling himself with the promise of a better flight, our first passenger decides to give it a little time. Because he is the only passenger wearing a parachute the other passengers begin making fun of him. Unable to stand it any longer, our passenger slumps in his seat, unbuckles the parachute and throws it to the floor. Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart because he feels as though he was told a lie. Another stewardess gives the other man a parachute but listen to her instructions… She tells him to put it on because at any moment he will be jumping out of the plane at 25,000 feet. The second passenger straps on the parachute, He doesn’t notice the weight upon his shoulders or that he can’t sit upright. His mind is consumed with the thought of what would happen if he jumped without it. When other passengers laugh at him he thinks “You won’t be laughing when your falling to the ground.”

How will you respond to the promise of God? Will you respond like the first man and only half way listen to God’s promise and throw it to the ground? Or will you be like the second man and listen fully to God’s promise, take your season in life and do His will?

I chose to listen this day…God’s promises are good…come, and delight in them.

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