12th January 2025

New Testament Heroes 2 – (Martin Mowat)

Readings: Luke 24:36-53 and Acts 1:1-9

When I was first fitted with hearing aids, some 8 or 9 years ago, they told me that I’d be able to hear all sorts of things that I hadn’t heard for years, such as the sound of my feet walking through grass.

In fact, not only had I not been hearing the noise, but I wasn’t even really aware that I was making it.

That can be a little bit like when we study the Bible. We get so familiar with it that we lose our awareness of what’s there, what’s going on.

I hope that as we work our way through the book of Acts, we will see new things, and be re-awakened to things that we have forgotten.

The book of Acts is properly called The Acts of the Apostles, but it’s also been dubbed The Acts of the Holy Spirit.

It was written by a doctor, and missionary, called Luke who was NOT, himself, one of the 12 apostles.  He never knew Jesus personally, although to read what he said about him, you would think that he had.  

So, what inspired Luke to write his two books, because as we saw last week, the work involved must have been monumental?   I think it was that he decided that this was a story that just had to be told.

I’m reminded of the story in the book of 2 Kings, in the time of the prophet Elisha, when 4 men with leprosy were gleaning, probably, in the battle field at night, and discovered that the enemy had taken flight, leaving all their food and belongings behind.  As they were greedily helping themselves to the spoil, they said to each other, ‘What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.’

I think that’s how Luke felt.  It was a day of good news and it HAD to be told.  Perhaps we should feel a little bit like that too.

According to John, Nicodemus conceded that no one could do the deeds Jesus did unless God was with him. According to Matthew the multitudes who listened to the Sermon on the Mount were awestruck, because they had never heard anyone teach as Jesus taught. 

It was sentiments like these that inspired Luke to record, to write, to broadcast.  What Jesus did, and what he said both to individuals and to crowds, was so profound, so revolutionary, so unique, so convincing, so literally life-changing, they just had to be told. It had to be shared.

Not only that, Luke had a deep desire to lead others to a deeper and more personal knowledge of the Saviour. That’s why I personally think that Luke always had a wider audience in mind, and the good which that effort has brought to millions, to mankind in fact in a way, is incalculable. The benefit continues to this day and will go on until the end of time. That’s why I think he’s a super-hero.

So let’s move on.

We established last week is that, while we’re used to the idea of Jesus teaching his followers during his short 3-year ministry on earth, he not only continued to do so during the 40 magical days between the resurrection and the ascension, but he continued to do so, through the Holy Spirit, AFTER his ascension, which is what makes the book of Acts such a key document for the church today.

Let’s look at that ascension for a few moments. 

To put it in context, let’s not forget that Jesus’ arrival on the earth was as supernatural as his departure.  That, of course, is unique, and should tell us a lot about who he was. So, what do the four gospel writers tell us about it?

Matthew simply says.  “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ We read that passage quite recently.

Strangely, though, neither Mark or John mention anything about it.  Mark leaves us with the account of the two Marys and Salome finding the tomb empty on Easter Day. John leaves us with the account of Jesus forgiving, reinstating and commissioning Peter to lead his church. 

Our hero Luke, though, as we heard from Charlotte, tells us that Jesus told his disciples to stay in the city until they had been clothed with power from on high, until Pentecost in other words, and then, that having blessed them, he “left them and was taken up into heaven”. That’s better than nothing, but it’s not very graphic, is it? 

He doesn’t tell us very much more in Acts, really. Chapter 1, verse 9, the last one that Trevor read to us just now, tells us that “after he had said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” I suppose that there wasn’t a lot more to be said.

Not surprisingly, though, the disciples were “gob-smacked”.  You can just imagine them standing there with their mouths wide open, hardly daring to believe their own eyes.  This was quite unprecedented and if there hadn’t been so many of them to witness it, one might have not believed it. 

So what was it that Jesus had just told them?  What was the very last thing that he had said to them? Verses 7 and 8. “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and that will enable you to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (NB Slightly adapted quote)

Once more there’s a reference to Pentecost, but in this one the reference is to Pentecost and beyond. 

In conclusion, author J. I. Packer called the Holy Spirit the "shy'" member of the Trinity. “We know far more about the words, attributes, and activities of the Father and the Son” he said, ”than we know of the Holy Spirit”. BUT, let’s not forget that everything we know of the personality of God, we know by the Holy Spirit's disclosure to the biblical writers, and to us personally. 

If Jesus did what He did in the power of the Holy Spirit, how much more do we need to be consciously dependent upon that same Holy Spirit? 

That is what the early church discovered. 

Think about the situation that the today’s church finds itself in today.  The social situation, it’s reputation, and on a wider scale, the world politics that it is facing, the misery that it should be ministering to, the hope-less ness that people are now experiencing, as they languish in ignorance of what Christ has to offer them.  

We need the Holy Spirit more that ever before?