Now, if you haven’t already noticed, my better half isn’t with me this morning. I guess you could say, she left me...but I wouldn’t, because it would give y’all the wrong impression. You see, on Thursday morning, she drove to Indianapolis and then went with a friend from high school (a female friend) to visit another friend who lives in St. Louis. And sometime today, she’s driving back to Indianapolis to celebrate her mother’s ninety-fifth birthday. And that’s the reason she’s not here this morning.
And you know, from my perspective, her being gone is a little bit bad but a whole lot good. Let me explain. On the bad side, well, Coco and I really miss her. Now understand, in my life, I’ve lived alone for a long time; therefore, I can pretty much take care of myself. I mean, I already know what I’ll be eating for the next week, and when I’m by myself at home, I live in a very small area; therefore, there’s not much I can mess up. There are rooms I’m not even going to enter until she gets back. Still, I miss her. I miss talking to her, you know, hearing about her day, which has become a whole lot happier since she retired, and sharing with her mine, which is pretty much the same. The house just seems kind of empty without her being around. Now that’s on the “bad news” side of the ledger. On the other hand, I’m absolutely delighted that she’s taken this opportunity to do something with two of her best friends but also to spend as much time as she wants with her ninety-five year old mother. I mean, that’s not the kind of thing for which you can take a mulligan. No, for as much as I miss her just being around, it actually makes me really happy that she decided to go.
And you know, that’s really what we’re going to be talking about this morning as we continue to explore The Apostle’s Creed. Of course, if you’ve been able to be here over the last five weeks, you know that we’ve already discussed what it means to say
“I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead.”
Now that’s what we’ve already covered. And this morning, we’ve going to continue our exploration by focusing on the affirmation, “I BELIEVE...he ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty,” something that I think most Christians claim to believe but may not understand all that well. And to approach this, we’re going to answer two questions. First, why do we say I BELIEVE...he ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty? And then, second, why is this affirmation important, you know, important for us to say? And as we answer that second question, we’ll consider both the bad and the good that might come from saying this part of the creed. Now that’s the plan for the next ten minutes or so.
Beginning with question number one: Why do we say I BELIEVE...he ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty? Of course, based on God’s word, I think the reason is pretty clear.
You see, according to scripture, Jesus certainly did ascend into heaven. In other words, sometime after he “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried” and sometime after “he descended into hell [and] on the third day he rose again from the dead,” Jesus left this world and returned to his father, something that Luke described when he wrote this in The Book of Acts:
While the apostles were still with Jesus, they asked him, “Lord, are you now going to give Israel its own king again?”
Jesus said to them, “You don't need to know the time of those events that only the Father controls. But the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power. Then you will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world.” After Jesus had said this and while they were watching, he was taken up into a cloud. They could not see him, but as he went up, they kept looking up into the sky.
Suddenly two men dressed in white clothes were standing there beside them. They said, “Why are you men from Galilee standing here and looking up into the sky? Jesus has been taken to heaven. But he will come back in the same way you have seen him go.”
After the apostles returned to the city, they went upstairs to the room where they had been staying. [Acts 1:6-11, 13b, CEV]
Now that was what Luke wrote. And I’ll tell you, in it, three things are pretty apparent, at least to me. I mean, one, right before he went, Jesus was far more interested in telling the Apostles what he wanted them to do than in explaining the political future of Israel. And two, simply put, he left, having been taken up in glory. And three, two men dressed in white, who sound an awful lot like the two men the women saw in the tomb after the resurrection, man, they wanted the Apostles to stop trying to see where Jesus had gone so they could start doing what they’d been told to do. You see, just like the Creed says, first, we believe Jesus ascended to heaven.
But again as it states, we also believe that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. In other words, when he left those Apostles staring up into the sky, Jesus simply went home, you know, back to his father in heaven, back to his place within God. And you know, this was something that the deacon Stephen saw right before he was executed by the Jewish leaders, also in The Book of Acts. Luke wrote,
When the council members heard Stephen's speech, they were angry and furious. But Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. He looked toward heaven, where he saw our glorious God and Jesus standing at his right side. Then Stephen said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!” [Acts 7:54-56, CEV]
You see, in a real sense, Jesus went home. I mean, after humbling himself by assuming flesh and after experiencing what it means to be human in almost every way, including all those pesky human emotions, and after he suffered and died and was raised, the Son of Man returned to where he’d come. And then, according to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Then God gave Christ the highest place and honored his name above all others. So at the name of Jesus everyone will bow down, those in heaven, on and under the earth. And to the glory of God the Father everyone will openly agree, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord!’” [Philippians 2:9-11, CEV] You see, in my opinion, that’s why we say “I BELIEVE...he ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty,” the answer to our question number one.
But for as important as that may be, I think it’s question number two where the rubber hits the road: Why is this important to say it? I mean, why is it important to say
I BELIEVE...he ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty? In other words, what difference does it make to us that we believe that, after the resurrection, the Son rejoined the Father in heaven. Now that’s the question. And I’ll tell you, in my opinion, the answer reflects a little bit of bad, at least for us, but also a whole bunch of good, and I’m talking about the kind of good news that can change lives. Let me show you what I mean.
You see, on one hand, I think there’s a little bit of bad news here, at least, from our perspective. I mean, because he ascended, Jesus is no longer present with us physically, and let’s face it, wouldn’t it be nice, you know, to have Jesus around all the time: to answer all our questions and to tell us exactly what we should do and my goodness, to give us a few absolutes on what’s right and wrong: no more ambiguity, just the facts. Wouldn’t that be nice? Sure it would. Good night nurse, if he didn’t ascend, maybe we wouldn’t be alone and maybe we wouldn’t have to figure out who we’re supposed to trust and what we’re supposed to do all by ourselves. And I’ll tell you, I’ve got a gut feeling that’s why, after he left, the Apostles were just standing around, looking into the sky. Man, I think they hoped he’d come back. But he didn’t, and that ain’t good.
And you know, because he’s at God’s right hand, we can’t be sure he hears us when we talk with him. My gosh, if he were sitting beside us, we’d be able to share with him, face-to-face, our hopes and dreams, our fears and frustrations, our problems and pain. And we could see him nod and establish eye-contact and hold our hands just to show us that he’s listening. But now, because he’s so far away, we’ve got to trust that he hears, and let’s get real, if the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is correct and “faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see,” [Hebrews 11:1, CEV], man, it’s a lot harder to trust things that we can’t see than stuff that we do. I’ll tell you, I think that kind of trust just makes us uncomfortable, doesn’t it; and no one wants to be uncomfortable. You see, on one hand, I think that’s the downside of Jesus leaving us and returning to God.
But you know, for as bad as we think that might be, on the other hand, the good news found in this part of the creed, man, it’s outstanding. You see, although we may be bummed out that he’s not physically around, because he ascended, Jesus sent us his presence in a new and special way. And you know, that’s exactly what he promised he would do. Just listen to what Jesus told his disciples before his resurrection:
I was with you at the first, and so I didn't tell you these things. But now I am going back to the Father who sent me, and none of you asks me where I am going. You are very sad from hearing all of this. But I tell you I am going to do what is best for you. This is why I am going away. The Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone, I will send the Spirit to you.
The Spirit shows what is true and will come and guide you into the full truth. The Spirit doesn't speak on his own. He will tell you only what he has heard from me, and he will let you know what is going to happen. The Spirit will bring glory to me by taking my message and telling it to you. Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I have said that the Spirit takes my message and tells it to you. [John 16:4b-7, 13-15, CEV]
You see, if he didn’t leave us, we wouldn’t have the “
Spirit[, which] shows what is true and will come and guide [us] into the full truth.” [John 13:1, CEV] As a matter of fact, in a very real sense, we’re actually lucky Jesus ascended, you know, that he left us, because if he hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been given his presence in our lives, a presence that offers us a deeper understanding of his words and his will than anything the disciples could have had. In other words, we don’t have to stand around, looking at the clouds, waiting for Jesus to come back. Instead because we have his Spirit, we can come together as God’s people. And we can understand God’s word. And we can roll up our sleeves and do exactly what those two men had to tell the Apostles to do. Man, they don’t have to tell us. Why? Because he ascended, we believe Jesus sent his presence in a new and special way.
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