Luke 24:50-53

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Great. So Luke 24 starting at verse 60 which is on page 1062. When he had led them out of the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

And they stayed continually at the temple praising God. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Anna, that is brilliant. Do make sure you've got your bibles open to 1062.

That'll help you and me because that's God's word and that's what we're going to be looking at. And before we get into thinking about that, I've got some very special bands of marriage to read today for some folks who you might recognise some of their names which is wonderful and brings me great joy. So I publish the banns of marriage between James Truman Bidwell Mackay and Rachel Bethany Giles James of the parish of St. Andrews, Fulham Fields. Rachel of the parish of St.

John the Evangelist Clapham. If any of you know cause or just impediment why these two. I've gone for the old version. Okay, I've started self finished. If any of you know any cause or just impediment why these two persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony, ye are to declare it.

This is for the first time of asking. Great, that's brilliant. Well in which case let me pray for them. Father, thanks so much for James and Rachel. Thank you.

That they really want their wedding day to be a day that talks all about an even more important wedding day. Thank you. That their wedding day. They want to talk about Jesus and his love for us. I pray that their marriage would reflect that.

I pray it would be long and faithful and joy filled. I pray it would make them both more like Jesus. And I pray for them as they prepare for their wedding day in just a few weeks time now. Amen. Amen.

I know they are watching along on the live stream so. Hi guys, it's good to see you. And I should say as we go through looking at the Bible today, if any of your young ones are coming out, that's great, love that. Just make sure that your grown ups are happy for you to be on the live stream if that is you. But let me pray and let's dive into this part of God's word together.

Father, God, thank you so much for Jesus. I pray that as we see him now that you would change our hearts. Father, if we've got a wrong view of him, correct it if we've got too low a view of him, correct it help us to see Jesus today through the Bible. Amen. Fantastic.

I'm going to get a prop. As I do say we are in the book of Luke, Luke's Gospel. And Luke's Gospel is great. Cars. Hello.

Hello. Hang about. Don't mind me. There we go.

There we go. Don't mind me. Luke's Gospels. Great. Tells us all about Jesus.

We've been looking at Jesus. This is not Jesus, but it's kind of representing him to today. And we'll see what's going to happen in a few moments time. If you are one of our young ones and you can't see and you want to come into the middle, that's fine, you can do that. Otherwise look on the screen and you'll see.

But we saw on Good Friday, Luke told us what happened to Jesus on Good Friday.

Not a rhetorical question. What happened to Jesus on Good Friday? It was a couple of weeks ago. We might have forgotten. Go on.

Yes, he died. He died on a cross. It was very sad. But why do we call it Good Friday then? Can anyone remember?

Go on, Seth. Because Jesus died for our sins. Remember we had that big swap? Jesus died in my place. He sacrificed himself for me and for you.

He took my sin. He died. Good Friday, then Easter Sunday. Can anyone remember what happened to Jesus on Easter Sunday? Go on.

He rose from the dead. That's absolutely right. He rose up from the dead. Remember we saw that early in the morning the women went to the tomb and it was empty because tombs are for dead people and Jesus isn't dead. So why would.

And he had risen. And then do you remember we saw that he was appearing to people bing there talking with Peter and then disappears. Bing. He's there talking with his disciples on the road to Emmaus. Do you remember that?

Him going on the road to Emmaus? And do you remember what he opened on the road to Emmaus? Remember he opened up the Bible, the scriptures to them. And he opened up their eyes to see him and actually opened their mouths as well because they started talking about him. So he's appeared bing to Mary in the garden.

He's appeared bing to Peter. He's appeared bing to the people on the road to Emmaus. We know. Then later on last week, Bing. He appears in a locked room talking to his disciples.

And between last week's passage and this week's passage, there have been 40 days. The book of Acts tells us and the Book of Corinthians tells us he's appeared to over 500 people. Bing, Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Then today something awesome happens. Something awesome and a little bit weird.

You see, Jesus is there at Bethany and he's with his disciples. But instead of disappearing, bing, he does this.

And he doesn't stop halfway up because his rope got tangled.

Off he goes all the way. Now why is it that Jesus today would not just disappear? Why does he shoot up into the sky? Some people look at this and they go, I'm fine with Jesus. I'm okay with all that.

But somebody flying, that's a bit weird. Can I really believe this? And it's like, I can believe that guy came back from the dead, but I can't believe that he could ascend into heaven. The same guy, Luke tells us that Jesus did this. He's the same guy who tells us that Jesus came back from the dead.

Sometimes kids, grown ups, we want to have our cake and eat it. We want to say, I want God to prove that Jesus really is God. And then when he does godlike stuff, we're like, oh, that didn't happen. Can't possibly happen. Nobody ever flies.

We can't have our cake and eat it either we want God to prove it and we're okay when he does. Or we say miracles don't happen and therefore I don't need proof that Jesus says who he says he is. No, this really happened because Jesus really is God. But there's more. You see, Jesus does this because when he disappears this time, bing, the idea is that he's saying, look, I'm not going to come back until I come back in the same sort of a way.

I'm going to come down from heaven. You're going to see him. We're going to see him. It's going to be like that day of jubilee all over again. When Jesus comes back in his glory.

That's still to come. We've seen him go up, we're waiting for him to come back down. But there's more. There's more. How cool is this?

Because Luke tells us what's going on. Luke's only got a few verses to tell us what's going on. But when is it that Jesus starts going up to heaven in these verses?

Verse 51 might help you, little number 51. When is it that Jesus starts going into heaven? Feel free to shout it out as soon as you get there.

Little number 51. First four words will give it to you quite well. Say again. While he was blessing them. Okay.

While Jesus is Blessing them. He goes up to heaven. Interesting. Now that's strange because in the book of Luke we've only heard of Jesus blessing food like this. He's only used that word for him blessing food.

Or indeed for Jesus being blessed. He's not blessed anybody else. It's a bit weird what's going on? What's more than that? What's Jesus doing with his body during that time?

Verse 50 will help you. What's Jesus doing with his body, do you think? You know, go on.

Maybe I'll get the balloon to fly again. That's a good, a good one. But what's he doing with his body? Go on. He lifted up his hands.

Yes, that's right. He's lifting up his hands. Now Luke's only got about four verses here. Why does he tell us that? He doesn't say Jesus sporting a nice new haircut went up to heaven.

He doesn't say Jesus while smiling. He doesn't say Jesus was looking up or looking down. He doesn't say anything about but lifting up his hands. Why use some of your short little sentence at the end on Jesus doing this? Hmm.

Unless this is something we've seen before. I need a helper, somebody probably who's a little bit tall. Parents. Are you happy for me to choose? Great.

Joshua, do you want to come up? Excellent. Joshua, can I give you something to wear? Is that okay? Excellent.

I don't look too suspicious? Oh, you won't look too suspicious, don't worry. That's brilliant. Now I've got this. I found this.

Let me just squeeze past and I'll show the grown ups this as well. I have got this. I found it in the back of the church here. It's meant to make vicars look a bit like Old Testament priests, which is why I don't bother wearing it. But it's great if we want an actual Old Testament priest.

And we do want an actual Old Testament priest. So this goes on just like a jumper. So if I can just pop that over you. Put your head through there. That is br.

Look at you, looking awesome. And do you know what? This isn't just any Old Testament priest that I've got here. This is Aaron himself. You see, we've seen this picture before in a book of the Bible that tells us all about the cross that we might have looked at fairly recently.

Any ideas, people? In the book of Leviticus somebody said, yeah, brilliant. In the book of Leviticus. Let me read for you a little bit of the book of Leviticus. You see what happened is we got a priest.

And the very first day they became a priest, they did something incredible. Let me read you from Leviticus, chapter 9.

We hear it says, having sacrificed the sin offering and the guilt offering and the fellowship offering. Now we remember those. I've only got two animals today, but could you. Could you just rip that in half for me? Is that all right?

You might need to get an arm out. There you go. Yeah, it's a bit like a poncho. There we go. So that's sacrifice.

And then. And then this one as well. That's good. Great sacrificing, Aaron. Aaron's done some great sacrificing.

This is good. Having sacrificed, having made all those sacrifices. Remember, the animals died in the place of the people. What happens next? Let me read you what happens next.

Feel free to act this out if you would, like Aaron. Okay. Aaron lifted up his hands towards the people and blessed them. Hmm. What does he do?

He lifts up his hands like this. Oh, like that. That's also true. That's good. That's great.

And he blesses them. He prays that God's goodness would be poured out on them. Oh, sorry. There we go. That's good.

That's brilliant. He prays that God's goodness will be poured out on them. Hmm. Why does Jesus lift up his hands and bless them? Well, because like Aaron, Jesus has already made a sacrifice.

The sacrifice. The one that all the other sacrifices pointed towards. Like Aaron, Jesus is becoming a high priest like Aaron. Therefore, Jesus holds out his hands and blesses his people. And do you know what happens next?

Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting Moses and Aaron went to be with God. If you were watching on Moses and Aaron, they disappear from sight. Why is it that. Oh, yeah, you can disappear? Oh, great.

Brilliant. This is great. I don't. This should use you again. Like Moses and Aaron, Jesus puts his arms out, he blesses the people.

Why? Because the sacrifice has been done. Like Moses and Aaron. What does Jesus do? He goes to be with God.

What difference does that make? We're going to find out in a few minutes time, but. Oh, sorry. He goes to be with God. There we go.

See, it's gone back up again. That's good. There we go. If I cut the line, it's going to be a big headache. I promise you that.

There we go. He goes to be. We've got. He goes out of sight and we're going to find out what difference that makes to you and me in a few moments time. But before we do that, we're going to sing again.

So whilst I give you a bit of a prize and get you ready, why don't we stand if we're able and we're going to sing and pray and then we're going to come back and think about what the difference this makes for us.

Four volunteers. I'm going to be pretty harsh about this, but I'm going to. One, two.

Let's see. Oh, over here, Henry. Three and four. Come on out. Come on out.

Okay, you know this game very well. I'm going to give you a prize whether you do well or not. So please don't worry. But I am going to be pretty harsh. The game goes like this.

It goes like this. If I say Simon says, then you do it. If I do not say Simon says, then you don't do it. Henry, nod if you understand. What do you know?

I'll give you one more. I'll give you one more. Go. Simon says nod if you understand. Okay, I'm going to do this one by one.

I need you guys to be looking with me. We're going to start with Henry. At this end, I'm going to put down your prizes. Okay, so what's your name? Henry.

Oh, Henry. There you go. There's your prize. Do you take a seat? Okay, let's go again.

Remember, only if I say Simon says. Okay. Simon says tap your head. Simon says tap your shoulders. Simon says tap your head.

Stop. Oh, good. He's good. Oh, wait, you stopped, you stopped. There you go, prize.

Off you go. Sit down. There we go. Okay, are you ready? Simon says tap your head.

Simon says tap your shoulders. Simon says tap your belly. Simon says tap your head. Simon says tap your shoulders. Simon says tap your belly.

Oh, you're tapping your head. There we go. Well done to you. Off you go. Take a seat.

Right, next one. Okay. Simon says jog on the start pot. Jog faster. Oh, no.

There we go. Well done to you. Yes. I've got another one. Tell you what, for coming on up, you can have that.

Well done. Great. We give them a round of applause. Why are we thinking about Simon says? Well, because I love the game.

Simon says. I love the fact that if you don't tell somebody to stop, they carry on doing it. What do we see in this passage? We see some people carrying on doing some stuff. Tenuous link.

Let's go there. So we see that the book of Luke, it starts and ends with a little three letter word verse 52, Joy. Starts, ends with joy. It says while he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

In fact, like Simon says, we don't see them stopping that we don't see. Simon says, stop worshipping. Simon says, stop joying. In fact, the opposite is true. Verse 53.

And they stayed continually at the temple, praising. What does it mean that Jesus has ascended up into heaven? It means that his people should be full of joy and worship. That should be a present, continuous, ongoing thing. Now, please.

I'm not saying that that means that the Christian life is always happy. I'm not saying that there aren't sometimes tears. There are sometimes tears. Sometimes being a Christian doesn't stop us from going through really hard times. But it does mean that there is a joy that is there that says, I know, I know that with Jesus, the worst part of the story is never the last part of the story.

I know that my Jesus is going to come back just like he went. I know that this world is not going to end with all the scary things that are on tv. I know it's going to end with the trumpet sound jubilee. Okay, so there's the present continuous joy, the present continuous worship. Notice.

How is it that they carry on worshipping? Well, they carry on going to the temple. They stay continually at the temple praising God. You see, Jesus going up to heaven meant that they wanted to be with other people. They wanted to carry on worshipping him.

They wanted to carry on in joy. Now, they didn't say notice, they didn't go, well, you know, we were at the ascension yesterday, kind of done our thing this week. I'm not going to go and be with God's people, you know, well, yeah, I'll be back next week. They didn't say, oh, do you know what? I'd love to be with God's people today.

I'd love to do the joy and worship thing. But actually, do you know, it's actually really, it's the first sunny day in weeks and you know, actually the hills around Bethany, so nice. I'm just going to go and do that. See, part of the reason that they kept their joy and their worship of the Lord was that they kept meeting with God's people. It might be that you're here today and actually part of your Christian life doesn't feel full of joy.

Maybe actually the worship that you were so pleased about a couple of weeks ago has gone a bit cold. And maybe the reason for that is that actually we are just not committed with our church family week in, week out to Looking at Jesus week in, week out. Maybe that's the reason that we've gone a bit cold. We say, oh, but the chairs are hard. And it's hard being in a church and politics is so difficult and all of that.

And I hear you, look at where the disciples have gone. They stayed continually at the temple. The temple that in another 40 years is going to be ripped down due to the judgement of God. The temple that is full of people who didn't know Jesus. The temple that Jesus had to make a whip out of cords to drive out the money.

This isn't an easy place to be, but they're there. Why? Because they want to be with God's people, worshipping God. They want to be in a place of worship and that brought joy. But there's one last thing that doesn't stop and this is really cool.

So even if you've tuned out for a few moments, come back. Because look at what Jesus is doing when he goes up to heaven. While he was blessing them. Present continuous, he's carrying on blessing them. He doesn't stop blessing them.

In other words, what's Jesus doing in heaven? Come back next week. We're going to see it from Hebrews. It's all fitted well, really well together. But this week we know what is Jesus doing right now to the people who know and love him?

He is blessing them. In other words, he is at his Father's side. Pray, pour out our goodness into their lives. Pour out ourselves into their lives. How is Jesus?

What's Jesus attitude towards you today as his people? It's the same as it was yesterday. It's the same as it will be next week. It is an attitude of blessing. What's God's attitude to you when you are having a really hard time, a really difficult day, when frankly you're in the middle of sin, it is blessing.

Jesus is looking at you and he is saying, father, let us pour our goodness into their lives. Let them experience something of the grace of Jesus, the forgiveness that I offer. Let them. In other words, when you are sinning, it's not that he is sitting there going, duh, again when he gets here. No, it's not like that.

He's looking at you and he is saying, look, I have done the sacrifice. I've died in that place. The sacrifice is done. And so what am I doing? As I look at my child, my sister, my brother who is struggling, I am saying, father, please, please work your grace into their lives.

Show them the joy of knowing me. Bring them back to a place of worship. Show them forgiveness when you're hurting. He's saying, father, please, let's take these tears and use them to make them more like me. See, that is the picture of what our God in heaven is doing.

If we know Jesus, our priest, he's done the sacrifice, he's died, he's forgiven you and now he is blessing you. That doesn't mean that life is always easy, but it means that he is always praying for you. And if that is who your God is, then you will want to worship him and you will want to delight in Him. Let me pray, Father. God, thank you so much for Jesus.

Thank you that he does not just disappear and leave us. Thank you that he sends the Holy Spirit. In a few weeks time, we'll remember that. But thank you Father too, that even in his going to heaven, he is going and doing what the priests do. They go to your side.

They represent their people before for you. Thank you for the way that he's done that in forgiveness. Help us, Father, when we think of him as far away or unloving or unkind, to know that he's blessing us. Amen. Amen.

Well, I think we're going to sing again. Fantastic. What are we singing, Beth?