The Ascension and the Promise AM

00:02 Well, we want to greet each one this morning in the name of Jesus. We want to give thanks for each one, give thanks for all of the blessings that God has bestowed upon us, both physical and spiritual. And we have read here this morning already from Ephesians 1 that He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus in the heavenly realms, in heavenly places. 00:24 And so I'm feeling that this morning and rejoicing in that. And you know, you come sometimes ready to preach and you have not really told many people about what your text is or your subject until people get to church here. 00:40 And then some, you know, I often don't check the Sunday school lesson and I didn't have a new quarterly, and so I didn't know what the Sunday school lesson was going to be about. And everything just kind of, I mean, it's all the way from the lesson to the songs to the comments this morning by Brother Leon. 00:57 It all fits together with the direction that the Lord has laid on my heart to go the next number of weeks and possibly months. That is to do a series from the book of Acts. And I would like to invite you to turn to the first chapter today. And I didn't realize that we were going through Luke in Sunday school. 01:17 I did realize that Dwayne's preaching through Luke. And so Luke, of course, wrote, penned the book of Acts. And we know that he was the one who wrote to Theophilus. In Luke, he's called the most excellent Theophilus. 01:39 But let us take some attention this morning and look at verses 1 through 14. The book of Acts, I've entitled the message this morning "The Ascension and the Promise." There's five points that we'll be making this morning on the presentation: the promise, 01:59 the power, the perspective, and the priority of Christ's disciples and apostles on this occasion of the ascension of Christ back to heaven. And so when we think about the book of Acts, we think about the birth of the church. 02:17 The church is only recognized or named by Christ Himself in the Gospels two times: Matthew 16 and Matthew 18. You've heard me say that before. But here in the book of Acts, there are multiple references to this new entity called the church. Over 22 times in the book of Acts, it is referred to as church or churches. 02:39 And well over 100 times from Acts to the end of the book of Revelation, the church or churches is referred to. And so we're talking here in the book of Acts about the expansion of the kingdom of God. 02:53 The kingdom of God can be referred to and is referred to in Scripture as the realm of the sovereign God, of the authority of the sovereign God over His world. And that included in the Old Testament the people of Israel, the Jewish nation. 03:14 In the New Testament, it includes the church. And so we have the second half, as it were. You have the first half of Scripture, actually more like two-thirds, identifying the kingdom of God through the people of Israel. 03:31 But now he's switching emphases and focus to the church of Jesus Christ. So we have the expansion of the kingdom of God. And we have the Acts. Now, there's a little bit of discussion as to whether or not this should be called the Acts, 03:51 period, or the Acts of the Apostles, as you're probably the heading in your copies of the Bible refer to it. 04:00 In the Western manuscripts, it refers to the Acts of the Apostles. But it's more than that. It's more than the Acts of the Apostles. More accurately, well, some have suggested that it's the Acts of the Holy Spirit. And it is that as well. 04:16 But someone else has suggested that more accurately this would be called the Acts or the continuing, ongoing Acts of Jesus Christ through the Spirit by the church. And I kind of like that. I kind of like that. 04:33 It is the ongoing ministry and work of Christ through the Spirit by the church, the people of God, as they all work in concert to accomplish the establishment of the church of Christ and the extension and expansion of the Word of God. 04:53 You see, Jesus' ministry on earth is now followed by His ministry from heaven. And so in verse 1, He says, "The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach." He began in the book of Luke. 05:11 He's referring in verse 1 to the most excellent Theophilus and the account that is now known as the Gospel of Luke. And it is the beginning of what Jesus began to do and to teach. That can be the summarization of the Gospel of the book of Luke and the book of Acts, 05:31 that Jesus did things and He taught things. He did and He taught. He was mighty in both word and deed. Verse 2, "Until the day in which He was taken up after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 05:52 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, 06:12 which, He said, 'You have heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.' Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, 'O Lord, or Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' And He said to them, 06:32 'It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 06:39 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.' And when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up in a cloud, received Him out of their sight. 07:00 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as He went up, behold, two men stood by Him by them in white apparel, who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, 07:19 will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.' Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. 07:32 And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James, the son of Alphaeus; and Simon the Zealot; and Judas, the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, 07:52 the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers." What we have here is the transition in the progress from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from the implementation of the Old Testament to the implementation of the church age, 08:14 the age of law and the age of grace. And we have, in the hearts of the believers, the Spirit ready to take up residence in the heart of every believer and completely revolutionize the way we relate with God and the way that God relates with us. 08:35 As it has been said by some, in the Old Testament, you have God coming to man. You have God with man. You have God as man in Jesus Christ. 08:47 And then you have, in the book of Acts and forward into the present age, God in man through the person and presence of the Holy Spirit. So this is the Holy Spirit living in the hearts of His people, the people of God. 09:04 In the church, the body of Christ, the Holy Spirit reigns and rules under the authority of Christ. And in the place of Christ, we'll see that this morning and in the days ahead, in the chapters ahead. So in verse 1 through 3, we would like you to see that this speaks of the presentation. 09:24 In verse 3, it says, "To whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs." And so Jesus being presented as the living and finally the glorified Christ. He's writing to Theophilus, 09:46 most excellent Theophilus, as I've already mentioned, which is an expression of nobility or of a greeting of fondness, of friendliness. And we don't know if Theophilus was a nobleman or if he was a friend and having a friendship and a fondness of the relationship between Luke and Theophilus. 10:08 At any rate, this is someone important that he's writing to with an important message: the ongoing work of Jesus Christ by the Spirit or through the Spirit by the people of God. We have the presentation of the risen Christ, which is the basis of our faith and of the Gospel message, 10:30 how that He was seen by them for 40 days and how that He was presented alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs. 10:41 After His suffering, of course, we know Luke ends the Gospel of Luke with the suffering and death and resurrection and a limited account of the ascension of Jesus Christ as the climax of the life of Christ, the basis of our faith and of the Gospel message, 11:01 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture, that He was buried according to the Scripture, and that He rose again according to the Scripture. And here He is interacting with His disciples, the apostles, the men who would take, who would move things forward, the men who would move things forward. 11:21 40 days, He had been coming and going. And I'm sure that they got used to this coming and going. If you ever could get used to it, you know, they would be going about their business, whatever that business was in those 40 days. And then Jesus would show up. And then He'd disappear. And then He'd show up. 11:41 And then He'd disappear. And He'd show up. And He'd disappear. 40 days, He had been coming and going, teaching them things for the future, giving infallible, convincing proofs that He was alive. 11:56 In fact, I believe it's Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 refers to the fact that He was seen by over 500 people at one time in one setting. And so these are infallible proofs to substantiate the validity of the claim that Jesus is alive. 12:14 He is not a leader who died and that's the end of His work. But He is a living Savior who lives and continues His work, not the work of redemption, which has been finished, but the work of sanctification and the work of building His church by His Spirit and by His people. 12:36 And so we have the Holy Spirit working in concert with Jesus Christ. 12:44 In verse 2, "He was taken up after He, through the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen." So here you have the working of the Spirit and the Son in concert together and one 13:04 pointing to Christ, the Spirit pointing to Christ, and Christ then stepping out of the way physically so that the Spirit could redirect their thoughts and attention from a physical Christ to a spiritual, not an unreal, 13:20 but a spiritual Christ who is still with us in an expanded way today. He instructs them to wait on the gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and this confirms what Jesus had told them earlier in both John 14 and John 16, that "I am going away." And that's a good thing. 13:40 Can you imagine how their countenance would have fallen? Just away, by the way, disciples, I'm going away. And you will see me no more. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing He told them because if I go away, I will send the Comforter, another Comforter, which in the Greek means another, 13:59 one like me but different. And a Comforter, one called alongside to help you in your weaknesses, just like I have helped you in your weaknesses and been your Comforter, Counselor, Consoler, and heavenly Helper, Helper from heaven. I'm going away. 14:20 Another Comforter will come. He will abide with you. And it's necessary that I do go away. For if I do not go away, Jesus told them, then He can't come. For whatever reason, that was the way the Father saw fit. 14:34 It took the absence of the physical person of Jesus to pave the way for the Spirit to come and dwell each one of us. And so that brings us from the presentation of the living Christ to the promise of the Holy Spirit, verse 4 and 5. 14:56 "Being assembled together with them, He commanded them to stand in Jerusalem until you receive the promise of the Father." What's the promise of the Father? The promise of the Father was that they would receive the baptism of the Spirit of God. Now, don't let that word frighten you. 15:19 We'll be talking more about the baptism of the Spirit when we get into chapter 2. But Jesus talked about the baptism of the Spirit when He in the Gospel referred to John who baptized with water. But He says, "You will be He," that is, the Messiah, 15:38 will baptize this is John speaking of the Messiah, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 15:44 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." So there's an aspect of the Holy Spirit baptism that will be experienced in chapter 16:03 2 that has to do with the purging of sin, the judgment on sin, the elimination of sin, and the fullness of the presence of Christ coming into the heart and life of every believer in Christ. 16:20 And so what we have here is the promise that they would not need to go on in their own strength. In fact, they dare not go on in their own strength. 16:31 As He said, "For them to wait, wait in Jerusalem, tarry in Jerusalem until you receive this promise, the promise of the Father." He would continue the work of Jesus in His absence. He would guide them into all truth. 16:46 He would not replace Christ, but rather multiply and enhance and intensify the work of Christ by empowering, coming alongside them, and filling their hearts and lives with the fullness of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in their lives. 17:08 He did not promise in verse 6, "He did not promise that He would reestablish the kingdom of Israel at this time." The disciples, being of political minded still, asked Him, "Lord, 17:24 will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" I want you to notice He did not say that He would never restore the kingdom to Israel. 17:34 In fact, I believe that there is coming a day and the return of Christ when Israel will once again play a primary role alongside the church, the fullness of the kingdom of God dwelling side by side, Israel, the church dwelling together as the wife of God and the bride of Christ, the imagery there, 17:54 and experiencing the fullness of Christ. 17:58 But He said, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put under His authority." And so we have the perspective or rather the power, excuse me, the presentation and the promise. 18:18 Then in verse 6 through 8, we have the power, the power. 18:24 And the question there that has been asked, "Will You restore the kingdom to Israel?" And then the answer is, "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons." He is not establishing at this point a physical kingdom. John R.W. Stott, 18:43 in his book on Acts, says it like this, "The kingdom of God is His rule set up in the lives of His people by the Holy Spirit. It is spread by witnesses, not by soldiers, through a Gospel of peace, not a declaration of war, 19:02 and by the work of the Spirit, not by force of arms, political intrigue, or revolutionary violence." Kingdom values come into collision with secular values. And the citizens of God's kingdom steadfastly deny to Caesar the supreme loyalty for which He hungers, 19:24 but which they insist on giving to Jesus alone. In other words, the state is not our God. The position that we are to seek is not to be in roles of power, but to be witnesses. 19:38 And we are not looking for, at this time, an international coalition to initiate the kingdom of God. Rather, He says, "Let those things with God the Father. 19:54 He alone has put those under His authority." Aren't you glad there's some things that the Father knows that He hadn't told us? I am. I am. We'd always like to know more, would we not? We'd always like to know more so we can kind of know how to plan and how to implement our plan and know a little bit more how to handle this situation or that situation. But He didn't tell us everything. 20:16 And I'm glad for that because then we would be worried. We might be fearful. We might depend on our own strength to kind of go about and try to fix this thing so that we can get that, which He promised to happen. No, He's left some of these things under His own authority, only locked in the mind of God and not shared with us. 20:38 Now, He has shared with us your responsibility, your calling. Verse 8 is, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses, witnesses." You're not going to be rulers at this time. You're not going to sit on my right hand and on my left hand. 20:57 You're not going to go to Washington, 21:00 DC to lobby for this or that or to Rome or to Constantinople or some of the power centers back then. But you're going to be my witnesses. You're going to witness to my death, burial, resurrection, what I have done, my ascension, and who I am, 21:21 that I am the Savior, the Messiah, the Son of God. And so we have the power in verses 6 through 8. He says, "You will receive this power when the Spirit has come upon you, and you will be witnesses unto Me." Notice the Greek word here. 21:42 You don't see that in the English, but in the Greek, the Greek word for witnesses means one who avows what he has seen or vows and testifies to what he has seen, heard, and knows, what we have seen, heard, and know. 22:01 But there's a secondary reading of the word witness. And that is, it comes both the word witness and the word martyr come from this Greek word. 22:13 And so what He's saying also could be translated, "And you will be martyrs to Me." Now, that takes it on a little different dynamic, does it not? 22:24 "You will be My martyrs." In other words, you will testify, and you will testify with such conviction that you will not allow anyone to change your testimony, negate your testimony, or cause you to forsake your testimony. 22:45 "You will follow Me to the death. You will be martyred witnesses laying down your life for Me and the Gospel." And this will happen in Jerusalem. You're starting here at home. And then in all Judea, you're going out to the county, out to the state, as it were. 23:03 And then you're going into Samaria where the half-breeds are, the ones who are kind of Jews and kind of Gentiles. And then you're not going to stop there. You're going to the end of the earth, the end of the earth, to the four corners of the earth. By the way, that does not mean that the earth is flat. 23:23 It's a way of saying the whole earth from one part to the other. "And you will be My witnesses. And the Spirit will help you." You do not dare do this in your own strength. Amen? 23:40 You do not dare go forward to witness and to be martyred in your own strength. Neither do you dare go and try to live the Christian life in your own strength. 23:51 You will have the Spirit to help you, not someone that you take with you in your suitcase, but someone that you take with you in your heart. And He will give you victory over fear. He will give you the words to say in your witnessing. 24:12 He will give weight to your words so that the words that you say will have impact and will make an impact and move the heart. He will provide direction. He will bring all the things that I have taught to you to your remembrance. That's what the Spirit will do. 24:33 He will work through you, even taking your natural abilities and sanctifying them with supernatural power so that they gain even greater success in the proclamation of Christ and the implementation of the kingdom of God, the extension, expansion. 24:55 He will give you supernatural power of the same kind that characterized the life of Jesus, the same kind of Spirit, the same kind of strength that characterized the life of Jesus will now be in you. 25:12 And that is a promise of the Father and of the Son. But one thing stood in the way. What was it? The price had been paid at the cross. The tomb was empty. The troops have been trained. Only one thing remains. 25:33 Jesus must leave. Now, that seems counterproductive. We think that you should stay. How can this be done without you? And His answer is, "It won't be done without you, without Me. It will be done by Me through the Spirit. 25:52 And you as being sanctified and empowered by the Spirit." The task at hand is so great that it requires more than the physical Jesus with them in Jerusalem. Someone used the example that if Jesus were still reigning in Jerusalem, 26:14 the very slim possibility that you would be able to get to Him to have Him answer your request. Even if you took an aircraft, a jet plane, a supersonic jet, and tried to make an appointment to get into on the Temple Mount to see Jesus, 26:34 you'd have to take a number because there'd be a couple other billion people trying to get to Him. That won't work. That won't work. But you, through the Spirit, right here, right here today in this building, can experience Christ, 26:55 the presence, the power, the person, the potential, and the perfection of Christ right here, right now. Then verses 9 through 11, they needed a new perspective. So we have the promise, 27:17 excuse me, the presentation. We had the promise. We had the power. Now, the perspective. I want you to notice something in verses 9 through 11 of how He talks about the vision that they had. In verse 9, He says, 27:36 "While they watched, a cloud received Him out of their sight." Now, that's visual, right? While they watched, the cloud took Him out of their sight. And verse 10, "While they looked steadfastly," their vision is still physical, 27:57 but it's limited, "that they looked steadfastly. And then as the cloud received Him up into glory, two men appeared who challenged them with their perspective. Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing?" Again, looking with the eye, 28:17 probably wondering what this is all about, being struck with awe. And He never left us like this before. Wonder what this means. Well, what it meant was He wasn't coming back for a while. They didn't know how long. 28:34 And we know that it's been 2,000 years now since this happened, approximately. And He still hasn't returned. But He's coming. He said He would, and He plans to do so. And so they needed a new perspective. And verse 11, they talk about this, 28:55 about having seen Him as you saw Him go into heaven. So there's something going on here with the sight, with the perspective, with the vision. They needed a change of vision. And the Holy Spirit provides this, a change in vision from the physical to the spiritual, 29:17 from the local to the global, from failure to success. They were used to this failure now that He had died and been buried, and they had been rejected. And there was a certain amount of success now that came. And then poof, their success goes up in the air. 29:37 But they needed to see a switch from failure to success and from being upward to being forward, forward, forward march. You have your direction. If you're a soldier and you're out in the midst of a you don't know where you're at, 29:55 and you're out in a clear night, you can get direction from the stars. Okay? We're here. We're here. We need to go there. And they would get direction. They'll say, "You're not stargazers anymore. You are witnesses. 30:08 You're to move forward and advance, starting with Jerusalem and then moving to the end of the earth." They didn't know how long He was going to be gone. All they knew was that a cloud took Him. 30:24 And likely, it'll be a cloud that brings Him back. We'll look at that in just a minute. But He went away in His body, and it'll be His body that comes back. He went away in glory, and it's in glory that He shall return. 30:46 And so in verse 12 now through 14, we see the priority. We see the priority. The priority was Jerusalem. Let's get back to Jerusalem. And so they went back to Jerusalem, which was from the Mount of Olives, was only about a Sabbath day's journey, which is between a half a mile and three-quarter mile. 31:06 That's how far they could walk on a Sabbath according to the Jewish traditions. And so this says that's what they did. And so they were close there to their abode. But they stayed in Jerusalem waiting in Jerusalem, gathering together in Jerusalem, regrouping in Jerusalem. 31:26 You see that in the end of chapter 1. We're going to see an interesting account of the selection of leadership in the early church and in the apostolic rank and unifying. Notice it says that they were unified. They were with one accord in verse 14. 31:47 They all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, petition, worship, petition to the Lord God. Their priority was in Jerusalem. Their priority was prayer, preparing their hearts for the promise, for the future, 32:06 for the task that had been committed to them. What did Jesus mean that we'll be witnesses to the ends of the earth? And they were preparing their hearts, asking Christ, the Spirit, to prepare their hearts for the challenges to come. And boy, would there be challenges. The book of Acts is full of challenges that the early church faced. 32:28 By the way, the final challenge has not yet been written. Someone has said that the book of Acts is the only book that still is ongoing, not in the sense that it's ongoing revelation, but there's ongoing experience of the church doing what Christ told it to do and the Spirit continuing to build the church on behalf of Christ and by the believers. 32:50 Their priority was prayer. They were called. They were trained. They were equipped. They were united. All that was necessary now was for them to be empowered, empowered. So tarry until you are empowered. 33:07 Interesting sideline here in verse 33:16 I can't lay my eyes on it right now, but there were 120, 120 oh, in verse 15, beyond our text there. The number of names was about 120. 120 was the Jewish requirement for a new congregation in a synagogue. 33:36 It required a minimum of 120 Jewish men to establish a community with its own council. So the statement there of 120 is significant, 120, that they are establishing a new community of Jesus Christ and their own council, 33:58 which was the spiritual Sanhedrin, if you please, the apostles themselves. Now, in the time that remains, I would like to point out two things in answer to the question, what does this mean to us? What does this mean to us? 34:18 So it's a historical fact. It's a historical occasion. It's a historical reality. There was really disciples that really stood on the Mount of Olives, that really watched a real Christ ascend and went to a real Jerusalem and a real upper room and had real prayer and real fellowship. 34:37 And so the question could be written above that, so what? So what? What does that have to do with us? Well, I'd like to point out two things. Number one is the impact and the significance of the ascension of Christ. Why is this important to our faith? 34:57 Now, some of you come from a background, a faith tradition, where you celebrate Ascension Day, Ascension Day. Why don't we celebrate Ascension Day? We celebrate Good Friday, suffering, burial, death. We celebrate Easter, resurrection, from the grave He arose. 35:19 What about ascension? Is that immaterial to our faith, or is that just something that just happened and we aren't really that excited about it? We're probably a little disappointed because Jesus isn't here. Or is there something that we're missing by not emphasizing the ascension? 35:39 By the way, I'm not suggesting that we start observing or celebrating ascension officially, but I think we should celebrate it at least unofficially in our hearts. The fact that the resurrected Christ ascended, what is the significance of that? Well, number one, 35:59 Jesus needed to ascend to give gifts to us. He needed to ascend to give us gifts. 36:08 Ephesians chapter 4 fleshes this out in chapter 4, verse 8 when Paul says that he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And he gave to the church apostles, prophets, 36:28 teachers, pastors, evangelists. Not in that order. I got the order mixed up. But he needed to lead his train, his victory train to glory so that he could give the gifts and the spoils of war to his people. 36:48 And so we understand that the gifts of the Spirit have come along with the Spirit. It came along and has come along with the Spirit. And when he gave the Spirit, he gave the gifts of the Spirit for the blessing of the church, 37:08 for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. And we'll have more to say about that as we go through the book. The second reason why the ascension is important to us is it was necessary for him to establish and finalize his authority. 37:27 His authority is exemplified by where he sits. Someone tell me, where does he sit? Right hand of the Father. What's he doing there? 37:43 He's working, not the work of salvation and of redemption and atonement. That work is done. So he sat, but he is still working at interceding for us. He ever lives to make intercession for us. He's praying for us. And he is, 38:03 by his very presence at the right hand of the throne of the Father, showing to all who have eyes to see it that he is in authority. First Peter 3, "Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, 38:25 angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him." So you read through the book of Ephesians in relationship to the book of Acts, and you find out that that power, that power and authority is available to us as his children. 38:48 Same power, same authority comes from him, under him, but we also have his same Spirit. And so he established his authority and his power and dominion over every name that is named, 39:07 over every power and authority of the unseen world and the seen world. The third reason he needed to ascend was to take his rightful place sitting at the right hand of God. And we could say more about that, but we won't. And now interceding for us. 39:27 Hebrews 7:25, "Therefore, he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them." The second thing that makes this impactful for us is the promise. So the ascension and the promise, the promise of power, 39:46 but even beyond that, the promise of return, the promise of return. This same Jesus means that he, this eternal Son of God, will still have his glorified human body when he returns. He didn't scratch it when he went. 40:06 He kept it for his return. And there are those that believe, and I would be one of them, that when Christ became incarnate and took upon him the body of a man that he forever changed, he is forever the God-man. 40:26 Even though he has a glorified body, he will return as the God-man, and we will recognize him as such. Jesus said of this, "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power coming with the clouds of heaven." In Luke, he says he will come with power and great glory. 40:48 Matthew 24 says, "For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." And Colossians 3 says, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, 41:02 then shall we also appear with him in glory." And so that is the promise of the descension. That's not a word, but we have the ascension and the return. Now, I was challenged with this thought this morning. 41:21 We think about Jesus having been here and then left and is coming back. From heaven's perspective, he was there and belongs there, and he left and came back. Now, someone has said that to go into another realm is a dangerous thing. 41:42 How many of you remember Apollo 1? I don't. I was about four years old. I remember Apollo 11, but not Apollo 1. 41:52 Apollo 1 was the first test of the Apollo spacecrafts that there was to fly around the world and then land again in preparation to the trip to the moon. The problem is it didn't go so well. It did not go well at all. 42:11 While they were in liftoff mode and it was a test, so it wasn't real at the time, but it was a real tragedy. And the test was when they were ready to take off, take off, they announced that there was a fire in the cockpit. 42:30 And because of the capsule's 31 miles of wiring in that spaceship, there was somewhere in that wiring there was a wire that was stripped of insulation. 42:43 And it shorted out, and that short created a chemical reaction with some of the other things that were going on. The ethylene glycol and the silver in the wire created a chemical reaction. And long story short, 43:02 all three of those astronauts in that cabin died, burned to death. And when they opened the capsule, they couldn't get out because it was designed not to be able to get out. And when they opened it up, there were the charred bodies of three astronauts. It didn't go well. 43:22 In fact, it never got off the ground. But this thing that Jesus did went completely perfect. In fact, I am told and read that after Apollo 11, Nixon got someone to write a speech for him. 43:41 William Sapphire was to write a speech. And that speech was to calm and comfort the American people if this happened again when they went to the moon. He never got a chance to give the speech because Apollo 11 was successful. But you get the point. Jesus succeeded the first time. 44:03 Didn't need a test run. And he'll do it again. Come down and take us back. Don't get weary and don't get faint-hearted. This same Jesus who went is coming back to take us. Brother Dwayne, would you come and close the service?