If you serve in the church long enough and get to know people closely enough you may have the sobering privilege, at some time or another, to sit by the bedside of one who is about to die. You may hear the whisper of last words and final good-byes followed by the sudden stillness of death. These can be difficult endings to witness. We find comfort in the certain hope of life beyond the grave secured by Christ through his death and resurrection.

In our text today, the disciples are preparing for their second good-bye. They had witnessed the murder by crucifixion of their beloved Master five weeks earlier—an unexpected, crushing good-bye. The despair of that moment was overturned by the exhilaration of reunion with their resurrected Lord. Now, in the closing words of Luke’s gospel, Jesus prepares his followers for his final departure and ascension.

But this is not a painful good-bye, because it is not, ultimately, an end. It is the beginning of a new era of purposeful mission for the soon-coming, Spirit-filled body of believers called “the church.” For that reason, one might refer to this good-bye and ascension as the labor pains of the church’s birth.

There is a sense in which Luke ends at a beginning. No longer is the story about what Jesus did in his earthly ministry. Now it is the saga of what he continued to do through God’s people, whom he equipped to perform a task and carry a message.

Leon Morris comments: “There is an air of finality about it (the ascension). It is the decisive close of one chapter and the beginning of another. It is the consummation of Christ’s earthly work, the indication to his followers that his mission is accomplished.”

The Messiah is gone but the message lives on.
It is true that Jesus’ mission of redemption was accomplished, but our mission of spreading that message continues. The ascension is the announcement, the indicator, that we are now on mission in the power of the Spirit to bear witness to Christ in the world. In a sentence, the ascension signifies a simple truth: “The Messiah is gone but the message lives on!”

How does that mission continue? It continues with us—we are witnesses—carriers of a timeless message, foretold by prophets, rooted in history, witnessed by apostles, and recorded in Scripture!

Jesus said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:45-48).

This same charge is repeated by Luke later in the book of Acts: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

In his ascension and commission, Jesus calls us to look up and see his purpose for the church! Seven years ago my husband, Jim, and I started a new congregation in the highly unchurched Greater Toronto area. It was personally both a good-bye and a new beginning. A chapter concluded at the church we had been serving, and that was hard for us. We were leaving behind friends and security in order to begin a new chapter and recapture a sense of mission and evangelistic purpose. We had never done anything like this before. And so, beginning with 12 people meeting in our living room we embraced the purpose given by the ascended Christ: “You will be my witnesses.”

Today more than 500 people gather at Churchill Meadows Christian Church every Sunday for worship. We teach the Scriptures, proclaim our risen Christ, and purposefully embrace our mission as witnesses to a world that desperately needs to look up.

We must trust the Scriptures and teach the Word with authority.
Along the way we’ve learned some practical lessons. First, in our mission as witnesses we must trust the Scriptures and teach the Word with authority.

After reminding the disciples of all that was written about him in the Law and the prophets, verse 45 states that Jesus “opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” We must never cease to base all we do and all we teach on God’s revelation to man found in the Bible. We need to become familiar with the Word of God and trust that proclaiming it will change and convert human hearts. Our witness and message is not based on our reason, but rather upon God’s revelation in the Scriptures.

Our resolve to witness will be sustained as we “look up” to our risen Lord.
Discouragement will come. Temptation will threaten to pull us off mission. In those moments we must remember if we really want to have a sense of purpose in our lives, we need to lift our eyes away from the mundane. Instead we must look up at our ascending Lord to find a permanent sense of purpose.

If you’re looking for meaning or joy in your life, you don’t need to look down at this world where everything is so temporary. Look up, and you’ll find a deeper and longer-lasting kind of joy in Christ.

Sometimes I think we get confused about the purpose of our lives—why God has placed us on this planet. Of course we have many temporary, earthly purposes—to earn a living, raise our families, attend to daily responsibilities—these are all good purposes.

But there’s something deeper and more spiritual that is keeping you here on this planet. If you want to know what it is, don’t look at this world. Look at the ascended Christ! Those other purposes are good, but our deepest and most significant purpose can be found in verse 48: “You are witnesses of these things.”