Nathan E. Lewis

Ascension Sermon Series
Discussion Group
April 13 – May 18, 2008

April 13
Luke 24: 36-53 and Acts 1:4-11
“The History of the Ascension”

Have you thought much about the ‘history’ of the resurrection and ascension of Christ? About the science the of the resurrection and ascension? What makes Luke’s account of the resurrection and ascension an historical account?
(“The Science of the Ascension is next Sunday’s topic of discussion.)

(Luke 24:41) What is the difference between disbelief and “disbelief for joy”?

(44) How does the story of Jesus Christ fit into the larger story of the Old Testament?

(44) What is the historical significance of Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament’s message?

(45) How did Jesus open the disciples’ mind to understand the Scripture? What key did he give them to unlock the Scripture?

(48) What role do “witnesses” play in historical record?

(49) What/who is the “promise of my Father”?

(50) What is the location of the Ascension?

(52) What were the disciples’ responses to the Ascension?

(Acts 1:4-11) Who is the author of this account?

Which portions and aspects of this text is historical narrative?

(6-7) How does history inform our views and understanding of the future?

What is the relationship between prophecy and history?

(8) Describe and recount the historical fulfillment of this verse. How have these words of Jesus come to pass historically to the present?

(11) From this verse what are we to understand about he second coming of Jesus?

How should we understand the apparent discrepancy of the location of the ascension? Luke in his Gospel describes the location and then in his Book, “Acts of the Apostles,” he describes the location again. In Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 28: 16-19, these words of Jesus are spoken in Galilee. Where did the ascension of Jesus take place? Was there more than one ascension of Jesus? How do you harmonize the accounts?

Quotes for Discussion:
“The difficulty for us it that we associate one passage of Scripture with another to build up a picture that is larger than that in any one biblical source. This is a reasonable approach if we can be sure that all the writers are referring to the same incident, but it may lead us to false conclusions where this is not the case.”
Peter Atkins in Ascension Now

(of Matthew 28: 16-19) “In the eyes of the purest biblical scholar, there is nothing in this passage that definitely connects it with an ascension, but only with a departure scene.” Peter Atkins in Ascension Now

“The ascension of Christ was, for Spangler, an ‘ascension of consciousness’ which filtered over the earth. Or we might more readily hear of Professor Marcus Borg interpreting Easter as not ‘about literal resurrection but experience of an exalted Jesus as a living reality after his death.’ The ascension story would then be an extension of this exaltation of the ‘living reality’ of Jesus in the life of the church. Under this influence, many of our ministers and teachers have yielded to the ancient temptation to spiritualize what Douglas Farrow has succinctly called ‘Jesus-history.’ Gerrit Scott Dawson in Jesus Ascended

“Christians have never believed that the cross was the end of that history, nor even the resurrection. To adopt such a view would put us in the strange position of having to fall silent midway through the creed. Yet to continue in full voice is not possible without renewed commitment to the absolute priority of Jesus-history.” Douglas Farrow in Ascension and Ecclesia

“It is still the humanity of Christ over which we are prone to stumble, and what is required today more than ever is a doctrine of the ascension that does not set his humanity aside.” Douglas Farrow in Ascension and Ecclesia

April 20
Luke 24: 36-53 and Acts 1:4-11
“The Science of the Ascension”

(Luke 24: 36-53) Have you thought much about the ‘science’ of the resurrection and ascension of Christ? How does Luke, a medical doctor, include the scientific perspective of the resurrection and ascension?

(37) Why did the disciples think that Jesus was a ghost?

(38) Notice how Jesus attends to our hearts and to our minds: How did his appearance affect the disciples’ hearts? How did his appearance impact their minds? What are some common explanations for anyone who sees the extraordinary? A vision? A dream? An apparition?

(39) How important is the ‘bodily’ resurrection of Jesus?

(41) What is the difference between disbelief and “disbelief for joy”?

(42) What is the significance of Jesus eating with his disciples?

(51) Is “carried up into heaven” scientific language? What would be the scientific analysis of such language?

What do these texts tell us about the “space” and “time” of Christ?

What are your thoughts about heaven in respect to space and time?

How is heaven related to earth in respect to space and time?

What are the implications of the incarnation of the Son of God and his ascension into heaven in a human body in regards to space and time?

Quotes for Discussion:

“Kepler’s discovery that celestial bodies shared the defective (non-circular) motion of terrestrial bodies, and Galileo’s observation of various irregularities in the sun and moon with that irreverent invention, the telescope, called into question the common logic of the ascension. It was doubtful whether the heavens could any longer be thought of as a stairway to God.” Douglas Farrow in Ascension and Ecclesia

“Patristic and Reformed theology have always claimed that the Eternal Logos did enter space and time, not merely as Creator, but as himself made creature, and therefore within creaturely limits of space and time, and yet did not cease to be what he eternally was in himself, the Creator Word in whom and through whom all things consist and by whom all things derive and continue to have their being.” Thomas Torrance in Space, Time, and Resurrection

“Thus the ascension means that we cannot know God by transcending space and time, by leaping beyond the limits of our place on earth, but only by encountering God and his saving work within space and time, within our actual physical existence. Hence the ascension is the opposite of all demythologizing, for demythologizing means that we have to slough off the space-time involvement of the Word and Act of God as merely our own projecting and objectifying mode of thought, and so demythologizing means that we have to try to get to know God in a timeless and spaceless way. The ascension, on the contrary, sends us back to the incarnation, and to the historical Jesus, and so to a Word and Act of God inseparably implicated in our space and time. It sends us back to the Gospel which is really accessible to frail creatures of earth and history, and a Gospel that is relevant to their bodily existence day by day in the structures and coherences of space and time.” Thomas Torrance in Space, Time, and Resurrection

“Even though it seems unbelievable that Christ’s flesh, separated from us by such great distance, penetrates to us, so that it becomes our food, let us remember how far the secret power of the Holy Spirit towers above all our senses, and how foolish it is to wish to measure his immeasurableness by our measure. What, then, our mind does not comprehend, let faith conceive: that the Spirit truly unites things separated in space.” John Calvin in his “Institutes,” (4.17.10)

“Holding together the spiritual and the physical, Calvin leapt ahead of his contemporaries, and his thought could not actually be appreciated until a century ago when science began to see past old dualisms. With the understanding in physics that the relations between things or persons constitute an essential part of what they truly are, the way was opened for theologians to consider the implications of relatedness in our understanding of God.”
Gerrit Scott Dawson in Jesus Ascended

April 27
Luke 24: 36-53
“The Blessing of the Ascension”

(36) To what extent can we apply these words of Jesus? Is “Peace to you!’ simply a greeting? Does it merely anticipate the disciples’ fear and confusion? Is it a statement of the new age of resurrection and ascension? What is the eschatological significance of this greeting? What does it mean for the church, for missions, and for our view of world events, like war?

(37-43) How does Jesus deal with the disciples’ confusion and fear?

(44-48) How does Jesus deal with the disciples’ confusion and fear?

(49) How does Jesus deal with the disciples’ confusion and fear?

(50) Why did Jesus lift up his hands? What does it mean, “He blessed them”?

How is Luke’s account of Jesus’ interaction with his disciples’ just prior to his ascension constructed by him to display the blessing of Jesus upon his disciples?

Have you thought much about the blessing of Jesus conferred upon his church? What do these verses inform us about the blessing of Jesus upon us?

How do these verse teach us of the blessing of Jesus engaging our hearts and our minds? What does this mean about the nature and effect of divine blessing?

When you say, “God blesses me,” or when you say to someone else, “God bless you,” what do you mean?

How is divine blessing related to divine presence?

What is your personal experience during the Benediction of the liturgy at Evergreen? What is the importance of the Benediction?

(52-53) What was the disciples’ response/action flowing from Jesus’ benediction and ascension?

(53) What does it mean to “bless God”? How do we bless God?

Quotations for Discussion:

“All is ready, then, for the conclusion of the Gospel. What is needed is an ending that also points to a new beginning. As we read the passage we are asking, ‘What will Jesus do now, and will the disciples carry out the task they have been given?’ Luke gives us the answer to both questions, but in a way appropriate to each portion of his total work. In Luke’s Gospel record there must be no delay in bringing he account to its conclusion. Jesus must depart decisively, and the disciples must depart obediently. Luke achieves this with an act of blessing and an act of praise. God blesses; humanity responds in praise. The journey of Jesus, begun in the first chapters of the Gospel with the angels praising God at the birth of this child and continued in his tour of Galilee to teach, heal, and call a band of disciples, and seen as exodus in the entry into Jerusalem, there accepting the cross and grave reaches its climax in the Resurrection appearances, of which this scene is the last in Luke’s Gospel message. Here is the conclusion and yet prelude to the new beginning. The bare facts are enough to fulfill this purpose. Jesus instructs his disciples and blesses them. The story comes round full circle, and the temple is full of praise of God on the lips of faithful humanity, just as the skies were full of the praises of God on the lips of the angels at the beginning of the narrative.” Peter Atkins in Ascension Now

May 4
Missions Sunday
Guest Preacher

May 11 Ascension Sunday
Acts 1: 9-11 and John 20: 11-29
“Humanity in Heaven”

Can you explain the incarnation of the Son of God?

Did Jesus retain his human body or shed it upon his resurrection? Upon his ascension?

(Acts 1:9-11) What did the disciples see at the ascension?

(John 20: 11-13) What was the source of Mary’s grief? What did she discover at the tomb of Jesus?

(13-15) What prevented Mary from recognizing Jesus? What were her assumptions?

(16) What did Jesus do that prompted Mary to recognize him?

(17) Why did Jesus say to Mary, “Do not cling to me”?

(17) Did Jesus immediately ascend to his Father in heaven on resurrection morning as soon as Mary departed to tell the disciples that Jesus had risen to new life? How many times did Jesus ascend to heaven?

(17) Why does Jesus use present, ongoing verb form to say, “I am ascending to my Father”?

(22) What does it mean that Jesus “breathed on them”? What happened? How is the action of Jesus connected to other divine actions in biblical narrative? What is the connection between Jesus breathing on his disciples and his command, “Receive the Holy Spirit”?

(22ff) When did the disciples receive the Holy Spirit? As Jesus breathed upon them? Immediately upon his ascension? At Pentecost?

(22-23) What is the relationship between the content of (22) and that of (23)?

(24-29) What do we learn about the resurrection body of Jesus?

What was important to Thomas? Did he merely lack faith, or did he have a legitimate concern about the nature of the resurrected Christ?

How important is it to believe that Jesus bodily rose from the grave and that he bodily ascended into heaven?

Quotations for Discussion:

“Jesus’ ascent in our flesh to heaven implies a permanent union between his divinity and his humanity in one person.” Gerrit Scott Dawson in Jesus Ascended

“For today our dust is taken up on the shoulders of the cherubim and being received within the inner palace is set upon the royal throne.” Leo Imperator in his Ascension Day sermon (d. 911)

“God has carried what it means to be human right inside the heart of the Godhead.” Peter Atkins in Ascension Now

“The ascension of Christ thus introduces, as it were, an eschatological pause in the heart of the parousia (the coming) which makes it possible for us to speak of the first advent and a second or final advent of Christ. By withdrawing his bodily presence from contact and sight, that is from historical contact and observation, the ascended Christ holds apart his first advent from his final advent, distinguishing the first advent as his advent in great humility and abasement and pointing ahead to his final advent in great glory and power, when the eschatological pause will be brought to an end, and we shall see him as we are seen by him. John Calvin preferred to speak, not so much of the two comings of Christ’s kingdom as of the two ‘conditions’ or ‘states’ of that kingdom.”
Thomas Torrance in Space, Time and Resurrection

May 18 Pentecost Sunday
John 16: 1-12 and Luke 24: 36-53
“The Holy Spirit and the Ascension”

The glorious resurrection and ascension of Jesus is the final part of the path Peter describes when he speaks of the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

(John 16:1-3) How does Jesus prepare his disciples for following him on this path of suffering first then glory?

(7) What advantage is there in Jesus departing?

(8-10) What will the Holy Spirit do when he is sent by the ascended Christ?

(12) An aside: Does your self-awareness include knowing what you cannot presently embrace in the teachings of Jesus? Or, what would Jesus say that you are not ready to bear in his teaching?

(Luke 24:49) Why does Jesus refer to the Holy Spirit as “the promise of my Father”?

(49) Who sends the Holy Spirit? What do you know about the creedal divide between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western Church? When we recite the Nicene Creed we confess that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Eastern Church confesses that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. How important is this controversy that has divided the church for centuries?

When is the promise of the Father and of the Son fulfilled? When does the Holy Spirit come upon the disciples? Does (49) give a clue to the precise timing?

(49) Is “clothed with power from on high” a description of Pentecost? Does this description capture the entire coming of the Holy Spirit? Was there a time, albeit a very short time when there was no divine presence on earth? How do these questions and our answers to them inform and form our theology of the Holy Spirit?

What happened on the Day of Pentecost?

“The greatness of a king has always been known through the generosity of the gifts he bestows on his people. One of the first acts of the enthroned Jesus was to open the treasure trove of his love and bring forth a gem of inestimable value. In his bountiful rule, the King of kings showers a priceless gift from his infinite largesse upon his subjects. He receives the Holy Spirit from the Father and pours him out upon the disciples (Acts 2:33). The Spirit, who gives himself to be so poured becomes the bond between the still-incarnate Son in heaven and his people still sojourning on earth. By this boon, the physically absent King establishes a living tie between himself and his subjects. The head pours his life-giving energies and constant direction throughout his body through his Spirit. “
Gerrit Scott Dawson in Jesus Ascended

“But with his ascension Jesus Christ also sent upon the Church and indeed upon ‘all flesh’ his Holy Spirit so that through the Spirit he might be present, really present, although in a different way. In order to think out the relation of the Church in history to Christ we must put both these together – mediate horizontal relation through history to the historical Jesus Christ, and immediate vertical relation through the Spirit to the risen and ascended Jesus Christ. It is the former that supplies the material content, while it is the latter that supplies the immediacy of actual encounter.” Thomas Torrance in Space, Time, and Resurrection