Waiting Patiently for the Next Act of God - Sermon for Ascension Sunday (Acts 1:3-14)
The season of Eastertide invites us to reflect on the ways Jesus revealed himself alive to his disciples. According to the Book of Acts, Jesus ended his time on earth after spending forty days with his followers, speaking about the kingdom of God. On the fortieth day, Jesus gathered one more time with his followers. Before he departed, he gave his followers final instructions.
The key verse in our reading this morning is found in verse eight, where Jesus gave the disciples their marching orders. He told them: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This verse serves as an outline to the Book of Acts, because things start getting interesting on the day of Pentecost. It was on that day, as the believers gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem, fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, that the Holy Spirit descended on them, empowering their witness to the kingdom of God. So, beginning on the Day of Pentecost, the community began proclaiming the good news about Jesus and his coming kingdom. Starting with Peter’s powerful sermon to the crowd that gathered in the square below, members of the community, including Peter, John, and Stephen, spent time preaching in Jerusalem, even as the community continued to grow. Before long, the community began to expand outward into other parts of Judea and then through the ministry of Philip the Deacon into Samaria, after which Peter encountered Cornelius the Centurion in Caesarea, opening the door of the Christian community to Gentiles. The final step in this outward movement from Jerusalem involved the calling of Saul of Tarsus, an opponent of the Jesus movement, on the road to Damascus, which opened up new opportunities to spread the good news. This is the message of the Book of Acts in a nutshell, though there is much more to the story. I also believe that Acts 1:8 continues to serve as a guidepost for the ministry of the church, as it exists in its local expression, the larger community, and the world itself.
When you read the Book of Acts, you discover that the primary actor in this story isn’t Peter or Paul, but the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus made it very clear that his followers shouldn’t leave Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Holy Spirit. After all, while John baptized with water, before long, they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. They would just have to wait a bit longer before they received the necessary gift so they could participate in God’s new thing.
Of course, the Day of Pentecost is still a week away, so this morning we get to ponder what it means to wait patiently before something new begins. Before that period of waiting begins, Jesus must depart from the community. Luke describes Jesus’s departure using language that his contemporaries would have understood, but which may not make sense to the modern world. Luke pictures Jesus rising into the sky while his followers stood there staring upward, amazed at what they saw. That’s understandable because they were still processing the resurrection. Now they had to deal with his departure into the heavenly realm. But while they stared into the sky, a couple of men dressed in white robes interrupted their awe-struck gaze. These figures told the community that someday Jesus would return in the same way he departed from them. In other words, it was time to get back to the business of waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit, so they could begin their ministry of proclaiming the good news to the ends of the earth.
Now, as we know in life, waiting isn’t easy. We get antsy when we have to wait for something to take place, whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. A long time ago, when the President of the college where I was teaching asked me to come in for a meeting, I knew I was in trouble. Waiting to go to the meeting was nerve-wracking, because I had a feeling he was going to tell me I needed to get a new job. Unfortunately, I had to wait until the next day to get the bad news.
On a more positive note, waiting for Christmas morning when you are a child can also be challenging. When your parents put up the tree and decorate it, and presents begin to appear underneath the tree, you know something special is about to happen. Nevertheless, you still have to wait to unwrap the presents. So, you stare at the presents, trying to figure out what lies under the cover of the wrapping paper. You shake the boxes to hear if they rattle. If the contents of the box don’t rattle, it’s probably a sweater or underwear. But if it rattles, well, the box might contain something fun. Of course, there are the presents that Santa will bring in the night. Oh, waiting for Christmas can be challenging!
They say that good things come to those who wait patiently. At least that’s the message that Jesus gave to his followers. Most assuredly, the gift of the Holy Spirit is something worth waiting for. Since we are celebrating the Day of Ascension this morning, that means we have to wait a bit longer to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the church. When it comes to Jesus’ earliest followers, this period of waiting was challenging because they had to say goodbye to their teacher. Goodbyes are always difficult, even if something good is about to happen.
After Jesus departed from their midst, his followers, most of whom came from Galilee, returned from the Mount of Olives to their meeting place in Jerusalem. While the community waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit, they made good use of their time. Luke tells us that they devoted themselves to prayer, preparing themselves spiritually for what would come next. He even tells us the names of at least a few of the people who gathered in the upper room. First of all, he named the eleven Apostles, which included Peter and his companion John. There was James, the brother of John, along with Peter’s brother Andrew, and Philip the Apostle, who shouldn’t be confused with Philip the Deacon who evangelized the Ethiopian Eunuch and the Samaritans, Thomas, whom tradition says want to India, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, son of James, who shouldn’t be confused with Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus. They were accompanied by a group of women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. But most assuredly, there were others in the room as well.
Although our reading ends in verse 14 with this listing of Jesus’ followers present in the room, there is more to the story. Not only did they spend time in prayer, but they also began to organize themselves in preparation for what came next. Since Judas Iscariot had left their community when he betrayed Jesus, there was an opening in the group of Twelve Apostles. So Peter decided to fill that opening. The person they chose would need to have certain qualifications. First of all, this person would have walked with Jesus from the time of his baptism by John to the time of his death. What is more important, this new recruit had to be a witness to the resurrection. When the community looked around the room, they discovered two people who fit these requirements for ordination. You might say that because they had spent significant time with Jesus, they had earned their MDiv and were ready to go. Since they only had one opening, the community had to decide between Joseph, called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and a man named Matthias. The method they chose probably would not pass muster with the Presbyterian Book of Order! It wouldn’t even work in my denomination. Nevertheless, they went with the tried and true method of casting lots. As they prayed that God would reveal the right person to fill the position, they cast the lots, which pointed to Matthias. Although the team was now complete, Matthias, like others in the list of the twelve, quickly disappeared from the story. Truth be told, although we call this book the Acts of the Apostles, Luke doesn’t tell us anything about most of the Apostles (Acts 1:15-26).
When it comes to the time of waiting between the Day of Ascension and Pentecost Sunday, biblical scholar Robert Wall suggests that “waiting for this dynamic future to unfold involves a measure of uncertainty and urgency.” Nevertheless, what makes this time of waiting possible is God’s record of faithfulness. Wall writes that “our capacity to wait expectantly for God to act according to ‘the promise’ is cultivated by the memory of the record of God’s faithfulness in the history of others” [New Interpreter's Bible 10:45]. In other words, because God was faithful to Jesus by raising him from the dead, we can trust God to be faithful with us. Wall then writes that “waiting for God to act is also a community’s project. Waiting with others is an act of solidarity with friends” [NIB, 10:45]. When we wait together, knowing that God has acted in the past, we can trust that God will continue to act in the future. Therefore, when we put our trust in God’s faithfulness, we will be better able to weather the uncertainty of each moment as we wait for God to do a new thing in our midst.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Tyrone Township, MI
Ascension Sunday
May 17, 2026
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