Why Are You Staring At The Sky? This past Sunday we began a new series on the church, where we began to wrestle with some big, broad questions like; why is the church important? What are we supposed to be doing? Why do I need the church? As a part of our conversation we talked about this enormous responsibility Jesus gives the disciples. In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus sets his disciples on mission by telling them to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to do everything I have commanded you.” Basically, Jesus is entrusting his movement, his church over to what would be in our world, a group of high school students. Could you imagine the amount of pressure they must have felt? In Acts 1 we pick up shortly after this command, and Jesus tells his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes and then ascends into heaven. The disciples are left standing there staring into the sky, when two angels appear to them and ask them this question: “Why do you stand here looking into the sky?” (Acts 1:11) That’s a funny question, isn’t it? Let’s be honest, they just watched a man ascend into the sky, so of course they’re going to keep watching. You would hate to be the disciple who turned away too soon and really missed something. Seriously, which of us wouldn’t linger around and watch for awhile? But think about what’s going on, Jesus had just given the disciples a mission, a purpose to go make disciples of all nations, baptize them, and teach them. He had just given control of his earthly kingdom over to them. Now is not the time to just stand there now is the time to do something. It’s this question hits at the heart of the church and what the church is meant to be. For so many of us we have narrowed church, we have limited the mission of God to staring at the sky waiting for God to do something, waiting for God to come back. When all along God has put us on mission, just as he did with his disciples over 2,000 years ago. We are called to go and make disciples, we are called to baptize and teach, and we are called to continue our own spiritual development. We are called to go and grow with Christ. So as we examine our lives we have to ask ourselves the question are we stepping into the life that Jesus is calling us to live? A life where we are going out and sharing this good news to other with our words and through the lives we live? Or are we simply staring into the sky?
Posted on: Tue, 29 Apr 2014 18:12:56 +0000
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