I want to talk again from strong faith to stained glass.
In Bay Window number three, Jesus is taken up into the sky and a cloud received him out of their sight.
The gathered disciples are standing around Jesus and a cloud receives him out of their sight.
In Bay Window number seven, that is directly under Window number three that the camera people should have had up while I was talking.
Elijah, one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament, was also taken up.
Second Kings chapter two and verse number 11 reads, and it came to pass as they still went on and talked that behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted them both asunder and Elijah went up by a whirlwind in the heaven.
Once again, the stained glass designer strikingly captures in brilliant detail the palpable symbolism of Elijah of the Old Testament, leaving something for Elisha his servant and Jesus leaving something for his disciples as he departs.
Luke, who offers the gospel of Luke, which tells the story of the life of Jesus, and Luke, who offers the acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles, which tells the story of the early church.
Luke records several resurrection appearances.
Compiled with Matthew, Mark, and the gospel of John, there are 10 resurrection appearances that occur over a 40 day period.
He appeared to the women at the tomb.
He appeared to Mary Magdalene.
He appeared to two men on the road to Emmaus.
Peter in Jerusalem.
He appeared to 10 disciples, and then he appeared to the 11 disciples.
He appeared to seven disciples while they were fishing in Galilee.
He appeared again to the 11 in Galilee, and then he appeared to 500 brethren at once, and then he appeared finally to James, his own brother.
Verse three of Acts chapter one mentions the Greek word technarion, the only place in the New Testament where we find this word.
This word means by many infallible proofs.
Jesus appeared. Jesus showed himself.
Jesus had many appearances by infallible proof, technarion.
And it is a word used for the kind of clear cut evidence that has the power to persuade people for a particular truth.
Jesus took them aside and began to teach them some truths that they desperately needed to know.
They needed to know what he expected of them when he left them.
They needed to know what they were to be doing while he's in the session.
And they needed comfort for their troubled hearts, because Jesus would no longer be physically present with them.
So I want you to see brothers and sisters, the completeness of his authority.
His being born in Bethlehem was the beginning.
His healing the sick and raising the dead, even his going to the cross to die for our sins.
Even the resurrection does not complete his authority.
Listen to him if you please.
While Jesus stands with his disciples on the Mount of Olives, gravity suddenly lost its power over him.
And he began to ascend into the sky until he disappeared into a cloud.
The cloud referred to brothers and sisters is not one that we would see in the air, not a cumulus cloud,
but the glory cloud that surrounded the very presence of God himself.
In other words, his father had come back in a cloud to receive him in glory as he was in the beginning.
The disciples are now transfixed.
They are looking once again at the complete authority of Jesus.
It was that same authority that changed water in the wine.
It was that authority that fed the multitudes with two fish and five little barley loaves.
It was that same authority that calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee when he just stood on that boat
and waved his hand and said peace, be still.
It was the same authority that he used when he walked on the water.
The same authority when he raised Jairus' daughter, when he raised the son of the widow of name,
the same authority he used when he raised Lazarus from the dead.
The Lord's departure left the disciples confused and concerned.
But because of Luke's account in the book of Acts, Lily Grove, we have behind sight what they lacked in foresight.
The completeness of his authority consists in the truth, number one, that if Jesus had not gone away,
the spirit of God could not have come.
The Gospel of John at chapter 16 and verse number seven says,
nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that I go away.
For if I go not away, the comforter will not come under you.
But if I depart, I will send him under you.
If Jesus had not gone away, the spirit of God could not have come.
Secondly, Jesus went to heaven to make intercession for us.
Hebrews at chapter one, verse number three says, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person
and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins,
sat down on the right hand of majesty on high.
If you want to know what Jesus is doing right now,
let me tell you what he's doing right now.
He's seated at the right hand of God praying for us.
He's not at God's right hand standing because that would make him a servant.
He's not at God's right hand kneeling because that would make him a slave.
But he's at God's right hand seated and that makes him a son.
Now let me tell you why that's a reason to shout.
When they made sacrifices in the Old Testament, there was no chair behind the Holy of Holies
because they had to make sacrifices 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
It was an unending sacrificial system.
But when Jesus died, the sacrifice was once and forever and he sat down at the right hand of God with power
because the sacrifice has been made.
What can wash away my sin?
Not the blood of bullocks on the altar.
Not the blood of rams of consecration.
Not the blood of lambs without spot or blemish, but the blood of Jesus that was shed once and forever.
Jesus, if he had not gone, the Holy Spirit could not have come.
If he had not gone, he would not be in heaven making intercession for us.
But brothers and sisters, thirdly, Jesus went to heaven so that he could come back and get us.
John chapter 14 verse number three says,
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I wish I had a Bible reader,
I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you will be also.
That's the completeness of his authority.
He completed his mission when he died on the cross, rose from the grave, stayed with his disciples 40 days.
Now he's on the right hand of God with authority and power that he had in the beginning.
And as a hurry, I want you to see the inescapability of his presence.
For the last three years of Jesus life, the disciples had watched Jesus do what he was now commanding for them to do.
Preach the gospel, love the lost and the least, cross social and religious and racial barriers to reach lost sinners.
They were called upon to do the same thing, Lily Grove, that you and I have been called upon to do.
Exalt the Savior, equip the saints and evangelize the sinner.
But how would they accomplish God's work if he was not there to help them?
In verse number eight, Jesus tells the disciples that the Holy Ghost will empower them to carry out the mission
that God is leaving them here to do.
Because what God needs them to do, God has to enable by his spirit power.
Because you can't do God's work by human effort.
You cannot accomplish God's will in your own strength.
You need the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.
Brethren sisters, let me ask you.
Do you know why you are still alive?
Maybe you think because you've been taking vitamins and you've been dieting and exercising.
You've been keeping your doctor's appointment.
You've been doing yoga and stretching.
All the good genes in your family, they live long in your family.
And that's why you have lived so long.
That's why you're still here.
Your hair is gray.
You're not as fast as you used to be, but you're still alive because you've been eating right and dieting
and making sure that you get plenty of rest and drink plenty of water
because you know you need to keep an apple a day, keeps the doctor away.
And you need to keep on exercising and keep on taking.
Listen, that ain't got nothing to do with why you're alive.
Do you know why you are still living?
Because the Lord is not through with you yet.
We are still alive so that the world might see Jesus in us.
That we might tell the lost about a Christ who saves to the other most.
Second Corinthians chapter three verses two and three says,
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men.
For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us,
brothers and sisters, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God.
Not on tablets of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart.
You are God's epistle.
You are God's workmanship.
Created in Christ Jesus for good works.
You are God's manifesto.
You are God's picture in the world of what life is all about.
And God will not let you die until you live out what he let you be born for.
I know why I was born.
Do you know why you were born?
If you haven't found it out, your order has God to give you some insight.
Has God to tell you what your purpose is in this world?
Because he's not going to let you out until you accomplish his will.
Because God has a will and a purpose and a desire and a goal and a destiny for every one of our lives.
And you are wasting your time chasing things that are not going to last that long.
I don't know anybody but the Kardashians who are famous for doing nothing.
That's the kind of world we live in.
You just got to make a few sex tapes and you can be famous.
You got to date a few basketball players and you can be famous.
You don't have to know anything.
You don't have to accomplish anything.
Just what do you call it when you get a certain amount of likes on Facebook?
You just go viral.
Just go viral for being a fool.
And you will blow up and fame and fortune will come your way for being nothing.
And you will come to the end of your days having not accomplished what God let you be born for.
What a waste of your life.
I'm through.
I just wanted you to see the completeness of his authority.
The inescapability of his presence.
But we have in that same chapter one the surety of his promise.
He said you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you.
Then you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem.
You got to start at home in Judea and in Samaria.
Because you can't go all over the world telling people about Jesus and you ain't talking to nobody in your family.
If you and a member of your family are not speaking, don't tell me nothing about the goodness of God.
Get that straight in your own family and then you will be able to testify outside your house on your job, in your circle of friends.
Because somebody ought to know that you've been with Jesus. You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.
You shall be witnesses unto me in Judea, in Samaria and in the uttermost parts of the earth.
And the promise that the Lord gives you is suddenly that appears some angels.
As they are steadfastly, intently gazing.
They are so busy watching Jesus ascend that they can't see what's right on the side of them.
God has sent some heavenly messengers while they are looking towards heaven.
And when Jesus is received out of their sight in the Shekinah cloud, they can no longer see his physical presence.
They turn around and two angels simultaneously say,
Men of Galilee, why stand ye idly gazing?
The same Jesus who you see going up, you will see him coming down the same way he went up.
Somebody ought to help me preach it. I'm through, but when you look at that Elijah window,
Elijah worked miracles and his servant Elisha was with him, slept right next to his bed.
And Elijah was so full of the Holy Ghost that Elisha said, Master, when you get ready to depart,
I wish I had a Bible reader. I want you to let what you have fall on me.
And Elijah said, if you are around when I get ready to go, I'll drop my mantle and it'll fall on you.
You're going to help me close this, won't you?
When God got ready to take Elijah, Elijah like Enoch did not taste death because God took him in a whirlwind.
And while he was leaving, he let something drop on Elisha and the same Holy Spirit that Elijah had, Elisha had.
You're going to help me close this, won't you? Jesus said, I'm going away.
And when I leave, I will not leave you comfort less, but I will send you a comforter.
I wish I had somebody to help me. Now listen, I want to get somebody straight who got the wrong idea about the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is not an it. The Holy Ghost is a person.
He has personality. He has will. He has volition. He has emotion.
You can grieve him. I wish I had somebody to help me.
You can stop him from doing great works in your life because the Holy Ghost will not dwell in an unclean temple.
Jesus said, I'm not going to leave you by yourself. I'm going to leave you a comforter.
And the comforter, the Holy Ghost, the paracletus is one of the same kind.
He is of the same essence as Jesus Christ.
In other words, the Holy Spirit here with us is as if Jesus was with us himself.
The only difference is when Jesus was in Capernaum, he could not be in Galilee.
When Jesus was in Jerusalem, he could not be in Bethany because he was confined to one spatio-temporal relationship in the universe.
Bound by time and space. But now that he's gone back to the Father, seated at the right hand of power, having sent the Holy Ghost, he can be everywhere at the same time.
Let me try not to mess this up.
I'm not very literate when it comes to computers. I have one in my office and your phone that you carry is a computer.
I have one at the Life Center. I have one across the street. And the only thing I have on it is solitaire.
Because I don't know anything about technology.
I am not techno savvy. I've been dragged into the 21st century kicking and screaming.
I don't know how... I think all the phone ought to do is ring and hang up.
But people use their phone for everything because there's a computer in your hand.
And those of you who work on jobs or have computers, laptops in your home or wherever you are doing your work,
you know something about Microsoft Cloud.
The cloud is when you back up and store information on your computer or on your phone.
You can access it anywhere in the world because it's in the cloud.
Uh-oh.
It does not... It does not even have to be your computer.
If you have internet access, you can pull up whatever you need because it's in the cloud.
I wish I had somebody to help me close it.
Sometimes I hear people from time to time talk about their computer crashed.
But they did not lose their data because it's in the cloud.
Uh-oh. One... One Friday.
On a hill called Calvary.
Jesus died.
Didn't he die?
And then early Sunday morning,
he came up out of the grave with all power in his hand.
He stayed around for 40 days.
And then the Bible says they saw Jesus going up in the cloud.
And if you want to know where he is right now, he's in the cloud.
But here is the good news this morning.
If you have internet access,
the Holy Ghost is internet access to get you in the cloud.
And whatever you need, it's in the cloud.
Whatever you think you lost is still in the cloud.
If you need joy, it's in the cloud.
If you need peace, it's in the cloud.
If you need help this morning, it's in the cloud.
How do I get my information from the cloud?
Get down on your knees.
Father!
I stretch
my hands to me.
No other, no other, no other
help I know.
If I withdraw myself from me,
whether shall I go,
I need somebody who's been in the cloud this morning.
You can shout this morning
because your joy is in the cloud.
You can give him praise this morning
because you haven't lost any of your information.
You can rave your hand this morning
because your peace is in the cloud.
Your hope is in the cloud.
Your salvation is in the cloud.
And when you need it,
all you got to do is call it up.
When you need it,
he'll show up in your office.
He'll show up in your marriage.
He'll show up among your enemies.
He'll show up in the operating room.
He'll show up on your dying bed.
He'll show up in your divorce.
He'll show up when life goes sour on you.
He'll show up when people are lying on you.
He'll show up when they call you every name
but a child of God.
He'll show up and when he shows up,
he'll make a way out of nowhere.
When he shows up,
he'll dry tears from your eyes.
When he shows up,
he'll put shoes on your feet,
clothes on your back,
money in your pocket,
joy in your soul.
When he shows up,
won't he show up?
Won't he show up?
He will make a way.
He will turn it around.
He will write your name
in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Won't he do it?
Why don't you tell somebody?
God will take care of you.
God will...
No, he's alright.
He walks with me.
He talks with me.
He tells me I am his own.
Go to sleep tonight.
Pull the covers up over your head.
Here is the good news for you.
Now under him...
Who is able to keep you from falling.
And he will...
He will...
present you thoughtless
before the presence of his glory
with exceeding great joy.
Is there anybody here?
Got your joy this morning?
Is there anybody here?
No, it's in the cloud.
Tell him thank you
for the cloud.
Thank you.
God knows he's alright.