If we've never met, my name is Greg Hampton.
I'm one of the pastors here at the house, and
I would love to meet you, buy you a coffee or
a soda or something like that, hear your story.
I like to talk about Jesus. We'd love to hear
your background, how you ended up here at the
house, and if there's any way that we can help
or serve you. And we are in a series called the
Nicene Creed. This series... I mean, the pastor
joke is that this series has been 1 ,600 years
in the making. Because... But here's the deal.
A couple weeks back, Gary got up here and preached,
and he gave some pastor jokes, and y 'all laughed
at him. Y 'all laughed. So when I give pastor
jokes, I expect you give me what you gave Gary.
Exactly. So some would say this series has been
1 ,600 years in the making. There, see? Don't
you feel better? Don't you feel better laughing?
All right, finish this phrase for me. What goes
up must... come down. Today's section of the
Nicene Creed is the what goes up must come down
section. It says he ascended into heaven and
is seated at the right hand of the Father. He
will come again in glory to judge the living
and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
He ascended and he will return. What goes up
must come down. And any of us who call ourselves
Christians, our beliefs about Jesus don't stop
with his ministry. The beliefs that we have about
Jesus don't stop with his resurrection. The beliefs
that we have about Jesus do not stop with his
ascension. Our beliefs about Jesus continue and
extend into the future. The creed reminds us
that we don't just believe in what Jesus is.
did, we believe in what Jesus will someday do.
And that belief is meant to shape how we live
with that hope in the meantime. All right, so
let's open our Bibles and see where that takes
us. We're going to be in the book of Acts. It
goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans.
So if you see any of those, you know you're in
the right neighborhood. There's Bibles on the
tables. There's also Bibles in the lobby. You're
welcome to take one of those home if you don't
have one. Otherwise, the U version, there's tons
of versions of the Bible that are on digital
app stores. And we have a tradition of giving
the scriptures our full attention when read in
the context of a sermon. And you can do that
any way that you're most comfortable with. But
if you'd like to stand with me, you're also welcome
to do that. Acts chapter 1, starting in verse
6. So when they had come together, they asked
him, Lord, is this the time when you will restore
the kingdom to Israel? He replied, it is not
for you to know the times or periods that the
Father has set by his own authority, but you
will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.
When he had said this, as they were watching,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of
their sight. While he was going, and they were
gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in
white robes stood by them. They said, Men of
Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?
This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into
heaven, will come in the same way as you saw
him go into heaven. Let us pray. God of every
tongue, every tribe, every color, every nation,
we thank you that the scriptures have persisted
throughout the millennia. That we still have
them to read, to consider, to learn from. And
whatever you have to teach us today, I pray that
it would stick. That it would become a part of
the framework of our faith. As our faith becomes
stronger, as we become more like your son, Jesus.
Amen. You may have a seat. What goes up has promised
to come back. Now, some people get a little hung
up on what that return means or what that return
will look like. But outside of the apocalyptic
vision from John in the book of Revelation, we
don't have all that many passages that tell us
what it would look like or even speak to it directly.
We have the angel saying that he will return
the same way that he left. We have Paul mentioning
being caught up in the clouds. And we have Jesus
saying that only the Father knows when this...
might happen. So, will he descend? The angel
said, he'll descend, he'll come back the same
way he left. Does that mean that he'll descend
on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem? Does it
mean that he'll come down on a literal cloud?
Does it mean that faithful followers of his will
be standing around watching and see it happen?
We do not know the specifics. And even though
the scriptures say that every eye will see this
happen, we do not know if that is literal or
figurative. Is it physical? Is it spiritual?
Because if he descends onto the Mount of Olives
the same exact way that he left, I don't know
if you noticed or not, but we here in this room
cannot see the Mount of Olives from here. And
I think that our eyes would be counted in the
context of every eye. We'll see. Of course, I
suppose someone could be standing there live
streaming it, and therefore everyone could see
it all at once. Or will every part of the world
just miraculously see him at once because his
presence will be omnipresent? But then when you
read the scriptures about him coming back, he
will come back with a bodily form. And we think,
oh, well, a bodily form exists in one place in
one time. See, the creed doesn't try to explain
all the details. The creed is trying to remind
us that we don't only have past beliefs about
Jesus, but that we have a future hope of his
return. Of course, that hope can be clouded by
our definition of terms. The creed says that
he will return to do what? To judge the living
and the dead. Maybe the concept of judgment makes
some of us nervous. Because we hear judgment,
we think of Judge Judy. She's kind of harsh.
Y 'all, you know this. There's a TikTok trend
right now. I don't watch TikTok. I'm old, so
I see the TikTok videos after they made it to
Instagram and then finally made it to Facebook.
Thanks. You're keeping up that Gary energy. I
appreciate that. There's this new trend where
people will like be in really bad lighting so
their face is really stark and they're mouthing
the words to Judge Judy. And it's really funny.
It's really, really funny because she's so, she's
just poking people as hard as she possibly can.
When we hear judgment, we think of things like
that. We think of punishment. We think of things
like prison. But listen to what the theologian
N .T. Wright. has to say about this. He says,
the word judgment carries negative overtones
for many people in our world, but the ancient
Jews and the early Christians saw God's judgment
as a wonderful thing, something to be celebrated,
longed for, yearned over. It meant that the one
true God would set the world right, would straighten
it out, would bring justice and peace once. And
for all. I remember when I was a kid, I don't
remember how old I was, maybe my dad could tell
me, because my dad took us on a trip to go to
a Cubs game in Chicago. And back in those days,
we had a 1982 Buick LeSabre. And we were on the
highways and we hit one of these exits where
it was like one of those long... slow right turns
that got you onto the next highway. And I remember
my dad driving and he goes, hey, watch this.
And he let go of the wheel while we were on the
ramp. And it just stayed on the ramp. Because
the alignment was so bad on this Buick at that
time. That he knew he could let go and it would
just keep curving to the right. Biblical judgment
is a mechanic fixing the alignment on an 82 Buick.
It's putting on new tires if they've been worn
down from the alignment being bad. It's fixing
the suspension if the tires won't sit level anymore.
It's making... that Buick like it just rolled
off the line. Judgment is making what has gone
wrong right. And if that is how you learn to
think about judgment, first of all, you'll see
that almost nothing we call justice or judgment
today lives up to that kind of judgment. And
then, If you go back and you read the Gospels
and you look at the way that Jesus taught, the
way that he healed and confronted and forgave,
he was already setting things right. He said,
you have heard it said, but I say. He was judging
what was broken and working to restore it to
what it was meant. Judgment is not something
to fear. Judgment is something to eagerly await.
Now, another important part about studying something
like the creed is admitting that the creed is
not Talking about things that we know. The creed
is talking about things that we believe. See,
the creed... Anyone sitting in this room has
been brought up in a very modern environment
where you need to know things for sure. Facts
must be facts. They must be provable. The creed
isn't a statement of facts, though. The creed
isn't telling us what we... No, the creed is
reminding us of what we believe. And there was
great wisdom in the framers and authors of the
creed to choose to have a statement that says,
I believe, instead of saying, I know. It doesn't
say, I know that God the Father is creator of
heaven and earth. It says, I believe in God the
Father, creator of heaven and earth. Glenn Packham
said this about the creed. and belief. It doesn't
say, I know. It says, I believe. And I believe
requires a posture of humility. It's not subjectivity
and it's not certainty. It's the humility of
saying, I believe. He goes on and he says, when
Jesus says in the gospels that you have to have
faith of a child, he's not talking about naivete.
The faith of a child is not naivete. It is humility.
So when we say the words of the creed, we say
them with humility. We are entering the great
mystery of the faith. We're saying that I cannot
define you, but I can confess you. It reminds
me of a quote from another author, Madeline L
'Engle. You probably know her from A Wrinkle
in Time. But in a book called The Rock That Is
Higher, she said, Faith is for the part of the
story that superficially isn't believable. Virgin
births, miracles, resurrections, it's unrealistic.
That's childish. Or is it maybe not so much childish
as child -hearted? The framers of the creed were
wise enough to piece together ideas that answered
the heresies of their day, and they were humble
enough. Childlike enough to say we do not know,
but we believe. And the difference matters. Because
reason tells me that there is no such thing as
a kingdom that can have no end. Every kingdom
on earth has fallen, yes? Every kingdom, every
empire on earth. that currently will not have
the level of power that it has had. Egypt, Babylon,
Rome, Britain, by some measures, America is already
failing. Empires are like milk. They have an
expiration date. Milk is good until it's not.
Because when it turns, it turns. Reason. Facts
alone, logic, they all tell me that Jesus will
not return. Because it's been 2 ,000 years, and
the people that wrote these scriptures thought
Jesus was coming back in their lifetime. Reason
alone, logic alone, leads me to believe something
else. And even if Jesus does return, history
has proved to me that there is no such thing
as a kingdom that has no end. It is faith that
tells me that Jesus will make all things new.
It is faith that tells me that Jesus will set
all things right. It is faith that tells me that
the goodness of his kingdom will have no end.
It is faith that tells me that what goes up will
come back down. So what do we do with that? Well,
first of all, we don't stare at the sky waiting
for the clouds to open. And we don't sit around
waiting to die and go to heaven. Again, N .T.
Wright said, the good news is not that we get
to go to heaven when we die, but that heaven's
rule has begun on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus
taught his disciples something really important
that we've been praying at the end of every service
for the last couple of months. He said, your
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. They
were meant to act out in the world what they
believed was the reality of heaven. Immediately.
They were not supposed to sit on their hands
and wait for Jesus' return so that he could do
all the work. They were meant to act out what
they believed that future reality would be. And
what that future reality is currently presently
being now in heaven. And so we, we are meant
to live the kingdom that is already beginning.
That is already broken in. With a child being
born in a lowly, humble manger. So every act
of mercy, every hand that we hold, every injustice
confronted, every wrong made right, every table
flipped and every table set to feed the hungry,
these are the signs that the kingdom has already
broken in. They are the signs that we are approaching
the day that Jesus will make all things right.
There are different eschatological concepts.
Eschatology is the theological structure of end
times. Some people believe that it all has to
get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse
before Jesus comes back. I'm in the camp where
Jesus is telling us we're supposed to be trying
to make it better. How about when he returns,
he has less work to do? That we act out what
we believe. That we, when we pray, thy kingdom
come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
That we mean it. Because if we believe that Jesus
will return, that should and that will shape
how we live with that hope. every day until we
see him. Amen? Let us pray. Jesus, we eagerly
await your return. There are days where I see
what is happening in the world and the only words
I have are, come Lord Jesus, come. Your Holy
Spirit reminds us. That those are the moments
that you are asking us to act, to care, to hold
hands, to set tables. Amen.