Take your Bibles with you today if you would, and we're going to begin our reading in the Acts passage that's there today. Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. And we're focusing on verses 9 through 11. And in particular, as we read those verses, I want you to notice how the Bible speaks of heaven here. And in particular, I want you to see how they line up. I'm going to read you a passage from the book of Revelation. This is what we call the present heaven, and I'll comment on that more. But let me begin reading in verse 1, and I'd like to read verses 1 through 4, and then we'll jump down and read verses 9 through 11. I want us to read this context, I want us to remember the kind of book that Luke is writing to his patron who probably paid for his well-being as he was a follower of Paul and probably kind of an early Christian historian. So Acts chapter 1 beginning in verse 1. It says in the first book of Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. until the day when He was taken up, after He had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen. He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the Kingdom of God. And while staying with them, He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, You heard from Me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. And now verse 9. And when He had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into Heaven. This is the Word of God. And then let's turn to Old Testament reading, the third to last book of the Old Testament, the book of Haggai. The book of Haggai. And I'll have some more things to say here. But just by way of context, this is a book that we're able to fairly confidently date. If you look at Haggai chapter 1, verse 1, we actually have this prophecy dated according to Darius, the king. That is, the king of the Persians. And so we can date this with some confidence to a year, and possibly even to the day. And so scholars that I've read are fairly confident, not absolutely confident, but fairly confident that we can actually date this particular sermon to September 1st of 520 BC. This is after an initial wave of exiles have returned from Persia. to the land of Israel. And that becomes important as we're then going to read in chapter 2 the prophecy of Haggai calling the people of Israel to sacrificial work and labor to rebuild the temple. And so we're going to read Haggai chapter 2 verses 1 through 9. So you can date there verse 1, now look at chapter 2 verse 1 and again some scholars are fairly confident that we can date this prophecy to October 21st the year 520 BC. So hear the word of the Lord. In the seventh month on the 21st day of the month the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehuzadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes, Yet now, be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehoshaphat, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts. According to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the Lord of Hosts, Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in. And I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of Hosts. The silver is mine, the gold is mine, declares the Lord of Hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of Hosts. In this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of Hosts. This is the Word of God. I don't know how old Haggad was, but I know he's a lot fewer words than his sidekick. Kind of the best comparison I've been able to come up with this week is that here we have two prophets in kind of a Batman and Robin relationship. Batman is older, a little more cynical, kind of talks like this. That's how I imagine it in my head. And then you have this much younger, much more talkative Robin, that would be Zachariah. The thing you need to know is that Haggai and Zachariah are tag-teaming around this period, this critical period in Israel's history, where there's a small band who has returned to Israel to re-establish the Hebrew culture around the Temple of Yahweh as the one true God. Not unlike what's happened since 1947 in the land of Israel. And you know that this is not the first, but the second and arguably the fourth time that the Hebrew language has been resurrected among the nations of the earth. And there are people who are fighting today in order to preserve the Jewish language and the Jewish culture, and then there's the whole thing of the Temple Mount. It is a really complicated mess. But I want to remind you that according to the Word of God, this second temple, and that's what it would be, so Saul's temple was begun in 967 BC, And it then stood until 586. So for hundreds of years, there was this glorious Solomonic Temple in Jerusalem. Then that was torn down. And in three waves, the people went into exile. So 586 is the final climactic destruction of Jerusalem. And then for 70 years, the people are in Israel. Zerubbabel, the governor, and Joshua, the high priest, that led the people back into the land of Israel. And now here are Haggai and Zechariah, probably two of the returned exiles, who now are standing up as part of the restoration of this Jewish building, but also of this Jewish culture, and are once again proclaiming the word of the Lord. I think here of the book of Samuel, the Word of God was rare in those days. Friends, the Word of God has been rare as a norm throughout human history. And then in times where we don't expect, God breaks in and He speaks. And in these last days, He's spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, Hebrews chapter 1. Haggai stirred God's people with declarations of the Lord. Notice in verse four, again in verse six, thus saith the Lord, declared the Lord of hosts. He promised the temple would be filled with glory. Prophecy fulfilled when Jesus himself enters that temple. I want you to notice as we go through this passage that this shaking is repeated. And there is an anticipation, there was a former glory of the Solomonic Temple, and now Haggai is proclaiming to the people who are about to rise up to rebuild this physical building, this building is going to have a latter glory that is greater than the first. Now, that's not because of the building itself. The building is actually authentic. It would be rebuilt and enlarged under Herod in particular, Herod the Great, and it would be known as one of the wonders of the ancient world. But it's that God is going to do something that will fill this house with glory. Look at what it says in verse 7. I will shake all nations and I will fill this house with glory. Imagine the songs the angels sang as Jesus during those feasts. First as a little kid, then as a 12 year old, than in at least four of the four years of his public ministry that Jesus walked into that temple, the Messiah who had been proclaimed. Heaven is shaken by the incarnation of the Son of God and, I want to argue today, by the ascension of Jesus, following ascending into heaven itself. I realize today, and I want you to wrestle with me, how high up did Jesus go in His human body before He ran out of oxygen? What was in that cloud? I was talking, John and I were talking this week. Was this like a black hole? Was this like Stargate? I went back, since we talked, I went back and I re-watched the first episode and a half of Stargate. Inside of Cheyenne Mountain out here, Colorado Springs, that's the location where supposedly they figured out how to have a portal between this world and another world. Is this like the wardrobe in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Sometimes you open the wardrobe and there's just coats there. Another time you open the wardrobe and it's a door to another world. How high up did Jesus go before that cloud covered Him and He was gone? I want you to wrestle with the physics. Some of you are like it that way. the promises given to us implicitly in the Incarnation and Resurrection. And I'm calling you to find hope in the Apostles' wish that, quote, we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. I'm calling you to press on in the hope of eternal life. So point number one this morning, close from Haggai chapter 2, which we've just read, and that is a bold anticipation. Whatever you believe about the prophecies, and there are some people who disagree on some of the details of interpretation here, but I want you to see that Haggai, this old man, in my mind, and at least this quiet man, He gives us two chapters. Zachariah gives us more on the order of 14 chapters. This is kind of like the difference between Jonathan Parnell and Brad Johnston. Jonathan will give it to you in a few words. Brad will use a few more. You can get all the details. But I want you to ponder what's going on here in this passage and in this fall full. Deliberate proclamation. Haggai may be one of those who had seen the Temple in its former glory. Look at verse 3. Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? Oh friends, this person, these people are now few and far between. Exodus 2, verses 12 and 13 have this same note. That even as the young people rejoicing that God was doing a new thing in Israel, the old people are grieving. Because this house was such a shadow of the glorious Solomonic Temple that it once had been there. In fact, the Book of Nehemiah, it becomes clear that even as they do this initial rebuild, this initial building of the Temple, there is so much debris in the way. that they can't even continue to build. We need to see that this was a burned out hull of a city, and that the people were scratching out an existence there. And so, even as it was a new thing, do you remember what it was? And that's where Haggai uses this phrase, it is former glory. How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes than your worshiping? Right? I wonder if that's you today. I wonder if you have bold anticipation about what God will do in His universe. I wonder if you are confident in the promises of God. If you haven't done the research on how God has fulfilled His promises in the past, then the promises about the future are going to be incredibly small and impotent in your mind and in your heart. The heart cannot exult in what the mind rejects. But here is a prophet of God, standing upon the promises of God, led forth by the Spirit of God, and now himself as a vehicle of special revelation to the people. Look at verse 4. standing between Israel's highest king. I bet he was a pitiful child physically in terms of his garb and crown and everything. But here is the lineal descendant of Solomon, the Zerubbabel. And the prophet says to the ruler of the nation, be strong, O Zerubbabel. Then he turns the other way, and here on the other side of the prophet stands the priest. So you have the prophet, you have the priest, you have the king, and Jesus fulfills all these offices in the New Covenant. And he says, To the lady of the center herein, Joshua the son of Jehoziah. And by the way, that word zedek there is the word for priest. Joshua the son of Jehoshaphat, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you. And what God is laying before His people here is a promise, verse 6, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. I will shake all the nations. so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory." Then down in verse 9 it says, the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former. Friends, this is an updating of the promises of God. This is the next installment of progressive revelation which God gave through His prophets in the Old Covenant. This is phenomenal. If this had not happened, then Israel would have simply been assimilated into the other nations. But because the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the true God, and the only true God, and our God, He will shape the nations. I wonder if you're listening to the message On both sides, there are large numbers of people who are becoming theists, who are studying the Bible, who haven't studied the Bible previously in their life, who are coming to faith in Christ. That's happening right now anecdotally. Justin Breyer-Lake, I mentioned last week, has a thesis. We may be at the beginning of the beginning of a revival. Friends, if that's true, God is shaping the nations. God is shaping the nations, by the way, around the world. Are we going to be part of that? Is there going to be a fundamental renewal of culture? If so, it will be built on Jesus the person and heaven the place. The good news is that Jesus is Lord. The good news is that He's the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Jesus will never die. Do you believe that? That's what he asked Martha. She said, I believe that you are the Messiah of God. The whole point here is that Jesus is the person and heaven is the place. This leads us to the second point this morning, and here it has to be determined in Acts chapter 1. We have this very interesting truth that is contained in Scripture. On one hand we have the truth that God came down. Now what we would expect is God came down in like an elevator, or God came down flying, or in a chariot of fire. But God chose a very unique way to come down. John chapter 6. Did you hear it there? He says he's from heaven. We know his parents. Well, yeah. Because he didn't come down in a chariot. He came down into the womb of a virgin. You see the claim here. The heavens and the earth are shaken, not only by Jesus coming into the temple, but by the incarnation of the Eternal Son of God becoming a man in the world. That claim is misunderstood. And then He lived among us for 30 years in obscurity, and then 3, maybe 4 years in public ministry, and then while His apostles watched, Jesus ascended back into heaven. And we didn't see where He went. That would be a really fascinating question to get answered. But know that He went into Heaven. And I've stood, I've told you all this before, but I've stood there, craning my neck at the top of the Mount of Olives, just on the east side of Jerusalem. Restless. Friends, I want you to see, the Bible is not interested in proving to you, there is no video of this event. But you have everything you need, based on multiple eyewitness accounts, to believe the Incarnation, the entrance of Jesus into the Temple, and His bodily ascension Why bodily? Why did this happen after Jesus had proved that He was flesh and blood? Because there's nothing fundamentally at odds with the physical world and heaven itself. God came in type in the Old Testament and dwelt amidst His people. Revelation chapter 1 promises that God will dwell now forever. in the midst of his people. So, let me back up for just a second. I want you to see that the bodily ascension, point number two, a bodily ascension of Jesus is helping us to understand now heaven in a different way. We covered this some last time, but I want to review this. So we have sky, the first heaven. We have space, the second heaven. We have the secret place of God, the third heaven. That's what's revealed in Genesis chapter one. Now, there's progressive revelation about heaven. So we talk about the heavens of the heavens. In the book of Deuteronomy, in the books of Kings and Chronicles, when Solomon dedicated that first temple, he prayed. Lord, the heavens of the heavens cannot contain You, how much less this house that I have built. And yet, based on God's grace, He says when people pray toward this place, there's nothing inherently holy about the dirt, or about the stones in the temple, or even about the gold in the temple. It is a shadow of the reality who is Christ. But when people pray toward this place, here, from heaven, your dwelling place, an answer. That was the prayer. So we have this heavens of the heavens, the highest heaven, or Paul calls it the third heaven, where God dwells. But now, in this progressive revelation, we learn that there is, and I'm gonna use this half of the platform up here for the first heaven, and this part of the platform over here for the second heaven. Now that's not usually what they're called. But in chronological order, that's what we're talking about. This over here is the present heaven. My grandmother, Josephine Johnston, she died in 2011, February of 2011. We attended her funeral. She was one of my closest friends in the world. And I'm absolutely confident that my grandmother, Josephine Johnston, is in heaven today. But she's waiting, like I'm waiting, for something else. The present heaven is where God dwells now. Then, this is the center point, when Jesus returns, we enter into something the theologians call either the future heaven, or, a more common theological term is the eternal state. That is, that now all the promises of God have been fulfilled, and now God in Christ dwells in the midst of His people. See that in Revelation 21 and 22. So I want you to see that the bodily ascension of Jesus is a critical part of God's plan of salvation and He now has entered into the world in the person of Christ And now He has redeemed His people. He has proclaimed His Gospel. He has performed mighty miracles. And now He returns to Heaven. And now that Gospel is rippling into the hearts of people. Has that Gospel rippled into your heart? Have you been born again to a living hope for the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Are you standing in the teaching of the apostles in Acts chapter 2 verse 42? They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. Have you wrestled through the eyewitness role that Matthew and Peter and John and James played? Do you understand that when you're coming to the Bible, you're coming to first century Christianity? that you're witnessing the power of God on display. There is a bodily ascension here, friends. One other verse that kind of ties in here is in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 6. Let me read that to you. This has been a helpful passage for, therefore, Sorry, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 24. It says, and actually quoting from our passage here, it says Hebrews 9 verse 24, For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God. I think I included this up higher, but in Hebrews chapter 12, yes, it's under the first point, Hebrews 12, verse 26, this is actually where the author of Hebrews quotes from our passage in Haggai chapter 2. He's applying it in that case to the future coming of Christ. Christ yet will come again. So Haggai is prophesying about the shaking of the heavens and the earth. I believe that refers to the incarnation. John chapter 6. We have no less than six times when Jesus says, I have come down from heaven. Slight variation in the terminology. John chapter 6. He comes into the world. He proclaims the gospel. He is fully and completely human. Now in Acts chapter 1 and other passages we could look at in the New Testament, Jesus returns to heaven, whatever that means. I point up because the heavens are up, but I don't know how he got into the third heaven. And now, we need to, like apostles, sit looking into heaven. Point number three is a beautiful abode. A beautiful abode. First of all, I want you to see in Acts chapter 1 how this is described. Verse 9. When he had said these things, as they were looking up, he was lifted up. This is the first point when the air stands up on the back of your neck. As you're looking at Jesus, he lifts up into the air. I don't know if it's fast or slow. I don't know if he did like Superman pose or lifted his hands out. But he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. Here is a perfectly healthy, 30-something year old man. You're 32, right? 35, okay. So, right around Trevor's age. And as Trevor's standing there talking, suddenly he's lifting up. And you're like, don't hit your head! And then, there's a cloud and then he's gone. Friends, what is God communicating if this is actual fact? Do you see why they're kind of left? And when I read this passage, it just takes me right back to, I stood somewhere really close to where this happened. And it was just like, you mean, you're saying, Lord, this actually happened? Like, what are you telling me? What in the world is going on here. Now, you can do one of two things. You can either deny that this is a historical event that's easy, or you can turn this into some kind of metaphor which has the effect of denying that it's a historical reality. That's what a lot of people do. You press them. Do you actually believe in a multi-verse? Well, I put it that way. All kinds of people believe in the multiverse. I don't, by the way. But I do believe that there is a physical universe called creation and that there's something else out there. And I'm not aware of any people that have described going back and forth besides Jesus. And Jesus said, I bring you the words of heaven. So I've inched my way towards this one, and I encourage you to do the same. You see, if you're seriously following Jesus, if you're a disciple of Jesus, while He's walking around on this earth, all of a sudden He goes into Jerusalem and all this crazy stuff happens, and you keep trying to follow Him, and you keep trying to follow Him, and you wind up He's now gone from your sight as you watch Him ascend into heaven. And you say, He's gone. Now again, that Holy Spirit stuff. The upper room discourse. Now I see why I have to go back to my first principles. There's only one true God. He is my God. He promised that He would shape the heavens and the earth and all the nations. I have to take what I've seen and I have to go out to the nations. Friends, that was God's plan. That's what had been prophesied. That's why it says in Acts 1-8, the verse before we read, you will receive power. The Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." Friends, I'm afraid that we're not shaking the way we're supposed to be shaking. I'm not sure that Christians haven't been painted into a corner where we get to say all kinds of stuff inside our churches, but how dare you bring that into public. I'm persuaded that if we will let our light shine before men, that they may see not your kooky claims, but that they may see your good works, that they will give praise to our Father who is in heaven. So the present heaven is where Jesus went. And that's why we believe, as a matter of principle, that the soul does not die. This is why Jesus says, he who believes in me will never die, and even if he does die, yet he shall live. John 11, if you want to look at this. John 11 and verse 25. It sounds initially that Jesus, like Jesus is contradicting himself. John 11.25, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Wait a minute, do you die or don't you die? Well, the question is to whom or what part of the dying person are we referring to? Yes, the body dies. I want young people to understand, yes, this is a real death. Don't look for your grandpa or your grandma to open their eyes and get them out of the casket. If so, then somebody really didn't do their job very well. That's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is the body truly dies. And yet, the soul never dies. Do you have to go to a distant mountain? Do you have to get a degree? God has made it so simple that it is offensive to those who believe in themselves. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. My grandmother has never died. Do you believe this? Do you see, can you feel the shaking that takes place when a culture actually believes that we're not evolved animals, but that we are human beings made in the image of God with souls that last forever? How do you know that your soul will last forever? Because the Bible tells me so. Oh, you idiot. How dare you. You consulted my reason. I'll proclaim the truth of God. In that truth, I stand. In that truth, our forefathers stood. And it's that truth that has echoed across the world and has turned pragmatists into idealists. has turned self-centered teenagers into Christ-centered martyrs. That is shaking us to the core of our being because now we can say Jesus is the person and heaven is the place. Friends, the reason that this all closed, the reason that a message was being shouted into the southern part of our nation. Follow the star. It will lead you to freedom. The slaves were not well educated in the South. They worked hard. They had songs that they sang. They learned the truth. Follow the star to freedom. Now, did they understand all of the geometry and all the spatial mechanics of why the North Star was the Freedom Star? Of course they didn't. But when they heard the news that there is freedom under the star, go to the star! Just keep going to the star and you'll get to freedom. Friends, that was a message they could understand. That was a message that thousands upon thousands upon thousands of slaves who had lived for generations in chains fled. They fled what was old and embraced what was new. By the way, notice. Is your Christianity old? Well, there's a sentence, I hope, in which it is. They've led the old, the old man, the old world, the old sin to embrace what's new. If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. Don't look back. Don't live as a Scottish person in the middle of the new world. Look forward. promises of God that have us in the present. Of course, please don't misunderstand. Our faith needs to be historically rooted. We need to love our confession. We need to love the historic creeds and confessions of the ancient church. But the reason for all that is that Christianity is turning us to the future. It's turning us and teaching us to rely on the promises of God. Heaven has been shaken. The nations are being shaken. God may well be shaking our city in the years to come. Bless you. The Lord our God, thank you for the present heaven. Thank you that to have Jesus is to have heaven. that even when Jesus comes back, that heaven will come and be with us. Lord, we pray that you would help us to wrestle with the promise of God. We pray that you would help us to know that we know deep in our being that we are new creatures in Christ, that the old has passed away, that the new has come. Lord, we pray that you would then help us to live whatever our calling is,