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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Dear friends in Christ, if there is a passage in Acts that could possibly push Bible-believing people like us in the direction of regarding Luke's second book as not really a book at all,

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rather just the transcription of a file folder of notes and sermon excerpts and journal pages and maps and scraps all labeled post-Easter stuff,

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it might more likely be this passage from the end of chapter 1 than the wee passages of the second half of the book or even the shipwreck account near the end.

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Our text reads like a lost page from the apostolic minutes of their first meeting after the Easter recess.

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All history has pivoted on its access. The bonds of death have been broken. The conquering hero has proclaimed a peace that surpasses understanding.

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And finally, heaven has opened its gates to receive him. And the disciples' first thought was, well, we should probably replace Judas.

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But let's just suppose for the next few minutes that this passage really does belong in our Bibles.

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And let's suppose at the same time that Paul was not exaggerating when he told Timothy that all scripture is useful.

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Then we can ask, of what use is Acts 1:12 through 26?

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And the goal of this sermon is to convince you that the correct answer to that question is not.

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Acts 1:12 through 26 shows us how impotent the church was before Pentecost to accomplish any real good.

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They were just waiting for power from on high, just waiting to begin to be his witnesses, just waiting to take the Gospel into the world, just waiting.

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And the first beneficial use of this text for us is to show us that between the ascension and the return, there is no just waiting.

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Unless you mean just, of course, in the sense of righteous, a waiting that is making things right.

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The apostles had been commanded to wait, to wait and to not leave until the promise of the Father, the gift of the Son, the power of the Spirit had come upon them.

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And this waiting on the Lord does not drain time of its meaning and purpose. It sanctifies time, every moment of it.

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How many times have these followers heard their Lord tell them to watch, to wait, to be ready?

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They knew that time waited. Wasn't time wasted?

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And if we think that what happens here is just housekeeping, well maybe we're not so far from the truth.

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But maybe these men and women had a deeper insight into the truth than we do.

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What is the right way to wait for the Lord's return? It's to be dressed, to be busy with the housekeeping of this Lord's house.

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What does such housekeeping look like? Well it begins, Jesus had told them, with knowing the Master's will.

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And so they devoted themselves to prayer and Peter's address to them shows that this steadfast adherence to prayer included a careful examination of the Scriptures to discern that will for them.

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It continued with taking inventory, with lining up resources available for the work that they would be called to.

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And even then, and especially then, conforming all of their plannings, all of their preparations to the mind of the one whose work it is.

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Judas had been numbered among them, allotted his share, assigned an office, and it was that office that was to be filled.

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And it would be filled with one who had been with him from the beginning. And even the choice would be left to the Master.

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The community will do everything it can during this time of waiting to be ready for what comes next.

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Oh it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this righteous waiting. It hardly feels like waiting at all.

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The Lord says, I have prepared good works for you to walk in them. Now let's get you prepared for the walking.

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House hunting, paper writing, box packing, book reading, prayer praying, diaper changing, dish washing, Scripture searching, homework doing, more reading, more praying, and then more reading and praying.

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Did you think that you were just waiting? Do you know at what hour your Lord will return? Do you even know at what moment his next promise will come true for you?

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Will you be ready and waiting? Let Acts 1:12-26 teach you how to wait.

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O Thelaeon 2, a second way in which our passage is advantageously beneficial.

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Acts 1:12-26 gives us a glimpse of true unity. It's fascinating to me, and it seems just a little ironic, that Luke's first use of homothimadon occurs sandwiched between a listing of the eleven.

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Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, one by one, each one named, sandwiched between all of them, and the reference to Mary and the brothers of Jesus.

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Now the ESV translates homothimadon as with one accord, but I prefer something a little more close to its etymology with one and the same desire.

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The reason I find it fascinating is that the more that list of eleven names becomes for you a list of eleven men, the more you wonder that they could agree on anything.

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Look at it again. You have two sets of brothers, all fishermen by the way, a tax collector, a zealot, and on the other side you have Mary and Jesus' brothers, a group that regardless of their own internal unity have not been seeing eye to eye with the disciples throughout the course of Jesus' ministry.

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Now one and the same desire burns in the heart of each, drives them to pray and to pray together, and all of this happens in the down time on the eve of Pentecost.

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We dare not make the mistake of course of thinking that the Spirit was not present among this community of one hundred and twenty before Pentecost morning.

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It is the Spirit's voice that they have been listening to, that has been guiding their actions, and Paul will later write to the Ephesians urging them to bear with each other in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

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But where does this unity come from so that we can have it and maintain it?

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No one in Acts gives us a direct answer to that question, but the accumulation of indirect answers is overwhelming.

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Most immediately, at the very core of this community are those whose minds have been opened to understand the Scriptures.

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That is to understand that these Scriptures that testify of Him have found their fulfillment in Him.

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To understand that just as His suffering and death have been foretold by the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms, so also had His resurrection to life and glory.

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To understand that just as certainly did the Scriptures declare that in the name of this one Lord Jesus Christ repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed to all peoples.

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In Acts we hear more about the expression of this one and the same desire than we do of its Genesis, but these are clearly people who have been brought together by one word under one Lord, having hearts filled with one love.

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His. Love from Him, love for Him. His love through them for all.

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This very disparate group of people is not waiting for a unity to come in a new outpouring from above.

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They have already found unity in their one Lord, in their stricken shepherd who is already gathering His scattered sheep. They are already come unity, already homothimidon.

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Their unity is not fueled by their desire. Quite the contrary, their one and the same desire is the expression of the unity they have in their Lord.

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If you and I are having doubts about the unity of our community, it's time to stop and ask if we really want the same thing.

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Hopefully we'll find that once we strip away the agglomerated distractions and temptations and corruptions of this one true desire, we'll find once again that we actually do want the same thing.

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And we can begin once again to let that desire control all our doings and all our thinkings.

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If we find we don't, we need to return to Acts 1. How did this group get to homothimidon? Where did we take a wrong turn?

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Let Acts 1:12-26 remind you what true unity is, teach you where it comes from, and show you what it looks like.

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And finally, for this morning at least, we can consider one more way in which Acts 1:12-26 works to make us wise for salvation.

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It offers a little refresher course in what it means to be a witness.

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Now I half-jokingly, but half-seriously, tell my students that there is one Bible passage that they should never put on the sign out front, especially to welcome worshippers on Easter morning.

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And that passage is Luke 24:5, and 6. He is not here. Why do you seek the living among the dead?

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Seriously, though, how often don't we, the church in between, the church who celebrate the Ascension and pray for the return, how often don't we live and act and think and talk like He's up there and we're down here?

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How often don't we give in to the temptation to think that Jesus is after all just like everyone else? When He promises to always be with us, it's a sure sign that he's about to leave us for good.

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Isn't that what the Ascension is all about? Isn't that what this community in Acts 1 is getting its first taste of?

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The last anyone's heard about our Jesus is that he was taken up away from us, taken from our sight.

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But if our sight won't help us now, how about we try our hearing? Do you hear Jesus in our text even though you don't see him? Listen carefully.

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The scripture had to be fulfilled. For it is written. Does that sound like Peter to you? Simon Peter? Close your eyes. Just listen.

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The scripture had to be fulfilled. For it is written. No, that's Jesus speaking. There's no doubt about it. He's not up there in a way that means he can't be down here with us, right beside us, not far from each of us.

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Luther makes this clear to the fanatics of his day who thought that the exalted Christ had to be either up or down but couldn't be both. Christ is around us and in us in all places. Those fanatics understand nothing of this.

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They also say that he sits at the right hand of God but what it means that Christ ascends to heaven and sits there, they do not know. It is not the same as when you climb up a ladder into the house.

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It means rather that he is above all creatures and in all and beyond all creatures. That He was taken up bodily, however, occurred as a sign of this. Therefore, he now has all things before his eyes, more than I have you before my eyes. And He is closer to us than any creature is to another.

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Being Jesus' witness doesn't begin with talking about Him. It can only begin with hearing what He says and seeing what He does. How can you be His witness if you cannot hear Him when He speaks through the mouth of his apostle? How can you be His witness if you cannot see His hands at work, to serve and care for, to comfort and uplift, to embrace and to be His witness?

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How can you be his witness when you cannot see his body?

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It's little wonder that the world has trouble looking at us and seeing Jesus, listening to us and hearing his voice. Little wonder if you and I have the same trouble, that is.

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Peter's speech is not, of course, the first place where you can hear the voice of Jesus in our text. It's right there in the opening words, and they returned to Jerusalem. And again, where they were staying.

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The voice of their Lord is not heard among these men only when they take up His words and speak them as their own. It's also heard when their lives and thoughts and actions and decisions are all expressions of their own hearing. Hearing and doing His words.

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Acts 1:12-26 reminds us that from time to time we need to stop and listen. Stop and look at ourselves and at each other.

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Have we taken up His words and made them our own? Do we sound like Jesus when we speak? This is not the same as knowing what the Bible says about Jesus.

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We need to ask ourselves whether or not we speak with an accent that causes the world to say, yes, you're one of His. I can hear it in your voice.

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We need to ask ourselves whether his word lives among us because we do what we do because He has told us to. And we need to look at our appearance in the mirror of our brother, sister, neighbor in need.

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When I see myself reflected back from him or her, do I look like a member of the body of Christ? Is my, is our witness to the Lord Jesus rather than manifesting it, calling into question that good news that Jesus is among us to save and will be until the end of the world.

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Christ has hallowed our times, our every moment by placing them between His ascension and His return. He has opened our minds to understand the collective testimony to Him and so draw us under His single lordship, uniting hearts and minds to serve Him.

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And He gives us ears to hear and eyes to see, to hear and see Him, still our Emmanuel, God with us, God in us, now and forever. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.