Space & Travel

0:00 allow me to pray dear lord i ask a very special blessing over this message good and gracious god may the words of my mouth and the meditations upon all our hearts be acceptable to you our lord and savior amen may be seated well this morning friends um i have a fun special sermon for you today the title is space and travel space and travel we're going to do a whole lot of that i want to start talking about uh jules verne do you know who jules verne is okay uh he's a famous sci-fi writer wrote a journey to the center of the earth a big popular famous book but back in 1865 uh he wrote a book called from from earth to the moon and this is a story about a men's club in baltimore and this men's club they decide they want to fashion a large cannon and shoot someone into space to the moon i know it's crazy right that was back in 1865 he thought of this back then that was science fiction uh to put this in perspective as well the most advanced technology in 1865 was apparently the transatlantic uh telegraph cable there was the steel bessemer process the gatling gun uh and depending where you'll look at in history but the gas-powered car was just showing up in 1865 so that was the most advanced technology back then they were thinking about these things and as i was reading this passage uh the ascension over and over again i just kept getting caught on the part where they're just looking into the sky they just keep looking into the sky jesus is gone and these angels show up and i think kind of in a dry humor they say why are you looking into the sky you know jesus is gone he said he was going to go and i'll touch briefly on heaven and some aspects of that but i thought about looking into the heavens and how humans have looked into the skies for a very long time science fiction talks about this too with things like jules verne and i thought about how ascension uh the ascension theology it's kind of it's it's a difficult theology um it's not a bad theology it's just difficult we don't talk about it much i've actually never preached on it before today so i was excited to preach on it and long story short the ascension is a reminder to me that we look to something beyond us as christians we look to jesus who we believe is in heaven he's beyond us but also will come to be with us i bring this up because humans since the dawn of time have been dreaming of space they've looked into traveling outside of the planet earth and this is where i turn to next traveling i shared how jules uh verne wrote that book then it was science fiction traveling to the moon over 161 years ago that book was released and i'm sure others again have wondered what would it be like to travel to the moon and so like the disciples jules verne and other people have been dreaming looking into the sky and this sort of passage reminds us that christians what are we doing when we look into the sky what are we hoping for what are we waiting for we are maybe wondering where is jesus what is he doing he's in heaven and you might be thinking well that's just too easy he's in heaven okay well it is what it is but let's talk about moon let's talk about the moon and mars and depending how you look at it i believe we landed on the moon but neil armstrong back in 1969 uh took a walk on the moon and others have walked on it since it was no longer science fiction in 1969 they actually got someone from earth to the moon and jules verne book is still science fiction but in a way it's not someone made it my point is this the ascension is a reminder that what might may seem like fiction to you right now does not mean it's not real it's just not real to you yet the ascension is a reminder that what might seem like fiction now just because it's not real to you it's just not real to you yet it's important are you with me the ascension is a reminder of how heaven is a place we might not be there yet it may not be present to us but it is a place where jesus is doing something it's a place he went to if you believe jesus's resurrection you consider he had a body and he went with his body to that place that we call heaven and so why might this matter for your christian life well as christians i think we have something to do while we're waiting to go to heaven but before we talk about that i'm going to talk about mars are you familiar with spacex elon musk okay very good well i was doing some research for this sermon and i said i want to see what um spacex has to say and when you pop up spacex the big bold words say mars and beyond the road to making humanitarian interplanetary yeah mars it sounds it's out of this world the road to making humanity interplanetary and that makes me kind of excited because somebody's taking that serious and obviously elon musk is and to spacex mars is going to be an outpost essentially that's what they're building it as because this is what they described it as establishing a self-sufficient city on mars will require upwards of 1 million people 1 million tons of cargo to be delivered to the red planet by launching more than 10 times per day to maximize transfer transfer windows that open up approximately 26 months several thousands of these starships will ultimately transfer crew and equipment to build a lasting presence on another world fascinating friends jesus if you will if you think about it he's establishing a city in heaven he's gone already he's building something he's doing something similar to spacex our role right now is to remember that something's being built for us it's going to encourage us we pray we serve we hopefully are reflecting the new world that's going to be built for us as it comes to us as well and that's why jesus says in verse 11 of acts chapter 1 here this same jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you've seen him go into heaven the idea behind spacex behind mars is that there's an outpost that you'll go to mars and you'll go beyond but right now you can go from mars back to earth that will be a reality one day here the ascension there's something to that similar effect he's going to come back i don't know how he does all these things but he will well we talked about the moon we talked about mars we talked about ascension is a real thing it helps us remind us that somewhere jesus is but i want to look at how we move forward here and if it's possible i'm going to believe that heaven i believe heaven is real and i think you all do too because we believe jesus came he lived he died he resurrected he talked about these things as well and this is where i want to remind us in john chapter 14 verse 2 jesus says my father's house has many rooms if that were not so what i have told you that i'm going to prepare a place for you and if i go and prepare a place for you i will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where i am jesus is building something in heaven he's preparing heaven to continue on with this sort of science fiction space and travel theme do you all know what terraforming is okay terraforming it's sort of hypothetical um but the idea is essentially you can do something on a planet to make it more habitable for human existence um and so but listen to this from spacex this is right from their website they're talking about mars mars is about half uh again as far from the sun as the earth so it's still decent sunlight it's a little cold but we can warm it up they literally say that but we can warm it up that's terraforming the idea is that they're going to whenever they build the place there they're going to try to make it more habitable i know it sounds far-fetched it's crazy and yet they're going to try to do it so i will say this jesus is terraforming if you will both our reality and heavenly reality jesus is preparing a place he's preparing rooms perhaps the heaven realm and the earthly realm so when they connect and come back it's just an easy transfer process in john's gospel he shared about that preparing the many rooms so again if jesus is real heaven is real he's somewhere he's literally building houses in heaven i think yeah there's habitat for humanity you've heard of this maybe jesus doing heaven for humanity houses he's terraforming you might because you're wondering what's he doing is he just hanging out on his throne no i think he's doing something or maybe he's like a kind of reality home star makeover person and he's introducing people in the homes that they're going to live in you know can you just imagine that i'm making all this up this is not this is not biblical this is just or maybe jesus is like joanna gains he's going into a neighborhood and he's refurbishing old homes and making them beautiful again and recreating whole communities or he's putting you to work when you get there he's giving you something to do my point is this jesus is doing something and it's real amen amen amen so that's why when we look into the sky we're wondering what's happening where'd he go what's he doing think about that he's in a place it might be science fiction now it might be the pastor speculating on what might happen but when you get there you go oh okay now we're going to shift a little bit here i'm going to read a few passages first from hebrews chapter 4 verse 14 therefore since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven jesus the son of god let us hold firmly to the faith we profess romans chapter 8 verse 34 who that is this who condemns no one christ jesus who died more than that who was raised to life is at the right hand of god and is also interceding for us hebrews 7 25 therefore he he is able to save completely those who come to god through him because he always lives to intercede for them i'm going some more with all this hebrews 9 24 for christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one he entered heaven itself now to appear for us in god's presence this is interesting the building the doing something he's ascended he's he's he's holding power but he's doing something with it and as priests as a high priest priests in general do things they pray they offer the sacraments they help people they lead the church they ideally good do good works now i want you to think of something a little bit as we're thinking about this he's ascended he's up there or over there however we want to place it here on earth we pray for each other we tell god god i need help the church need help my friend needs help elude needs help god help him your prayers go from earth into heaven yes okay so i would say that would share the ascension is a reminder that they're going somewhere they're not just going to an empty mailbox they're going to jesus okay i know we think of these things but we wonder where does it happen how does it happen how does it work i don't know how jesus does it but he probably gets a lot of mail can you imagine jesus's inbox or mailbox however it works did you ever see the movie bruce almighty yeah it's kind of older movie now but there's a moment where he gets he gets to share in the powers of god and at one point he starts to hear prayers and he starts deciding to eat to check prayers in the inbox and he literally opens up his computer and he's got like i don't know a billion emails it's pretty it's a comical scene um but how would someone really maintain all those things coming from different places and yet jesus is doing that he's interceding for us he's at the right hand of the father he's keeping busy and this passage jesus being ascended into heaven is a reminder of that your prayers are being heard that jesus is interceding for you hebrews 14 and romans 8 remind us that he's enthroned he's doing something and you may be thinking at this point yes i'm so glad he's got them but i haven't gotten my confirmation email receipt yet come on now you might be thinking yeah okay but did it go into the junk bin of jesus let me ask you this do you think that jesus might actually take some time to read your email and think about it you think jesus might actually take into account your requests and maybe just maybe doesn't give you an automated reply right you ever got one of those it's really important thank you for emailing we're not in the office today jesus doesn't do that now let's look about this backwards we pray for things to go to heaven the hebrew passages remind us that our high priest mediates for us receiving what we send from here from earth into heaven now did you ever think perhaps jesus is actually sending something back to you and if it's so how does that work what does that mean well jesus is essentially praying for you but the question for us is how do we check our prayer inbox how do we know well i think we need to take time and that's where the holy spirit comes in we need to ask the holy spirit holy spirit we need help we need support i need to figure out what are you saying what are you trying to get me to see are you with me yeah okay now we're going to take a little bit of turn here going back and if we're thinking about this from like interplanetary ways it takes uh apparently if when i was looking on spacex it takes about six months for their starship spacecraft this is a heavy rocket to get to mars from earth it's a long time it takes a long time now i'm not saying jesus is limited with how he can reply back to you but i think we want to consider that if he's building something and doing something he's mulling it over he wants to give you a good answer he wants to give you a helpful answer you and the holy spirit need to talk and you need to ask for some patience while you wait for this answer to come back perhaps did you ever consider that there is an answer in development that maybe there's he's doing maybe jesus is like old school and he's actually writing you something paper and he's sending you in standard mail things get lost in the mail but we often wonder again how does this work and in verse eight of this first chapter of acts but you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses the holy spirit coming upon you to help you whether it's you're waiting for that answer i need patience lord i need an answer i need help i need money i need my friend to be helped i need patience while i wait you're asking the holy spirit to do that and that's what jesus is reminding us you have the power of the holy spirit doesn't mean you're going to get what you want but don't forget you have the holy spirit can i get an amen this is the spirit of god accessible to you while we wait you have god's spirit accessible to you think about that the spirit that parted the waters is accessible to you the spirit that hovered over chaos creation waters is accessible to you it's overwhelming or almost science fiction like and yet you have access to that friends i close with saying this we started thinking about science fiction space travel the reality of all this is we are thinking about our mortality we are wondering where will we go when i die well we were speaking of heaven it's a place it's being prepared for it's being set up for you you probably have a job when you get there if you don't know how to hammer a nail you probably will you might even get a mailroom job think about that who knows the idea is this just because it's not real to you yet does not mean heaven is not real we hold on to the hope because we know somehow jesus went from here into there and he said he would return it might take some time but in the meantime ask the holy spirit what do i need as i wait what power do i have access to as i wait brothers and sisters it might take some time it might take some traveling but know that god is with you amen amen all right well let us move into the hymn of the day