"From Eden to Eden -- Exploring the Saga of Salvation History"

Part IX: The Ultimate Star Trek

Sermon by Pastor Dale Wolcott

May 12, 2001

(Scriptures quoted are from New King James Version unless otherwise noted)

I had finished my visit at the local nursing facility. I was glad I had come, and I was glad I was leaving. On my way toward the front door I realized I had missed a turn somewhere and said to a nurse, "How do I get out of here?" She graciously pointed me in the right direction, and I headed for the door. As I moved toward the entrance, I noticed a frail white-headed woman in a wheelchair, her face mirroring the tragic bewilderment of what the clinicians call a mild dementia, a clouded cognition. But the reason I noticed her was that she was repeating the words she had just heard resonating in the corridor: "How do I get out of here?" "How do I get out of here?"

For the past nine months or so, we've been reviewing together the Saga of Salvation History, the great Bible story of the plan of salvation. It begins with the hand of God reaching out, from somewhere beyond the galaxies, to create in this particular corner of His vast universe a paradise of a planet; a place that when He finished His six days of creative genius, He pronounced "very good." The morning stars, we’re told, sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. (Job 38:7)

But it didn't stay very good. There was an enemy at large in God's universe. In fact, the very first topic in this series, even before we looked at creation and the fall, was "The Truth about Star Wars:" Lucifer, the rebel angel whose choice to "go independent" from His Maker explains so much of the tragedy and heartache we see all around us. So we've been through the Old Testament: Noah; Abraham; Moses; Jeremiah. We've been to the cross of Calvary, the great central story of the salvation saga, where

God proved once and for all that He is love by going to hell for you so you can go to heaven with Him someday. And now we're down to our final banner.

Open to the book of Acts; we're going to find the Bible's answer to the question that haunts humanity: "How do I get out of here?" I found myself asking the question again yesterday, even though I know the answer. It came like a knife in my heart while I was hugging my sobbing sweetheart as hard as I could. We'd just gotten word the night before that her daddy, 84 years old and in good health, had lost his life when the vehicle he was driving left the road, hit a tree and then went up in flames. We thought, he must have had a heart attack. But then yesterday morning while Nancy was packing her bag for the plane flight to California, her sister called with the rest of the story: He did not have a heart attack which caused the accident. The first people on the scene heard his voice from inside the wreckage calling for help; but nothing could be done. This world is a horror zone! How do we get out of here? Will we ever get back to Eden?

Before we read from Acts chapter 1, please pray with me: Father, you've made us passengers on a careening planet, a cosmic vehicle heading for a fiery finale and even now strewing tragic wreckage along the way. Please, God, encourage our hearts this morning with the good news about the ultimate star trek. Speak to us in this Word, I ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Does the Bible actually talk about space travel? Yes it does! The subject of our message this morning is, "HOW we're going to get out of here!" Let's begin at Acts 1:1. "The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach." Luke was a careful historian. He had already written the Gospel of Luke (also dedicated to Theophilus). Luke doesn't claim to have received his information by visions or dreams. He never says, "The word of the Lord came to me," or, "Thus saith the Lord," as the Old Testament prophets do. The way the Holy Spirit led him to make his contribution to Holy Scripture was by research, by interviews, by compiling material recorded by others. Luke had the mind of a journalist. Think of that as we read:

"The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." (Acts 1:1-3)

For most unbelievers, one of the most troublesome assertions of the Christian gospel is the insistence that dead bodies can come back to life. Have you ever seen it happen? It just doesn't happen! Some of you work in the emergency room, and you bring them back from the edge. But when the pulse is gone and the EEG is flat and the corpse is cold . . . that's it. It’s simply irreversible. Yet all through book of Acts, the idea -- no, the fact -- of the resurrection is at the core of what the apostles are preaching.

And it always gets them into trouble. In chapter 4 Peter and John get arrested because the Sadducees were "greatly disturbed" that they were preaching "in Jesus the resurrection from the dead." (Acts 4:2) In chapter 17 Paul reasons with the Athenian philosophers, and they listen courteously until he mentions the resurrection of Jesus "from the dead," and then it says, "when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked," and that was the end of his credibility with most of the people listening. (Acts17:31, 32)

In chapter 23, Paul is a Roman prisoner and the commander takes him for a hearing before the Jewish council, and when Paul mentions the resurrection of the dead, it says "there arose a loud outcry," and the commander hustles him out "fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them." (Acts 23:9, 10)

In chapter 24 Paul gets another hearing before the Roman governor Festus and the Jewish King Agrippa. Near the beginning of his speech, Paul says to Agrippa, "Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?" (Acts 24:8) and then 15 verses later he mentions the resurrection again, and Festus interrupts and says, "Paul, you're out of your mind!" (Acts 24:23)

But now going back to Acts 1, Luke begins the book by asserting (verse 3) that Jesus "presented Himself alive. . . by many infallible proofs, being seen by them 40 days" after having been crucified and dying and being buried. This is history, this is documented reality. Now notice what comes next. Acts 1:6, "Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" "Jesus, this is exciting; you have conquered death personally; now what are you going to do for us, for your people, for Israel? How are you going to get us out of here?" And they really thought Jesus was going to do something earthly, something political, something military to solve the problems of planet earth -- "restore the kingdom," right now.

But Jesus gently rebuked them, and then he showed them the sequel to His resurrection: the way He's going to get us out of here when He resurrects our loved ones from the dead: Note verse 9, "Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." Isn't that incredible! But Luke says, I want to tell this so clearly, so straightforwardly, that it won't be incredible; it will be credible. He uses sober, simple journalistic style. This is not a vision, not some sort of symbol as you find in Revelation. It’s just a record of the testimony of eleven eyewitnesses. The human, flesh-and-bones Jesus, in His resurrected body, lifts off and travels into space right there before their eyes.

Let's go on (verses 10 and 11), "And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him to into heaven.’" Here at the very genesis of the Christian church, Luke the journalist records the words straight from heaven, spoken by angels at the moment of Jesus' journey to the stars; words that are at the core of the gospel which those eleven men were to proclaim. Your hope, the angels say, is that this same Jesus whom you've seen head up into space is going to make a return trip. The Christian church has always been an "Adventist" church! "We have this hope that burns within our hearts, hope in the coming of the Lord." I'm going to meet my wife’s dad again!

Now let's turn back just a few pages to John 14. About 43 days earlier, Jesus Himself had told those same eleven men what He is going to do when He makes the return trip. This is in the upper room, the night before the crucifixion. (These also happen to be Nancy's father's favorite scriptures.) John 14:2-3, "In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."

Why is Jesus going to make that return space trip? He's coming to get us and take us through space to His home in heaven! Turn to chapter 17 verse 24: "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."

Are you interested in space travel? You probably remember the 39 members of the California "Heaven's Gate" cult back in 1997. They were interested in space travel. Their leader quoted from the Bible and from various episodes of the Star Trek television series to support his teachings about space travel to the "Level Above Human" somewhere out there in interstellar space. Those folks were so interested in space travel that they all took lethal doses of Phenobarbital in order to catch a ride aboard the Hale-Bopp comet. If that’s space travel, I don't think I'm interested!

Some of us remember when the very first astronauts rocketed into outer space back in the 1960's. Everybody was interested in space travel in those days -- and then schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe and 6 others died in the Challenger explosion on live TV in 1986, and after that we somehow weren’t quite so interested in space travel.

But the "space age" has continued, and just last week a new era of space travel began -- did you see it on the news? Last Sunday Mr. Dennis Tito returned from eight days aboard the international space station -- the first space tourist. ["First Space Tourist Returns to Earth," CNN.com, May 6, 2001]. He had a huge grin on his face, and CNN quoted him as saying, You shouldn't have to be an astronaut to go into space. "Space [travel] should really be for everyone." ["Dennis Tito: A Passion for Space," CNN.com, April 27, 2001]. However, I guess what he meant was, everyone who can afford to pay $20 million for a ticket! And at that price, I guess I'm not really interested in space travel after all.

But before we give up on the whole idea, turn to 1 Thessalonians 4. The Bible tells me that there's a space trip coming that isn't for kooks or cultists; nor is it only for astronauts and millionaires. It is for everyone who's willing to meet one simple condition. 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. . . . For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." Are you interested in space travel now?

Hey, I'm interested in space travel! Let me give you four reasons why.

#1 Travel conditions. We won't need a space suit. On that ultimate star trek, there will be absolutely no risk of fire or depressurization or some other natural disaster. The Bible says he'll change our vile bodies and make them like His glorious body -- like Adam's body before the fall (Philippians 3:21). In other words, we’ll be fully restored into the image of God -- clothed with light (Psalm 104:2). Those garments of light will be our space suit!

#2 The tour group! Relatives, friends; all the saved. Best of all, the tour guide will be Jesus Himself!

#3 The destination. The book of Revelation describes the holy city - a place I want to see! Incidentally, do you think there'll be some tourist stops along the way to the city? Who knows; Jesus may have some surprise bonus side trips on that jouney through space.

#4 The alternative. Let's conclude in 2 Peter 3. The Bible says this whole fragile planet is like an aging spacecraft that's heading for a fiery re-entry -- it's going to crash and burn, just like the Russian Mir space station did a few months ago. Notice verse 10, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up."

So how do we get out of here? Note verses 11, 12: "Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God." Now to verse 14, "Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless."

Are you at peace with Jesus? He died on the cross to give you that peace. He is working fulltime for you in the heavenly sanctuary this very moment, even as the judgment has already begun, and time is running out. The only way you can be without spot and blameless is by trusting in Jesus' free gift, making a full surrender to His love. During the closing hymn, I want to give you an opportunity to make peace with Jesus.

S. J. Graham