Ascension Sunday sermon by Rev Harry Newton on Acts 1:1–11, asking whose story we are truly living
A sermon delivered at Sumner Redcliffs Anglican Church on Ascension Sunday, 17th May 2026.
Summary
Rev Harry Newton preaches on Acts 1:1–11 at Sumner Redcliffs Anglican Church, using Ascension Sunday as the occasion to explore the tension between self-directed living and participation in God's larger purposes. He introduces the concepts of the "ego drama" — a life scripted around personal desires, ambitions, and validation — and the "theodrama," God's grand story for the world in which every person is invited to play a role. Newton argues that the disciples' question about restoring the kingdom of Israel reveals the same temptation that confronts people today: trying to make God fit into our own story rather than surrendering to his. He closes with a direct challenge to the congregation — "Whose story are you living?" — and points forward to the following week's sermon by Finn Chirnside on the Holy Spirit.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Welcome and Introduction to the Book of Acts
Rev Harry Newton: Warm welcome to church, lovely to see you. That reading comes from the beginning of what's called the Book of Acts. There are two books — the first one's called the Gospel of Luke, the second one's called the Book of Acts — and they kind of dovetail together. Written by the same person, a guy called Luke. Luke was most likely a Hellenistic Jew, meaning he's Jewish but not living in Israel. Most likely he lives in Rome, and he's sponsored by a guy called Theophilus. Luke never met Jesus himself, but shortly after the time of Jesus, within a few years, he went around and interviewed everybody and wrote the whole thing himself. And we have these two books.
Now, when you get to the end of the Gospel of Luke, it all ends with Jesus' ascension into heaven. And then Acts, which is our reading today, kicks back off with the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Did you notice that? There's a bit of a crossover. Just super quick — some people get really caught up on whether we can take this seriously given our understanding of the world. We know how the universe works, whereas ancient people didn't. And people say, can you really believe that Jesus floated up into the clouds and is sitting up there playing a harp? I think it was more just God doing something symbolic for the benefit of the people who were present. That's my reading of it. And if you believe in miracles — the whole Christian faith is predicated on miracles — then if you can accept miracles, I think we can just leave that conundrum for another day. Is that all right? Cool.
The Recap: What Jesus Did and the 40 Days
So at the start of Acts, Luke has given us a recap of the teaching of Jesus. He says: "In my former book, Theophilus" — so in the Gospel of Luke — "I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken to heaven." What did he do? He healed people. He taught with authority. He controlled the elements. He forgave sins. He raised people from the dead. He did all sorts of amazing things. And then Luke says, "After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen." He repeats that in a moment. "And after his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive."
What are the convincing proofs? Jesus appears ten or eleven times, depending on how you interpret it, to different groups of people, totaling over 500 people who saw him alive over a period of approximately 40 days. Which is why the Thursday just been is known as Ascension Day. And if you don't have a special service, in the Anglican Church you're required to have these readings today on Sunday as Ascension Sunday. Why Thursday? It's 40 days after Easter. Are you with me so far? Cool.
So Luke puts all this together and says: "Jesus appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God." And right there, that marks the end of the Netflix-style recap, and the very next verse, Luke launches into telling us the next part of the story. And it's right here we begin to see the disciples — that's Jesus' inner circle — their expectations and God's plans starting to collide and be a little bit at loggerheads with each other.
John the Baptist, Baptism, and the Promise of the Holy Spirit
Luke begins by writing this way: "On one occasion, while Jesus was eating with them" — this is with the disciples — "he gave them this command: Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
Now, who's John? What's going on here? John is like — you know Bear Grylls? You know, drinks his own urine and hangs out in the wilderness doing things. I don't recommend that. But a little bit like Bear Grylls, John was the ultimate hippie type. He lived out there and he wore clothes made of camel skin. He lived off wild honey and locusts. But he wasn't crazy. He was actually a prophet sent by God to prepare people for the arrival of Jesus.
Now, if you don't know — right back in the Jewish scriptures, the Old Testament, there's a whole bunch of prophecies about Jesus. And one of the prophecies says that someone, a prophet, will be sent by God to prepare the way for God's long-awaited Messiah, his Savior for the world. John is the guy who prepares the way for Jesus. Do you follow the logic there?
Part of what John did was he baptized people in a river — the River Jordan. And incidentally, he baptized people at the same location that the Israelites first entered the promised land. And he did that on purpose, because he's trying to drive home a point. God called the Israelites into the promised land through this particular ford. Then they've gone off and done their thing, and they've lost their way. "I, John, have come to call people back and prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, and I'm going to baptize you in the exact same location where you first were sent into the promised land." Once again, following the logic here.
So we miss a lot of this symbolism as 21st century Kiwis. But if you're a first century Jew, this would have been all layered and you would have understood all this stuff intuitively. People came to John to be baptized in the River Jordan because they had a desire for a fresh start and to be set right with God. Baptism is not originally a Christian thing. Baptism is actually a Jewish thing that the Christians have made into something we do, but we inherited it from the Jewish faith.
Who here has heard of Qumran? A bunch of people who lived out in a place called Qumran near the Dead Sea — that's where we get the Dead Sea Scrolls from. Anyone heard about that? If you haven't, it's really interesting. If you're ever bored, go on Wikipedia and go down the rabbit hole. They found these giant sealed jars, and when they opened them up, they had the ancient scrolls of the Jewish scriptures going back thousands of years. Super cool. Do you know what they did with the first jar they found? They burnt it and used it as tinder for their fires. Kid you not. So we don't know what they burnt, but we do know what we've got left.
The point is, though, the Qumran community baptized people at morning, noon, and evening every single day. The reason they did that was they understood that God is holy, and baptism symbolically washes us clean. And to be right in God's eyes, they believed you needed to sacrifice animals — there were a lot of dead animals — and be baptized ritualistically three times a day to make yourself acceptable in God's sight. Now, that's an old-fashioned idea of trying to be right in God's eyes through performance, and that goes contrary to the whole Christian faith, which is the idea that you are made right with God simply through the gift of Jesus himself.
And all through this time, John was telling the people: "After me will come one whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. I will baptize you with water for repentance, but after me comes one who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." And so what Jesus is saying in our reading this morning is that John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
When John comes back to where the Israelites first entered the promised land, and he baptizes Jesus, and Jesus begins his ministry — do you guys remember that story? If you don't, it's a bit strange, but Jesus gets baptized by John, not because he needed baptism to be forgiven — because he was sinless — but it's a symbolic joining of him with humanity, and he's being commissioned for his mission. The disciples, in the same way, are about to be baptized and commissioned for their mission. And so we're seeing this kind of repeat. Luke is laying the groundwork for the whole book which is to come.
The Disciples' Question and the Kingdom of God
So this promise — made during John's time, before he's beheaded by the authorities for calling people out for being incestuous and such — this promise is, according to Jesus, all about to be fulfilled. But just before he says all this, Luke tells us that Jesus spoke to his disciples about something called the kingdom of God.
Now, what's the kingdom of God? What's he on about here? Jesus wasn't talking about a physical kingdom the way that we think of kingdoms. You know King Charles — he likes to hug trees and talk to plants? He genuinely does. He believes that trees have feelings and he has conversations with his trees each morning. Well, we're not talking about a kingdom run by an eccentric monarch who has borders and armies and pageantry and a gold throne and a sceptre and all that stuff. Jesus is talking about God's rule breaking into the world through him, through Jesus, and in doing so, bringing healing, forgiveness, justice, and new life into the world. It's what he'd been showing his disciples all along through his teaching, his lifestyle, his death, and ultimately through his resurrection.
Everything that Jesus did and everything that Jesus said was all about building a supernatural kingdom that spans across geographic and political divides. And our reading this morning shows us that despite all that had happened — all that they'd seen, all that they'd heard Jesus teach about this thing called the kingdom of God — the disciples still thought that all this talk from Jesus about the kingdom might mean restoring Israel's national power. They were still imagining a kingdom that would give them, as his faithful followers, some form of power, authority, and military might.
And so when Jesus speaks here about the coming of the Holy Spirit, what it looks like is happening is that the disciples are hoping Jesus might mean something political at the same time. That God is — sure, the Holy Spirit's going to come — but God's going to use that as a way of making Israel great again, freeing them from Roman rule, and putting Jesus on the throne in Jerusalem. They're expecting a visible earthly kingdom, and they're hoping to be on the coattails of it.
And at one level, they're right. There is something big coming. But they didn't realize how much bigger the plan of God, the plan of Jesus, actually was. He's not talking about restoring one nation's power and prestige. He was preparing to send them out to the whole world to share his message, to extend his kingdom of healing, justice, forgiveness, and new life wherever darkness reigns.
Which is why we're told they gathered around him and asked him: "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?" In other words, are we going to have some power and some prestige and some importance?
The Ego Drama vs. the Theodrama
And this is where I think Luke's story becomes personal for you and me. Because the tension the disciples experienced is the same one lots of us actually live with. Right here in these verses, we see something at play which in theological circles we refer to as the ego drama. The ego drama is this thing that I direct. It's this thing that I write, I produce, I star in. It's the drama which is all about me and my desires, my hopes, my felt needs. And we can see this at play amongst the disciples. They're thinking about their place in the story, their hopes, their vision of success. They're hoping that God might just move in ways that will fit their plans and their aspirations.
Now, compare that to what we call the theodrama. The theodrama is this great story told and directed by God in which Jesus is the central character, and we are invited to play a role in God's story for the universe. And part of what makes life not just thrilling and a little bit exciting, but also gives us satisfaction and meaning, is discovering your role in God's theodrama, in God's plan for the world. And we do that through the power of something we call the Holy Spirit.
Jesus wasn't just talking about giving the disciples a Holy Spirit so they could gain wealth or prestige or power — all the things that characterize the ego drama. Jesus was talking about baptizing the disciples with God's Holy Spirit so they could be empowered to play their part in God's plan for the world. Which is why Jesus answered their question about restoring the kingdom of Israel in a rather unexpected way. Did you notice that? They asked, "When are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" And Jesus doesn't say, "Oh, you've got it wrong," nor does he say, "Here's a timetable." Because at one level, the kingdom of God is being restored — but not in the way they expect it.
So he sidesteps it, and he says to them: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." And incidentally, Luke then structures the entire book of Acts around that pattern. The first few chapters are all about proclaiming the good news of Jesus in Jerusalem. Then it's all about going out to Judea, then to Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth, as they call it.
And when that happened — when the Holy Spirit came on these people in this incredible, over-the-top way that we're going to be hearing about next week — when Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to empower his followers, two things happened. First, they realized they had a role to play in God's plan for the world. And second, they found their purpose in life. A purpose that was so compelling that they were willing to give up everything — their family, their wealth, their honor, their prestige, their culture, even their lives. They were willing to give up everything when they discovered their role in God's theodrama, God's plan for the world. And they discovered their divine purpose in life, and they then went on to change the world.
Whose Story Are You Living?
Now, here's the thing. Like the disciples, we need to decide whether we want to focus on our own plans for the future or on God's. And I appreciate that we have a variety of different spiritual orientations in this room. I totally do. And honestly, regardless of your spiritual orientation, you're welcome here. But here's the thing. Regardless of whether you call yourself a Jesus follower, a skeptic, a Buddhist, or you're just spiritual but not religious, or anything in between — I've got a question. Do you think it's possible to experience peace, to truly experience peace, if you're focused forever on yourself?
Because I think we gain an element of our peace and fulfillment in life through our purpose in life. And that's a problem if we're focused primarily on ourselves. Because if we're focused on ourselves, on our ego drama, much of what we seek meaning and purpose in every day is ultimately vacuous and meaningless. If my life is all about me and my desires, my hopes and my needs — if my life purpose is based around accolades, wealth, good vibes, nice holidays, having a smoking hot wife, which I do for the record — if it's based on all that stuff, all that stuff is good. But if that is what all my life is all about, then in the grand scheme of things, my life is meaningless, because there is no purpose beyond myself. Because one day I will die and my name will be forgotten.
That is the ultimate diss in Kiwi society. Back in our old town — a small town — every funeral came through our church, regardless of spiritual orientation. Every funeral. At almost every funeral for older people who weren't associated with church, they had Frank Sinatra's "My Way." Kid you not. And the other thing they talked about was this idea that mum or dad was never going to truly be dead, never going to be forgotten. It's almost like the ultimate diss is that they will one day disappear into the sands of time — but they will. And so will you. So will I.
All the stuff that I treasure — my Biggles books on my wall, my grandfather's military medals, all the things I've worked hard for — will end up in the rubbish, or if I'm lucky, on my son's shelf gathering dust when he's old as well. And that will be it. And it will be the same for you.
And I wonder if our obsessive modern focus on the self before all else is the reason why so many people struggle with a sense of anxiety. Anxiety is this huge mental health condition nowadays. It's this sense of discomfort that flows, I feel, from a deep-down despair and desire for meaning and purpose. The problem with the ego drama — the problem with making ourselves the center of our purpose in life — is that we become spiritually impoverished. And life lacks purpose.
And this isn't a new thing, is it? This is not me having an existential thought that no one else has ever thought of. This is quite common. But think about it — this is why so many people fall into the trap of placing their purpose beyond themselves, but still placing it in the wrong place. People go, "Oh, if I put my ultimate meaning and purpose in my accolades and my achievements and my wealth, ultimately it's all meaningless. I'll go put my purpose somewhere else." But that stuff still ultimately disappoints and fails.
Like, if your ultimate purpose in life is in your kids, you're setting yourself up for heartache. Because kids will individuate and they'll leave home. And you run the risk of becoming that overbearing parent who struggles to let your child grow up. Or if you place your ultimate purpose in your job — your job could be really important, it could be the job that makes a genuine difference in the lives of others, you could be saving the world from climate change or AIDS or whatever — but one day you will retire and you will be replaced. And if you're lucky, you get given a nice gold watch or something. And within months, people will forget your name. And you'll spend what's left of your time on earth desperately seeking validation for all that you did.
Or if you place your ultimate purpose in your looks and your social standing — one day you will get older. And people won't think you look as cute on those Instagram reels. And you'll get fewer likes. And someone with more social clout will take over from you.
Now, there's nothing wrong with loving your kids and focusing on them. There is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with enjoying your job and finding a sense of accomplishment in it. And there is nothing wrong with thinking that you look good and liking to look good and being healthy. There is nothing wrong with those things. The problem is when we seek our ultimate purpose in them. Because ultimately, they will not fulfill us.
None of this is new. That's exactly what the disciples grappled with 2,000 years ago as they sat with Jesus wondering, "How can I make God fit into my story?" But here's the thing. Jesus never offered to fit into their small stories or into ours. Instead, he invites you and me into his amazing, grand, epic, awesome, beyond-all-comprehension story for the world.
When Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth" — when he said that, he was saying that when you abandon your ego drama and step into God's story, he will empower you to play the role he has for you. And through that, you will find your ultimate purpose in life. And when that happens, all the anxiety that comes from constantly seeking validation and significance on our own terms — it fades away.
Because here's a hard truth. If your story ends with you, your story is too small. If your life is just about what you can achieve, own, or feel, your story will die with you. But God's story never ends. And you have a role to play in God's story whether you recognize it or not. But to find your role, you have to let go of your ego. You have to let go of your control and your self-scripted future. And you need to trust that when you lose your life for Jesus' sake, you'll find the life you were created to live.
That's why Jesus himself once said: "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it."
Closing Challenge and Prayer
So I bring this all together. I want to leave you with a question. Whose story are you living? Are you spending your energy trying to script your own success, control your future, make your name known? Or are you ready to surrender and to step into something bigger, bolder, and more beautiful than you could ever imagine?
Because when you step out of your ego drama into God's theodrama, you don't just find purpose. You find peace, and you find a life that matters — because you find what you're truly created to do and be. Just like the disciples did. They were a group of people who, by every social indicator, were losers. They were poor, uneducated, had no standing. They weren't important. Nothing about them was impressive. And yet they went on to change the world. Their names still ring out to this day because they found their role to play in God's plan for the world.
So whose story are you living? God's or yours? Are you willing to step out of your ego drama and into God's theodrama, and in doing so find your ultimate purpose in life?
I'll be honest with you — it's almost impossible to do under your own power. But that's where the Holy Spirit comes into play, and that's what Finn Chirnside is going to be sharing with us about next week.
Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much that you have a purpose for us in life. Thank you, God, that life is not meaningless, that there is more to it than we could ever imagine. And thank you, Lord, that we have this open invitation to be involved with your beautiful and bold plan for the universe. Thank you, Lord, that even though we are just individual people here in this particular time on this little planet, that you care about every single one of us deeply and genuinely. Thank you, Lord, that you cared so much to come into our world, to take on our sorrows and our weaknesses, and to die on our behalf so we might be redeemed and brought closer to God. And thank you, Lord God, that you send your Spirit to be with us on the daily. We give you thanks for this. We pray for ourselves, that you'll help us to identify those parts in our lives where we are focusing on our own ego drama, a life built around self. And we ask that you would gently encourage us and challenge us through your Spirit to turn our eyes more truly towards you and to lives dedicated towards you and what your plan is for the world. And we pray this all in the strong and holy name of Jesus. Amen.