The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 322: The Ascension (2023)

Episode Date: November 18, 2023

Today, we begin the age of the church, transitioning from the Gospel of Luke to the beginning of the book of Acts. Fr. Mike draws our attention to the Ascension of Jesus and encourages us to respond to Christ’s call to participate in his mission. He invites us to be part of his story and not be ashamed of the Gospel. Today’s readings are Acts 1, Romans 1, and Proverbs 26:24-26. If you have found this podcast to be helpful in your faith life and would like to help us continue bringing this Catholic media to as many people as possible, please consider making an ongoing financial gift at ascensionpress.com/support. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a Year or the Bible in a Year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives, and because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though. The question is, what does Ascension do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is, we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos and other digital content

to help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God. And we do it all for free. If you found this podcast to be helpful in your life and would like to help us continue making free Catholic content we can post online, please consider making a financial contribution, an ongoing financial contribution by going to ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support. Thank you and God bless. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast,

where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day one of the church, and it's day 322. We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter one. We're reading the letters of St. Paul to the Romans, chapter one, as well as Proverbs 26, verses 24 through 26. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to

download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, because then you would know that today is day 322, and we're reading Acts 1, Romans 1, Proverbs 26. You can also subscribe to this podcast if you're so inclined to do this on the homestretch, because that's kind of where we are. This is kind of the beginning of the homestretch. I don't know. I don't want to talk about it as if it's over yet because we still have a bunch of days left. You've done so well. By the way, this might not be day 322 in a row for you, which is phenomenal. That's not a problem. That's not even a beginning of a problem. It's only an imaginary problem. When people say that, oh, I need to be right on top of things every day. I mean, if you are doing that, great job,

well done. But if you haven't done that, that is an imaginary problem. That's not even a real thing. You showed up today and that's all you need to do. On day 322, reading Acts chapter 1, Romans chapter 1, Proverbs 26, verses 24 through 26. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1. The Promise of the Holy Spirit. In the first book, O 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 commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them, he charged 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 before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. The Ascension of Jesus. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the father has fixed by his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit

has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he had said this, 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. Matthias chosen to replace Judas. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they had entered,

they went up to the upper room where they were staying, 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. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. In those days Peter stood up among the brethren, the company of persons was in all about a hundred and twenty, and said, Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. Now this man bought a field with

the reward of his wickedness and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language, Akildama, that is, field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it. And his office let another take. So, one of the men who have accompanied us

during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us. One of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, Lord, you know the hearts of all men. Show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles.

The letter of Paul to the Romans, chapter 1, Salutation Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including yourselves, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints, grace to you and peace from

God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer of Thanksgiving. by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I want you to know, brethren, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. The Power of the Gospel For I am not ashamed of the gospel.

It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, he who through faith is righteous shall live. God's wrath against man's wickedness. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in

the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and Amen. and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons

the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's

decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but approve those who practice them. The Book of Proverbs chapter 26 verses 24 through 26 He who hates dissembles with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart. When he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart. When he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred be covered with guile, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. Father in heaven, we thank you so much. We give you praise. Thank you for not only for this new day. Thank you for this new age, this new step we're taking in the age of the church, the age in which we're living currently, that we're hearing described in these first chapters

of the Acts of the Apostles, in this first chapter of the letter of St. Paul to the Romans. We thank you, Lord God, not only for your son and for salvation, we thank you for the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us and enables us not only to pray, but also to hear your word and let it transform our hearts. We ask you, Lord, to please come and fill us with your Holy Spirit, just like the apostles gathered together, united with each other and united with Mary. We ask you to send your Holy Spirit upon us this day

that we can be filled with your Spirit so we can bring your gospel and bring you, you. We want to bring you, Lord, to the world. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Gosh, you guys, this is so good. Oh my gosh. Okay. So here we are in the Acts of the Apostles, and this is the age of the church, as we noted before. The Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke himself. And so this is just an extension, as Jeff pointed out, I think at the very beginning of the Gospel of Luke, he pointed out that Luke and Acts at one point were all one, just

complete first book, second book. And we've separated them of course, because it makes sense, but they're still here. And so what do we have? Well, a couple of things. We have the ascension of Jesus. Now the end of Luke's gospel, he talks about the ascension a bit. And in the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke talks about it again. He gives us different details. Here's one detail that I love highlighting because it's just, it's remarkable. I just, I think it's phenomenal. And it's this, is that

here they are, Jesus leads them after the resurrection. They've been with him 40 days and Jesus leads them outside the city of Jerusalem. And they know who he is now. They know that he is the Messiah. They know that he is the King who has come to establish the kingdom of Jerusalem. And they know who he is now. They know that he is the Messiah. They know that he is the king who has come to establish the kingdom of God. And so they ask him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? This is what they've been praying for. He is the promised one, right? He is the king, the Messiah. You guys, we know the whole story already. We know that God had promised he was going to establish a kingdom on the earth and that this kingdom would never end and that through this kingdom, he would bless the entire world. So the apostles, knowing that Jesus is who he says he is, they asked the big question,

the $25,000 question, when are you going to do it? When will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus answers very cryptically. He says, basically, it's not for you to know the times or seasons, which the father has appointed. So basically, I'm not telling. But the next thing he says is, he says, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria

and to the ends of the earth. Basically, Jesus, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus says, you are. Jesus, you're the Messiah. Are you going to restore the kingdom? You are. You're going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus says, you are. Jesus, you're the Messiah. Are you going to restore the kingdom? You are. You're going to restore the kingdom. The Holy Spirit will come upon you.

Remember, the Holy Spirit will come upon you in power. That word for power in verse eight of chapter one, you shall receive power is the Greek word dynamis or dynamis, right? It's where we get the word dynamite. And this is the power of the Holy Spirit. The kind of power that can blast holes in the Rocky Mountains and carve roads through mountains, right?

So this is the kind of dynamite power that Jesus promises. Now, that's chapter two. That might be tomorrow. We'll see. We'll see if we read that tomorrow. Of course we're gonna. But Jesus is promising

the dynamite power of the Holy Spirit. Not little fun snaps, you know, like little kind of firecrackers, but dynamite power. And you'll receive dynamite power when the Holy spirit has come upon you. And then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem here in town, right here in the city, in all Judea and Samaria, we know where those places are and to the ends of the earth. It's so important for us to understand this. The word witness is the word Greek word Martis or martyr, right? It's the word where we

get the word martyr from. You'll be my witnesses. You'll be my martyrs. You'll be the ones who bear witness to my life, death, and resurrection. You'll bear witness to mercy, triumphing over evil. You'll be the ones bearing witness to grace, triumphing over, having triumph, having victory over disgrace.

You're the ones who will bring hope where there is no hope. Now, this is the remarkable thing. We've been reading the Bible for 322 days. Whether that's been 322 consecutive days or not, it doesn't matter. But what matters is the Lord has led us to this moment where we know who the Lord is. We know who God is. We know the story. We know that we're part of the story.

And here's Jesus making, you know, that intro we always do every single day. We point out how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. That's what we say every single day when we do this. The truth of the matter is, this is where we fit. Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom? No, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will. I cannot emphasize this enough. We for 300 plus days have allowed the Lord

to shape our hearts, to shape the way we look at the world, the way we look at ourselves, the way we look at each other and at him. And now he is calling us to not only know his mission, but to join his mission. Now he's not only calling us to have knowledge of, here's what God has done,

but to be a part of what God is doing. My friends, this is incredible. This is an invitation that is just like Jesus walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and seeing Simon and Andrew say, hey, come follow me. Seeing James and John, come follow me. Walking up to Matthew, the tax collector, and saying, come follow me. Jesus today is saying, you know the story. You know who I am. You know you can trust me.

Now come and follow me. And this is so important. It's so critical and it's so massively unnecessary for every single one of us. Now, quickly, when it comes to the St. Paul's letter to the Romans, this is, it's St. Paul's letter to the Romans, this is, it's St. Paul's masterpiece. And when I talk to any scripture scholar, they basically say, uh, St. Paul's letter to the Romans or the letter to the Hebrews can be some of their favorite things to read at all. I'm completely Paul's writing to the Romans. He's never been there yet. Um, he hasn't ever been to this community. He didn't found this community. He wants to come see them. He wants to visit them. He wants to help them, wants to sustain them. And also he wants them to sustain him and to encourage him. He's even says that in chapter one, verse 12, but he also talks about how he's

not ashamed of the gospel. I love this. Such a powerful, powerful line for, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. This is verse 16 in chapter one. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, this is one of the issues that's happening in Rome, is that there is a Christian community made up of both of Jewish Christians and of Gentile Christians, right? So those who were not raised Jewish. And what's happened is right before this, leading up to this, there has been a kind of a split in that community. And there's a number of circumstances that led to that kind of split.

And so they're not necessarily seeing each other as they should see each other. And they're not really seeing the role of the Old Testament and the fulfillment of God's promises in the Old Testament as they should right now. And so that's what some of the things Paul's going to be addressing as he unpacks the heart of the gospel throughout the course of this letter to the Romans. And he begins by talking about how in chapter one, here are people who do not know who God is, but they should, the Gentiles, right? So there are Gentiles, Romans, here are people who were not raised Jewish. They didn't have the law, but that's not an excuse for them because they could look around the world and they could see that God exists. They can see the beauty of creation and say, wait, there was a creator here. Nonetheless, they are exchanging God himself for an image.

They're exchanging the creator for a creature. And that exchange leads them to commit, as Paul describes, very serious sins. In verses 26, he begins to describe them, and these are sexual sins. It doesn't limit that. He goes on in verse 29 to talk about all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, even says disobedience to parents is being part of this whole thing. Because one of the things we know to be true is when we turn away from God, our intellect is darkened even further. When we turn away from God, the human heart almost knows no boundaries when it comes to the evil that we can devise and the evil that we can choose. And so here is Paul beginning by talking about how those Gentiles, those who weren't raised

Jewish, they need the Lord. They need the gospel. And actually, they need to have the obedience of faith because they have no excuse. They would know, you should know that some of these things you ought to never do. In chapter two, he's going to go on to talk about how the Jews should have known better as well, but that's for tomorrow. Okay, we just started today and ah, what a gift, what an incredible beginning today. I know that there's also the episode with Jeff and I introducing this last age, this age of the church right now. If you haven't checked that out already, please check that out. I am praying for you, I promise. And please pray for me.

My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.