“Why Are You Standing Here?” (Acts 1:10-11)
1. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Tonight, in observing Ascension Day, we’re joining with the saints of centuries past in observing one of the 4 great festivals of the church year. Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost have been maintained by the church as special days of celebration. But Ascension Day, probably because it always comes 40 days after Easter, and it falls on a Thursday, has either been dropped as a festival day, or, is observed on the Sunday following the Ascension.
2. I suppose some of you may be wondering why Ascension Day is considered a festival day? What’s a festival day? What is it about that makes it so important to the church that a special day is set aside for it? And why is it important to you and me? Well, a festival day is a day of commemoration of one of the great salvation acts of God in Christ Jesus. The church observes a festival day with joy and thanksgiving and in response to God in worship of joyful celebration.
3. It’s well that we remind ourselves that the ascension of our Lord is a historical fact well attested to by the sacred scriptures of the New Testament. There are 3 major sources of testimony to the fact of the Ascension. The Apostles through their teaching and preaching as found in their epistles or letters to the churches of the Apostolic Age, and finally the angels of God testify to the fact of the Ascension. St. Mark alludes briefly to the Ascension where he says: “After talking with them he was taken up into heaven and sat down on the right hand of God.”
4. In the Apostles’ Creed we all confess, “He ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty to judge the quick (or living) and the dead.” In a sense these 2 statements are inseparable for in the wider sense, the Ascension of Christ marks not only His ascension to heaven, but also to the Right Hand of God. The Hand of God isn’t a definite place, but it is His omnipotent power. Maybe the simplest way of putting this is the way it’s taught to children in confirmation instruction. “Jesus sitting at God’s right hand, means that a man right now is also judging and ruling the whole universe in the best interests of His people, the church.”
5. St. Luke says in his gospel: “He raised His hand to bless them and while He was blessing them He was taken up into heaven.” Then in his account in the book of Acts, part of the first lesson this evening, “And while they were watching Him, He was lifted up and cloud took Him away and they could not see Him anymore.” It’s interesting that unbelievers have a real field day in their attempts to debunk the clear historical record. Ever since man has successfully set for on the moon the age we’re now living in has been called the “space age.” Therefore the contention is that if Christ Jesus was “taken up,” which way is up? For, is not any way up in space? If a cloud hid Him, where did He go?
6. It’s obvious that unbelief bases its attack upon a misconception of the Scripture, and an ignorance of the person of Christ. The report of the Ascension in the book of Acts tells us that a cloud hid Jesus from the sight of the disciples as they looked at Him rising into the heavens. It would’ve made little difference whether or not such a cloud had hidden him from their sight a 100 feet from the ground or 10,000 feet from the ground. For, although the Ascension did involve the removal of His physical presence from their eyesight at that time, it didn’t involve the removal of His spiritual presence from them. The disciples of Jesus see Him ascend physically to take His place invisibly at the right hand of God. The plain fact of Scripture is that He is present in heaven and everywhere at one and the same time.
7. The Apostles not only give us testimony of the time, place, and manner of His Ascension, but they also attest to His promise to return. Our text in Acts chapter 1 it tells us they heard, “He will return in the same manner in which you saw Him go into heaven.” St. Paul confirms this in that beautiful section of his first letter to the Thessalonians were he says, “when the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” Yes, there is a lot of comfort in those words.
8. And we have the evidence of those whom our Lord left behind him. So also, we have the evidence of those to whom he came. I’m referring to the angels. Since the apostles couldn’t tell where Jesus had gone because of the clouds, the angels came to testify of His reception into heaven. Here we find the angels doing what they were created to do. The Greek word for angel is “angelos” and means messenger. They’re ministering spirits sent to aid us. Although angels aren’t spoken about much today, they were being constantly spoken about by Christ himself. To Him they were very real and so they were very real to the early Church.
9. Angels have a very interesting function in the Scriptures. When we look at where angels appear it’s always were God’s plan of salvation for us in Christ takes another major step forward. Let’s look at some of the high points of salvation history to see the part that angels play. At the time of the Exodus, who was it who struck dead the oldest son in Egyptian families and passed over the homes of the Jews marked with lamb’s blood on the doorposts of their homes? The Angel of the Lord. When he passed over it was the signal to the Jews to get up and start moving, the Exodus was on! It was like God saying in the words of our theme, “Why are you standing here? Men of God, get up and start moving toward a new life!” And it was the angel Gabriel who appeared to Zacharias telling of the impending birth of John the Baptist. And again it’s Gabriel who appears to Mary telling her that she will conceive by the Holy Ghost and become the mother of the promised Messiah.
10. God sent angles to minister to Jesus curing his 40 days of fasting in the desert. There Jesus resisted the devil and proved He could keep the law perfectly and be the perfect Lamb of God sacrificed for the cleansing of our sins and making us acceptable to God our Father. It’s an angel again who ministered to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as He prepared to offer Himself up for us as our substitute. And we’re all familiar with the two angels who announced the Lord’s Resurrection to the women in the Garden.
11. And what do we find in our text from Acts chapter 1 on the Ascension of our Lord? Acts tells us, “As he was going, and they were gazing up into the sky, two men in white cloths were standing right beside them. “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here?” they asked. “This Jesus who was taken away from you into heaven will come back the same way you saw Him go to heaven.”
12. Now, the fact that these men were angels isn’t mentioned here. But they do meet the qualifications of angels, don’t they? They have knowledge of what has just happened and give an immediate answer to the question on the disciples’ minds of where Jesus has gone? They inform the disciples, and us,…that Jesus was received into heaven. Then they mention what else the disciples needed to know… and what you and I need to know, too. “He will come back the same way you saw Him go into heaven.” And when that time comes, - it will be announced by the archangel.
13. Now then, do you know why the Church of Jesus Christ has gone through the ages observing Ascension Day? Do you understand why this has always been a festival day of celebration? Well then, people of St. John Lutheran, “Why are you standing here?” Let’s go and tell everyone the good news of Jesus, our Lord, our Savior’s Ascension and what it means! Let’s celebrate! In Jesus’ holy, - ascended Name, - Amen!
(Special thanks to Rev. William Wurm (LCMS) for the inspiration and resources in writing this sermon)…
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