1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation
of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our
Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word this day we
celebrate the Ascension of our Lord is taken from Luke 24:44-52. In our text from God’s Word today we see how,
“Our Ascended Lord Blesses Us,” 1) with
the truths of His Word (vs. 44-47), 2) with the Holy Spirit’s power to witness
(vs. 47-49) and 3) with joy in His ascension.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. I once heard a story about Adolph Rupp,
the legendary NCAA college basketball coach of the Kentucky Wildcats. In one
interview he bragged that he could take any player and make an All-American out
of him. The journalist contested his bragging. So a friendly wager was made
that Rupp couldn’t turn a certain freshman basketball player, Cotton Nash, into
an All-American. At best one would say the student had average ability. After that news interview, Adolph Rupp always
referred to Cotton Nash as his “All-American
center”—at every speaking commitment, every news interview, every
opportunity. Does it surprise you that Cotton Nash was on the All-American team
more than one time? Would you be surprised if I said three times? Rupp won the
wager with the journalist. What we believe about ourselves is often of more
value than the gifts, abilities, money, or power we start with.
3. Most people would agree that believing
in your potential is important if you want to accomplish something. But no
matter how hard we try, no matter how much we boast about what we can do, we
have limits: limits on how long our physical bodies will live; limits on how
long we can go without food, water, or sleep; limits on how much we can do in a
day; limits on our ability to do what God’s law demands of us; limits on our
knowledge; limits on our natural understanding. All our wishes and positive
thinking will not change this.
4. Many people have trouble believing that
we have limits. Think of the disciples on that first Easter evening. During the
past few years they followed a man they were sure was the Christ. But, in the
past three days, things went terribly wrong. The religious leaders had Jesus
arrested—with help from one of Jesus’ disciples. In a matter of hours, Jesus is
dying on the cross. Now on the third day, his body is missing and people say
that Jesus is alive!
5. What is going on? They had such a
positive attitude as they entered Jerusalem just eight days ago! Now their
world made no sense to them. The disciples
needed our crucified, risen, and ascended Lord Jesus to bless them and give
them understanding.
6. The disciples know the Old Testament
books of Moses—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They know
the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. They’ve read the Psalms and
the other devotional writings in the OT. They know that the Scriptures promise
the Messiah. For three years they heard the teachings of Jesus. But, they
didn’t understand. They were like a person looking in the yard for a four-leaf
clover while Jesus is knocking on the front door, speaking to them about
repentance, the forgiveness of sins, and everlasting life.
7. Are we like the disciples? Are we
asking what’s going on at the same time Jesus is trying to explain things to us? Are we asking, “What gets into people? What prompts a person to experiment with
dangerous drugs and bring harm to their body? What gets into people to disobey
their parents and others in authority?
What makes people hate one another and hurt each other? What causes people to harm their neighbor’s
reputation? Or, to fail to worship God and serve Him only?” What’s going on? In days gone by it was
simply called “sin.” But, in our
modern age people want to call it any name they can think of, but not “sin.” We blame problems on society, our
parents, genetic factors, the government—anything but ourselves and our own sinful
human nature.
8. Like the disciples we may not
understand what’s going on because we’re all “by nature sinful and unclean.” But, here’s an opportunity offered
by Jesus, an opportunity summarized by the words “repentance and forgiveness,” an opportunity made certain by the
death and resurrection of Jesus. So Jesus
opened the minds of the disciples to understand the meaning of his death and
resurrection. He opened their minds to understand the truths of His Word. Now
Jesus is knocking at our front door. Christ is opening our minds so that we can
understand the Holy Scriptures.
9.
Jesus told them in Luke 24, “This
is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third
day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all
nations.” As St. John Chrysostom once put it, “Repentance: this alone will turn a wolf into a sheep, make a publican a
preacher, turn a thorn into an olive, make a depraved person a religious
fellow” (Homily 5, ca. A.D. 388).
10.
Christ is knocking at the door. Are we hearing his call to repentance,
his words of forgiveness? Or are we wandering away, looking for a four-leaf
clover? Our Christian life is a life of continually answering the door. We’re
sorry for our sins and sincerely repent of them. We have the Lord’s word of
forgiveness, guaranteed by his death and his resurrection life.
11.
And so our Ascended Lord Jesus blesses us with the Holy Spirit’s power to witness what Christ has
accomplished for us and our salvation. Jesus
said, “You are witnesses of these things.”
After we answer the door, do we go back to looking for four-leaf clovers? Why
do many of us fail to be witnesses of these things?
12.
Those who have received Jesus’ gift of forgiveness and new life also
receive his power to be witnesses of the faith. Think of a couple who had dated
for nearly two years. On their second anniversary, the young gentleman wanted
to propose marriage to the young lady. But, he had cold feet and couldn’t get
the courage to ask her. After an agonizing week, he spoke to his father about
the situation. He said, “Dad, I have
decided to marry Megan. However, there is one minor problem.” “Oh, what’s the matter?” his father asked.
After a long pause the son replied, “Well,
I have no idea how to ask her.” His father said, with a big smile on his
face, “Son, simply ask her. There is no
wrong way.” Like this young man, many
people are afraid and don’t know what to say as a witness for Christ. They
agonize. They get cold feet. They lack courage. Most of us are like that at one
time or another.
13. We can begin our witness in the way the
disciples began their witness. After the
ascension, the disciples were continually in the temple, praising and blessing
God. That’s how they began their witnessing of the events that had taken place.
They showed that our strongest witnessing begins in a life of giving praise
until our Lord returns.
14. We too can begin our witnessing by
praising and blessing God in his house. If
we don’t know what to say, if we’re agonizing, if we lack courage, the answer
is simply to begin with words praising God for Jesus’ life, death,
resurrection, and ascension. Our
witnessing and confessing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and the Savior of
the whole world flows from the joy of His ascension into heaven. That Jesus our
Lord and Savior is ruling and reigning over heaven and earth and is preparing a
place for us in heaven with Him. This
same Jesus has also given us His Holy Spirit to open our minds up to the
Scriptures to give an answer for the hope that’s within us.16. Like coach Adolph Rupp, many people feel that
believing in your abilities is important if you want to accomplish something. However,
no matter how hard we might try, we have limits. We are all “by nature sinful and unclean.” That’s
why God has given us an opportunity by giving us his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus
has called us to be witnesses to his death and resurrection, witnesses who
share a message of repentance and forgiveness. If we don’t know what to say, we
can begin our witness in the way the disciple began their witness: by praising
our God for Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension to the Father’s
right hand. May we lead lives of praise-filled witness as we await the return
of our risen and ascended Lord. Amen.
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