1.
Grace, mercy, and
peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen. It should be a celebration! The house is full
of kids. You’re the guest of honor, and you’ve got six candles on your cake to
blow out. So what’s wrong? Maybe your brother or sister is playing with one of
your gifts. Maybe Johnny swiped a finger across the frosting of your cake
before you got to blow. Whatever it is, it’s suddenly all coming apart. The
bigger picture of fun, games, and friends has been lost. Because Jesus ascended into heaven, He’s now
exalted over all things. He rules all things in heaven & on earth on behalf
of His Church. This should bring us as Christians great hope and joy. But, too
often we become discouraged by worldly cares. We become like the unhappy
birthday child. Our sinful nature shuts our eyes to what God has done through
our risen and ascended Lord Jesus. We see only with our physical eyes, focusing
on the discouragements around us in this sinful world. In the life of our congregation,
we may worry about financial challenges or the number of inactive members. We
may become discouraged as we struggle to accomplish the things we feel are important
or overcome the challenges we face. We may find ourselves in a state of despair
because of our own sins or the sins of others. And as a result, we reel in
self-pity brought on by our own disappointment. But, our Lord has ascended on
high and rules over all things on our behalf. Let’s not lose sight of this
wonderful truth and all that it means for us.
The message this Ascension Day is taken from Acts 1:1-11, and is
entitled, “We Find Courage in Our Lord’s
Ascension,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Ascension
Day is important for us in our lives as Christians, but unfortunately many
Christians this past week missed it. In
between Wednesday and the middle of a busy work week and Friday’s promise of
the weekend, Thursday hardly seemed like a day to celebrate and have a festival
when there’s still work to be done. Ascension Day is just as holy as Easter
Sunday, but most of the world, including many within the Christian church moved
through it unconsciously. Even those who
have confessed the lines of the Apostles’ Creed: “On the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.” Our Gospel lesson from Luke 24 for today
records, “Then [Jesus] said to his
disciples….’See, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in
the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’ Then he
led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed
them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried
up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with
great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.” (Luke
24:49-53)
3.
The ascension of
our Lord Jesus after His death on the cross and resurrection might seem
somewhat anti-climatic. Maybe this is the reason that the resurrection and
ascension statements of the Apostles’ Creed are essentially treated as one in
the same: On the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to
heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. One might think that the one
miraculous act flowed immediately into the other: that the death of the body of
Jesus was answered in the resurrection of Christ, a presence who then floated
spiritually into heaven. Unfortunately, the result of this impression is that
many think that the ascension points to the casting off of Jesus’ human nature, as if Jesus is
now a presence that only used to be
human.
4.
But, this is far
from the experience of the disciples, as we see here in Acts 1, to whom Jesus
appeared many times in the days following His resurrection. To them it was
clear that Jesus wasn’t any sort of ghost. He ate with them. Jesus talked with
them. He instructed them as to the ministries they would lead and the deaths
they would face because of their belief in Him as their Savior. Jesus was more fully human than they had ever realized, and
it was this holy body, this divine person that they held near as they lived and
died to proclaim His kingdom.
5.
As the disciples
were watching and Jesus was taken up before their own eyes, a cloud hid Him
from their sight. Our text in Acts 1:9-11 refers to them, “looking intently up into the sky as he was going” when suddenly two
men dressed in white stood beside them: “‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do
you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from
you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go.’” In
this resurrected body, Christ ascended to heaven, fully human, fully divine,
and entirely glorified.
6.
On the day Jesus
ascended into heaven, the work God sent Him to accomplish was finally
completed. The ascension was a public declaration of Jesus’ dying words on the
Cross: It is finished. Ascending
to heaven, Jesus continued the victory of Easter—the victory of a physical body
in whom God had conquered death. Because of the ascension, the incarnation of
our Lord isn’t a past event. Because of the ascension, we know that the
incarnate Christ who was raised from the dead is sharing in our humanity even now. And just
as the angels informed the disciples, so we carry in our own bodies a guarantee
that Christ will one day bring us to Himself. It’s for these reasons that
the Christian scholar N.T. Wright affirms, “To
embrace the Ascension is to heave a sigh of relief, to give up the struggle to
be God (and with it the inevitable despair at our constant failure), and to
enjoy our status as creatures:
image-bearing creatures, but creatures nonetheless.” (N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the
Mission of the Church (New
York: Harper Collins, 2008), 114).
7.
WE DO FIND
COURAGE IN OUR LORD’S ASCENSION. Jesus
lived. Jesus died. Jesus rose. Jesus left for heaven. There are six reasons we can find courage in
Jesus’ Ascension. First, Jesus’ ascension assures us that we can go home, too. Jesus tells His disciples a little later that
he’s going to prepare a place for them in His Father’s house (John 14). Because
Jesus returned to the Father, I can say with Paul that, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” when I die, I will be with
Jesus.
8.
Second,
Jesus’ ascension assures us that He
intercedes and prays for us to God the Father. Jesus, the God-man, speaks on our behalf to
God our Heavenly Father. He knows what it’s like to be human (Hebrews 4:14–16),
but He’s not just asking God to give me a break. Jesus Himself was broken for
my sin, and because of His perfect sacrifice on the cross, He sustains our
right relationship with God (Hebrews 9:15).
This message is being presented on Mother's Day weekend. Happy Mother's
Day to all you mothers out there today. One traditional role of moms, though,
has always been that of a praying referee. When it's with siblings or friends,
moms have always had to step in, to try to make peace, or try to negotiate, or
try to hear each other out, prayerfully. If one of my brothers and I started
calling each other names or swinging fists at each other, mom made sure we
settled down and figured things out; and, of course, all the time praying to
God for all of us. That's what moms do, right?
Now, if our moms do that well, just imagine that God does the same thing
perfectly. Jesus prays for unity.
9.
Third, Jesus says we should rejoice in His
ascension. Jesus says, “If you
loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father.” This alone
is reason to be glad.
10.
Fourth, Christ’s ascension has given us the Holy
Spirit. Jesus tells us that He must leave in order to send the Holy
Spirit (John 16:7). The Spirit teaches, convicts, and comforts us while we’re here
on earth.
11.
Fifth, we have the inspired Gospels. Jesus
promises His disciples that the Holy Spirit will teach them and remind them of
all that He said (John 14:25–26). And that’s good for us, because the disciples
were able to give accurate accounts of events they didn’t understand while they
were happening (Matthew 15:15–17; 16:9; Mark 6:52; 9:32; John 12:16).
12.
Sixth, my king is where He belongs. Jesus,
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, has taken His seat in glory at the
Father’s right hand (Hebrews 1:3). He obeyed, and at the name of Jesus every
knee will bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord (Philippians 2:9–11).
13.
Jesus lived.
Jesus died. Jesus rose. Jesus reigns forevermore. We find courage in our Lord’s ascension into
heaven. On this Ascension Day we
remember that our Lord Jesus hasn’t left us as orphans. In the same
post-resurrection body He invited Doubting Thomas to touch, Jesus invites us to
full humanity today. He ascended with a body, he shares in our humanity, and
He’s coming back for our bodies. Christ is preparing a room for us in heaven,
and we know it’s real because He Himself is real. Amen.
THANKS
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