GOING UP!
Ascension Day - May 30, 2019
Changes Your life
Because Jesus rules the universe in your best interest!
Come follow Jesus!
Your After-Easter Life Lives On!
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But 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.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “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 into heaven.”
Memorial Day weekend is past! We memorialized those brave souls who have fought for our American ideals and freedoms. Perhaps you visited their tombs and decorated them with flowers of thankfulness. A time not to forget 9/11. It’s time to continue to support the battle against terrorism in our world. It’s time to renew and reenergize our commitment to our armed forces and their families.
It’s easy to forget about the sacrifices these people make everyday. It’s easy to forget how thousands of families are split up because husband or wife, Dad or Mom are off fighting evil in the world. Living in Jacksonville is a great blessing because of the Navy influence. We are not so prone to forget, but rather thank and praise our gracious God for freedom, peace and the opportunity to pursue the American dream.
This coming Sunday also marks the end of the Easter season. The cross with the white victory cloth will be taken down and put away until next Lenten season. And when we put the cross away it is easy for us to forget the great price our Savior made to destroy the power of the devil and death, and to pay for the sin of the world.
But that’s why we come to worship every Sunday – so that we will not forget. That’s why we come to worship every Sunday to be filled with God’s truth, God’s power, and God’s Spirit. On Thursday we remember the coronation event of Jesus Christ – his ascension into heaven. This event changes our life, our future and our eternity.
YOUR AFTER-EASTER LIFE LIVES ON because Christ ascended into heaven and because Christ ascended to the throne of your life.
This coming Sunday should really be called the Sunday after Ascension. It marks the end of the tremendous 3 year public ministry of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the ministry of the Christian church on earth. In a mere three years Jesus Christ lived, preached, healed, suffered, sacrificed, and rose is way to victory over sin and Satan. This was the Good News Luke wrote to his good friend Theophilus in his Gospel.
Luke ended Jesus ministry with his ascension into heaven – the culminating message of victory. Now Luke begins a new book – the Acts of the Apostles – and a new chapter in the history of the Christian Church. Listen to his introduction to the book: In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But 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.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
The significance of Jesus ascension into heaven is most important for us to understand! Jesus fulfilled his Father’s rescue mission for mankind. Jesus Christ was the ultimate terrorist fighter. The terror that he faced was hell itself with its fiendish inhabitant – Satan. The reason hell was a threat to mankind is because sin infected us all. Sin had made us captive to Satan’s evil thinking and living. We could not escape or free ourselves no matter what we did. Because we were all guilty of sin, Satan held the trump card. We were inextricably linked to him. We were going down with him for an eternity separated from the holy Creator.
Jesus came as the ultimate Freedom Fighter to release us from spiritual blindness, ignorance and control. Through the Law Jesus reveals the truth that we were helpless captives of Satan. We were getting what we deserved for our sin. But instead of us paying for our sin, Jesus laid down his perfect life as the payment for all of mankind’s sin against God. Through the death of Christ there is eternal life. That is the Gospel that soothes our consciences and washes away the guilt and fear of punishment. Jesus chained Satan up with his own lies and deceit on Easter morning when he destroyed death and took his life back again.
But the thing that frightens Satan the most is the fact that Jesus ascended back to heaven with eye witnesses. The God/Man is now ruling the universe with all power, might and wisdom at God’s right hand. His Kingdom is firmly and eternally established and no power on earth or in hell can change that blessed fact. The Bible tells us the Jesus is ruling the world in the best interest of the Church – his body of Believers.
This blessed truth is what insures that our after-Easter life lives on through eternity with the ascended Christ. God the Father placed his son at his right hand and gave him all power and authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus directs the disciples to look ahead to the next important event for them – Pentecost Sunday when he would send the Holy Spirit into them with such power and wisdom that their after-Easter life would move to a new level of service. Now they would become the martyrs – which is where the word witness comes from. They would go back to their enemies in Jerusalem and tell the good news. They would go to Judea and even the Samaritans which the Jews despised and then to the ends of the earth.
These are the marching orders Christ our ascended Captain gives to you and me. Our After-Easter life lives on because Jesus has ascended the throne of our life!
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “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 into heaven.”
The disciples soon stopped their heavenly gaze as Jesus disappeared into glory from their sight. Perhaps they thought that he was leaving them again like he had for the last 40 days when he left and then appeared to them in many different places and ways. But Jesus wanted them to understand that they should not waste any time looking up into heaven for his return, instead they should look out into the world with its spiritual needs.
We modern-day disciples confess the resurrection weekly in the creeds. We celebrate it annually, with great fanfare. But the power of the resurrection often gets hidden by clouds of despair, grief, discouragement, sinful passions, etc. We too long for his power over evil to show itself in this earthly life. We would love to see an end to all war and terrorism. We would love to see a world peace. But that will not happen until the Prince of Peace returns to stamp out all evil everywhere on the last day. It will take his great power to bring an end to the gasping power of Satan who authored and created evil.
What we need to remember as the foot soldiers of Christ’s army is that redeemed people are released by the resurrection. Through the Gospel power Christ has ascended the throne of our lives and is now our Commander in Chief. We take our orders from him. St. Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians is one we need to hear for our situation: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”
The risen and ascended Christ empowers his disciples for witnessing. Jesus had intentionally instructed and equipped the disciples for this work. The Jesus who burst forth from the tomb is not going to allow his followers to cower in their upper rooms for fear of their spiritual enemies. He will come to them again and again through Word and Sacrament, equipping them through the Spirit, and making them bold proclaimers of the resurrection. God has ways to make us bold, even when we would prefer to remain silent and shy. Many martyrs surprised themselves with their courage to confess the Christ when their lives were on the line.
The risen Christ raises the spiritually dead through his apostles and witnesses. The “first resurrection” from spiritual death occurs by the Spirit’s power as people are brought “from death to life.” For this reason, “repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Lk 24:44–53). We who are joyful recipients of this first resurrection have the privilege of passing it along.
The risen Christ will come again to be Lord of the living and the dead on the great day of resurrection to come. Christ will come in the glorious triumph that is his through the resurrection. St. Paul reminds us: “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Eph 1:19–23).
In our sinfulness we may try to make the resurrection a ho-hum event just like Memorial Day; but God in his grace brings that resurrection right into our hearts and lives, and through it radically changes us. Our ho-hum existence becomes a hallelujah experience. We come alive in Christ through the first resurrection of faith, and we shall live forever with Christ through the second resurrection when our Lord returns. Our After-Easter life lives on because Christ jesus asceneded into Heaven and was coronated as the King of Kings!
Victory Lutheran church and Preschool
Email: office@victorylutheran.org
Website: victorylutheran.org
Location: 4651 Kernan Boulevard South, Jacksonville, FL, USA
Phone: 904-642-8900