Ascension Certainties
Saint Luke 24:44-53
8 May 2016 – Redeemer
The Lord’s timing couldn’t be better. Today, we observe the Ascension of our Lord. 40 days after Easter (which would have been this past Thursday), Jesus was parted from his disciples and carried up into heaven.
Why do I say the Lord’s timing couldn’t be any better? Well, how many of you are confident in our country’s political leadership? How many of you are fearful for our country’s future? Democrats are worried about Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Republicans are worried about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The speech of our would-be leaders is filled with grandiose promises, greatness is just the right candidate away. Their speeches are filled with hatred and slander. They love to incite anger among the citizens and division between the citizens of the country. We wouldn’t let our youngest children speak the way our leaders speak.
Could the Lord’s timing be any better than that this week He gives us His Ascension? Here in Jesus Christ we have a Lord who does what He says and says what He does. In Jesus you have a Lord who uses all He has and is to serve and deliver the goods of the Kingdom to you.
Throughout the entire Old Testament the Lord told His people Israel of the coming Christ. Everything written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms was written about the coming Savior. “Here is what I’m going to do,” said the Lord and when Jesus came, it was all fulfilled. God did exactly what He said. Jesus told us exactly what He was going to do. “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.” The eyewitnesses, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, tell us He did what He said. He was betrayed by Judas, tried by the Jews, convicted by Pilate, suffered at the hands of the Romans, and was crucified. Some of the disciples saw Him die and two of the disciples buried him. A squad of Roman soldiers guarded that tomb, but to no avail. On the third day, as He promised, He was raised from the dead and appeared alive to over 500 people. The Old Testament promised it. The New Testament fulfilled it. The Lord God said it and the Lord God, our Savior Jesus Christ did it.
It is as obvious as CNN and Fox News, that many politicians will say anything to get elected, but before you throw the first stone you must confess you do the same. You promise your children something to keep them quiet, but you don’t deliver. You tell your wife it won’t happen again but it does. You tell your doctor what you think he wants to hear when the lab results in his hand tell him the truth. Pick your politician, but look in the mirror first – we use our speech to promote ourselves, protect ourselves, and preserve ourselves. Why? Because when it comes down to it – we all think we are Lord. In our sinfulness we have taken God’s place, but we cannot deliver, not ourselves, not life, not peace, not a future. We don’t do what we say and then we say things we don’t do. We use our words in a vain attempt at self-preservation. Lord, have mercy.
In Christ God has mercy. In Christ we have an Ascended Lord who not only does what He says and says what He does, but all that He says and all that He does is for you. This is not only evident in all that He did on earth, but especially evident in His ascension. Then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. Jesus lifted up His hands, and what did the disciples see? They saw the nail wounds in His hands, from those wounds, with those wounds the Lord blessed them. What do you see in those uplifted hands? You see that God Himself is for you. This is why He became man. His hands gave sight to the blind, touched and cleansed lepers, broke five loaves into enough bread to feed 5000. But far more than that – the hands of your Lord prayed for His Father’s will to be done. Those hands were bound at His arrest. In those hands He carried your sins with Him to the cross. His hands were pierced for your sin. From His hands we receive forgiveness. His hands pour the water of Holy Baptism that give you life from above, life with your Father. His hands feed us His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus, our Ascended Lord, speaks all his Words and does all His work for you. There isn’t a person whose sins He didn’t bear. There isn’t a sinner for whom He didn’t die – not your worst enemy, not even you.
This man Jesus who is also true God now sits at His Father’s right hand. There is a man seated next to God the Father right now, but no ordinary man. This man is God and now in His ascension there are no restraints on His divinity. Jesus holds nothing back and nothing is held back from Him. He is seated above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named. You know what that means? Our Lord Jesus is over and above Barack, Hillary, Bernie, and Donald. He who is God, He who is for us, He is over them and over us.
Psalm 68 speaks of what Jesus’ ascension means for us. [O God] You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train. The Psalmist pictures what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us – He took our captors captive. According to God’s Word we are captives from conception – captive to sin, subject to death, under the power of the devil. The cemetery and our own confession prove our captivity. Our Lord makes it clear why He came into this world – the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. (Matt 20:28) Now there is a public servant – He came to give His life as a Ransom – His life for your life, His payment for your freedom. Christ takes on Satan in the wilderness and wins. He takes on sin at the cross and dies with it and for it. Having beaten Satan and sin He then rises from the dead. Jesus Christ sets us free from our captors by disarming and defeating all of them. His ascension is not only His triumphant return to heaven, but our victory. When Christ ascends on high – our captors are captive – our sin is gone, Satan cannot accuse us, death is bound to release us. Is it any wonder that after the ascension the disciples worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Could the Lord’s timing of His ascension be any better for us? Do you know that in all of history there is only one election whose results you can trust? It actually happened before the creation of the world – in eternity, when the Father elected, when the Father chose, to send His Son Jesus into the world. There was no sin, no corruption, no lies, no anger, no thirst for power in that election. There was only God true to His nature, acting in love and mercy. He knew Adam and Eve would sin. He knew you would be captive to sin, death, and the power of the devil. He knew His creation would be hell bent on its own destruction. But He didn’t want to lose you even to your own sin. That isn’t His nature. So the Father sent His beloved Son – He chose to do this and that means He chose to save you. God the Father elected you to be His child when He sent His Son. God the Father elected to govern all human history so that on a particular Friday outside Jerusalem, on a particular hill, a particular man would die, and in that God elected to save you. For some mysterious reason that was God’s choice and now His Son sits at His right hand – ruling all the world for the sake of His church, for your sake. That election, God’s choice – choosing to send His Son, choosing to save you, that’s comforting and it’s the Lord’s good timing. It is exactly what we need to hear now and always. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
7 May 2016