Ascension
Observed – April 30th and May 1st, 2016 –
Luke 24
Christ is Risen – He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia! Amen.
Christ is Risen – He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia! Amen.
The
Ascension of our Lord is one of those Christian Holidays that sadly
in this country has become vastly overlooked. Today, no one thinks
about the importance of the Ascension – we are still coming off of
our Easter high, and we are maybe looking forward to Pentecost. The
Ascension of our Lord seems as but a small speed bump on the way. It
wasn’t always that way. Ascension is properly this coming Thursday
(40 days after Easter) – and back in the day you’d get as many
people showing up on that day as you might for Maundy Thursday or
Good Friday. It’s a holiday that's mentioned in the Creed – Who
ascended into heaven and sits at the right Hand of the Father, from
thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. That’s a
lot of the Creed for this day. And the Ascension hymns – today
during communion we'll sing “A Hymn of Glory Let us Sing” – one
of the great hymns of Christian History. Though we seem to have
abandoned it today, in the past there was an incredible focus on the
Ascension.
So
why? Why was this day considered so important? You sang the answer
– On Christ’s Ascension I now build the hopes of my Ascension.
The idea, the importance, is that the Ascension is the proof that all
that Christ has done, all that He has accomplished is good, is
complete. See, He’s ascended into heaven – at this moment Christ
Jesus, true God and True Man – note that, still True Man – dwells
in heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. Christ Jesus our
Risen Lord, on the day of Ascension, strides through the gates of
heaven. As He, as that True Man, is in heaven now, we men, we folks
here, know and have the proof that we will be brought through those
same gates of heaven on account of Christ. Christ Jesus, our
Brother, has won us salvation – in Him Mankind is reconciled to
God. See, He's ascended – He wasn't just whistling Dixie when He
said, “It is Finished.” That’s the importance of this day, and
it spills out in what Christ teaches the Apostles in our text.
Then
He said to them, “These are My Words that I spoke to you while I
was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of
Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
The Old Testament constantly and continually shows two things – it
shows the devastating results of sin, and it points to the Savior who
would rescue us from that sin. The consequence of sin is all over in
the Old Testament – from Adam and Eve being expelled from the
Garden, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, slavery, wars, exiles,
affairs, murder – and all the pain and anguish caused thereby. The
Old Testament constantly shows how the world is evil and wicked, and
how even those who fear and worship God fall into vice, are abused in
this world, are in need of rescue. But whenever there is a focus on
these things going poorly, God gives a promise as well. The Messiah
will come. He will save. He will crush the Serpent’s head, He
will reign forever. The Messiah will come and He will win salvation
for His people, He will be their righteousness and their God. That
is what is pointed to, that is the promise. And what does Christ
say? Everything must be fulfilled – everything in the Old
Testament that spoke to what Christ would do, from Genesis to Malachi
– all of it needed to be done. Jesus is not going to leave the job
half done – Jesus isn’t going to give things a good start and
then leave it up to us to finish the rest. It must be fulfilled –
otherwise Jesus still has more work to do, more things to accomplish.
Then
He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third
day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins
should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from
Jerusalem.” And it has been done, it
has been accomplished. Christ has suffered, and Christ has risen.
The work, the things needed for salvation, everything that is
required, everything that pertains to Salvation – accomplished.
Completed. Done. And the proof, the evidence of this –
While He blessed them, He parted from
them and was carried up into heaven.
Nothing more remains for Christ to do in order to accomplish
salvation – the sins of the world have been paid for. Every sin,
everything you’ve done, every lingering bit of guilt you have –
Christ has paid for that already. Every sin you’ve suffered, every
thing that someone has done to you, every hurt that you’ve received
– Christ has paid for that already. Done. This is the reality
that we see confirmed when we consider our Lord’s Ascension. There
is no sin that Christ has not dealt with. Full forgiveness has been
won – and there’s nothing more left for Christ to do regarding
sin, regarding salvation. It is finished.
This
can be hard to believe, sometimes, can it not? This is the way in
which Satan attacks us, Satan tries to beat us down. Do you feel
lingering guilt for your sin? Do the sins of your past loom large?
That’s Satan working on you – trying to tell you that your sin is
too big, that it still lingers on, that it’s not done away with.
But Christ has ascended – and that means your sin is taken care of.
You are forgiven. Do you feel lingering grudges and hatreds? Do
the wrongs of the past that you have suffer loom large? Again –
that’s Satan working on you. That is Satan trying to tell you that
what you suffer isn’t taken up by Christ’s suffering, that what
others have done towards you is unforgivable. Yet Christ has
ascended – and so there is no reason for us to bear any grudge
towards anyone for anything – all sin is covered. Everything that
Christ was to do – it is fulfilled. This is the idea of objective
justification – that because Christ has died and risen again all
sin of all time has been paid for – there remains no punishment for
it. We need not live in fear of our sin – for Christ has saved us.
We need not live in fear of what others have done or will do to us –
for Christ has saved us. We need not hold on to hatreds – for
Christ has died, even for those people who have wronged us. He has
died for them, even if they don’t know, even if they don’t care.
It is all fulfilled – see Christ has ascended. Nothing remains, no
stone unturned, no sin left uncovered. Christ has done it all and He
has done it well. Period. And whenever Satan tweaks us, as He so
loves to do, we are to flee to Christ, we are to see and remember
what He has accomplished, so that we have peace, so that we live in
confidence of our forgiveness, our victory in Christ.
And it
is not merely a victory just for us. Christ won this victory for
all, and He would have all come to faith in Him, would have us all be
in Him. How are they brought to faith? Same way we are. This
faith, this growth in the Christian faith, comes by the Word – the
Word of repentance and the Word of forgiveness. We who are of the
Christian faith – we need this Word preached to us. We need to
repent – for we still daily sin, do we not? We still daily let the
sins of others affect us, and we use their sin as an excuse or reason
not to show love, and so we become even more vile and wretched than
them, do we not? When Christ’s Word brings us to repentance –
when He pulls us away from our selfish desires, when He cools the
heat of our anger and closes the book on our grudges – we see what
truly remains – that Christ has won forgiveness, and that Christ’s
forgiveness is the highest reality in our lives. This is why we, we
ourselves, need repentance and forgiveness preached to us. And
seeing this, knowing this need for repentance and knowing the freeing
beauty of forgiveness is what prepares us for service to others in
this world.
Christ’s
victory, Christ’s forgiveness isn’t just our prize, it is that
which He won for all – and when we see it, when we know it – then
we are able to speak it, to share it, to proclaim it to the people we
know in our own lives. Repentance
and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all
nations. There is no great mystery to
how this is done, how this happens. God works through His Word –
His Word upon the lips and tongues of His people – not only Pastors
– heaven forbid that Christ’s cross be spoken only in this place
by me – but mothers and fathers teaching their children – that is
God placing His Word upon His people’s lips. Friends telling their
friends – that is God at work. Neighbors to neighbor – again, God
at work. When you know, when you are focused upon what Christ has
done for you, when you see what a benefit it is to you – then you
are ready to speak, then Christ has prepared you and given you what
is needed. The Word that you speak is not your own Word – it’s
Christ’s Word, the Word that He has given to you, implanted in you,
baptized you into, the Word that you have learned, have studied, have
grown in, have had placed upon your tongue in His Holy Supper. You
merely say what you yourself have received – and the Holy Spirit
will work when and where He pleases. And this is where we are at –
we are those people who strive to grow in knowledge of God’s Word,
grow in understanding repentance and forgiveness, and then God will
use us to speak it to others. When we understand the depth of our
own sin, how it traps and messes with us – we will have compassion
upon our neighbor who is trapped in sin – and more importantly, in
knowing how Christ has freed us, we will be able to proclaim to them
to their freedom in Christ as well. And we can do this confidently –
because we know that Christ has done everything, that all is
accomplished – when we speak we speak with confidence –
Everything is accomplished by Christ – we simply understand what
that means more and more, and we speak so that others might
understand more and more as well. We speak, hoping that they too
will stride through the gates of heaven with us, all following our
ascended Lord.
So
thus today, as we celebrate the Ascension, we truly celebrate the
security of the Christian faith – the fact that Christ Jesus has
done all that is required for our salvation and the salvation of
mankind – that we live in that salvation confidently – that
Christ will draw our eyes off of sin and unto Himself. The fact that
this salvation is for all people, and that Christ will be with us
when we share this saving truth with others. This is the hope that
is shown on this Ascension day – the hope that is ours every day
until the Christ who rose to heaven descends on the Last Day to call
forth all believers to His side for all eternity. God, keep us in
the faith and give us and our neighbors growth in the same faith
until that day. Christ is Risen – He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!
Amen.