Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Luke 24,44-53. Christ's Ascension

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Luke 24,44-53 2815

Christi Himmelfahrt 41 weiß

Possidius, Bishop of Calama in Numidia, Tunisia ✠ 430.

17. Mai 2015

1. O Holy and Eternal Holy God, Your Only-begotten Son opened the heavens at His ascension. O Eternal God, Your heavens are near. We pray: Enter into our midst, and assure us that You are still present with us, so that we may remain steadfast in the faith when during the temporal sorrows that afflict us as we await our resurrection and ascension to be in everlasting fellowship with You. (VELKD, Prayer for Christi Himmelfahrt § 1). Amen.

2. »Then Jesus said to the apostles: „These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, so that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.“ 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. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are 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 blessed them, He parted 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.

3. This morning we celebrate Christ’s ascension, which is a transition from the forty days of resurrection appearances and teachings to the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Christ’s ascension is the culminating fulfillment of His Heavenly Father’s will as found in the Holy Scriptures, namely that the Christ must suffer and rise again. The Law, the Prophets and the Psalms all speak of this ministry that Christ undertook, for Jesus arrived upon this earth to redeem us back to God the Father. With the actual redemptive act completed, He then returned to heaven.

4. So important is His ascension, that our church prominently portrays this event in a large stained glass window above the narthex doors. In this stained glass window, Christ’s ascension is majestically portrayed as Jesus ascends into heaven to be seated at His Heavenly Father’s right hand, which is the place of Divine power and authority. Every earthly and spiritual power must yield to Christ. The wealthiest people on earth and the most majestic angels must kneel at His feet. Christ has no creaturely equal or superior; He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

5. Jesus leaves His disciples and His Church with numerous gifts at His ascension, not limited to: I. the understanding of the Holy Scriptures, II. the sending of the power from heaven and III. finally His blessing (Wenz ¶ 4), but let us focus our meditation this morning upon the blessing of the Holy Scriptures.

6. The proper understanding of the Scriptures from Genesis to the Revelation of John is that all of these books are about Jesus Christ. The prophets, the evangelists and the apostles unanimously proclaim the salvation history (Heilsgeschichte) of Christ Jesus. The Scriptures summarize this history by telling us that »the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in His Name to all the nations.« We see this promise already in Genesis 3,15 where Jesus comforts Adam and Eve with this gospel proclamation: »Satan will strike My heel, but in the process I will crush his head.« Moses said the Christ would descend from the tribe of Jacob: »A star will arrive from Jacob, and a scepter will rise from Israel« (Numbers 24,17). The Prophet Daniel saw the Glorified Christ in a vision: »As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and went out from before Him; a thousand thousands served Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there arrived one like a son of man, and He went to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a reign, so that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His reign is one that shall not be destroyed« (Daniel 7,9-10.13-14). These particular Scriptures, and all the rest of the Bible, speak of Jesus.

7. The Church therefore preaches the gospel in season and out of season (2. Timothy 4,2), and this proclamation begins with the historical facts, namely, that Jesus, the Son of God, suffered and was crucified on the cross in our place as the payment for our sin and sinfulness. When He had fully paid the price of God’s wrath against the sins of the world, Jesus died. He then rose on the third day in victory over death, hades and the grave. The preached Word, however, is not merely aimed at our minds with historical facts, but the preached Word is also aimed at our hearts (Wenz ¶ 18). The Holy Spirit uses the preached Word to convict us of our sinfulness, urging us to repent of our sin and believe in God’s forgiveness through Christ Jesus. God’s salvation history (Heilsgeschichte) is a victorious salvation: God’s wrath has been appeased, sin has been paid for and there is now no condemnation (Romans 8,1). Faith in Christ believes and trusts this gospel promise that on account of Christ we do not receive God’s condemnation but we receive His justification; in Christ we are right with God and we are right before God.

8. Christ desires us to understand the Scriptures. To this end He provides for the preaching of His Word and He sends the Holy Spirit to give us the proper interpretation of the Word. Our salvation takes on an heavenly dimension when Jesus ascends back to heaven. There He is seated at the right hand of God the Father where He rules His Church and all the universe as the Son of God. Christ’s ascension and His heavenly throne show us His omnipresence and omnipotence.

9. Jesus continues His high priestly duties upon His throne. The Epistle to the Hebrews informs us:

»Behold Jesus Christ is our Great High Priest who has ascended to heaven. Let us boldly draw near to the throne of grace so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need« (Hebrews 4,14.16). »Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens« (Hebrews 7,25-26). »For when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for His feet« (Hebrews 10,12-13).

9. „Jesus’ ascension does not mean that He has gone away. Before Jesus ascended, He promised that wherever we may be He is with us. The difference is that after the ascension, Jesus does not show us Himself anymore, or at least not until the next time, which will be the end of the world or when we die, whichever comes first“ (Nagel 145 ¶ 5). „So the ascension does not mean that Jesus has gone away. Quite the opposite. He is with us now even more powerfully than when men saw Him. We live, then, in the presence of our ascended, ever-present Lord. Because He is with us, we cannot be destroyed. Jesus has made the way to victory for us. He leads us that way, gives us strength and courage for it, and finally brings us to the bright cloud of heaven. We go on, then, from the ascension as did the first disciples “with great joy” (Luke 24:52) (Nagel 146 ¶ 8).

10. We often imagine heaven as some far-off location up in the sky beyond our reach. If only we could build a tower tall enough so that we could grasp the hand of God .... But Christ has shown us that heaven is nearer than we perceive. He has pierced the veil that separates heaven from Earth, for we cannot ascend up to meet Him so He has descended to dwell among us, and in doing so comforts us with the truth that God is in our midst. Christ has ascended to His heavenly throne, but He is still present among us. Where Christ is, there is heaven (ELKB), and where heaven is, there are His blessings, which we partake of every time we gather in His Name around the Word and the Sacraments. Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, You are exalted at the right hand of Your Father as the Lord: valiantly extend Your right hand so that we are preserved in the true Christian faith unto eternal life. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Luke 24,44-53. Christ's Ascension

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