THE
ASCENSION OF OUR LORD
June
02, 2019
Rev.
Bernt P. Tweit
First Lesson; Acts 1:1-11
Second Lesson; Ephesians 1:16-23
Sermon Text; Luke 24:44-53
This last Thursday was May 30th. This last Thursday happened to be Ascension
Day. On Thursday I was out and about
visiting some of our members in their homes.
Part of what I would say, when I would enter their home was, “Happy
Ascension Day!” It gave me an
opportunity to talk to them about what Ascension Day means to us. One of our home-bound members looked at me,
and said, “I know it is Ascension Day, because this morning in my daily
devotional I read about it.”
So, today is an opportunity
for me to encourage daily devotions. If
you use The Meditations booklet, you will know the daily devotions in this
booklet have run out. But, starting
today, there are new devotions for the next three months. On your way out,
there are devotional booklets on the back table. I encourage you to grab one on your way out.
-What is Ascension Day,
and what does it mean?
Oftentimes we don't focus on
Ascension Day, because it falls forty days after Easter, which is a
Thursday. Generally, we don't have
worship services on Thursdays. We
worship on Sundays (and Monday evenings). But, today I want to do just that, and focus
on Ascension Day. If you heard earlier
in our service, we said it twice. We
said The Nicene Creed, as a congregation. And then, you heard
Pastor Bartels, in the baptismal sacrament, go through The Apostle's
Creed. In each of those creeds
we said these four words about Jesus:
“He ascended into Heaven”.
Let's look a little bit more
closely at the ascension of our Savior, Jesus, as we look at our text for
today, from Luke, chapter twenty four, verses forty four to fifty three. In the last paragraph it is going to talk
about Jesus' ascension.
The second thing I am going
to talk about is the first two paragraphs.
This is the final commission Jesus gave, before He went into
Heaven.
This is in Jesus' name. Here, Jesus is speaking with His disciples,
when He said to them:
He said to them, “These are
my words, which I spoke while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written
about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. He said to them, “This is what is written and
so it must be: The Christ will suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins
will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Look, I am sending you what my Father
promised. But stay in the city until you
are clothed with power from on high.”
He led them out as far as the vicinity of Bethany. He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And while He was blessing them, He parted
from them and was taken up into Heaven.
So they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. They were continually in the temple courts,
praising and blessing God.
Amen
This is God's Word.
So, it is the final paragraph
of our text for today that tells us about Jesus' ascension into Heaven. It simply says Jesus took His disciples, and
He led them east from Jerusalem toward the city of Bethany. This would be the eastern slope of the Mt. Of
Olives, where after giving a final commission, Jesus ascended into Heaven.
-Well, what does the
ascension of Jesus mean for us?
-What does the ascension
of Jesus teach us?
Our catechism answers that
question, when it says, “The ascension of Jesus teaches us we should be
heavenly minded, and have a desire to depart, and to be with Him.”
There is a proof passage that
is also given there that is from Colossians, chapter three that says,
“Set your hearts on things above”.
The fact that Jesus has
ascended into Heaven should mean everything for you, and for me. And yet, you know what? I will say this about myself, and you can
maybe say this about yourselves, “Oftentimes, we forget about Jesus
ascending into Heaven. Oftentimes we
forget to be heavenly minded, because we are so wrapped up in what is taking
place here. We can be so consumed with
what is going on here, we are not focused on what Jesus, our Savior, has won
for us.”
Over a hundred years ago,
there was a train accident that happened down in the Carolina's. There was a draw bridge that was open. There was a train that was barreling down the
track. The switch-man was waving a flag,
encouraging that train conductor to stop.
But, the train conductor went full speed ahead. A few cars went off the open track, and there
were some people who perished.
They had an investigation as
to what took place. They interviewed the
switch-man, and they interviewed the train conductor. And, this is what they found out. The
switch-man swore under oath, “I was waving a red flag. That red flag meant danger. It meant stop.”
They interviewed the train
conductor. The train conductor swore
under oath, “I saw a white flag being raised, or waved. The white flag meant things were good. Full speed ahead.”
Well, they went, and found
the flag. This is what they found
out. The flag once upon a time had been
red. But, because it had been wind
whipped, and weather worn for so long, from a distance, that flag looked white.
It is a reminder to us not to
become a wind whipped, weather worn flag, as we present the Word of God, not
only to other people, but as we apply the Word of God to ourselves, so we don't
get into the thinking of only the here and now, but we become heavenly minded
in the way we live our lives.
Somebody once told me, “You
really get to know your vehicle, when you wax it”. I was thinking about that this past week,
when I was waxing one of my vehicles.
From a distance, my vehicle looked fine.
But, you get up close, and wash that vehicle. Upon washing it, you see some of the
imperfections. You see from the winter,
some of the tar. You see some of the
tree sap. You see some of the bugs that
are on your car. You start to wax your
car, and you really start to see the number of imperfections that there are.
That is part of the message
of God's Word in our lives. Part of the
message of God's Word is revealing The Law to us.
-The Law, in its
simplicity, does what? The Law shows us our sins. The Law simply says,
“The wages of sin is death”.
A wage is what we deserve for
what we have done. The Law simply tells
all of us what we deserve, because of our sin - death.
The clear message of God's
Word, dear friends, doesn't just stop right there in revealing God's Law to us,
but it also reveals our Savior to us, as well.
In revealing the Gospel, and in revealing our Savior to us, it reveals
to us what Jesus has done for our salvation.
Notice what The Nicene Creed said about that in revealing Jesus to
us. I am going to share these words with
you, again.
“For us, and for our salvation...”,
(so here is what Jesus did for you, and for me)
“Jesus came down from Heaven.
He was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin
Mary,
and became fully human.
For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered death and was buried.
The third day He rose again
in accordance with the scriptures
and He ascended into Heaven.”
The message of God's Word is
not only clear in its Law, but the message of God's Word is also clear in its
Gospel, reminding us Jesus has done everything necessary for our salvation.
So, that is what Jesus told
His disciples, when He said in our text for today,
“...He opened their minds to understand the
scriptures.”
Then, the disciples
understood the work Jesus had come to do was complete. The message Jesus came to do had been
fulfilled for you, and for me.
I loved going to my grandpa
and grandma's house, when I was younger.
I was a city boy. They lived out
in the country. Oftentimes, my grandpa
would like to turn on the TV in the evening.
(Now, this is the days before cable television, out in the rural
areas. So, here is what he would do.) He liked to watch baseball, and maybe
Lawrence Welk. He would turn the TV on,
and get it to the right station. But,
sometimes the station was fuzzy! So he
would go to that box on the top of the TV.
He would turn a radial dial, and I would start to hear a “click, click,
click.”
What was happening was the
antenna on the TV tower was starting to turn.
It was starting to align itself with the city the signal was coming
from. Then, the TV was crystal
clear. There was never a problem with
the signal. The signal was always
strong, but the problem was with how the antenna was aligned.
Dear brothers and sisters in
Christ, I share that with you this morning, because the problem is not with the
power, strength, and signal of God's Word.
The problem can lie in us, when we are so consumed with the things that
are happening to us here, in this world, and not being heavenly minded in our living,
and in our thinking.
Christ has done everything
necessary for our salvation. Through His
life, through His death, through His resurrection, through His appearance to
many people over the period of forty days, and through His ascension into Heaven,
Jesus has done everything necessary for our salvation. Repentance and forgiveness of sins may be
proclaimed to you, and to me.
And so, as Jesus was
ascending into Heaven, He gave a final commission, which we call The Great
Commission, in telling His disciples what to do.
Now, this conversation did
not happen. It did not happen, so
understand me correctly, but imagine if it did.
When Jesus ascended into
Heaven, the angels were there to welcome Him.
They said to Jesus, “Is your mission accomplished?”
Jesus answered, “Yes, my
mission is accomplished. I won salvation
for them, by my death on the cross.”
To which the angels said, “Does everybody then know about you?”
Jesus said, “No.”
So, the angels said, “Well,
what is your plan?”
Jesus said, “My plan is I left the disciples behind, and I left other people
behind to tell other people about what I have done.”
To which the angels responded, “Jesus, what is your plan B?”
Guys, there is no plan B. There is no
plan B. Jesus left His disciples
behind, and He left others behind to do that work. That was the final commission. That was The Great Commission. The reason you are here today is because
somebody told you about Jesus. Somebody
shared Jesus with you. Probably it was a
parent. Maybe a family member, or
extended family. Maybe a friend, or an
acquaintance. But when they told you
about Jesus, what were they doing? They
were sharing the final commission. They
were sharing The Great Commission. May
we go, and do likewise, as Jesus said,
“Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things I have commanded
you.
Surely I am with you always,
to the very end of the age.”
Amen